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2011-03-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

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Virtualization Review and Jon Toigo Webcast on DataCore SANsymphony-V, February 22, 2011 at 11:30am EST

2011-02-21T19:56:00.000-05:00

DataCore Software announced that it has partnered with Virtualization Review to host a live webcast entitled “Overcome the ‘Big Problem’ Stalling Server and Desktop Virtualization Projects.” This webcast, which takes place on February 22 at 11:30am Eastern Standard Time, will be recorded and it will address how IT organizations can eliminate the storage-related barriers preventing them from realizing the financial and operational goals of their virtualization initiatives.

Included will be a brief product demonstration introducing key functionality inherent to SANsymphony-V, a new generation of storage virtualization software designed to simplify and automate the three most important storage functions – Capacity Management, Performance Management, and Data Protection Management – needed to create a dynamic storage infrastructure for the virtual world.
Who: Moderator – Jon Toigo, CEO Toigo Partners International, Chairman Data Management Institute. Storage expert Jon Toigo is a columnist for Enterprise Systems and contributing writer for Virtualization Review. He is a consultant, blogger and author of 15 books on business technology, disaster recovery and data storage.

Presenter #1 – Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software.

Presenter #2 – George Teixeira, president and CEO, DataCore Software.

What: Webcast: “Overcome the ‘Big Problem’ Stalling Server and Desktop Virtualization Projects”
Unanticipated storage hardware investments and inefficient storage use are often the most critical factors that bring server consolidation and desktop virtualization projects to a standstill. During this webcast, attendees will learn:

•The root, storage-related causes behind the “big problem” stalling virtualization projects;
•A proven, cost-effective way to overcome the "big problem" using storage virtualization software;
•Contrasts between software-based approach and expensive “rip and replace” hardware proposals;
•How simple it is to manage a virtual shared storage infrastructure in concert with your virtual servers and virtual desktops using the newest DataCore™ product, SANsymphony™-V; and
•How data centers can use existing equipment and conventional storage devices to achieve the robust and responsive shared storage environment necessary to support highly dynamic virtual IT environments.

When: Tuesday, February 22nd at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (duration: 90 minutes)
Where: Register for the webcast at:
http://virtualizationreview.com/webcasts/2011/01/datacore-overcome-the-big-problem-stalling-server.aspx?tc=page0

DataCore Announces New Generation of Storage Virtualization Software that Solves the “Big Problem” Stalling Today’s Server and Desktop Virtualization Projects

2011-01-31T08:13:00.002-05:00

SANsymphony-V delivers the critical “third dimension” to virtualization: software to cost-effectively shape the shared storage infrastructure required by virtual IT environments

Read the full product announcement at: http://tinyurl.com/6j65pyz
Check out the new material on the SANsymphony-V launch page: http://www.datacore.com/SANsymphony-V.

Read the New Enterprise Strategy Group White Paper:
DataCore's SANsymphony-V Storage Virtualization Software

Music to the Ears of Server Virtualization Users Stalled by Storage Challenges http://www.datacore.com/Libraries/Document_Library/ESG_Datacore_SANsymphony-V_Whitepaper.sflb.ashx

DataCore Software today announced the availability of SANsymphony™-V, the next-generation storage virtualization software solution that enables IT organizations to eliminate storage-related barriers preventing them from realizing the financial and operational goals of their virtualization initiatives.


The “Big Problem” Stalling Desktop and Server Virtualization Projects: Storage

“Unanticipated storage hardware investments and inefficient storage use are often the most critical factors that bring server consolidation and desktop virtualization projects to a screeching halt,” said Richard Villars, vice president of storage and IT executive strategies at IDC.  “Storage virtualization software solutions like DataCore’s SANsymphony-V allow IT teams to maximize the use of existing storage assets while also dramatically reducing administrative burdens. They frequently play the key role in ensuring the success of organizations’ server and desktop virtualization efforts.”

Two years in development, SANsymphony-V software enables datacenters to use existing equipment and conventional storage devices to achieve the robust and responsive shared storage environment necessary to support highly dynamic virtual IT environments. This contrasts sharply with the expensive “rip and replace” approaches being proposed to support desktop and server virtualization projects.

The new software helps to cost-effectively avoid the many performance problems caused by I/O bottlenecks and the lost business suffered from downtime that make customers very hesitant to virtualize crucial business applications, such as mail and databases systems. SANsymphony-V uses adaptive caching and performance boosting techniques perfected over the past 10 years to absorb wildly variable workloads while simultaneously removing storage as a single point of failure and disruption.  SANsymphony-V offers a flexible, open software platform from which to provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand, and upgrade storage without slowdowns or downtime.

Bottom-line: DataCore™ uses software to reshape server and disk resources already in use to meet the largely unpredictable and unforeseen workloads that virtual machines and virtual desktops throw at newly consolidated data centers – delivering compelling operational and economic value.

“With the launch of SANsymphony-V, DataCore has redesigned its software for virtual server and desktop environments. However, DataCore’s key benefits of extending the useful life of hardware, cutting hardware costs and removing vendor lock-in are still intact, and apply to both the physical and virtual world,” said Carla Arend, program manager, European infrastructure software research at IDC.  “By driving down storage cost and thus removing a major obstacle for adoption, DataCore makes server and desktop virtualization affordable for the broader IT community.”

The Business Advantage: Lower Costs, Reduced Risks, Enduring Value and Recurring Payoff
For some enterprises, DataCore has meant the difference between the success and failure in their virtualization projects.  “When we first received bids for our server virtualization project, we were shocked that the accompanying costs to adequately centralize and protect our disk farm would have eaten up most our budget,” said Judy Pieper-Young, manager, information systems, North American Stainless. “DataCore literally saved our project.  Its software dramatically reduced the storage costs and hassle factors by enabling us to use our existing resources.  At the same time, it eliminated the performance and availability risks that switching to consolidated storage would have created for our newly virtualized workloads.”


More Information

Extensive reference material and supporting videos of SANsymphony-V may be found at the SANsymphony-V launch page: http://www.datacore.com/SANsymphony-V.

In conjunction with the availability of SANsymphony-V, DataCore is also relaunching its company blog, “The Virtual Viewpoint: Storage Virtualization Blog.”

The blog can be found on the company’s website at: http://www.datacore.com/storage-virtualization-viewpoint-blog.aspx.

It’s time to solve the “Big Problem” stalling today’s server and desktop virtualization projects

2011-01-31T05:26:00.001-05:00

Deployment and operation of a successful virtualization strategy depends on several core components: the right people, the right solution, a strong grip on infrastructure investment, and a clear strategy.

Nonetheless, whether it’s a straightforward data consolidation project or a larger virtualization-based migration and integration exercise, most organizations must overcome potential issues relating to flaws in the core components that, if left unaddressed, will hinder a successful project. This is a big challenge for companies, something that research organizations such as Gartner have attested to, but not an insurmountable one.

First and foremost, it’s critical that the IT department keeps on top of managing and controlling storage assets. Poor use of available storage assets, guerrilla purchasing and deployment of storage at a workgroup level, and disconnected storage silos are among the biggest problems. And all result in strains on IT spending, significant storage management overhead, and inherent inefficiency.

However, solving this does not have to entail a widespread rip-and-replace of existing hardware. Far from it, in fact. Intelligent use of software enables you to consolidate your storage estate virtually, rather than just physically, allowing the business to access unused capacity across the resource, rather than trapping it in local silos and workgroups, saving money and improving utilization in one fell swoop.

This is the Software Advantage we focus on. Software-based storage virtualization infrastructure delivers transparency and flexibility, and enables businesses to tackle current and future needs while at the same time bypassing the physical constraints of a hardware-centric storage solution that can hinder workflow.

Consolidating storage is not just a space utilization issue; it is also one of cost saving. A consolidated environment serving virtual and physical machine storage requirements can, if done properly, deliver a range of operational efficiencies from data and back-up management improvements to maximizing availability, all of which reduce the need for costly physical intervention to solve storage resource issues.

When done well, and without the need for a massive investment in new hardware to fit the strategy, storage virtualization software can deliver significant cost savings in the short and long term, enabling you to actually achieve your projected return on investment on your overall virtualization initiative, while also unlocking the asset value of data and reducing the risk of data loss or data management errors.

This Software Advantage in storage virtualization is at the heart of what we do at DataCore. With that in mind, today marks the launch of DataCore’s SANsymphony-V, the newest version of our storage virtualization software. SANsymphony-V delivers the Software Advantage by freeing customers from the high-costs, inadequate performance, inflexibility, and vendor lock in inherent in a hardware-centric approach to storage. It is an open software platform that “future proofs” your business against changing storage requirements caused by server and desktop virtualization initiatives, and enables customers to repurpose existing resources more efficiently and choose lower-cost alternatives when adding new resources. In short, SANsymphony-V solves today’s Big Problem stalling desktop and server virtualization projects: the storage problem.

Brain Madden Blogs: DataCore Software releases a "nirvana" VDI storage solution and Benchmark Paper

2011-01-26T08:40:00.001-05:00

DataCore releases a "nirvana" VDI storage solution. Full local virtual storage that's really cheap!
by Brian Madden
Back in September, I wrote an article describing a product that I wanted that didn't exist: a local "virtual" storage option for VDI. Basically I described why I didn't like SANs for VDI and that I thought it would be cool if there was some sort of software that could virtualize access to the local hard drives that are in a VDI host server. I was thinking a solution like that could create the best of both worlds: fast flexible storage without the overhead costs of a SAN.

In a new white paper from DataCore (direct PDF link), they claim that their SANmelody software running on a VDI host does fulfill my fantasy storage requirements. And they claim they can do it with full multi-server redundancy with a cost of less than $70 per user. (That's $70 for everything.. the VM host, the SANmelody software, the disks you need for storage... everything!)...

Frequent readers know that I'm not one to republish vendor papers. But in this case, the DataCore paper (by Ziya Aral & Jonathan Ely) is actually really, really good. They take a no-BS look at VDI storage, and they validate their architecture with standard tools like Login Consultants' VSI benchmark.

From the paper: Previous publications have reported on configurations which use thousands of virtual desktops to defray the cost of these controllers. Reading between the lines, it becomes immediately apparent that per-virtual desktop hardware costs rise very sharply as such configurations are scaled downward. Yet, it is precisely these smaller VDI configurations which are the more important from most practical standpoints. On the other hand, this configuration may also be scaled upwards, in a linear fashion, to thousands of virtual desktops, thus eliminating distended configurations created by the search for artificial "sweet spots" at which costs are optimized...

Read the full Blog post at: http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2011/01/25/datacore-releases-a-quot-nirvana-quot-vdi-storage-solution-full-local-virtual-storage-that-s-really-cheap.aspx

DataCore Software Publishes Breakthrough VDI Benchmark Results and Virtualization Paper: 'Benchmarking a Scalable and Highly Available Architecture for Virtual Desktops'

2011-01-24T08:51:00.000-05:00

The benchmark results represent a greater than ten-fold (10x) decrease in the per-Desktop costs of SAN-based, high-availability virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs).
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/DataCore-Software-Publishes-prnews-2900175007.html?x=0&.v=1

"I loved this paper! Every other ROI discussion you see is based on the economic benefit a company derives by deploying thousands of virtual desktops - but in the real world, we start with ten, then a hundred, etc.," states Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "They will never show you that cost because it's huge! I appreciate the folks at DataCore shining the light on this and showing that you don't have to be able to spend a zillion dollars before you can see a return on a VDI initiative."

Read the full paper here: Benchmarking a Scalable and Highly Available Architecture for Virtual Desktops – http://tinyurl.com/4hlrh46

See supporting videos here: The Future of Desktop Virtualization – http://tinyurl.com/276yaot

New England VMUG: DataCore Showcases Real World Case Studies and Its Storage Virtualization Software at Major VMware User Group Gathering

2011-01-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

At the New England VMware User Group meeting, DataCore Software will present the economic advantages of a software-based storage infrastructure and will showcase many joint VMware and DataCore customer case studies to the nearly 1000 expected attendees at Gillette Stadium. DataCore Software is a Gold Sponsor of this event.

If you get a chance to go, please attend the DataCore breakout session “Eliminate Storage-Related Downtime and Bottlenecks in Virtualized Environments” located on the Blue Level in Room 24 to learn what other users are doing and how you can:

• Eliminate single points of failure for 100% Uptime • Gain a 200% performance boost • Attain additional performance from your storage resources • Realize 60% cost savings

Hear how others are realizing the true promise of software-based virtual infrastructures and discover how your colleagues are reaping the benefits of combining VMware and software-based storage virtualization from DataCore. Showcased VMware and DataCore customers include:

• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists • Dinwiddie County Government • Town of South Windsor

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet and discuss your IT environment issues with the DataCore team and enter our drawing to win DataCore storage virtualization software.

More Details: New England VMware User Group

SANsymphony 7.0 Selected as 2010 Products of the Year finalists for Storage Management

2011-01-17T11:58:00.004-05:00

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid5_gci1525938,00.html

Many will look back on 2010 as the year of big storage acquisitions, but the wheeling and dealing was only part of the story. Data storage vendors turned out a slew of ingenious enterprise data storage products to address some of the key issues users have been grappling with in their storage shops.

From nearly 200 entries, the judges of Storage magazine's and SearchStorage.com's 2010 Products of the Year awards have selected and announced their finalists.

Storage management tools: 2010 Products of the Year finalists

Jan 2011 | Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com Contributors

Here are the eight finalists in the storage management tools category in Storage magazine's and SearchStorage.com's 2010 Products of the Year competition. The category covers storage resource management (SRM) and SAN management software, performance monitoring, file systems, volume management, virtualization software and security software. Finalists are listed below.

DataCore Software Corp. SANsymphony 7.0

DataCore SANsymphony 7.0 storage virtualization software adds non-stop high availability (HA) to let users do maintenance, upgrades and expansion, and address system failures without disrupting applications. Also new are support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), "advanced site recovery' (ASR) to enable IT shops to fail over physical and virtual servers to multiple remote and branch offices, and efficient space reclamation for thinly provisioned storage.

Balesio AG FILEminimizer Server balesio FILEminimizer Server

Gluster Inc. GlusterFS 3.1 GlusterFS 3.1

Nasuni Corp. Nasuni Filer 2.0 Nasuni Filer 2.0

Nexenta Systems Inc. NexentaStor 3.0 NexentaStor 3.0

Quantum Corp. StorNext 4.0 StorNext 4.0

Quest Software Inc. vFoglight Storage 1.0 vFoglight Storage 1.0

Rackspace Hosting Inc. Cloud Files Rackspace Hosting Cloud Files

See DataCore Real-World Case Studies and Breakout Sessions on Elimintating Downtime at the VMware User Group New England Meeting; 1000 attendees expected to attend Gillette Stadium event

2011-01-12T12:13:00.001-05:00

VMware User Group New England Meeting
Eliminate Storage-Related Downtime and Bottlenecks in Virtualized Environments

VMware vSphere solutions let you work around server hardware hiccups and workload congestion, but the shared storage on which they depend will soon prove to be your biggest single source of outages and slowdowns, with 10 to 100 times greater consequences.

Attend the DataCore breakout session “Eliminate Storage-Related Downtime and Bottlenecks in Virtualized Environments” and learn how to:

  *   Eliminate single points of failure for 100% Uptime
  *   Gain a 200% performance boost
  *   Attain additional performance from your storage resources
  *   Realize 60% cost savings
Hear real world case studies and discover how your colleagues are reaping the benefits of a virtualized storage environment.

  *   American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
  *   Dinwiddie County Government
  *   Town of South Windsor
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet the DataCore team and enter our drawing to win DataCore storage virtualization software.

The DataCore Software Team

Register Now!

January 20, 2011
8:00 am – 6:00 pm

Location

Gillette Stadium
1 Patriot Place
Foxborough, MA 02035

DataCore Session
Blue Level – Room 24

1:00 pm Breakout Session 1
2:00 pm Breakout Session 2
3:00 pm Breakout Session 3

 Register Today!

The Software Advantage for Storage Virtualization: DataCore Software Sets the Stage for Virtualization Leadership in 2011

2010-12-31T08:17:00.000-05:00

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/12/29/the-software-advantage-for-storage-virtualization-datacore-software-sets-the-stage-for-virtualization-leadership-in-2011.aspx

DataCore Software, an early pioneer and now a leading provider of software-based virtualization solutions empowering storage, today highlighted what it considers points of emphasis for 2011 in terms of furthering the promise of virtualization.

The promise of virtualization will be further realized this year. Software-based storage virtualization will take its rightful place by making storage anonymous within virtual infrastructures. Equally important, a number of trends, strategic drivers and software architectures will emerge to make a new level of flexibility and scale both practical and cost-effective to achieve. The most significant driver will be the simple realization that only a software-based infrastructure can truly deliver the necessary advantages to make virtualization and Clouds a reality because software can abstract itself from device specific limitations, provide portability across platforms, and endure beyond the life of underlying hardware platforms that come and go over time.

Compelling Benefits: The "Software Advantage" and Anonymous Storage

According to DataCore Chairman and Co-founder Ziya Aral, "The entire storage virtualization angle was real simple - abstract yourself from the hardware. DataCore was founded on the belief that storage controllers in general and storage virtualization in particular were essentially ‘software programs.' For us, virtualization was driven by a very simple need to make a portable software program to do disk storage and run it on any platform."

This sentiment is both echoed and further emphasized by DataCore's President, CEO and Co-founder George Teixeira, "From a business standpoint, the total cost of ownership and the payback on investment of a pure ‘software infrastructure,' where you pay once for intelligent software to manage, protect and get more from your storage assets - as they come and go from generation to generation and brand to brand - is a value proposition that is as compelling as it is inevitable."

Bottom-line: A software based storage virtualization infrastructure can live within the same abstraction level as virtual servers and virtual desktops and bring along the same type of benefits that we have seen from these movements in regards to making storage hardware brands largely irrelevant - or anonymous - to users and applications, therefore simplifying management, removing storage task complexity, speeding up response and provisioning times and increasing overall utilization and flexibility.

The "software advantage" becomes more obvious when you consider the many scenarios it works in and the many shapes it takes and will take in the future. Because DataCore software is portable, it can run on a virtual machine (VM) or on a multitude of physical servers. It not only virtualizes and manages storage, but can coexist along with the server hypervisor in the virtualization layer, providing many possibilities to solve real world and real budget challenges. Hardware simply can't do that.

Software-based storage virtualization has been lauded as a "game changer" in a number of reports, including: InformationWeek's ‘Storage Anonymous' Cover Story.

DataCore's Future Directions for Storage Virtualization

"The whole idea of DataCore and our vision was that if you could move the software program from the constraints and boundaries of the physical platforms and take it to a modern programming environment, then it would be possible to do with software what had been done manually to that point - that's storage virtualization," explains Aral.

Virtual desktops (vDesktops) are an excellent example that highlights the need for a new model for storage. The major challenge for vDesktops is that SANs are often implemented with large and costly storage controllers and complex external storage networks. While these have the advantage of achieving reasonable scalability, they introduce a very large threshold cost to virtual desktop implementations. To overcome this high capital cost burden, hardware vendors typically tout the economics of deploying several thousand vDesktops. The real problem in this case is not in scaling up to "thousands" of vDesktops but in scaling them down to practical configurations. It barely needs mentioning that this must occur without radically spiking costs at the low end and also without forgoing the SAN feature set which assures portability, availability, and data redundancy. Otherwise, the very benefits of vDesktops are compromised.

DataCore has done extensive benchmarking to understand the economics of vDesktops and has been able to configure high-availability configurations supporting a few hundred instead of "thousands" of vDesktops, and at a cost per desktop of less than one tenth of what was previously reported. In addition, new topologies allow the scaling of such configurations to "thousands" if that is what is required. Based on these initial findings, DataCore will make a significant impact on removing storage costs as a primary barrier to virtual desktop deployments. DataCore will be posting a series of Virtual Desktops Benchmark Reports in 2011.

Virtual desktops have one element in common with the other major computing movement of our day: cloud computing. Both technologies promise to deploy very large numbers of "machines" of the same class. This creates the opportunity to present one additional level of virtualization and to "divide and conquer" the problem which is otherwise daunting for its scale. What if, instead of attempting to manage hundreds or thousands of virtual machines discretely, one could divide them into arbitrary groups or sub-units and then manage a far smaller number of sub-units? This will also be the future direction of our work, impacting not only vDesktops and cloud computing but also the organization of storage itself.

Stay tuned to DataCore in 2011 for more details.

Learn More - Supporting Materials

Ziya Aral discusses: The DataCore Product Vision, Virtual Desktops and Benchmark Findings.

George Teixeira shares his "Perspectives on the Shifting Economies of Storage Virtualization Software, Private Clouds and Virtual Desktops" - DataCore CEO Perspectives: 2011.

DataCore Software: 2011 Perspectives on the Shifting Economies of Storage Virtualization Software, Private Clouds and Virtual Desktops

2010-12-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

"The business return on investment of a pure ‘software infrastructure,' where you pay once for intelligent software to manage, protect and get more from your storage assets - as they come and go from generation to generation and brand to brand - is a value proposition that is as compelling as it is inevitable."- George Teixeira, President and CEO, DataCore Software

Read the top 5 predictions for 2011 from DataCore Software at: http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/12/16/datacore-2011-perspectives-on-the-shifting-economies-of-storage-virtualization-software-private-clouds-and-virtual-desktops.aspx

Software based Storage Virtualization is key to Cloud Performance

2010-12-27T16:29:00.000-05:00

Current projects emphasize the growing need for high performance and highly available storage for the cloud. Case in point – DataCore Software recently implemented its SANsymphony™ software at Waterstons. This major IT service provider offers cloud hosting services from a purpose-built Tier 3 data center in the North of England. Based on Dell storage hardware, VMware and DataCore's SANsymphony software – configured in a redundant configuration, it offers all the high availability and resilience that Waterstons' high-end cloud hosting service requires. Through SANsymphony's built-in agility and thin-provisioning software, Waterstons' clients can access storage “on-the-fly” from the VMware server farm. Andrew Kershaw, Technical Director at Waterstons, explains, "Through our cloud-based service, we are able to offer new and innovative ways of supporting clients and solving their business and technology problems. With the VMware and DataCore combination, we can respond to demands extremely quickly and on a very flexible basis, which often is simply not the case with traditional infrastructure."

Host.net, one of the largest hosting services in the USA, delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach to attain the greatest flexibility and to deliver 100% uptime. "We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our vPDC platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence," says Jeffrey Slapp, Vice President of Virtualization Services for Host.net. He states that many companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages they have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.

Top 10 Ways to Trim Storage Costs

2010-12-01T09:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/management/article.php/3908676/Top-10-Ways-to-Trim-Storage-Costs.htm

Software Virtualization
There are many ways to virtualize storage. In some cases, the vendor suggests throwing away old hardware to buy a brand new virtualization array. A cheaper way is to leave legacy disk in place and incorporate it into a shared storage pool using software-based virtualization.

“With software-based storage virtualization, you can take full advantage of disk resources already in place before you spend any money on additional capacity,” said Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software.

InformationWeek Landmark Report on Storage Virtualization: How To Break Free From Tier 1 SAN Vendors

2010-11-29T08:40:00.004-05:00

We've all grown comfortable with the server virtualization model, where you buy intelligent software and run your choice of hardware. Why should storage be any different? It shouldn't, and a number of vendors are providing the means to finally sever this bond. By offering flexible, standards-based storage virtualization and management software that will run on any x86 platform, DataCore, FalconStor and others extend a tantalizing promise: Pay once for intelligent software and run it on the hardware of your choice. Get the software virtualization layer in place, and the possibilities are endless...

http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228000296

Virtualization Review SuperCast: The Time to Virtualize Storage is NOW!

2010-11-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

In this FREE supercast event, now available on demand, learn why storage virtualization is quickly moving from nice-to-have to need-to-have status and how to successfully deploy and optimize virtual environments.

Title: The Time to Virtualize Storage is NOW

Keynote: Jon Toigo, CEO Toigo Partners International, Chairman Data Management Institute
Storage expert Jon Toigo is a columnist for Enterprise Systems and contributing writer for Virtualization Review. He is a consultant, blogger and author of 15 books on business technology, disaster recovery and data storage.

Join industry leaders for a free supercast designed to help you understand the growing need and value of virtualized storage, as well as tips and strategies for implementation and optimization.

Featured Presentations include:
Secrets to 100% Uptime in a Virtualized Environment by DataCore

DataCore Software Powers The Virtualization Infrastructure For Ahtna Government Services – Encompassing DataCore Storage Virtualization, VMware For Servers, And Citrix XenDesktops

2010-11-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.govcon.com/article.mvc/DataCore-Software-Powers-The-0001?VNETCOOKIE=NO

"We have been a Citrix shop for some time and we recently decided to do our DataCore and our VMware virtualization implementations at the same time," states Chris Whitaker, Information Technology Manager, Ahtna Government Services. "The virtualization technologies all work hand-in-hand and they have drastically made our lives easier. The flexibility we have with DataCore powering our IT environment speaks for itself. With DataCore, we can apply storage to any server, any operating system, any piece of hardware, or to any desktop – when and where it is needed."

One important IT objective made possible by the newly virtualized environment is that the new infrastructure gave Ahtna the opportunity to accelerate putting many new systems into place earlier than was expected since no new hardware capital expenses were necessary. Not having to purchase hardware to complete projects that have been on the "Wish List," has meant these projects were indeed accomplished. With the virtual infrastructure and the disk space sitting behind DataCore, Ahtna's IT team did not have to purchase additional hardware to deploy new systems – because anything new is virtualized.

A Very Positive Impact on Operations: Desktop Virtualization and Server Virtualization Made Possible with DataCore

Whitaker comments, "Our goal is to build a non-stop datacenter and with DataCore we have a high-speed, synchronously mirrored, storage infrastructure now deployed at Ahtna along with VMware. Together they work in tandem to ensure a new level of uptime for our business." Whitaker adds that the mirrored systems have delivered as promised, providing data and VM redundancy. "The SANs do not go down on their own," he notes. "In fact, during a recent upgrade of DataCore storage virtualization software, the uptime on the server was so high, it was literally off the charts in terms of anything I could calculate."

Storage Virtualization SuperCast for Virtualization Review by Jon Toigo

2010-11-22T08:30:00.001-05:00

http://www.drunkendata.com/?p=3233
"...DataCore uses a proxy Windows server to connect to the arrays, saving themselves the trouble of having to bake in special access to the APIs of each and every vendor. They have created a great kit (which I have used) and it promises to get even better with the release late this year or early next of SANsymphony V. (We have tested V in our labs and are writing a First Look paper on it that I may publish in Virtualization Review.)

...“if not on the array controller, where will you host all of that value-add software that most hardware vendors prefer to join to their rigs?” — he worried that I may be pursuing a deconstructionalist model that no one wants. In response, I just look at DataCore. They can do the thin provisioning and replication off box, while contributing significant performance improvements to the hardware beneath.

DataCore does NAS? DataCore Software Brings Unprecedented Storage Scalability, Performance and High-Availability to Microsoft Clustered File Shares, Hyper-V Failover Cluster CSVs and Metro Clusters

2010-11-15T07:21:00.001-05:00

Spotlight on Customer Use Cases, High-Availability NAS and Cluster Best Practices

At the recent Microsoft Tech-Ed Europe 2010, DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization software, demonstrated major breakthroughs to enhance the availability, scalability and performance of Failover Clustering in Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 with Hyper-V™. Several case studies and white papers are available to highlight how IT organizations can benefit operationally and financially from these joint solutions.

The two most common use cases for DataCore in Microsoft Failover Cluster scenarios involve virtualizing and mirroring storage resources across physically-separated storage devices for:

• Clustered Shared Volumes (CSVs)

• Clustered File Shares

Many DataCore customers at the event explained the technical aspects behind their real-world implementations. Featured among them was the Swiss-based hospital, Regionalspital Emmental (RSE) AG, where DataCore software fully virtualizes the shared storage infrastructure for RSE’s Exchange, SQL and medical applications. RSE operates 15 physical servers and over 50 virtual machines running on top of Hyper-V.

“Server virtualization from Microsoft Hyper-V combined with storage virtualization software from DataCore form an integral part of our IT strategy, significantly lowering costs for hardware, energy and administration,” states Falko Gieldanowski, Head of IT at RSE AG. "We are currently saving around 30% by better optimizing the use of our time and resources and from the resulting increase in productivity – and we anticipate further savings over the lifetime of our infrastructure."

What’s New: HA NAS - Eliminating Storage-related Downtime for Clustered File Shares

One of the topics that was spotlighted during Tech-Ed Europe 2010, was how to keep storage from becoming a single-point-of-failure for clustered file shares. DataCore explained how its software along with Microsoft's built-in capabilities could be combined to provide a true high-availability NAS capability, best of all no additional software or hardware are required to implement the capability. For more information and further details on how to achieve high-availability NAS, please contact: info@datacore.com.

Non-Stop Data Access: Virtualizing and Speeding-up SANs for CSVs
US-based Stockbridge Capital Group deploys DataCore storage virtualization software with Microsoft Hyper-V to meet their business continuity needs. Two synchronously- mirrored DataCore nodes keep the storage infrastructure, especially the CSVs, highly available to ensure non-stop data access from a cluster of seven (7) Hyper-V servers hosting over 25 virtual machines. Prior to virtualization, Stockbridge had well over 30 physical servers.

“DataCore’s storage virtualization solution offers all of the high-end features, including enterprise-class high availability, but at an affordable price,” comments Stephen Pilch, COO, Stockbridge. “DataCore software lets us easily leverage our investment in existing and new technologies and empower our virtual servers to meet non-stop business needs while fitting our budget. It is a perfect match for us.”

The virtualized storage configuration services the needs of Stockbridge’s Microsoft Exchange server along with the file repositories used by all their employees. “We were pleasantly surprised that the iSCSI SAN, because of DataCore, actually performed better than the existing fibre SAN, in terms of its speed and accessibility,” notes Cem Kursunoglu, president at BayNODE. Read the full story here.

Large Scale Metro Clusters Rely on Microsoft and DataCore
Continuum Health Partners ("Continuum") relies on DataCore SANsymphony™ software to virtualize and manage well over 200 Terabytes of storage for the various hospitals in the Continuum hospital network. The DataCore-powered infrastructure supports a community of 14,000 users on over five-hundred (500) servers with storage devices split between different locations in metropolitan New York.

"DataCore storage virtualization software is the key to the virtualization puzzle - offering the flexible storage virtualization dimension needed for any virtualization project - and serving as the perfect complement to server virtualization as well as the perfect enhancement to storage hardware," explains Jill Wojcik, IT Director at Continuum Health Partners.

Microsoft solutions running on the DataCore virtualized infrastructure at Continuum include: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Cluster Servers (MSCSs. For a more in-depth case study on this deployment, please visit: www.datacore.com/continuum .

To receive a white paper describing the techniques used to provide uninterrupted access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) by synchronously mirroring across storage devices split between hot-hot sites, please download it at: www.datacore.com/metroclusters .

Stockbridge Capital Group Deploys DataCore Storage Virtualization Software with Microsoft Hyper-V to Meet Their Non-Stop Business Needs

2010-11-12T07:18:00.000-05:00

For more info, see: Virtualization infrastructure enables Stockbridge to ensure business continuity via high availability, reduce physical footprint of servers and scale their storage on-demand
Stockbridge Capital Group, LLC (“Stockbridge”) has deployed and realized significant IT operations and business benefits from implementing Microsoft Hyper-V Server and DataCore for server and storage virtualization, respectively.

“The thing we have found about DataCore’ storage virtualization solution is that it offers all of the high-end features, including enterprise-class high availability, but at an affordable price,” states Stephen Pilch, COO, Stockbridge. “We are a midsize company, with enterprise needs. We have offices all around the country and we need to be running non-stop 24 by 7. DataCore’s software lets us easily leverage our investment in existing and new technologies and empower our virtual servers to meet non-stop business needs while fitting our budget. It is a perfect match for us.”

BayNODE, an Information Technology consulting firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area, worked with Stockbridge on the design, implementation and on-going management of the overall virtualized IT infrastructure. BayNODE was already in the process of virtualizing a number of different servers at Stockbridge into Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster environments. Also, an IBM fibre channel SAN solution was already in place to handle some of the SAN-related tasks. However, the company was in dire need of a highly available SAN solution – ideally an iSCSI solution – that could get the job done. With a limited IT budget, BayNODE started looking around for all possible options. It was also imperative that any solution could also leverage the hardware investments that were already in place. It was soon after their research started that BayNODE found DataCore.

The virtualized infrastructure now supports Microsoft Exchange server and the file repository for use by all employees. BayNODE, the consulting advisor, is now in process of taking the Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) setup and moving it from a cluster to a single Exchange server located on a Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster, which was impractical to do without DataCore.

For now, two DataCore-powered SAN servers are synchronously mirrored to one another, keeping the systems highly available and delivering business continuity, and the applications as well as the data is replicated by Neverfail, which serves as the DR component. Seven (7) Hyper-V hosts are running currently at Stockbridge and there are over 25 virtual servers spread across these nodes. As you would expect, the footprint of physical servers has shrunk drastically. Prior to virtualization Stockbridge had well over 30 physical servers; this number has been cut down to 12. The two DataCore high availability nodes run on IBM x3550 servers using external storage that is managed, pooled and networked where and when needed by the DataCore storage virtualization software.

Along with DataCore storage virtualization for shared storage, the CSVs allow all the nodes (the hosts) that are part of the Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster access to the same SAN resource at the same time – there is no “passive-active.” All nodes access the SAN resource at the same time. The CSV technology uses either fibre or iSCSI-based SANs. Because Stockbridge already had the fibre resource in place, they wanted to add DataCore’s iSCSI SAN to support the CSVs as well. “We were pleasantly surprised that the iSCSI SAN because of DataCore actually performed better than the fibre SAN, in terms of its speed and accessibility,” notes Kursunoglu.

Scalability and Ease of Use Win the Day
According to BayNODE’s president, the beauty of DataCore lies in its ability to get up and running in just a couple of days – encompassing all aspects of the implementation. “Of particular benefit to us as a partner and Stockbridge as a customer is the scalability of the product,” explains Kursunoglu. “It saves so much money compared to what you would otherwise have to pay for more capacity through a hardware-only approach. We can scale and grow DataCore as we wish, on-demand, and we can thin-provision our capacity needs. DataCore gives so much power in terms of flexibility and scalability – I cannot even put a price on it.”

Stockbridge and affiliates have over a hundred people spread across the country who rely on the company’s IT systems. BayNODE essentially serves as the outsourced IT arm for Stockbridge. “Customers trust us to manage all types of IT environments and operations and Stockbridge is no exception,” states Kursunoglu. “We serve as the internal IT team for Stockbridge – with engineers onsite. Our responsibilities include budgeting, operations, implementation, maintenance, consulting – everything.”

Stockbridge has multiple offices across the country and is headquartered in San Francisco. The company manages real estate investment portfolios with properties throughout the United States.

About Stockbridge Capital Group

Stockbridge is a real estate investment management firm and Registered Investment Advisor founded in 2003 with approximately $4.4 billion of real estate assets under management. The firm manages both commingled funds and separate accounts primarily on behalf of institutional investors, and also provides strategic advisory services with respect to real estate assets and portfolios. Its portfolio includes investments across the investment risk spectrum, including core, value-added and opportunistic strategies.

Educational Institutions of All Sizes Benefit from DataCore Virtualization Software at the Heart of Their Virtualization Infrastructure

2010-11-12T06:47:00.001-05:00

Educational program and discounts up to 50% help foster academic institutions of all sizes benefit from DataCore Virtualization Infrastructure Software for their storage

For more information, contact a DataCore partner for details or go to http://www.datacore.com/education .

Schools and universities worldwide are using DataCore storage virtualization software to complement their server and/or desktop virtualization projects

The education sector continues to beat a path to DataCore as the cornerstone of a virtualized infrastructure. “DataCore has been an excellent solution that enabled us to virtualize our new and existing storage solutions on the back-end while keeping a single interface and single management point for managing all of our different SAN environments,” states Dustin Fennell, vice president of IT and CIO, Scottsdale Community College. “Beyond this, we have attained better performance with DataCore and we now have the benefit of high-availability.”

DataCore’s software solutions enable the data centers and IT departments within educational institutions to better manage and maximize storage capacity and leverage existing hardware to protect and serve storage assets to Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtual servers and desktops.

Moreover, because DataCore cares about education and sees it as a strategic investment for the future, it therefore provides qualified academic institutions with access to special promotional offers and extra discounts of up to 50% on DataCore virtualization software packages: http://www.datacore.com/education.

Educational institutions of all sizes are embracing DataCore’s software-based approach to storage virtualization in order to enable them to overcome storage-related funding roadblocks, downtime and performance issues. A sampling of the very newest institutions in the US to embrace DataCore at the heart of their virtualization infrastructures are: American River College, Arizona State University, Bellarmine University, Berkshire School, Capital Community College, Louisburg College, Midwestern University, Mount Anthony Middle School, NY Network, Notre Dame Academy, Rogue Community College, North Star Charter School, Sacramento City College, Scottsdale Community College, Shenandoah School Corporation, Spalding University, University of California San Francisco, Three Rivers Community College, Utica College, Virginia Wesleyan College, Wittenberg University, and others.

In addition to these newer customers, in the USA a host of educational organizations have already deployed storage virtualization using DataCore’s SANmelody™ and SANsymphony™ solutions. These include Auburn University, Daytona Beach Community College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Los Rios Community College District, Midway College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Sullivan University, Syracuse University, Texas A&M University at Kingsville, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Illinois, University of Utah - Education Network, University of Utah, School of Medicine, and many, many more – spanning the globe and spanning all levels of education.

The needs of IT departments that support educational institutions can suffer from the same shortfall that every other IT department can: a virtualization project that stops at servers and desktops and therefore misses an important component – storage. “In a K-12 setting, if the school districts are not looking at virtualization, they are cutting their legs out from under themselves,” states Steve Gumm, IT director, Barren County Schools.

Customer Testimonials in Education

Virtualizing storage resources means that institutions can: avoid downtime, planned or unplanned; improve the performance of storage devices; mix current storage devices with newly purchased equipment; and, most importantly, stay within a budget.

Oxford University –

“The DataCore and VMware solution allows us to plug in and support storage and virtual servers as and when we need; ultimately DataCore provides a cost-effective storage solution that we are happy to recommend.”- Jon Hutchings, Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS).

Read full case study: Storage Virtualization at Oxford University

Scottsdale Community College –

“Virtual computing has transformed our entire IT organization – the way we deliver services, the way we support them, and the way our end users consume them. Our previous SAN solution was a bottleneck in this environment and we needed a more high-performing solution. DataCore storage virtualization is a key component to the stability and performance of our virtual computing environment.”
- Dustin Fennell, Vice President of IT and CIO, Scottsdale Community College

Barren County Schools –

“For all intents and purposes, we are 100% virtual. The biggest benefit for us was realizing a virtualized data infrastructure. Because we adopted storage virtualization, we now can deploy any storage hardware behind our environment that we want. Beyond this – with DataCore we were able to repurpose old equipment.”
- Steve Gumm, IT director, Barren County Schools.

Read full case study: www.datacore.com/barrencounty

Lakota Local Schools –

“With a continually growing enterprise dependent on network based solutions, DataCore allowed us to implement a virtual infrastructure at a fraction of the cost and support of other storage solutions. As a result, we were able to virtualize several central systems, resulting in power, cooling and space savings as well as add additional redundancy.”- Todd Wesley, Network Operations Administrator for Lakota Local Schools.

Read full case study: www.datacore.com/lakota

Rocklin Unified School District –

“We had to put in place a virtual storage network that had the agility to keep up, while also providing the needed fault tolerant failover protection to safeguard our storage and maximize overall system uptime. Now, we have rolled out a new VMware and Citrix infrastructure in support of our applications. And DataCore is the underlying foundation for all of it.”
- Glenn Baker, Systems Engineer, Rocklin Unified School District.

Read full case study: www.datacore.com/rocklin

Saginaw Intermediate School District –

“We were also really won over by the fact that DataCore is an affordable solution for achieving high availability. And the transition from physical to virtual was seamless – nobody even knew it happened. Through DataCore thin-provisioning, we were able to migrate the servers we needed to, during the day, without causing any downtime to a school district.”
- Jeff Johnson, Director of Technical Services, Saginaw Intermediate School District

Read full case study: www.datacore.com/saginaw
For more information, contact a DataCore partner for details or go to http://www.datacore.com/education .

DataCore Software and Fusion-io Technology Alliance Partnership; Customers Realize Performance Gains and Energy Savings

2010-10-22T08:10:00.001-04:00

This week Fusion-io launched its Fusion-io Technology Alliance Program. DataCore Software is pleased to be a Fusion-io Technology Alliance Partner. Fusion-io’s solid state storage solutions combined with DataCore storage virtualization software achieve new levels of performance, high availability and energy efficiency when the two technologies are deployed together. Customers that are implementing Fusion-io as a server class memory tier across DataCore-powered storage area networks are experiencing unprecedented levels of I/O performance through tiered caching. One example of this is the German company NIEDAX GROUP, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electrical installation equipment.

NIEDAX GROUP utilizes DataCore to accelerate storage performance along with high speed NAND flash memory from Fusion-io for its private cloud service. DataCore’s storage virtualization software takes advantage of server RAM memory to cache and accelerate storage I/Os, while the flash memory from Fusion-io acts as another tier of high-speed memory to further accelerate performance for critical applications.

DataCore’s technology enables effective sharing of these devices across the storage pool and provides the ability to use SAN-wide features across different vendor hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to fully utilize all the storage available and to mirror and protect data. According to Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration/IT at NIEDAX GROUP. "We gained tremendous performance from adding DataCore and Fusion-io and overall we reduced our energy and cooling costs."

For a more in-depth overview of DataCore and Fusion-io at NIEDAX GROUP, see:
DataCore_Virtualizes_FusionIO_Solid_State_Disks_SSDs_and_HP_Storage_Arrays_into_a_High_Performance_and_Energy_Efficient_SAN_for_NIEDAX_GROUP

For more on DataCore Software and Fusion-io at NIEDAX GROUP, check out the following videos from VMworld TV: http://siliconangle.tv/search/node/george%20teixeira

VMworld 2010 Europe: DataCore Software Eliminates Business Outages in VMware VIEW and vSphere Environments; Showcases Growing Base of VMware and DataCore Customer Successes

2010-10-14T14:31:00.000-04:00

DataCore's software-based storage virtualization and high-availability approach is key to cloud-based and virtualized IT environments
COPENHAGEN – At VMworld Europe 2010, DataCore Software is providing insights into new developments and highlights a growing number of applications and solutions being deployed at customer sites in conjunction with DataCore’s VMware-certified storage virtualization platforms. DataCore is highlighting the seamless integration of complementary technologies for private and public cloud computing. In addition, DataCore is showcasing cost-effective customer SAN deployments – virtualized with DataCore and VMware vSphere and VIEW – that are proven to meet the demands for virtual server and virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) that need high-availability, fast performance and archival solutions.

"At VMworld Europe 2010, cloud, desktop and storage virtualization are high on the agenda of attending end users and solution providers. The greater flexibility and high performance requirements for storage in virtual desktop infrastructures are also usually associated with high costs that can jeopardize the completion of virtualization and consolidation projects,” says Christian Hagen, Vice President of EMEA Channel & Sales Operations at DataCore Software. "DataCore overcomes the cost barrier. Our software solutions enable the integration of existing and new storage regardless of the underlying brand of storage hardware. The software revalues existing storage devices with the highest reliability and performance and transforms it into cost-efficient, flexible, shared storage – especially for VDI environments and other critical applications. We are seeing strong demand for our cost-effective solutions in this area."

Storage Virtualization Software is Key to Cloud Performance
Current projects emphasize the growing need for high performance and highly available storage for the cloud. Case in point – DataCore Software recently implemented its SANsymphony™ software at Waterstons. This major IT service provider offers cloud hosting services from a purpose-built Tier 3 data center in the North of England. Based on Dell storage hardware, VMware and DataCore's SANsymphony software – configured in a redundant configuration, it offers all the high availability and resilience that Waterstons' high-end cloud hosting service requires. Through SANsymphony's built-in agility and thin-provisioning software, Waterstons' clients can access storage “on-the-fly” from the VMware server farm. Andrew Kershaw, Technical Director at Waterstons, explains, "Through our cloud-based service, we are able to offer new and innovative ways of supporting clients and solving their business and technology problems. With the VMware and DataCore combination, we can respond to demands extremely quickly and on a very flexible basis, which often is simply not the case with traditional infrastructure."

Host.net, one of the largest hosting services in the USA, delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach to attain the greatest flexibility and to deliver 100% uptime. "We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our vPDC platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence," says Jeffrey Slapp, Vice President of Virtualization Services for Host.net. He states that many companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages they have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.

The German NIEDAX GROUP, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electrical installation equipment, utilizes DataCore to accelerate storage performance along with high speed NAND flash memory from Fusion-io for its private cloud service. The software takes advantage of server RAM memory to cache and accelerate storage I/Os, while the flash memory from Fusion-io acts as another tier of high-speed memory to further accelerate performance for critical applications. The software approach enables effective sharing of these devices across the storage pool and provides the ability to use SAN-wide features across different vendor hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to fully utilize all the storage available and to mirror and protect all the data. "We are happy with our DataCore investment and we are benefiting from the many functional and financial benefits of putting it in use," states Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration/IT at NIEDAX GROUP. "We gained tremendous performance from adding DataCore and Fusion-io SSDs and overall we reduced our energy and cooling costs."

Compliance and Virtual Archives with DataCore and iTernity
At VMworld Europe 2010, DataCore continues to work with and integrate with an ever- growing base of important applications that impact the storage environments. A flexible and independent virtualization software layer is a prerequisite for value-added applications and functions such as archival and compliance software. Successfully tested and proven in a number of joint customer projects, DataCore’s SANmelody™ and SANsymphony™ have been deployed successfully in conjunction with iTernity™ Compliant Archive Solution (iCAS™) in a certified architecture that supports long-term archiving.

With the DataCore and iTernity solutions, users are able to obtain an expandable, secure and cost-efficient archiving solution that meets regulatory compliance and archival demands in VMware virtual environments.

VMworld 2010 Europe takes place at the Bella Center Copenhagen, Denmark from Oct 12th – 14th. Meet the DataCore experts for virtualization at booth No. 81.

Citrix Synergy 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Improves Availability and Performance While Overcoming the High Capital and Operational Costs of Storage for Virtual Desktops

2010-10-11T01:27:00.000-04:00

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=16289

At Citrix Synergy 2010 in Berlin, DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization, is highlighting how joint Citrix and DataCore customers have benefited from performance gains, improved availability and cost efficiencies resulting from virtualizing their desktops, servers and storage. DataCore delivers a cost-effective storage infrastructure for Citrix Virtual Servers and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) by avoiding the need to “rip and replace” existing storage and SANs, thereby avoiding large, upfront capital expenses and greatly reducing ongoing operational costs.

“For more than two decades, Citrix Systems has been deploying virtualization solutions. This experience pays off; with our continuous advancements in desktop and server virtualization, we are making this technology accessible to a broad customer base,” says Jens Luebben, Managing Director Germany and Area Vice President Central Europe at Citrix Systems Inc. “After having successfully launched Citrix Technology Alliance last year, we continue to work joint projects with DataCore that have been proven in practice. Together with storage virtualization partners like DataCore, we want to use Citrix Synergy 2010 to respond to the most pressing questions about virtualization.”

Virtual Desktop Infrastructures along with Citrix XenServer, XenDesktop and XenApp require failsafe and centralized storage solution, but in many cases this is jeopardized due to the high costs involved. With DataCore's storage virtualization, users can easily create cost-effective "shared" storage for virtual servers and desktops from new and existing storage capacities. Customers benefit from investment protection, higher capacity utilization, better performance and affordable, high availability storage.

By virtualizing disk storage devices from different brands and vendors, DataCore™ software eliminates incompatibilities across generations, models and manufacturers and maximizes the joint value of these resources. Thus, storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and financial hurdles which threaten virtualization projects, can be eliminated. This reduces costs, minimizes risks and increases productivity.

Virtualization is Three-Dimensional: Efficiency Impacts Desktops, Servers and Storage
Many successful installations with Citrix and DataCore worldwide illustrate the three-dimensional virtualization spanning desktops, servers and storage. Clemens Albrecht, Head of IT at Plakanda Management AG, a service provider of outdoor advertising in Switzerland, says, “We are very pleased with our decision to implement a virtualization strategy with Citrix and DataCore. With the combination of SANmelody™ and the Citrix XenServer and Citrix Essentials we benefit from having dynamic storage management, reduced administration and long-term cost savings.”

German hospital Muldental is also relying on a virtual infrastructure based on Citrix and DataCore. “Virtualization with DataCore and Citrix has reduced our hardware and software costs, simplified the administration and provided the flexibility for responding to requests quickly and efficiently. We can import updates for hundreds of identical desktops in a few minutes, or set up a special server such as one for the endoscopy department. DataCore's storage virtualization software ensures that our IT is continuously operating. A fact that we greatly depend on,” says Thomas Enderlein, IT Manager at Muldental.

See more information on effective storage solutions for Citrix with DataCore Software at http://www.datacore.com/solutions/govirt-citrix.asp .

Wall Street Journal Blog: When Consolidation Fosters Innovation -6 Companies worth Watching includes DataCore Software

2010-10-11T00:37:00.003-04:00

6 Companies to Watch, check the list: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/09/29/when-consolidation-fosters-innovation-among-start-ups/

Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing for the storage virtualization firm DataCore Software Corp., says “our pitch to buyers is, whoever they buy their storage infrastructure from, we can help them maximize the value of that infrastructure.”

Why I use DataCore - Host.net; VMworld Videos, DataCore Real World Virtualization and Fujitsu & DataCore Partnership

2010-09-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

You Tube Video - Why I use DataCore: Host.net:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIKsiEgUbhw

VMworld 2010 Video: Storage Tiering and Flash Performance - DataCore CEO Talks Virtualization, Tiered Storage and Flash Performance
http://www.siliconangle.tv/video/storage-tiering-and-flash-performance-george-teixeira-talks-virtualization-tiered-storage-and-/

Computer Technology Review features DataCore Real World Virtualization Case Studies:
http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=255&Itemid=2701573

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists deploys DataCore Software with VMware to maintain uptime and business continuity
http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9082:vmworld-2010-american-society-of-health-system-pharmacists-deploys-datacore-software-with-vmware-to-maintain-uptime-and-business-continuity&catid=232:disaster-recovery&Itemid=2701196

Fujitsu & DataCore Coverage:

ChannelPros: DataCore Software and Fujitsu Technology Solutions Validate Integration of Products
http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/20444/DataCore-Software-and-Fujitsu-Technology-Solutions-Validate-Integration-of-Products/

SearchStorage: Fujitsu bundles DataCore storage virtualization software
DataCore Software Corp. said Fujitsu has validated its SANsymphony storage virtualization software, and Fujitsu will sell the integrated DataCore software on its Eternus storage systems and Primergy servers. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1519941,00.html

Fujitsu UK Web site: Fujitsu Maximises Flexibility Of Storage Architectures With DataCore Storage Virtualisation
http://www.fujitsu.com/uk/news/pr/fs_20100909-01.html

Fujitsu German Blog: More flexibility for Storage architectures with DataCore Storage Virtualization
http://blog.de.ts.fujitsu.com/?p=1416
Fujitsu is now offering its server and storage systems with integrated storage virtualization software from DataCore. This makes the transition to virtualized storage pool architectures greatly simplified.

Network Computing: Fujitsu Maximizes Business Continuity And Flexibility Of Cloud Storage Architectures With DataCore Storage Virtualization
http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage-networking-management/datacore-software-fujitsu-maximizes-business-continuity-and-flexibility-of-cloud-storage-architectur.php

DataCore Software and Fujitsu
http://www.pr-inside.com/datacore-software-fujitsu-r2104801.htm

SNS -UK: Fujitsu maximises flexibility of storage architectures with DataCore storage virtualisation
http://www.sns-uk.co.uk/news_full.php?id=15628

Spanish: Fujitsu maximiza la flexibilidad de las arquitecturas de almacenamiento Cloud con DataCore Storage Virtualization
http://www.infomercados.com/actualidad/noticia/ibero-news/fujitsu-maximiza-la-flexibilidad-de-las-arquitecturas-de-almacenamiento-cloud-con-dat-/20100913/31874/i/

French: Fujitsu optimise sa continuité d’activité avec DataCore
http://informaticien.be/articles_item-8366-Fujitsu_optimise_sa_continuite_drsquoactivite.html

German: Flexible Storage Clouds: "Fujitsu Eternus"- und "Primergy"-Systeme für "DataCore SANsymphony"
http://www.itseccity.de/?url=/content/markt/channel-news/100914_mar_cha_datacore.html

Fujitsu Maximizes Business Continuity and Flexibility of Cloud Storage Architectures with DataCore

2010-09-10T09:15:00.000-04:00

Fujitsu has validated the integration of its data center storage and server systems with DataCore storage virtualization software, in order to minimize the risks for enterprises switching to virtualized and cloud storage architectures.

Jens-Peter Seick, Senior Vice President Product Division Datacenter Systems at Fujitsu Technology Solutions states, “By combining our server and storage solutions with DataCore software, customers benefit from storage consolidation in various usage scenarios. We deliver complete storage pool architectures customized to our customers’ ever-changing needs - via a single source.”

Initially available in Europe within Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, the pre-tested and qualified solutions combining Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY with DataCore SANsymphony are available immediately via local distributors. With the Fujitsu and DataCore combination, customers can easily provision storage within their cloud infrastructures in real-time, while improving business continuity by removing single points of failure. DataCore adds a new level of high-availability and makes it possible to move data and virtual machines as needed, where needed in a true cloud storage architecture.

Christian Hagen, Vice President EMEA at DataCore Software comments, “The combined Fujitsu and DataCore solutions enable our two customer bases to easily build powerful, extremely fast and reliable virtual storage infrastructures. By qualifying SANsymphony for Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY systems, DataCore and Fujitsu assure a pre-tested highly-available platform for dynamic storage available on demand and optimized for cloud storage architectures.”
IT Director: http://www.it-director.com/channels/distribution/news_release.php?rel=19981

Storage Technology Solutions: http://storagetechnologysolutions.blogspot.com/2010/09/fujitsu-maximizes-business-continuity.html

Virtual Strategy Magazine: http://www.virtual-strategy.com/Press-Releases/Fujitsu-Maximizes-Business-Continuity-and-Flexibility-of-Cloud-Storage-Architectures-with-DataCore.html

VMblog: http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/09/09/fujitsu-maximizes-business-continuity-and-flexibility-of-cloud-storage-architectures-with-datacore-storage-virtualization.aspx

HPC in the Cloud: http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/offthewire/Fujitsu-Maximizes-Business-Continuity-and-Flexibility-of-Cloud-Storage-Architectures-with-DataCore-Storage-Virtualization-102529414.html

DABCC: http://www.dabcc.com/channel.aspx?id=208 and http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=15983

Data Storage Connections: http://www.datastorageconnection.com/article.mvc/DataCore-Software-Fujitsu-Maximizes-Business-0001?atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a

Virtualization Journal: http://virtualization.sys-con.com/node/1526234

Computer Technology Review: http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9121:fujitsu-maximizes-business-continuity-improves-flexibility-of-cloud-storage-architectures-with-datacore-storage-virtualization&catid=232:disaster-recovery&Itemid=2701196
More International Coverage:

Germany: http://www.all-about-security.de/security-artikel/speicherung/speichersysteme/artikel/11525-fujitsu-bietet-mehr-flexibilitaet-fuer-storage-architekturen-m/

Fujitsu's German Blog: http://cpp-plus.de.ts.fujitsu.com/blog/

UK: http://www.it-director.com/channels/distribution/news_release.php?rel=19981

Italy: http://www.storage-backup.com/datacore/integrazione-certificata-tra-datacore-sansymphony-e-fujitsu-eternus-e-primergy/

France: http://datacore-virtualisation-stockage.blogspot.com/2010/09/fujitsu-optimise-sa-continuite.html

Poland: http://www.virtual-it.pl/aktualnosci/1-latest/1483-integracja-eternus-i-primergy-z-datacore-sansymphony.html

Russia: http://www3.una.ua/?p=3654

VMworld 2010 Photos - DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Makes Clouds Happy!

2010-09-02T10:36:00.000-04:00

VMworld 2010: DataCore Showcases Why Its Storage Virtualization and Stretch High-Availability Software Eliminates Business Outages that Jeopardize Cloud Computing

2010-09-02T10:12:00.002-04:00

At VMworld 2010 being held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center this week, DataCore is showcasing how fundamental software-based storage virtualization is to cloud computing.

The Mirazon Group's Chief Technical Architect Barry Martin states:

"Cloud computing platforms demand unprecedented uptime due to server and storage consolidation. DataCore's high-availability approach provides zero downtime. This is a tremendous advantage."

Storage Virtualization and Stretch HA Software for Non-stop Clouds
DataCore is blazing a trail by developing storage virtualization software that is a game-changer in terms of how resellers, solution providers as well as companies considering virtualization deployments manage and deploy virtualization projects and Clouds. The game-changer is that by deploying DataCore in a stretch high-availability (HA) configuration, DataCore delivers fault-tolerance that virtually eliminates storage-related outages that jeopardize business continuity and plague virtualization and consolidation initiatives.

"The DataCore Software stretch high-availability solution delivers seamless, enterprise-class business continuity, data resiliency, and high performance at an affordable price tag," states Aaron Schneider, principal and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. "Your applications, virtual servers and virtual desktops and VM migrations continue to run non-stop despite back-end storage changes, failures or reconfigurations. Bottom-line, you get a true high-availability, shared storage solution that automatically protects your data and your virtual machines right out-of-the box just by deploying the virtual storage software in two locations."

DataCore in the Cloud: Achieve the Highest Degree of Availability, Flexibility and Openness for Your Storage
Host.net knows intuitively that storage virtualization software is priority one. "Any cloud computing platform, just like any virtualization deployment, needs to have portable software as its building blocks," notes Jeffrey Slapp, vice president of virtualization services, Host.net. "We chose DataCore in the core design of our virtual private data center (vPDC) platform alongside VMware and Cisco because it delivers the very best storage virtualization component."

DataCore storage virtualization software is virtualizing the storage aspect of an all-virtual private data center (vPDC) platform developed by Host.net. Host.net delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach for the greatest flexibility. Check out the Case study here: Host.Net Case Study on Why Host.net Chose DataCore?

Contain Costs, Avoid Risks, Boost Productivity and Extend the Life of IT Investments with DataCore Software
Even though server and desktop virtualization and consolidation have garnered much of the virtualization press to date, now the real focus of concern is turning from how to virtualize and consolidate servers and desktops to how can we do more to mitigate the risk that results from consolidation. The key concerns being, "How do I insulate my business applications from storage related failures and disruptions that can severely impact virtual machine images and data that are key to running the business?" and "How good is my high-availability, disaster recovery and shared storage solutions?"

DataCore addresses these concerns with proven software deployed in thousands of customer sites around the world. DataCore's software virtualizes disks across pools of tiered storage devices enabling users to provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand or upgrade without slowdowns or downtime. Simply put, DataCore:

+Complements your storage and makes it more reliable, faster and better.

+Works across unlike & incompatible storage devices.

+Eliminates storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and funding roadblocks that jeopardize virtualization and cloud deployments.

Visit DataCore Customers and Partners Onsite at VMworld 2010 [Booth #1607]
Numerous DataCore customers, including Host.net and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, who have deployed DataCore along with top DataCore solution providers will be onsite at DataCore's VMworld booth [#1607] and are available and standing by to answer questions, highlight best practices and explain the DataCore difference. DataCore solution providers and partners onsite include Grove Networks, HelixStorm, Red Level Networks, Sanity Solutions, The Mirazon Group and DataCore's value-add distributor Lifeboat Distribution.

DataCore partner Andy Judge, founder and CEO of Miami-based Grove Networks, encapsulates the value DataCore brings as follows, "DataCore storage virtualization software gives our clients cost savings and flexibility that is not achievable with storage hardware alone. It takes hardware to a higher level - serving as a hardware and productivity 'enhancer' that pays dividends over the short and long term."

VMworld 2010: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Deploys DataCore Software in a Stretch, High-Availability Configuration with VMware to Ensure Uptime and Business Continuity

2010-08-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

At VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, DataCore Software, a leading provider of software-based virtualization solutions empowering storage, today announced that American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has implemented a new stretch cluster and stretch high-availability (HA) storage configuration based on DataCore storage virtualization software and VMware server virtualization software to ensure uptime and business continuity. This new, stretch, dual-node configuration was implemented by DataCore partner Helixstorm, Inc. and together, DataCore and VMware form an HA configuration that spans floors – serving as an industrial-strength production system with fault-tolerance.
The goal is to transition all of ASHP’s data onto the newly configured, fault-tolerant, virtualized environment. “I am now a believer in the software-based approach to high-availability and storage virtualization,” states Jack Spencer, vice president of operations and CIO at American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. “It was not intuitive until I actually saw it. But now that I have, I am no longer skeptical. Going forward, I will put the bulk of all the money earmarked for network storage into expanding the DataCore configuration as well as building in remote disaster recovery.”

Enterprise Scalability, Seamless Business Continuity, Data Resiliency and High Performance That Supports the ASHP Membership
ASHP serves the professional pharmacist – i.e. health-system pharmacists, including clinical pharmacy, specialized pharmacy (for instance oncology, research, compounding, etc.) and hospital pharmacy. ASHP is also an accrediting body – serving as a grantor of continuing education certifications. A membership organization lives and dies because of the data associated with its members. Both member information as well as the ability to fulfill its mission of being responsible for professional licensing – in terms of granting continuing education credits – has to be protected for an extended period of time by ASHP’s IT systems.

ASHP has 35,000 individual members. The staff at ASHP itself comprises 210 people. All benefit from the uptime the virtualized environment provides, with DataCore at the heart of it all. “The DataCore Software stretch HA solution delivers enterprise scalability, seamless business continuity, data resiliency, and high performance for a cost-effective price tag when comparing it to traditional storage arrays,” states Aaron Schneider, principal and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. “The best part about it is that if ASHP lost a floor to power or critical disaster, the users would not experience an outage because of seamless I/O failover to the surviving node. You get high availability right out of the box just by deploying the virtual storage software in two locations.”

The New HA Configuration: DataCore + VMware Form an Industrial-Strength Production System with Fault-Tolerance
The two HA systems are stretched across two floors at ASHP using synchronous mirroring – thereby providing data redundancy. In total, the data pool – near-line and on-line – comprises sixty (60) terabytes at ASHP. Because ASHP publishes 500+ different publications, storage has always been a big requirement. Three years ago, ASHP became interested in the flexibility, ease-of-use, centralized management and reduced costs that DataCore’s software-based approach to managing and virtualizing their storage assets afforded. DataCore was not, however, ASHP’s first step into virtualization. Prior to DataCore, VMware was deployed at ASHP and the virtual machine (VM) farm has grown four-fold over five years.

“We designed and implemented a true highly available SAN solution,” states Eric Henry, CTO and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. “It’s a shared nothing environment, which means the disks do not share a backplane with the controllers like traditional arrays. ASHP has eliminated all single points of failure between the application servers and the storage controllers along with increasing the data resiliency by ‘stretching’ the SAN between two floors via redundant fiber channel connections for synchronous mirroring. You just can’t get any better business continuity than that!”

The next phase entails adding a third, remote node for disaster recovery (DR) purposes. Historically, ASHP has used SunGard Data Systems for DR. However, it is far more appealing to Spencer and his team to purchase another SANmelody™ storage domain server and deploy that at an off-site location – connecting it to his production asynchronously and providing remote replication.

A Mission-Critical Solution and Configuration
Spencer extols the value-added utilities and features of SANmelody as well as its ease of use – chiefly its simplicity in terms of set-up and maintenance. “Trying to carve out a LUN on a big SAN is a true hassle,” explains Spencer. “Then trying to maintain and keep track of the different LUNs – just the maintenance of the configuration – is very complicated. Software-based SANmelody makes it simple. It is elegantly straightforward and simple in terms of removing labor-intensive aspects of SAN maintenance.”

About ASHP
For more than 60 years, ASHP has helped pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems improve medication use and enhance patient safety. The Society's 35,000 members include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who practice in inpatient, outpatient, home-care, and long-term-care settings, as well as pharmacy students. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists help people make the best use of medicines, visit ASHP's Web site, http://www.ashp.org/ , or its consumer Web site, http://www.safemedication.com/.

Stop by and Visit DataCore Booth 1607 at VMworld - DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Makes Clouds Happy.

2010-08-27T07:25:00.001-04:00

We look forward to seeing you at VMworld 2010.

Always Stays Up - Prevent storage-related disruptions. Keep your clouds running with DataCore's non-disruptive high-availability software.
Never Tied Down - Works across incompatible storage devices. Agile and not tied to specific storage arrays, vendors or devices which 'come and go' over time.
Highly Stretchable - Spans buildings and locations for 'Stretch HA' high-availability and recovery for VMs and data.
Lightning fast - Advanced Caching enables electronic memory speeds to accelerate your workloads and overcome I/O bottlenecks that impact virtual server and virtual desktop performance.

If you are attending VMworld and will be available on Sunday evening, please contact your local DataCore contact if you are available to attend the DataCore VMworld Welcome Reception at the Infusion Lounge in San Francisco from 7:00-10:00 PM.

DataCore virtualizes FusionIO SSDs, HP storage arrays into SAN for NIEDAX GROUP

2010-08-17T09:42:00.001-04:00

DataCore Case Study

DataCore Software has enabled the NIEDAX GROUP to combine traditional storage arrays, already installed, with new high-speed Solid State Disks (SSDs) to create a Storage Area Network (SAN) to meet their growing data center needs. DataCore virtualization software, combined with FusionIO NAND flash memory SSD technology, has achieved a new level of performance, high availability and energy efficiency, running in production at 100,000 IOPS and 600 MB/s (megabytes-per-second) of throughput, while consuming 15 Watts of energy versus 4000 Watts with hard disks alone.

The NIEDAX GROUP, an electrical installation manufacturer, needed to upgrade its systems to meet the growing demands of its ERP system which is based on Microsoft Dynamics. In addition they wanted to migrate their base of over 40 VMware VMs onto a more reliable SAN infrastructure. The major requirement, however, driven by the ERP requirements was for a new SAN storage solution that could deliver higher performance, capacity and availability than the existing hardware SAN.

NIEDAX utilized a consultancy firm to calculate and access its data requirements and found out that if it continued to use a traditional hardware SAN it would need to add and invest in at least another two storage systems, each with a minimum of 40 Fibre Channel disk drives, to achieve the required performance and high availability. This would be a significant investment and add to the ongoing space and energy costs – so alternatives were sought.

Having seen the value of using VMware for servers, NIEDAX wanted to know if there was virtualization solution that could do the same for their SAN storage. Additionally, it also had to meet the ERP performance requirements that were critical.

The company understood the value of virtualization – having evaluated the use of VMware ESX to virtualize a number of machines and realizing the benefits of going green by reducing power consumption and heating costs with servers. So, NIEDAX asked what they could do similarly for their storage. DataCore partner S&L Netzwerktechnik GmbH evaluated the requirements and then suggested and developed an alternative plan that could build on the company’s existing investment and reduce their ongoing costs.

The solution consisted of DataCore SANmelody 3.0 software providing virtualization, performance to accelerate caching software and high-availability mirroring across the pool of storage arrays and SSDs, integration of existing HP EVA Storage Array, integration and additional disks to the HP MSA Storage Arrays, and the addition of high-speed FusionIO SSDs with NAND flash memory to boost performance and lower overall energy requirements.

The DataCore SANmelody 3.0 virtualization software runs on standard servers and enables cost-effective high availability through synchronous mirroring to occur between the heterogeneous mix of SAN hardware. The DataCore solution facilitated NIEDAX GROUP using its existing hardware in combination with the required expansion and new SSDs in order to obtain higher performance and to grow capacity. In a similar manner to what VMware had done for their servers, DataCore virtualized and made their storage hardware more efficient and cost-effective.

“We are happy with our DataCore investment and we are benefiting from the many functional and financial benefits of putting it in use,” stated Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration / IT at NIEDAX GROUP. “The SAN now enables flexibility in administration, ease of expansion and the ability to dynamically allocate storage where and when we need it. DataCore caching accelerates overall performance and delivers a much higher data throughput. The software approach ensures the ease of transfer and the ability to use SAN-wide features on different hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to mirror data. For our demanding ERP application, the fact that we could run FusionIO Solid State Disks under the DataCore virtualization and management solution was critical. We gained tremendous performance from adding FusionIO SSDs and overall we reduce energy and cooling costs.”

In terms of background, the demanding databases that support ERP systems, especially in manufacturing applications such as at the NIEDAX GROUP, often do not consume very large amounts of storage. Instead, however, they do require extremely high performance. With the Fusion IO NAND SSD flash memory technology in place, the NIEDAX GROUP was able to achieve 100,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) and rates of 600 MB/s with only 15 Watt power consumption, when running in production. By comparison, if they had used conventional Fibre Channel storage disks alone to achieve these levels of performance, they would have consumed somewhere around 4,000 Watts.

"With the implementation of DataCore‘s virtualization storage software we were able to meet all of the customers technical requirements,” said Alwin Kohl, consultant at S&L Netzwerktechnik GmbH. “In addition, with the combination of DataCore’s virtualization software and FusionIO‘s SSD NAND flash memory we were able to protect NIEDAX’s current investments in their SAN and extend it – making it green and significantly reducing long-term costs for our customer.”

Saginaw Intermediate School District Deploys a Flexible, Virtualized Cloud Infrastructure Using DataCore, VMware and Xiotech

2010-08-17T09:02:00.000-04:00

DataCore Software announced that Saginaw Intermediate School District (ISD) has replaced a legacy SAN and embraced virtualization in its centralized data center built on DataCore, VMware and Xiotech. Moreover, Saginaw ISD’s VMware- DataCore-based cloud for servers and storage serves as both a centralized data center and a hosting service for the majority of school districts in the county.

Download the Case Study on Saginaw VMware and DataCore Cloud Computing

The implementation at Saginaw ISD is one that incorporates DataCore for storage virtualization, VMware for server virtualization, and Xiotech as the hardware platform providing the actual storage. DataCore’s SANmelody storage virtualization software powers two SANs that comprise DataCore software and Xiotech servers at two separate data centers, five miles apart, which are configured to mirror to each other. The data pool consists of 10 TBs on each end of the remote configuration.

"Our goal was to virtualize everything and have that supported by storage," states Jeff Johnson, Director of Technical Services, Saginaw Intermediate School District.

Saginaw ISD has deployed seven VMware ESX boxes in the VMware farm - all running on HP servers. These hosts service 35-40 VMs, which span everything from a utility machine running Windows XP - to five SQL servers. For replication purposes, the mirrored site has three ESX boxes that also make up the VMware cloud between the two sites. DataCore is at the heart of the virtualized infrastructure, powering the VMware cloud in Saginaw ISD’s virtual, private data center.

"At this point we are currently serving 30-40% of the county by way of staff and students, and that number continues to grow," notes Johnson. "Recently, we had a meeting with another school district, and, within one hour of talking about server costs and replacement costs, the district made the bold decision to move everything out of their data center this summer and into ours. They see that costs are just so much less when we can consolidate and put all the servers in our VMware, DataCore and Xiotech environment for them."

The solution at Saginaw ISD encompasses local high-availability and fault-tolerance, as well as offsite disaster recovery capabilities. In terms of delivering high-availability, Saginaw ISD serves as the central hub for most of the school districts in Saginaw County, and Saginaw Township Community Schools serves as a 'sister site' for remote replication - ensuring redundancy and uptime.

Thirteen local school districts in the county currently rely on Saginaw ISD for Internet services and other technical services needs - for instance, maintaining back-ups for other school districts on Saginaw ISD’s system, as well as desktop imaging and housing utility servers. Moreover, five of these districts now rely on Saginaw ISD for all of their tech-services needs.

Including their own, Saginaw ISD is the 'Tech Dept.' for six data centers. In addition to serving as the centralized data center for five districts, whereby their data assets are now being run out of Saginaw ISD’s data center as part of its VMware cloud, Saginaw also hosts the servers of three additional districts that are still providing their own technical services, but are not hosting their own servers. Because the school districts are connected via fiber, Saginaw ISD can provide storage to all of the schools, simply by presenting storage domain servers to the fiber connections.

Adds Johnson, "The bottom-line is that we do not have to deploy multiple copies of SANs at each individual school. Instead, our virtualized infrastructure serves as the central hub and we provide the IT services other district schools need."

When DataCore partner Red Level Networks engaged with the customer, Saginaw Intermediate School District (ISD) in Michigan was a legacy Xiotech customer, with a five-year-old Xiotech Magnitude Storage Area Network (SAN). Looking to expand its storage capacity and IT services county-wide, Saginaw ISD submitted a RFP - potentially looking for a Xiotech upgrade. However, it received multiple responses from vendors offering hardware SAN solutions, as well as those offering storage virtualization appliances.

"We saw an opportunity to introduce storage virtualization through DataCore Software, while building on Xiotech’s appliances and high-performance disks, which are part of their back-end storage solution," explains David King, president & CEO, Red Level Networks. "It seemed like a good fit and was ideal for Saginaw ISD’s requirements."

Because the existing Xiotech SAN had become one that was unsupported by the vendor, and because Saginaw ISD was facing both server sprawl (the Xiotech SAN had 14 servers attached to it) and capacity constraints, the path of virtualization made sense to both partner and customer, alike.

Both school employees and students are now benefiting from the system, meaning that roughly 10,000 students and 2,000 school staffers are using the virtualized infrastructure - without even knowing it.

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/27/saginaw-intermediate-school-district-deploys-a-flexible-virtualized-cloud-infrastructure-using-datacore-vmware-and-xiotech.aspx

Total Wine Taps DataCore Software to Virtualize Storage, Enhance Its EMC SAN Investment and Add High-Availability for Microsoft Hyper-V Platforms

2010-08-09T01:52:00.000-04:00

Challenge: Leveraging an Existing EMC SAN & Microsoft Hyper-V

Total Wine has seen enormous success in virtualizing the EMC storage area network (SAN) that was already deployed in its data center with DataCore storage virtualization software. The impetus for bringing DataCore in to virtualize and manage the SAN was straightforward the SAN was running out of capacity and performance. "It got to the point where performance became an issue; we were out of disk space and could not add more disk array enclosures, unless we bought a new SAN," notes Todd Slan, director of technology, Total Wine. "So, the idea of a storage virtualization solution like DataCore that enabled us to enhance our existing SAN solution and, at the same time, accelerate performance was the path we started down."

Total Wine evaluated adding to the EMC SAN or going with other storage hardware solutions such as LeftHand Networks, EqualLogic, as well as NetApp. However, in his role as Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Council for Microsoft, which serves as the executive advisory board, where he sits on the International Board, Slan was swayed to DataCore by another council member, who was a DataCore customer as well as partner. "DataCore and Microsoft partner The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies brought me into their data center and showed me how they solved an 80 terabyte problem with storage virtualization software from DataCore," adds Slan. "That, and the idea of not having to rip and replace our existing investment in storage devices, was enough to sell us on DataCore as the right solution for us as well."

According to David Herr, chief technology and security officer, The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies, "Virtual servers and desktops depend heavily on shared disks. Without them, system administrators cannot migrate virtual machines, fail-over workloads or start up sessions on a completely different desktop. That is where DataCore comes in."

Meeting Business Objectives Accommodating Growth and Meeting Performance Expectations
The data pool that is now managed by DataCore totals 10 TBs. In terms of the user community, the 10 TBs are divided between 230 users at Total Wines Corporate Headquarters as well as employees working at the retail stores. For the corporate users, DataCore is providing the range of data, databases and servers you would expect to be relied on heavily in an office environment flat files, databases, Exchange, etc. For those working in the stores, the core line-of-business application that runs Total Wines entire business operations "back-ends" to a SQL database that sits on the DataCore SAN.

"For our stores we had two issues," explains Slan. "One was a growth issue. We took a database application that was serving 200 users in the corporate office and extended that to the field bringing an additional 1,500 users under that umbrella. A conventional SAN, not using virtualization, has pretty serious physical size limits and when you hit them, you hit them hard. DataCore solved this problem and we did not have to buy more hardware, re-provision disks or resize LUNs. Apart from the growth issue was the performance one. The performance issues associated with having 1,000 users hit a database as opposed to 200 are significantly different. We had to have a solution that enabled us to crank up the performance of those databases. DataCore virtualization has delivered for us on the performance front as well."

Total Wine needed a way to grow, simultaneously, in terms of the size of the user community it supported, and in terms of performance. According to Slan, DataCore has given his team the best way to do this as well as the most cost-effective one. "With DataCore we are not wasting space as we had done in conventional SAN models," he explains. "That is what we had relied on before and we were essentially wasting fifty percent of our disk space."

One of the things Slan and his team really love about the storage virtualization solution from DataCore is that it empowers them with flexibility. Today Total Wine has a mix of storage under management fiber channel, direct-attached and iSCSI. "DataCore does not tie us into any one storage model," Slan notes. "I dont need to buy fiber channel storage for everything, and DataCore accommodates that. I can buy lower cost storage. I can hang direct-attached SAS units off the back of the DataCore SAN and I do not have to pay the fiber channel costs because I dont need it."

The Total Virtualization Environment Virtual Storage for Hyper-V
Total Wine has a significant investment in Microsoft Hyper-V for virtual servers and has deployed Hyper-V exclusively as its virtual server of choice. Total Wines data center in Maryland is approximately 50% virtualized. Currently, eight major systems or one-third of the virtual machines (VMs) in the virtualized infrastructure are now running on DataCore to virtualize and accelerate their storage. This will grow substantially in the next phase of the virtualization deployment.

Initially, Total Wine deployed DataCore simply to achieve the inherent benefits of virtualization for its EMC SAN, including better performance via DataCores mega caching functionality and increased capacity through its infrastructure-wide thin-provisioning technology. Slan and his team at Total Wine are now deploying a second DataCore license, to ensure high-availability and improve uptime. This summer, Total Wines DataCore virtualized-powered storage infrastructure will be fully redundant, whereby two mirrored SANs will safeguard the data guaranteeing uptime and fault-tolerance. This will also lay the groundwork for full disaster recovery (if needed), whereby at a later stage a third DataCore SAN can be added in a remote location and connected via remote or asynchronous replication.

Slan emphasizes that, in the retail world, sales margins are thin and resource utilization is crucial. "If we are under-utilizing our resources, then, in a sense, it is wasted money. In terms of resource utilization, we can get over 80% utilization of our storage investment with DataCore. Make no mistake about it the attraction to DataCore for us was that it is not a hardware device-based SAN solution. The software-based approach of DataCore was absolutely key for us. Hardware is hardware. The bottom-line for us is that DataCore allows us to do a lot of the things we already knew were possible in the virtualization world, but with storage."

To access the Total Wine & More Case Study on implementing DataCore, EMC and Hyper-V, please go to: www.datacore.com/totalwine .

About Total Wine & More

Total Wine & More is the largest independent fine wine retailer in the country and is the only major fine wine company to operate in multiple states. As the preeminent fine wine store in each of its markets, Total Wine & More is the independent retailer of fine wine in the United States. For more, visit http://www.totalwine.com/ .

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/14/microsoft-wpc-total-wine-taps-datacore-software-to-virtualize-storage-enhance-their-emc-san-investment-and-add-high-availability-for-microsoft-hyper-v-platforms.aspx

Be Ready for Hurricane Season: LAN Infotech, Peak 10 and DataCore Host Business Continuity Workshop

2010-08-09T00:36:00.002-04:00

With hurricane season in South Florida well underway, three organizations, namely LAN Infotech, DataCore and Peak 10 partnered to host a comprehensive Business Continuity workshop on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.

Peak 10 hosted the event at their hardened data center in Fort Lauderdale.

LAN Infotech (http://www.laninfotech.com/ ) kicked off the event with a presentation explaining how to create a business continuity plan should disaster strike. Highlights of the presentation included how to plan the backup of your data and the processes of how to replicate your hardware, software and data. Michael Goldstein comments, “Most companies go out of business in 6 months once they have lost significant data. I recommend you see it as an investment or a competitive advantage rather than an added expense”.

Brooks Butler, Sales Director, DataCore Software, spoke about the significance of a solid, tested disaster recovery plan for companies in Florida. He also talked about how storage virtualization can make disaster recovery cost-effective, simple and practical and within the reach of any organization, no matter the size.

Peak 10's experts shared how a data center services company could aid in a company's business continuity plan by providing a hardened, scalable and reliable IT infrastructure. "During an emergency you don't want to worry about how you will communicate and deliver services to your customers. This is where a professional data center services company can lighten the load on an IT team," said Stefan Pittinger, the vice president and general manager of Peak 10 South Florida. "Peak 10's South Florida location was custom-built to be a data center and provide customers with a resilient infrastructure to support their growing businesses."

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/74953/

Microsoft WPC 2010: Photos from DataCore Booth - Is that the Microsoft CEO?

2010-07-13T19:13:00.000-04:00

DataCore is exhibiting this week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference – running July 11-15 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. DataCore is located in Booth 739 at Microsoft WPC. For more, go to http://digitalwpc.com/ .

If you are attending the conference, please stop by and see how DataCore’s software-based virtualization solutions empower storage and serve as the third dimension to virtualization.

...and yes that is Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft along with Carlos Carreras from DataCore.

Educational Institutions Benefit from Virtualization in 3 Dimensions

2010-07-10T08:20:00.000-04:00

Download Paper: http://www.dabcc.com/documentlibrary/file/Educational-Institutions-Benefit-from-Virtualization.pdf

Many Educational Institutions of all sizes are using DataCore storage virtualization software to complement their server and/or desktop virtualization projects, allowing them to overcome storage-related funding roadblocks, downtime and performance issues.

The needs of IT departments that support educational institutions (like yours) can suffer from the same shortfall that every other IT department can: a virtualization project that stops at servers and desktops and therefore misses an important component, your storage. Virtualizing your storage means that you can: avoid downtime, planned or unplanned; improve your storage devices’ performance; mix your current storage devices with newly purchased equipment; and, most importantly, stay within your budget.

http://www.dabcc.com/downloadfile.aspx?id=1016

Virtualization Partners See DataCore Software as Pivotal to an Overall Virtualization Strategy

2010-07-09T08:08:00.001-04:00

J4 Systems realizes importance of DataCore’s virtualization approach
http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8864:j4-systems-realizes-importance-of-datacores-virtualization-approach&catid=229:virtualization&Itemid=2701180

J4 Systems Inc., is a good example of a virtualization oriented solution provider that has realized the importance of virtualizating storage solutions along with desktops and servers. New J4 Systems customers that have deployed DataCore to virtualize storage resources include Admail West, Antonini Enterprises LLC, California Bankers, Cross Petroleum, Grafil Inc., Porter Scott, Resource Capital Inc., Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, and Tesco Controls Inc., among others.

"DataCore has helped tremendously in empowering us with what customers need in order to make their virtualization projects successful," states Tiffany Sequeira, Chief Operating Officer, J4 Systems. "The marketplace at large is recognizing that virtualization projects are indeed three-dimensional and that storage is as vital as the other dimensions, if not more so. DataCore takes storage to the next level, protects existing storage investments and delivers genuine value to users by boosting productivity, utilization and performance through device independent software that safeguards their business from costly disruptions due to storage failures."

DataCore develops software-based solutions that virtualize storage. Virtual servers and desktops depend on shared disks. Without them, system administrators cannot migrate virtual machines, fail-over workloads or start up sessions on a completely different desktop. DataCore virtualization solutions enable system and network administrators to provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand and upgrade storage without slowdowns or downtime.

"We rely on DataCore software to pool our existing storage assets into a highly available, shared storage configuration," states Steve Bradley, Network Administrator, Rocklin Unified School District. "We selected DataCore because we saw the value and the power of virtualizing across all makes and models of storage devices in a manner that is cost effective, device independent and puts to use equipment already in place."

According to Chris Whitaker, IT Manager, Ahtna Government Services Corporation, "What won the day was the fact that DataCore offers a software-based, device-independent solution whereby we get infrastructure-wide functionality that runs across unlike and incompatible devices, without slowdowns or downtime. This rich set of advanced virtualization services from DataCore delivers the highest availability and best use of resources at the most favorable cost. DataCore virtualization technology hits on all cylinders for us. And their customer support is just exemplary."

In addition to Rocklin Unified School District and Ahtna Government Services Corp., other J4 Systems customers that benefited form cost-savings, flexibility, productivity and risk mitigation include American Building Supply, AWI Management Corp., Borges Architectural Group, California School Employees Association, Chelsio Communications, Citizens Bank of Northern California, City of Elk Grove Police Department, Composite Engineering Inc., Corn Products International, County Medical Services Program, Delta Blood Bank, Document Fulfillment Services, Ecorp Consulting Inc., Hose & Fittings ETC., Loomis Union Unified School District, PFU Systems Inc., Qualys Inc., Risse Mechanical, Robbjack Corp., Schuering Zimmerman & Doyle LLP, Stanislaus Union School District, Stockton East Water District, The CBM Group, Therapeutic Research, Trans Cal Insurance Services, Visionapp, and more.

"We find that DataCore virtualization software has become a very mission-critical part of the way we shape the long-term IT plans of our customers," notes Sequeira. "Yes a lot of customers are talking about virtualization. But it is how they are applying virtualization that is really relevant. Initially, our customers are typically using DataCore to attain high-availability. Then, they add a third DataCore-powered SAN to ensure disaster recovery. The bottom-line is that DataCore storage virtualization software enables virtualization initiatives to become reality for our customer base. And the reason for this is because DataCore’s solutions provide the high-availability required to keep businesses running out-of-the-box as well as a future path whereby DataCore makes disaster recovery both possible and economically viable."

Wimbledon 2010: The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Takes Advantage of DataCore Virtualization for Flexible Storage Provisioning and Disaster Recovery

2010-06-29T09:43:00.000-04:00

“With DataCore’s SANsymphony solution running effectively, we have moved the Club’s infrastructure into the next layer of availability and flexibility. It really has provided a cost-effective alternative that added needed flexibility to our traditional hardware approach.” -Andrew Jones, IT Infrastructure & Security Analyst at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

DataCore Software has announced that the prestigious All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, host of the world’s most famous tennis tournament, Wimbledon, is using DataCore’s SANsymphony as its storage backbone.

As one of the world’s top sporting events, Wimbledon attracts the World’s top tennis stars, along with tens of thousands of spectators and millions of viewers via television and the Internet. As such, you would expect there is a complex IT and support infrastructure that supports an IT population that swells from 200 to 6,000 users across a three-week period.

Running everything to do with IT security and data integrity is Andrew Jones, IT Infrastructure & Security Analyst at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, who is one of seven from the IT Department responsible for the platforms and infrastructure that ensure the smooth running of critical operations at the Club.

Jones noted, “Our initial requirement was to reduce the costs of deploying and running our CCTV system. The system had a very high storage requirement – between 16-20 TBs as a monthly load which we then intended to overwrite – and this was even at a heavily compressed rate.” Footage has also increased dramatically (for instance the new state-of-the-art Centre Court moving roof contains four cameras provide a birds-eye view on Centre Court proceedings). Andrew recognized that pools of data this large needed to be linked into the existing storage area network (SAN), but also recognized that this integration would provide management headaches and significant strain on the present SAN backbone of an IBM Fibre Channel SAN Storage 4300 solution. The IBM SAN was effective and provided great data mirroring, facilitating the VMware ESX server virtualization, but the Club realized that to accommodate this level of generated data, it required a cost-effective, flexible storage solution for CCTV that would have otherwise entailed the purchase of numerous additional trays of disks.

DataCore’s SANsymphony solution was identified as being able to address the Club’s present and future needs; including critically the mammoth expansion on the network usage throughout the run-up, duration and immediately following the Championship. Previously the distinct peaks throughout June and July each year had to be facilitated by additional hardware, which then was effectively unused for the remainder of the year. In addition, the Club took the opportunity to tie-in an effective Disaster Recovery solution (including the implementation of a full-scale, offsite DR emergency center).

The DataCore proposal showed a staggering £15,000 immediate capital savings outlay compared to the alternative of allocating more disks to cope with demand. With such compelling financial and business benefits, the business case was easy to justify to the Board.

The flexibility of the proposal prompted the Club to place an order for three SANsymphony nodes in late 2008, which run on IBM servers and complement IBM standard DS3400 storage arrays. Two were housed in the separate Wimbledon data centers in a mirrored environment for failover purposes and it was proposed that the third would be housed at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton for full DR purposes.

One of the first noted effects of SANsymphony was the ease of administration. Previously the team had to manage five different interfaces at any one time, controlling everything from switches and storage arrays – to the iSCSI/FC management interfaces. With SANsymphony, Andrew noted, “Everything is now presented to the DataCore virtualization servers, which through a drag and drop interface control all aspects of the SAN. From an administration perspective there is a lot less to monitor, control and manage.”

Even without the full offsite DR plan being implemented, the Club has benefited from SANsymphony’s automatic failover configuration. Ongoing building works around Centre Court at the Club entailed the brief loss of fibre connectivity. The resultant effect on the SAN was negligible. SANsymphony’s auto-failover kicked in, simply switching the servers to the mirrored site and causing no loss of data or applications.

Full Scale DR in progress
The third SANsymphony server has been allocated to the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, some three miles away. This way, in the event of a dramatic loss of functionality (hosting the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament means that security at the Club is treated very seriously), the third SANsymphony can provide asynchronous mirroring and snapshotting. This means that almost instantly – in a full scale disaster – the entire system can be back up and running with only a five minute lag in data availability.

Additional growth is now easy to provide
SANsymphony’s scalable approach provides additional reassurance and room to grow. Adding more storage is now a question of simply purchasing additional licenses. Complex provisioning and rezoning of disks is a thing of the past. Moreover, as data storage grows and retained digital image sizes increase, the team is now confident that in the future they can instantly serve back large files such as video restore.

Andrew summarizes, “With DataCore’s SANsymphony solution running effectively, we have moved the Club’s infrastructure into the next layer of availability and flexibility. It really has provided a cost-effective alternative that added needed flexibility to our traditional hardware approach.”

DataCore Software Powers Cloud-based Hosting Services for Waterstons; DataCore for storage Virtualization & VMware for Server Virtualization

2010-06-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

http://virtualization.com/news/2010/06/28/datacore-software-powers-cloud-based-hosting-service-for-waterstons/

Waterstons has selected DataCore storage virtualization software to provide the infrastructure to power their cloud-based computing service.

Waterstons provides cloud hosting services from a purpose-built Tier 3 data center in the North of England, monitored and managed around-the-clock from their regional operations center in Durham. Andrew Kershaw, Technical Director at Waterstons, explained, "Waterstons has provided specialist hosting and co-location services for a number of years. Recently we've seen demand for these services take off and we needed to invest in a scalable and resilient platform to meet demand for growth. The DataCore solution meets our goals for resilience, flexibility, performance and scalability and supports our goal of providing a high-quality and cost-effective service to clients."
Through this service Waterstons are offering a comprehensive range of options: customers can take a single, virtual machine from Waterstons for only a month, or an entire network of servers - interconnected with one or more private, virtual networks - residing on a highly available infrastructure. Waterstons offers flexible and resilient Internet connectivity options for hosted infrastructure and offers hosting and co-location of physical hardware. Flexibility is paramount - many customers use a combination of offerings, and Waterstons specializes in providing a tailored service to meet customer needs.

Underpinning the service is a pair of DataCore SANsymphony servers on Dell hardware, operating in a synchronously mirrored configuration and thereby avoiding a single point of failure scenario. Waterstons has made a considerable investment in eliminating single points of failure in the infrastructure, which is seen as critical to providing a high-quality service suitable for running hosted line of business applications. Waterstons is currently commissioning a second identical infrastructure in a geographically remote data center in order to provide replicated disaster recovery (DR).

Kershaw went on to explain, "Through our cloud-based service, we are able to offer new and innovative ways of supporting clients and solving their business and technology problems. We can respond to demands extremely quickly and on a very flexible basis, which often is simply not the case with traditional infrastructure."

One such customer utilizing the service is St Ives, the UK's leading, independent print and display group. Waterstons will provide a highly available and instantly scalable platform to run St Ives' critical business-to-business system (known as "DNA") on a three-year managed services and hosting contract.

The challenging infrastructure requirements include high availability (HA), business continuity and the flexibility to scale the environment quickly in response to demand. Waterstons has met these requirements by implementing a shared hosting platform, using VMware cloud infrastructure hosting solutions coupled with DataCore storage virtualization technology. In an extra phase to follow, the complete platform will be duplicated to a secondary data center 120 miles away, with asynchronous replication used to keep the two systems in sync.

Mudasar Din, St Ives Group IT Director, said, "I have worked closely with Waterstons for over five years and their hands-on, proactive approach has helped cement our valuable strategic partnership. Waterstons was selected for this contract not only because of the open nature of our relationship, but also because of the access we have to their technical staff and consultants. St Ives aims to continually improve the capability of its value-added online solutions. The support of industry-leading partners such as Waterstons is key in St Ives' overall strategy to provide integrated production and service solutions."

Keith Joseph, Regional Director at DataCore, commented, "DataCore's SANsymphony in a dual configuration offers all the HA and resilience that Waterstons' high-end cloud hosting service requires. Through SANsymphony's built-in thin-provisioning software, Waterstons' clients can access storage 'on-the-fly' from the VMware server farm. It's established. It's secure. It's flexible. And it brings distinct business benefits. It is cloud computing at its best."

Europe Airpost Chooses DataCore; Evans Fruit deploys virtualization software from DataCore and Citrix

2010-06-28T09:32:00.000-04:00

Europe Airpost Chooses DataCore

"With DataCore between our first two sites, we achieved a level of 24/7 availability to a degree never experienced before, our third site allowed us to have a secure remote disaster recover site. Furthermore, we improved our performances by 20 to 30%, and we clearly attribute this gain to the DataCore solution. Until now, DataCore has been able to respond to all our needs, and has helped us, together with VMware, to completely reconstruct our architecture and to build an infrastructure that will last for years to come. The benefits of the solution have exceeded all our expectations!", declares Fabrice de Biasio, DSI of Europe Airpost.

Historically known under the name of Europe Airpost and a subsidiary of La Post (France) until 2006, EUROPE AIRPOST is currently the 1st airline worldwide to offer - at the same time - freights and passenger transportation services. EUROPE Airpost is now the 2nd largest French airline, after Air France. [Case Study in French: http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/business/europe-airpost-diademys-datacore ]

Evans Fruit deploys virtualization software from DataCore and Citrix
Computer Technology Review: http://wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8776:evans-fruit-deploys-virtualization-software-from-datacore-and-citrix-&catid=231:storage-software&Itemid=2701181

“The virtual infrastructure that encompasses both server and storage virtualization has made my life easier for provisioning new servers and adding disk space,” comments Jeremy Hines, manager of IS, Evans Fruit Company. “And it is the total virtualized environment, spanning Citrix Xen and DataCore SANmelody that makes this possible.”

Software-based Storage Virtualization Wins the Day
Infostor: http://www.infostor.com/index/wire-news/news-display/1205318603.html

DataCore Software Wins 2010 Storage Award for "Virtualization Product of the Year"

2010-06-28T09:15:00.000-04:00

DataCore Software Wins 2010 Storage Award for "Virtualization Product of the Year"

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=15089

DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization software, has once again scooped one of the UK’s top storage awards by winning the Virtualization Product of the Year Award at the prestigious 2010 Storage Awards held last week at the Tower Hotel in London.

Keith Joseph, Regional Manager, Northern Europe, DataCore Software, commented, “What DataCore’s SANmelody provides is an agile, virtual storage infrastructure that aligns with the other two key dimensions of virtualization. DataCore does for storage what VMware, Microsoft and Citrix do for servers and desktops. This is the first time this category has been represented at the awards and it illustrates just how important the software storage aspect is to server and desktop virtualization.”

Virtualization projects are 3-dimensional

Servers and desktops deserve much attention, but disks represent a disproportionately large share of recurring capital expenditures and a constant source of upheaval. By virtualizing disks across pools of tiered storage devices, DataCore software overcomes incompatibilities among different generations, models and manufacturers to maximize their combined value. As importantly, it eliminates storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and funding roadblocks that jeopardize server and desktop virtualization projects. DataCore lets you provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand and upgrade storage without slowdowns or downtime. This helps contain costs, avoid risks, boost productivity and extend the life of IT investments.

In terms of how SANmelody delivers value, the Virtualization Product of the Year Award signifies the readers’ appreciation of how it easily and cost-effectively it converts physical Intel/AMD servers or virtual machines (VMs) into fully-capable, virtualization servers that are able to optimize, protect and manage storage over existing networks to fulfill the needs of application servers.

The Storage Awards were established in 2004 to recognize best-in-breed, easy to use solutions that make the working lives of storage and virtualization managers easier and more effective.

http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/technology/news_release.php?rel=18517

DataCore Storage Virtualization and Citrix Xen

2010-06-21T08:17:00.000-04:00

For more details: DataCore Storage Virtualization and Citrix Xen
'The virtual infrastructure that encompasses both server and storage virtualization has made my life easier for provisioning new servers and adding disk space,' comments Jeremy Hines, Manager of IS, Evans Fruit Company. 'And it is the total virtualized environment, spanning Citrix Xen and SANmelody that makes this possible.'

"Three Xen virtual hosts, meaning three physical servers, run all of the virtual machines. Two DataCore SANs running on SUN x4250s are physically separated, albeit in the same building, connected to each other via Ethernet. According to the IT staff, SANmelody makes it much easier to add storage to a machine, which is done by carving a new LUN (logical unit number) and then attaching it to the machine. Doing so immediately provides administrators with what amounts to a new hard drive, the size of which is easily increased. Notes Hines, 'You carve out a new LUN, copy the data, and then drop the old LUN. It is pretty straightforward. We really like that in terms of ease-of-use.'"

Full story: http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14965

News and Photos from Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software, Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers

2010-06-09T09:25:00.000-04:00

Check out the First Day Photos from Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010:

Photos from Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software, Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers

Representatives from Continuum Health Partners (Beth Israel Medical Center, Roosevelt Hospital NY, etc.) Showcase Metro Clustering Using Microsoft and DataCore at DataCore Booth at Tech-Ed 2010
http://datacore-virtual-view.blogspot.com/2010/06/at-tech-ed-2010-continuum-health.html

“DataCore storage virtualization software is the key to the virtualization puzzle – offering the flexible storage virtualization dimension needed for any virtualization project – and serving as the perfect complement to server virtualization as well as the perfect enhancement to storage hardware,” noted Jill Wojcik, IT Director, Continuum Health Partners.

Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers to the 3rd Dimension

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14845

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/06/07/microsoft-tech-ed-2010-datacore-virtualization-software-takes-microsoft-hyper-v-and-microsoft-cluster-servers-to-the-3rd-dimension.aspx

DataCore Software highlighted a number of customers at Tech-ed that have deployed Microsoft solutions – including Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers, among others – in conjunction with a virtualized storage infrastructure powered by DataCore Software.

A sampling of customers, ranging in size, using both DataCore and Microsoft in virtualization infrastructures includes health network Continuum Health Partners (www.datacore.com/continuum ), floral distributor Northwest Wholesale Florists (www.datacore.com/NWF ), and law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams (www.datacore.com/mcnamee ). These companies are but a small sample of the tens of thousands of organizations worldwide using DataCore virtualization solutions.

At Tech-Ed 2010 – Metro Clustering Using Microsoft and DataCore
Onsite at the DataCore booth (#442), executives from Continuum Health Partners (“Continuum”) will be present to describe how DataCore virtualization software has been deployed to manage storage across metro clusters at Continuum, whereby it affords multi-site data protection and failover. The Continuum representatives present will include IT Director Jill Wojcik and Interim CIO Mark Moroses.

Continuum, like many health networks, was faced with the challenge of making their diverse storage infrastructure available around the clock, across multiple locations. To meet this challenge, DataCore’s SANsymphony™ storage virtualization software is running as metro clusters at two hospitals that are part of the Continuum Health Partners network (Beth Israel Medical Center and Roosevelt Hospital in New York), ensuring business continuity and overcoming downtime and unavailability of data.

“DataCore storage virtualization software is the key to the virtualization puzzle – offering the flexible storage virtualization dimension needed for any virtualization project – and serving as the perfect complement to server virtualization as well as the perfect enhancement to storage hardware,” noted Jill Wojcik, IT Director, Continuum Health Partners.

The bottom-line for this customer is that DataCore makes metro clusters possible. DataCore software runs at each hospital and communicates with its mirrored counterpart at the central data center, where the rest of the organizations’ data is also stored. Either of these installations can automatically fail-over to the other “hot site.”

Microsoft solutions running on the DataCore virtualized infrastructure at Continuum include: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Cluster Servers (MSCSs). In total, DataCore SANsymphony software virtualizes and manages well over 200 TBs (collectively) for the various hospitals in the Continuum network. The environment supports a community of 14,000 users using over five-hundred (500) servers. For a more in-depth Case Study on this deployment, please visit: www.datacore.com/continuum.

DataCore and Microsoft Hyper-V Combine Server and Storage Virtualization with Live Migration Functionality
Based in Seattle, Washington, Northwest Wholesale Florists (NWF) is one of the oldest and most respected wholesalers of floral and floral-related products in the Northwest. According to Doug Otani, General Manager, Northwest Wholesale Florists, “Our IT environment is now comprised of a virtual infrastructure whereby DataCore is deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. With a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster, our company now has the ability to live migrate our virtual machines (VMs). Because these VMs can “live migrate” between the two hosts, the DataCore-Hyper-V virtual infrastructure minimizes and even eliminates downtime - when we need to do system maintenance.”

Scott Gorcester, President, Moose Logic, a solutions provider and DataCore partner in the Pacific Northwest, who assured the management team at NWF that the Windows 2008 Server with Hyper-V was the right way to go, added, “The bottom-line is that with the DataCore and Windows 2008 Server R2 with Hyper-V environment, NWF can weather multiple equipment failures and continue to run its business, which ultimately provides peace of mind because the virtual infrastructure avoids unnecessary downtime.”

FREE Whitepaper: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites
In this paper you will learn how DataCore Software solves a longstanding stumbling block to clustered systems spread across metropolitan sites by providing uninterrupted access to the CSV despite the many technical and environmental conditions that conspire to disrupt it. Go to – www.datacore.com/metroclusters .

See DataCore at Tech-Ed – Booth 442

Visit DataCore Booth 442 at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010 in New Orleans, June 7th – 10th.

Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers to the 3rd Dimension

2010-06-07T11:59:00.002-04:00

DataCore Software Highlights Real-world DataCore + Microsoft Successes that Go Beyond Servers and Desktops to Virtualize Storage

NEW ORLEANS – June 7, 2010 – DataCore Software, today highlighted a number of customers that have deployed Microsoft solutions – including Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 with Hyper-V™ and Microsoft Cluster Servers, among others – in conjunction with a virtualized storage infrastructure powered by DataCore Software.

A sampling of customers, ranging in size, using both DataCore and Microsoft in virtualization infrastructures includes health network Continuum Health Partners ( www.datacor.com/continuum ), floral distributor Northwest Wholesale Florists (www.datacore.com/NWF ), and law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus; Williams (www.datacore.com/mcnamee ). These companies are but a small sample of the tens of thousands of organizations worldwide using DataCore virtualization solutions.

At Tech-Ed 2010 – Metro Clustering Using Microsoft and DataCore

Onsite at the DataCore booth (#442), executives from Continuum Health Partners (“Continuum”) will be present to describe how DataCore virtualization software has been deployed to manage storage across metro clusters at Continuum, whereby it affords multi-site data protection and failover. The Continuum representatives present will include IT Director Jill Wojcik and Interim CIO Mark Moroses.

Continuum, like many health networks, was faced with the challenge of making their diverse storage infrastructure available around the clock, across multiple locations. To meet this challenge, DataCore’s SANsymphony™ storage virtualization software is running as metro clusters at two hospitals that are part of the Continuum Health Partners network (Beth Israel Medical Center and Roosevelt Hospital in New York), ensuring business continuity and overcoming downtime and unavailability of data.

“DataCore storage virtualization software is the key to the virtualization puzzle – offering the flexible storage virtualization dimension needed for any virtualization project – and serving as the perfect complement to server virtualization as well as the perfect enhancement to storage hardware,” noted Jill Wojcik, IT Director, Continuum Health Partners.

The bottom-line for this customer is that DataCore makes metro clusters possible. DataCore software runs at each hospital and communicates with its mirrored counterpart at the central data center, where the rest of the organizations’ data is also stored. Either of these installations can automatically fail-over to the other “hot site.”

Microsoft solutions running on the DataCore virtualized infrastructure at Continuum include: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Cluster Servers (MSCSs). In total, DataCore SANsymphony software virtualizes and manages well over 200 TBs (collectively) for the various hospitals in the Continuum network. The environment supports a community of 14,000 users using over five-hundred (500) servers. For a more in-depth Case Study on this deployment, please visit:
http://www.datacore.com/continuum .

DataCore and Microsoft Hyper-V Combine Server and Storage Virtualization with Live Migration Functionality

Based in Seattle, Washington, Northwest Wholesale Florists (NWF) is one of the oldest and most respected wholesalers of floral and floral-related products in the Northwest. According to Doug Otani, General Manager, Northwest Wholesale Florists, “Our IT environment is now comprised of a virtual infrastructure whereby DataCore is deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. With a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster, our company now has the ability to live migrate our virtual machines (VMs). Because these VMs can “live migrate” between the two hosts, the DataCore-Hyper-V virtual infrastructure minimizes and even eliminates downtime - when we need to do system maintenance.”

Scott Gorcester, President, Moose Logic, a solutions provider and DataCore partner in the Pacific Northwest, who assured the management team at NWF that the Windows 2008 Server with Hyper-V was the right way to go, added, “The bottom-line is that with the DataCore and Windows 2008 Server R2 with Hyper-V environment, NWF can weather multiple equipment failures and continue to run its business, which ultimately provides peace of mind because the virtual infrastructure avoids unnecessary downtime.”

FREE Whitepaper: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites

In this paper you will learn how DataCore Software solves a longstanding stumbling block to clustered systems spread across metropolitan sites by providing uninterrupted access to the CSV despite the many technical and environmental conditions that conspire to disrupt it. Go to – www.datacore.com/metroclusters .

See DataCore at Tech-Ed – Booth 442

Visit DataCore Booth 442 at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010 in New Orleans, June 7th – 10th.

• Learn how DataCore storage virtualization software is essential to your Microsoft Virtualization strategy.

• Find out how DataCore and a clustered Hyper-V system can successfully solve your downtime and high availability challenges.

Visitors who wish to schedule a time to meet experienced DataCore technical representatives onsite at Tech-Ed 2010 should contact Sabrina Gelado via email at sabrina.gelado@datacore.com or by phone at 954-377-6021 to schedule a meeting.

Visit DataCore Software at Microsoft Tech Ed in New Orleans, June 7 – 10

2010-06-04T06:55:00.001-04:00

Virtualization projects are 3 dimensional. Server and desktop virtualization software address two of those dimensions. DataCore storage virtualization software is the 3rd dimension.

Visit DataCore Booth 442 at Microsoft Tech Ed North America in New Orleans, June 7 – 10.

· Learn how DataCore storage virtualization software is essential to your Microsoft Virtualization Strategy

· Find out how DataCore and a clustered Hyper-V system can successfully solve your downtime and high availability challenges
· Join thousands of customers worldwide and Go Virtual! with DataCore storage virtualization software

We look forward to seeing you! The DataCore Software Team

Citrix TV showcases latest videos from Synergy 2010 on DataCore; Virtualization is 3 Dimensional

2010-06-02T08:05:00.001-04:00

Storage Virtualization: A peek at the 3rd dimension

Virtualization projects are 3 dimensional. Server and desktop virtualization software address two of those dimensions. DataCore storage virtualization software comprises the 3rd dimension.
Dan Crowe of DataCore at Synergy 2010
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2180

Citrix TV talks to Bettye Grant from DataCore about the partnership with Citrix.
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2153

American Health Network Adds DataCore Storage Virtualization Software; Provides Business Continuity For Citrix Clients

2010-05-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

StorageNewsletter.com – http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/business/datacore-american-health-network

"We were intrigued by the ability to apply virtualization to our storage and the possibility of getting high-end data protection for the disk farms behind our Citrix infrastructure, without incurring the high costs generally associated with such functions or sacrificing security. If DataCore can save us $100,000 to $200,000 during this modernization, then we have really struck gold." - Stuart Donnelson, data center server manager, American Health Network.

Donnelson is quick to point out that DataCore has provided American Health Network with a stable and robust environment. "We have been nothing but pleased with DataCore. The DataCore software is rock-solid. We really haven't had to do anything to it. And to me every time I don't have to worry about a platform or a piece of technology, I sleep a little better every night."

American Health Network "Strikes Gold" With DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Providing Business Continuity For Citrix XenServer And XenApp Clients

American Health Network (AHN) has completed the 3rd part of their virtualization project by adding DataCore storage virtualization software to their Citrix environment. The integration has been tested in production and proven failsafe. "The success that people in the IT industry are having with virtualization speaks for itself," comments Stuart Donnelson, data center server manager, American Health Network. "In looking at the technologies we had available to accomplish this project, it was clear to us that Citrix XenServer was the right choice, since our primary concern was to virtualize XenApp systems and provide a secure, highly-available environment for our physicians. And the reason we chose DataCore for our virtual storage infrastructure came at the recommendation of Citrix and DataCore partner Hogan Consulting Group."

All of the physicians within American Health Network use a centralized medical record known as a EHR (Electronic Health Record) and billing software called NextGen. AHN publishes NextGen and the rest of the company's production applications through Citrix XenApp - sending these out to AHN's 80 sites throughout Indiana and Ohio. The focus of American Health Network's virtualization project was straightforward enough - to modernize their existing Citrix environment.

AHN's immediate requirements were to replace five-year old servers and in the process, take strategic advantage of server and storage virtualization software.

"We were intrigued by the ability to apply virtualization to our storage and the possibility of getting high-end data protection for the disk farms behind our Citrix infrastructure, without incurring the high costs generally associated with such functions or sacrificing security. If DataCore can save us $100,000 to $200,000 during this modernization, then we have really struck gold."

System Already Fail-safe Tested
DataCore proved particularly vital to AHN's operations recently when system administrators noticed that AHN lost a major component of their storage infrastructure due to a firmware problems, yet the DataCore software automatically and non-disruptively failed over to its high-availability partner and kept the storage access 'live' to application servers. In fact according to Donnelson, "Not a single user or individual even noticed this failure - except for the few, select people in IT who were previously set up to monitor systems and receive such notices. "It was then that we said - this DataCore product is really pretty darn great."

Right now, American Health Network has 1,400 users connected to 55 XenApp servers. They expect to grow to 100 servers by the time they get to the next version of their medical records software.

"Importantly, when it comes to XenServer, the core technologies that you are dependent on is the storage and the network," summarized Donnelson. "Without those two things being very dynamic and flexible, you are essentially back to ground zero."

Donnelson is quick to point out that DataCore has provided American Health Network with a stable and robust environment. "We have been nothing but pleased with DataCore. The DataCore software is rock-solid. We really haven't had to do anything to it. And to me every time I don't have to worry about a platform or a piece of technology, I sleep a little better every night."

DataCore Storage Virtualization Software: Essential to Your Microsoft Virtualization Strategy Solution Overview

2010-05-19T08:03:00.002-04:00

Download Paper at DABCC web site:
SAN-wide Features Work Across Unlike and Incompatible Storage Devices

Virtually everything hinges on storage. Server and desktop consolidation, in particular, place extraordinary demands on it. Too often, disks slow down, interrupt or endanger these centralized IT operations not because they are poorly designed or built, but because they are physically constrained. Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V® and Hyper-V Server help you to overcome similar limitations in CPU and memory, however, when it comes to advanced functions such as workload migration, load balancing, fail-over and disaster recovery, server virtualization is completely dependent on highly available (HA) shared storage. You will be shocked at the high hardware costs and major overhaul generally proposed to put such a storage infrastructure in place.

DataCore™ storage virtualization software delivers a radically simple, high availability solution to meet Hyper-V’s shared storage requirements. The software abstracts your storage into idealized, virtual disks akin to virtual machines. It pools and mirrors disk blocks across available devices, despite differences in make and model. In the process, it speeds up I/O response and throughput using extensive SAN-wide caching. This lets you take optimum advantage of Microsoft’s full suite of capabilities without hesitation. From a central console, you can non-disruptively provision, share, clone, replicate and expand virtual disks among physical servers and VMs. DataCore yields the highest availability, fastest performance and fullest utilization from your storage assets, making it an essential element of your Microsoft “Data Center to Desktop” Virtualization Strategy.

New White Paper: Metro Clusters and Virtualization; Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites

2010-05-17T07:05:00.000-04:00

Click to download:
WHITE PAPER: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites

For an in-depth Case Study on Continuum Health Partners and Metro Clusters, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/continuum

DataCore at Citrix Synergy 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Citrix Projects to the 3rd Dimension; Going Beyond Servers and Desktops to Virtualize Storage

2010-05-13T09:17:00.000-04:00

Citrix Synergy: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Citrix Projects to the 3rd Dimension; Going Beyond Servers and Desktops to Virtualize Storage http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14561

DataCore Virtualization Ensures Uptime and Makes Metro Clusters Possible for Continuum Health Partners – One of the Largest Health Care Providers in the U.S.

2010-05-13T08:31:00.001-04:00

For a more in-depth Case Study on Continuum Health Partners and Metro Clusters, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/continuum

DataCore Virtualization Ensures Uptime and Makes Metro Clusters Possible for Continuum Health Partners – One of the Largest Health Care Providers in the U.S.
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/04/14/datacore-virtualization-ensures-uptime-and-makes-metro-clusters-possible-for-continuum-health-partners-one-of-the-largest-health-care-providers-in-the-u-s.aspx
DataCore virtualization software has been deployed in two metro clusters at Continuum Health Partners, Inc. (“Continuum”), whereby it affords multi-site data protection and failover. Continuum, like many health networks, was faced with the challenge of making their diverse storage infrastructure available around the clock, across multiple locations. “Our goal here was to deploy a system that would allow us to achieve high availability and business continuity for all of our clinical systems,” states Jill Wojcik, IT Director, Continuum Health Partners. “With DataCore in place and with hardware in two different locations, this has allowed us to make our mission-critical, clinical imaging – along with other systems – highly available.”

Overcoming Downtime and Unavailability of Data
Beth Israel Medical Center and Roosevelt Hospital, two hospitals in Continuum’s network, were faced with the challenge of downtime and data availability. Thanks to metro-wide storage virtualization from DataCore Software, Continuum now has many of their imaging systems and three of their principal IT facilities running on metro-clusters.

The metro-clustered IT infrastructure at the two Continuum hospitals ensures business continuity, with DataCore storage virtualization software at the center of it. DataCore synchronously mirrors the PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications Systems) images from Beth Israel Medical Center and Roosevelt Hospital in New York to Continuum’s data center in Secaucus, New Jersey. “With specific reference to the PACS images, before this metro-clustering initiative these systems had their own support people at the various hospitals and were pretty much autonomous systems,” explained Wojcik. “We have brought this in and have centralized the systems now in our central data center – using DataCore software running on top of the various hardware solutions.”

The overarching benefit of this implementation, however, has been unprecedented high availability. The key to this is that the data resides on geographically separated 100% mirrored systems – where one set of disks resides at the data center and one set resides in a “remote” hospital. Continuum has effectively eliminated the need to do traditional disaster recovery should a calamity happen. Whereas many IT organizations normally go through a painful process of assembling resources to recover data following a site-wide outage, the metro clusters at Continuum Health Partners allow them to take over operations from their hot site uninterrupted.

Additionally, a very tangible benefit of this metro cluster environment has to do with system maintenance. System maintenance can now be done without any interruption to the user community. Wojcik commented, “Since we have implemented this, we have not experienced any downtime – even for system maintenance.”

Hospitals use DataCore storage virtualization http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1510119,00.html

DataCore serves as the Third Dimension to Virtualization - Davis Hamilton Jackson & Associates and Northwest Assistance Ministries

2010-05-11T10:59:00.001-04:00

Synchronet Picks DataCore Software to Provide Storage Virtualization to Davis Hamilton Jackson & Associates and Northwest Assistance Ministries

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14363
“DataCore has provided the answer for us – dramatically increasing our backup ability as well as serving as a cornerstone of our virtualization environment and our continuity plan going forward,” explains Pampi Bartels, IT director, Northwest Assistance Ministries.

“The bottom-line for our customers is that DataCore gives them a very cost-effective entrance into virtualization,” states Gordon Wingate, president, Synchronet. “Storage has always been the piece of the virtualization puzzle that makes virtualization a big investment to bite off for most companies. DataCore has changed that – making the storage aspect both cost-effective and highly reliable.”

“DataCore has been the solution to a substantial cost versus needs conundrum for DHJA,” comments Gary Montgomery, IT Director, Davis Hamilton Jackson & Associates. “The financial markets do not pause because Houston is facing a major storm or because our building happens to be on fire. We have to move when the market moves and downtime is simply not an option when you are managing billions of dollars of someone else’s money. DataCore and Synchronet have given us a cost effective means of meeting the needs of our clients without compromising the quality of our hardware, the integrity of our data, or our ability to provide business continuity under all conditions.”

Meet DataCore at Citrix Summit & Synergy 2010! Virtualize your Desktops and Virtualize Your Storage.

2010-05-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Is your Virtualization plan 3-Dimensional? Server and desktop virtualization software address two of those dimensions. DataCore adds the 3rd dimension with virtualization software for your storage.

DataCore is a Citrix Ready partner and we invite you to visit our Booth 500 at Synergy. Stop by to learn why storage virtualization software is essential to your Citrix virtualization strategy and how you can start getting the most from your storage. With DataCore you’ll get the fullest use, the highest availability and fastest performance from your storage investments. You’ll also find it more economical to buy, provision, manage, protect and maintain your physical and virtual IT environment today and in the foreseeable future.

If you are interested in scheduling a meeting with DataCore at Summit or Synergy, please contact us by email to Sabrina.Gelado@DataCore.com or call 954-377-6021.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Also, don't miss the session featuring a DataCore partner and end-user!
Steve Greenberg, President of Thin Client Computing and Dustin Fennell, CIO of Scottsdale Community College speak on Desktop Virtualization. Click Here for details.

Sincerely,
The DataCore Software Team

Storage Insights: Virtualizing Storage Along with Servers and Desktops

2010-05-07T10:37:00.002-04:00

http://www.storage-switzerland.com/Articles/Entries/2010/4/21_Virtualizing_Storage_Along_with_Servers_and_Desktops.html

When considering the potential benefits that typically drive server and desktop virtualization projects, questions about the underlying storage may never come up. They should. If we look at these benefits; maximizing hardware utilization, insulating the software environment from hardware configuration variables and ensuring that applications keep running, despite system outages, the state of the storage system is, indeed, of primary concern. It’s a fact that virtual infrastructures are completely dependent on the behavior of their underlying shared disks.

It’s well known how easily hypervisors migrate workloads from one physical server to another when one goes down. But what’s not as obvious is what happens when the shared storage device that both of those servers rely on is taken out of service. Taking storage systems down for a routine firmware upgrade, a water leak in the computer room, or just capacity expansion can cause major data outages for numerous virtual machines and the hundreds of desktops that they support. This is true regardless of how reliable a particular disk subsystem has proven to be. Fortunately, there are reasonable solutions available to eliminate this risk.

Companies such as DataCore offer the necessary storage virtualization software to
a) maximize the utilization of existing storage devices,
b) insulate the software environment from hardware differences, and
c) ensure that applications keep running while storage devices are taken out of service.

Similar to server and desktop virtualization products, SANSymphony storage virtualization software abstracts most commonly used storage hardware devices into idealized, virtual disks. In the process, it automatically mirrors the information between physically segregated devices so that complete disk subsystems can be taken out of service without impacting applications.

Basically, this device-independent, virtualization technology allows normal changes that regularly occur in the storage infrastructure to go on without impacting the servers and desktops that depend on it. And storage virtualization software can repurpose existing disk systems attached to servers for use as part of a broader tiered storage pool. This enables the ‘mixing and matching’ of different models and different vendors, swapping these systems out or growing them in the background without affecting business processing.

The same software can also stretch the storage pool across a campus or a metropolitan area to provide additional safeguards against site problems, allowing it to be managed as one centralized resource. Look for built-in capabilities like cross-device snapshots, remote replication and thin provisioning to get the fullest use from all existing disk assets, despite their mutual incompatibilities.

Server and desktop virtualization initiatives promise significant benefits, like asset optimization, simplified operations and improved application uptime. However, the storage infrastructure that supports this compute environment must be up to the task. Layering in storage virtualization software at the outset as a crucial part of the overall virtualization strategy will ensure that you realize the benefits that first justified the move to a virtual infrastructure.

Three DataCore Software Companies were awarded Finalists at SNW:

2010-05-02T11:14:00.000-04:00

Three DataCore Software Companies were awarded Finalists at SNW:

Best Practices in Storage Resiliency, Data Protection and Recovery:
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Bethesda, Maryland
Town of South Windsor, South Windsor, Connecticut

Best Practices in Technology Innovation and Promise:
County of Dinwiddie, Dinwiddie, Virginia

SNW Names The Town Of South Windsor In Connecticut As A Finalist For Its Spring 2010 "Best Practices" Awards Program
http://www.datastorageconnection.com/article.mvc/SNW-Names-The-Town-Of-South-Windsor-0001

According to Scott Roberts, IT director, Town of South Windsor, "We are honored that the Town of South Windsor has been named as a Finalist in the SNW Best Practices Awards Program for Storage Resiliency, Data Protection and Recovery. The fact is that we have gone ‘all in' in terms of virtualization – deploying virtual servers, supported by virtual storage. We have faith in this network because of DataCore, which was not the case before we deployed the DataCore SAN. Our data is critical and irreplaceable if lost. The bottom-line is that I can sleep at night knowing we can handle anything."

SNW Names Dinwiddie County Government As A Finalist For Its Spring 2010 "Best Practices" Awards Program
http://www.datastorageconnection.com/article.mvc/SNW-Names-Dinwiddie-County-Government-0001

"The Designation that Dinwiddie County Government has received as a Finalist in the SNW Best Practices Awards Program for Technology Innovation and Promise is truly an honor," states Norman Cohen, IT Director, Dinwiddie County Government. "This is a testament to the power of collaboration among our IT team, our IT solutions provider Thinking Cap Technologies and the key virtualization solutions that power our all-virtualized IT infrastructure – DataCore Software and VMware."

Drive Down Server Virtualization’s Storage Costs

2010-04-07T08:47:00.001-04:00

http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/P3207/34p07/34p07.asp&guid=

As a potential first step to meeting shared SAN requirements across virtual servers, Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing at DataCore Software ( http://www.datacore.com/ ), suggests using portable storage virtualization software to make the disks inside the existing physical servers shareable. “The storage virtualization stack will run inside its own virtual machine (VM) or right on top of the hypervisor. From there, it first virtualizes formerly dedicated drives into shared iSCSI resources accessible from multiple VMs over a conventional LAN.”

...At the point where application workloads consume more than 75% of the physical server resources and the number of servers grows, DataCore’s Gonzalez advises moving the storage virtualization software into a pair of small dedicated servers that can handle the expanded capacity and I/O demands of the bigger environment. This, too, is straightforward, as the software licenses are fully portable from virtual to physical machines. Achieve further cost containment by relocating the original internal drives behind the storage virtualization nodes before any more storage is added.

...Many of the storage applications are dual mode, meaning they can reside in either a virtual machine or a dedicated physical host. DataCore’s Gonzalez believes this gives SMEs the best of both worlds. SMEs can start small, leveraging internal disks, and then as the production environment ramps up, they can move the storage to a dedicated system. Throughout that process, shared storage is available, but cost and complexity are kept to a minimum.

Key Points:
• Shared storage is critical for maximizing the benefits of server virtualization, and now it is also affordable for the small to midsized data center.
• Leveraging the server virtualization project itself either through the use of virtual machines or by repurposing legacy servers is a key element in driving out costs.
• Simplicity is as critical as reducing hard costs; SME personnel typically wear multiple hats, and integrating storage management into the virtual server management console reduces complexity significantly.

Virtualization's Third Dimension: Everything Channel Awards DataCore Software the 2010 Five-Star Partner Program Rating for Its Commitment to the Channel

2010-04-06T09:23:00.000-04:00

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/03/31/virtualization-s-third-dimension-everything-channel-awards-datacore-software-the-2010-five-star-partner-rating-for-its-commitment-to-the-channel.aspx

DataCore Partner Program Recognized as Exceptional by Leading Channel Authority

DataCore Software, announced it has been recognized by Everything Channel as a top information technology (IT) vendors for its DataCore Partner Program. Additionally, the DataCore Partner Program was awarded a Five-Star rating, representative of an exceptional program.

DataCore Takes Virtualization to the Third Dimension
The Five-Star recognition is significant since DataCore has recently undergone a major push to make it easier for partners to reap the rewards and benefits of having DataCore storage virtualization solutions in their arsenal of product offerings. A new Solution Advisor Resource Center includes a wealth of sales training and positioning tools and materials to help resellers and solution advisors grow their virtualization business with DataCore's storage virtualization solutions - http://www.datacore.com/partner/resources/ .

"We are very pleased that Everything Channel has recognized DataCore as a Five-Star Partner Program winner," states Bill Ferara, director of channel sales for the Americas, DataCore Software. "The word is getting out that DataCore storage virtualization software overcomes the major storage-related obstacles and upheavals that slow down or stop virtualization projects from getting off the ground or being successful when deploying a virtual infrastructure. We are confident that resellers will profit from adding DataCore storage virtualization to its business portfolio, particularly since storage virtualization software has become more and more a strategic part of any virtualization deployment."

VMware Dynamic Provisioning and DataCore; LAN Infotech Embraces Storeage Virtualization, etc.

2010-03-25T15:07:00.000-04:00

VMware "Dynamic Provisioning" with DataCore "Thin Provisioning"

Dynamic Provisioning, Thin Provisioning, Auto Provisioning, Virtual Provisioning
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2010/03/vmware-dynamic-provisioning-with.html
They are all terms used to describe the function of allocating storage "on demand", server virtualization brings another dimension to storage thin provisioning as some hypervisors provide "storage" thin provisioning to the virtual servers that are encapsulated on them.

Lets look at the relationship between VMware's "Dynamic Provisioning" and DataCore's SANmelody Storage "Thin Provisioning", and how they can complement each other…

LAN Infotech Joins the DataCore Software Partner Program - Server and Desktop Virtualization Solution Provider Embraces Storage Virtualization Solutions
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/03/24/lan-infotech-joins-the-datacore-software-partner-program-server-and-desktop-virtualization-solution-provider-embraces-storage-virtualization-solutions.aspx

LAN Infotech will sell and support DataCore's storage virtualization, business continuity and disaster recovery software solutions. LAN Infotech is one of South Florida's leading IT consultants.

'We are pleased to add DataCore storage virtualization software to our line of virtualization solutions,' states Michael Goldstein, President & CEO of LAN Infotech. 'The fact of the matter is that even though server virtualization and desktop virtualization have the broadest mindshare, it is the storage virtualization dimension that serves as the backbone to everything. Moreover, by leveraging DataCore, our customers will be able to extend the life and easily manage their existing storage hardware.'

Clarity Advisors on Frequently Asked Questions about DataCore SANmelody & SANsymphony

http://www.clarityitadvisors.com/DataCore/DataCore-FAQ.aspx

SNSeurope: In 2010 the two prevailing technologies will be virtualization and solid state disks, says Nick Broadbent, VP Global Support, DataCore Software.

http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=14408
Although Storage Virtualisation has been around for over a decade the advance next year of VDI and continued expansion of Server Virtualisation with Hyper-V from Microsoft and Citrix expanding to join VMware in a continual server consolidation will mean the necessity for highly available, thin provisioned storage, high performance storage is a must.

No longer will it be safe to rely on your single physical proprietary array where a single motherboard crash or firmware bug takes the whole solution away from thousands of VDI users. Nor will

the same solution be financially viable to serve individual unused disks to all these users. Nor will the users used to fast instant response laptops be prepared to wait while the cache/controller finds delivers and serves the data.

Storage Virtualisation will be a must, and only solutions that are able to be seamlessly physically separated without dependence, where one side failing doesn't reduce a business to stopping its business, will be acceptable solutions.

Solid state disk has dramatically reduced in price and becomes a very viable alternative to a performance hungry, second tier cache type solution. I can see serious consideration being given now to using SSD to speed up performance and reduce ongoing running costs.

Combining SSD with Storage Virtualisation may well prove to be an idyllic solution to meeting high performance, high reliability, business continuity and disaster recovery without having to cost the fortune we have all been led to believe in the past.

DataCore Software's SANmelody Storage Virtualization Solution Wins 2010 Network Computing Award: Wins Storage Product of the Year

2010-03-17T08:35:00.000-04:00

DataCore Software's SANmelody Storage Virtualization Solution Wins 2010 Network Computing Award: Wins Storage Product of the Year

http://www.it-director.com/technology/data_mgmt/news_release.php?rel=16495

STORAGE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
WINNER: SANMELODY - DATACORE
Keith Joseph of Datacore accepted the Storage Product of the Year award

DataCore Software has once again scooped one of the UK's top networking awards by winning the Storage Product of the Year Award at the prestigious 2010 Network Computing Awards dinner held last week at the Tower Hotel in London. DataCore's SANmelodyTM, beat stiff category competition from finalists EMC, Compellent, LSI, CA, amongst others.

Keith Joseph, Regional Manager, Northern Europe, DataCore Software, commented, "It's tremendous recognition from the UK's network managers and administrators who nominated and voted for SANmelody in force. In total, over 7000 votes were cast for the Awards, so it is a real honour in light of the stiff competition we were facing."

The Storage Product of the Year Award signifies the readers' appreciation of SANmelody and how it easily and cost-effectively it converts physical Intel/AMD servers or virtual machines (VMs) into fully-capable, virtual storage servers that are able to optimise, protect and manage storage over existing networks to fulfill the needs of application servers.

In addition, SANsymphonyTM, the enterprise version of SANmelody, came runner up as Data Centre Solution of the Year.

The Network Computing Awards were established in 2004 to recognise best-in-breed, easy to use solutions that make the working lives of network managers easier and more effective.

Virtualization should be 3D: DataCore

2010-03-15T09:39:00.000-04:00

See article in NetworkWorld: Virtualization Should be 3D

Storage technology vendor DataCore Software Corp. is touting a three-dimensional approach to virtualization that encourages organizations to address server, desktop and storage concurrently from the outset when building a virtualized environment.

Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing with the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company, said focusing on just server and desktop at the beginning while neglecting storage will lead to negative consequences in the long run.

Secure and compliant collaboration and access: Download now"Leaving out any one of those dimensions creates shortcomings and obstacles for that customer downstream," said Gonzalez.

The number of dependencies on the storage infrastructure are magnified with server and desktop virtualization, said Gonzalez. Specifically, performance bottlenecks occur when desktops and servers are consolidated and an increased number of inputs and outputs are driven against the storage pool, he explained.

Gonzalez said problems encountered down the road due to bad planning are one reason IT departments hesitate to move Tier 1 workloads to a virtual environment. soon as they scale out to actually meet the workload demand, that's when they hit upon it ... and that's when people start to rethink whether they were doing the right thing by virtualizing," said Gonzalez.

Programmer's Paradise Honors DataCore SANmelody Software as Its Best Selling "Storage Virtualization and Management Product" for 2009

2010-03-10T09:27:00.000-05:00

http://www.virtualizationdir.com/2010/03/datacore-software-announces-programmersparadise-software-solution-as-its-best-selling-product-in-virtualization-storage-management-category-2009/

Programmer's Paradise, a VAR 500 reseller, has chosen DataCore's SANmelody(TM) storage virtualization software solution as its Best Selling product in the Virtualization-Storage Management category -- honoring the SAN virtualization solution with a "Riding the Crest 2009 Award". Programmer's Paradise, and its TechXtend value-added solutions unit, sells software and hardware solutions and supporting technical services for workstations, servers, storage and networks.

"DataCore's software-based storage virtualization solutions optimize storage utilization and management through the power of virtualization," explains Shawn Giordano, Vice President of Sales, Programmer's Paradise. "DataCore(TM) virtualization software does for storage what VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer do in terms of virtualizing servers. DataCore extends the useful life of storage assets and offers our customers a compelling and cost-effective means to achieve high-availability, disaster recovery, faster performance and full utilization."

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/03/09/Programmers_Paradise_Honors_DataCore_SANmelody_Software_as_I/

DataCore's Data Storage Virtualization Software Awarded

http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/daily_news/article.php/394364/DataCores-Data-Storage-Virtualization-Software-Awarded.htm

With DataCore storage virtualization software, customers gain storage hardware flexibility and improved disk space utilization. Importantly, DataCore users do not have to spend a lot of time and money ripping out and replacing perfectly good disks to set up a shared storage infrastructure. DataCore Software enables solution providers to easily repurpose their customers' existing hardware into a highly-available storage network that supports live migration and remote site disaster recovery (DR) -- perfectly complementing their virtual servers and desktops with virtualized storage.

"'We are excited to see resellers, distributors and service providers alike recognize that virtualization projects are 3 dimensional,' comments Bill Ferara, director of Americas Channel Sales, DataCore Software. 'Awards like this go a long way to dispelling the myth that somehow servers and desktops are the more important part of the virtualization equation. Server and desktop virtualization software address only two dimensions of virtualization. DataCore storage virtualization software covers the 3rd dimension.'"

In SAN We Trust: Virginia's Dinwiddie County Government Deploys DataCore Storage Virtualization To Empower VMware; Sets A New Level Of Uptime For Critical Applications

2010-03-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

Computer Technology Review:
To read the complete story, please visit: http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=229:virtualization&id=8351:virginias-dinwiddie-county-government-deploys-datacore-storage-virtualization-to-empower-vmware&Itemid=2701140

DataCore Software has been deployed along with VMware vSphere for the government of Dinwiddie County in Virginia. "We were convinced that we needed a SAN to support our objective of server consolidation with VMware as well as our desire to achieve uptime," explained Norman Cohen, IT Director, Dinwiddie County Government. "We are so impressed with the new virtualization environment and DataCore's role as the virtual storage dimension to everything that we are actively encouraging other county governments in our state to do what we have done in our VMware-DataCore deployment."

"DataCore's storage virtualization software solution has allowed us to springboard into the world of virtualization – particularly enabling us to leverage the benefits of VMware," noted Cohen. "The most important component of our virtualization deployment has to do with virtualizing our disks with DataCore. We can now utilize disk space – no matter where those disks reside on campus. But storage virtualization does so much more than delivering shared storage by way of pooling disks. With DataCore, our IT environment has attained high-availability and fault-tolerance, by way of the remote replication that is made possible by the two DataCore-powered SANs."

Lifeboat Distribution Names DataCore Software Americas "Beacon Partner of the Year" for 2009 Virtualization Business

2010-03-09T08:14:00.000-05:00

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/03/04/lifeboat-distribution-names-datacore-software-beacon-partner-of-the-year-for-2009-virtualization-business.aspx
Lifeboat Distribution has honored DataCore™, presenting the company with Lifeboat’s coveted “Beacon Partner of the Year” award for 2009. Lifeboat Distribution is an international specialty software distributor for virtualization and other technically sophisticated products.

“In selecting DataCore Software as Lifeboat’s Beacon Partner for 2009, we recognize the strategic value that DataCore’s storage virtualization software brings to our reseller partners,” said Dan Jamieson, vice president and general manager, Lifeboat Distribution. “Simply put, DataCore completes the three dimensions of virtualization – desktops, servers, and storage – that value-added resellers and hosting providers require for total virtual solutions.”

Taking Virtualization to the 3rd Dimension
This announcement follows on the heels of VMware Partner Exchange 2010 in which a cadre of resellers and solution providers championed DataCore Software as the 3rd dimension to their Virtualization practice – heralding DataCore™ storage virtualization software as strategic to their server virtualization and desktop virtualization business. Link: DataCore Takes Virtualization to the 3rd Dimension.

DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Delivers 100% Uptime to iomart hosting

2010-03-08T12:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=13727
iomart hosting, one of the UK's fastest growing managed services providers, is using DataCore's SANsymphony™ solution to provide the high-availability backbone for iomart's hosted customers.

Richard McMahon is the company's Infrastructure Manager responsible for all hardware and software deployments and services within the group. Twenty-five people operate from within iomart's five (5) state-of-the-art data centers located in London, Maidenhead, Glasgow, Nottingham and Leicester. All centers are linked via Dark Fibre or GigE connections.

"Our 100% uptime guarantee is not a marketing ploy - it's iomart's motto and mantra. We live and breathe it to facilitate our customers' business models. Therefore total high-availability is top of our priority list," he stated.

Recently, to help clients facilitate cloud computing, iomart launched a dedicated, virtualized server service, offering VMware dedicated servers capable of running multiple operating systems and applications from one physical server.

With these services in mind, the challenge that iomart faced was managing 30 terabytes (TBs) of storage across a heterogeneous environment in the City of London and Maidenhead data centers. To meet this objective, iomart approached DataCore, EMC, NetApp and 3PAR for proposed solutions. The suggested environment from DataCore involved using standard x86 hardware, highly specified due to their being of a hosting nature, each having 128GB RAM for caching, 4 Quad Core Processors and 8GB HBA's for connectivity. The disk that sat behind the server was classified as a low-end commodity disk. On top of this hardware, DataCore's SANsymphony solution was used in a mirrored SAN-SAN configuration to virtualize and manage the environment across a fibre link. In total, the solution was less than a one-third of the cost of the equivalent software and hardware alternative proposals.

Keith Joseph, Regional Manager, DataCore Software picks up the story: "Cost savings were not the most important factor in iomart's search. What they really wanted was to achieve total control of the environment and have the ability to migrate customer data between storage systems and disk types and to easily replicate to remote sites. This they found with DataCore's SANsymphony."

Mirrored high-availability (HA) between sites over 20 miles away also provides iomart with enhanced disaster recover (DR) capabilities. In their configuration, the environment is distributed throughout several locations and ensures that they have a fully distributed, HA model but across DR geographies.

DataCore's synchronous replication functionality operates on a forced cache coherency model, based on a grid architecture that replicates the I/O block between the cache on each DataCore server before sending the acknowledgement to the application server and committing the data to disk. This overcomes the problems associated with clustered storage, while allowing iomart a greater degree of performance and flexibility.

McMahon concludes, "What we have achieved with SANsymphony is totally flexible, highly performing SAN-to-SAN mirroring, but straight out-of-the-box and backed by a decent price point. We can now move data 'at will' between vendors and seamlessly achieve LUN virtualisation across RAID arrays. No other solution offers us this."
http://www.myhostnews.com/2010/03/datacore-storage-virtualization-software-delivers-100-uptime-to-iomart-hosting/

Video: Storage Virtualization and DataCore (Jon Toigo Interviews Ziya Aral)

2010-03-03T08:07:00.000-05:00

Video: Storage Virtualization and DataCore (Click on link below for Video Interview)
http://esj.com/articles/2010/02/16/video-datacore-storage-virt.aspx?sc_lang=en

Ziya Aral , CTO and co-founder of Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based storage virtualization software vendor, DataCore Software, offers an analysis of server and storage virtualization that blows the socks off of the marketspeak one usually hears or reads from industry analysts and vendors. That's because he has been part of the evolution of the technology over the past three decades.

Says Aral, in this interview recorded for the C-4 Summit Cyberspace Edition, virtualization was -- and is -- inevitable. He notes that embedding software on hardware became a costly and inefficient design choice years ago -- especially as hardware architecture became more standardized. Software complexity required its migration to a computer so it could be maintained and improved without requiring the costly replacement of the underlying hardware platform.

He argues that DataCore's key innovation was to conceive of the "storage application" as any other computer application, separating it from the storage hardware layer -- the costly and complex value-add array controller. The benefits of such abstracting storage services into a virtualization layer would be to deliver a rich set of services that could be applied across hardware without concern for the vendor badging of the hardware itself. Software and hardware could scale independently.

Performance and management also improve with virtualization, Aral notes, citing the success of DataCore customers for proof. To hear the rest of Aral's fascinating analysis, check out the C-4 Project (http://www.c4project.org/ ), where Aral is part of an on-going "summit in cyberspace."

Virtualization should be 3D: DataCore

2010-03-01T08:02:00.000-05:00

Virtualization should be 3D: DataCore
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/virtualization-should-be-3d-datacore/140005-pg1

DataCore Software is evangelizing a virtualization strategy that entails server, desktop and storage concurrently from the outset to avoid performance bottlenecks. IDC’s Dave Pearson calls storage virtualization the “support” technology

Storage technology vendor DataCore Software Corp. is touting a three-dimensional approach to virtualization that encourages organizations to address server, desktop and storage concurrently from the outset when building a virtualized environment.

Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing with the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company, said focusing on just server and desktop at the beginning while neglecting storage will lead to negative consequences in the long run.

“Leaving out any one of those dimensions creates shortcomings and obstacles for that customer downstream,” said Gonzalez.

The number of dependencies on the storage infrastructure are magnified with server and desktop virtualization, said Gonzales. Specifically, performance bottlenecks occur when desktops and servers are consolidated and an increased number of inputs and outputs are driven against the storage pool, he explained.

Gonzalez said problems encountered down the road due to bad planning are one reason IT departments hesitate to move Tier 1 workloads to a virtual environment. “As soon as they scale out to actually meet the workload demand, that’s when they hit upon it … and that’s when people start to rethink whether they were doing the right thing by virtualizing,” said Gonzales.

According to Dave Pearson, senior analyst for storage at Toronto-based IDC Canada Ltd., storage virtualization is a relatively new, albeit key, component of virtualization. But he said the storage component is still a “support” technology led in most cases by server virtualization.

Pearson said storage virtualization forms part of what he calls "virtualization 3.0," where it’s not just about getting rid of physical machines and improving processes anymore. “It’s now part of optimizing the entire solution, making sure you’re really getting your money’s worth out of the hardware that you’re committing to these virtualization projects,” he said.

However, while Pearson agrees storage is a vital component of an organization’s virtualization strategy, he said such a 3D approach is hardly a novel idea to IT pros involved in large virtualization projects.

The 3D approach is “just really another tool that’s being added to the box of tools for virtualization,” said Pearson. Besides DataCore, Fremont, Calif.-based 3PAR Inc., among others, is in the market.

DataCore is relying on its community of resellers to evangelize this 3D virtualization approach because, according to Gonzales, customers still require a lot of education on the topic.

Gonzales said the “second phase of adoption” of virtualization to areas like business continuity, risk mitigation and disaster recovery, is beginning to shine a spotlight on storage. “All of those many machines and many users and many virtual workloads now become so centred on how the storage environment behaves and how well that virtual view of storage remains intact as you move through generations of hardware,” he said.

Pearson said storage virtualization is growing more quickly in importance than server virtualization, but not at the same level overall.

ACW Insights: How to add value to your virtual environments

http://www.blog.acw-group.com.sg/2010/02/how-to-add-value-to-your-virtual.html

Virtualization should be 3D: DataCore

http://www.theoutsourceblog.com/2010/02/virtualization-should-be-3d-datacore/

10 Ways To Add Value To Virtual Environments [slide show]

2010-02-25T09:20:00.001-05:00

10 Ways To Add Value To Virtual Environments [slide show]
http://www.crn.com/hardware/223100199;jsessionid=KRTE4R2ONXQ2BQE1GHPCKH4ATMY32JVN?pgno=7
VMware held its annual VMware Partner Exchange earlier this month, and used the conference to talk about virtualization and cloud computing.

DataCore: Virtualization In 3-D
DataCore, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., used the conference less to talk about products and more to discuss its central theme for 2010, "Virtualization in 3-D."

Storage virtualization is the third dimension after server and desktop virtualization, according to DataCore, which also said that the fundamentals of a virtualization solution are not adequately addressed until the software tackles storage-related challenges.

Augie Gonzalez , director of product marketing at DataCore, said that, while servers and desktops deserve much attention, disks represent a constant source of upheaval in virtual environments.

He also said DataCore lets customers provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand, and upgrade storage without impacting production environments, and virtualizes disks across pools of tiered storage devices to overcome incompatibilities between different generations, models, and manufacturers of storage devices.

“Top 20 Storage Products from VMworld” [slide show]

http://www.crn.com/storage/219900016;jsessionid=VAYV1HKMBIUH5QE1GHRSKHWATMY32JVN?pgno=7

VMware Partner Exchange 2010 closes with VMware Solution Providers heralding DataCore Software as the 3rd dimension to their virtualisation practice.
http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=14142

Creating DMZs in the Cloud

2010-02-22T00:20:00.000-05:00

http://www.ctoedge.com/content/creating-dmzs-cloud
One of the things being heavily pitched toward anybody building a cloud computing service these days is the value of highly integrated servers. The thinking goes that the higher the level of integration, the lower the cost to maintain and run the system.

But there is another argument that speaks to the need to isolate specific sets of services inside a larger cloud computing service. For example, if you go with an integrated server, you pretty much have to move in lockstep with that vendor for all your servers, networking and storage. If there is a major advance in any one of these areas, a chief technologist running a cloud computing service on an integrated server might not be able to take advantage of it until the vendor upgrades the entire system. Given the long-term nature of cloud computing services and the level of cut-throat competition, that might not be the strategic way to go.

Instead, vendors such as DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization software, argue that cloud computing services should, for example, isolate services like storage using a software-only approach that makes it realtively easy to create pools of storage by mixing and matching storage hardware from multiple vendors. This approach helps creates a “demilitarized zone” between technologies that allow IT organizations to continue to leverage multile vendors to take advantage of ongoing advances in technology.

According to Augie Gonzalez, DataCore Software director of product marketing, this approach also provides the ability to leverage inexpensive cache on the server to drive performance, versus relying on limited amounts of expensive cache on the storage arrays. Gonzalez also points out that as software offering, DataCore can offer the same level of integration with cloud computing offerings such as Cisco Nexus virtual switches and VMware’s vSphere management software.

So all things being equal, the question becomes is it worth mortgaging the future to gain some short term gains in system administration that can probably be achieved anyway without locking in the hardware?

DataCore Software, VMware and Cisco provide new cloud computing platform for Host.net

2010-02-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

Link: Host.net’s Cloud Computing – Enterprise Virtual Solutions Overview

HP confirms Hyper-V LeftHand appliance in 2011; DataCore already shipping Virtual SAN Appliances

2010-02-19T10:54:00.001-05:00

HP confirms Hyper-V LeftHand appliance in 2011; DataCore already shipping Virtual SAN Appliances

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/15/hp_lhn_hyper_v/
HP is going to have VSA running under Hyper-V within a year.
... DataCore already provides its SANmelody software as a Hyper-V-based software appliance. Darth Redmond will be encouraging other companies to follow suit, citing HP as evidence that the storage force really is with Hyper-V.

To download DataCore's Virtual SAN Appliance, please visit:
http://www.datacore.com/VSAppliance/

VMware Solution Providers herald DataCore Software as the 3rd dimension to their virtualization practice.

2010-02-16T06:42:00.001-05:00

DataCore™ storage virtualization software deemed strategic to their Server Virtualisation and Desktop Virtualization business

As the doors closed on last weeks VMware Partner Exchange in Las Vegas, DataCore Software assessed the strategic value that its storage virtualization software brings to VMware solution providers. Simply put, DataCore fulfills the 3rd dimension required by VMware value- added resellers (VARs), service and hosting providers to complete their virtualization offerings. “Failing to include storage virtualization software to address IT storage challenges results in an incomplete, two-dimensional solution,” comments Augie Gonzalez, Director of Product Marketing, DataCore Software. “Virtualization solutions must concurrently address server, desktop and storage challenges presented by the many variations of hardware that get deployed over the course of multiple years.”

With DataCore storage virtualization software, VMware customers gain storage hardware flexibility and improved disk space utilization. Importantly, VMware users do not have to spend a lot of time and money ripping out and replacing perfectly good disks to set up a shared storage infrastructure. DataCore Software enables solution providers to easily repurpose their customers’ existing hardware into a highly-available storage network that supports VMware features like VMotion and remote site disaster recovery (DR) – perfectly complementing their virtual servers and desktops with virtualised storage.

Testimonials from VMware VARs

The following testimonials reveal just how important DataCore is to meeting customer needs in virtual IT infrastructures and cloud initiatives.

“Virtualization is a 3-dimensional puzzle,” states Pat Sigg, Regional Vice President of Sales at Software Information Systems (SIS), a VMware partner. “What we consistently find when engaging in virtualisation deployments is – first and foremost – the need to virtualize storage resources with the flexibility, high-availability and performance to support numerous virtual servers and desktops without single points of failure. It is this 3rd dimension to virtualization – the storage virtualization dimension – that DataCore brings to our virtualization practice.”

“As a VMware partner specializing in virtualization solutions, what we have found is that to really get the magic out of VMware, you need DataCore storage virtualization – be that hardware independence as well as just an astonishing degree of flexibility – that combine to literally pave the way for each of our virtualization deployments to perform as promised,” comments Chuck Renfro, CEO, ThinkingCap Technologies, LLC. “The bottom-line is that DataCore is vital in enabling our virtualization customers to meet their business objectives – chief among which is realizing high-availability.”

“Virtualization projects are three-dimensional,” explains Andy Judge, Founder and CEO of Grove Networks, a VMware Enterprise Partner. “Server and desktop virtualization software address two of those dimensions. DataCore storage virtualization software is as important, financially and operationally, to a successful virtual infrastructure project as are the server and desktop virtualization aspects.”

Virtualizing Storage in the Cloud: “Priority One”

Any cloud computing platform, just like any virtualization deployment, needs to have portable software as its building blocks – providing the highest degree of flexibility and openness. DataCore partner Host.net knows intuitively that storage virtualization software is priority one.

“We chose DataCore in the core design of our virtual private data center (vPDC) platform alongside VMware and Cisco because it delivers the very best storage virtualization component,” notes Jeffrey Slapp, Vice President of Virtualization Services for Host.net. “Virtualizing the storage is paramount to us for two reasons. First, we required a solution that would allow us to expand storage resources rapidly and non-disruptively to meet increasing demand. Second, we needed a solution that could leverage various hardware storage platforms simultaneously in order to keep pace with technology changes. Accomplishing both allows us to provide high-end enterprise-level services while remaining agile and cost-effective.”

VMware Partner Exchange 2010 ran from February 8 -11 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

North American Stainless Deploys DataCore Storage Virtualization Software with VMware

2010-02-15T10:25:00.002-05:00

"It was clear to us that the storage sub-system had to provide extra functionality and it was also clear that any of the hardware-based, appliances were going to be well into six figures in price," added Sigg. "This was not the path that we or the customer sought to take. Instead, what we found in DataCore's portable, software-based, SANmelody SAN solution was that it offered all the functionality needed – including high availability and zero points of failure – all at reasonable cost. For the price point, what you get in functionality with DataCore convinced us and sold the customer."

VMware vSphere and DataCore Software's Storage Virtualization Are Making Both Disaster Recovery and "Hands Free" Maintenance Possible at One of North America's Largest Stainless Steel Manufacturers
http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=13237
http://www.datastorageconnection.com/article.mvc/North-American-Stainless-Deploys-DataCore-0001?VNETCOOKIE=NO

DataCore Software announced its SANmelody storage virtualization solution has been deployed along with VMware vSphere at one of the world's premiere providers of stainless steel - North American Stainless in Ghent, Kentucky. The company's IT department was trying to cope with an already increasing server spiral that encompassed ten (10) servers - all of which were over five years old. "We felt VMware would give us more options than simply adding more physical servers," stated Judy Pieper-Young, Manager - Information Systems, North American Stainless. "Now with VMware combined with DataCore, we can simply add more virtual machines on-the-fly and it only costs us a new server license - instead of having to purchase a whole new physical box."

A Virtual Infrastructure That Delivers Value as Promised
The IT landscape has gone a diet, so to speak, since the advent of virtualization at North American Stainless. Today, the company relies on four (4) physical servers and 35 virtual machines (VMs). The system supports 1,400 end-users.

"The appeal for us in going virtual in terms of servers was straightforward," explained Pieper-Young. "Knowing that we were facing a situation where we were in need of adding even more servers – we chose to embrace virtualization so that we could actually reduce the number of physical servers. But we did not want to stop at servers. In order to achieve a completely virtual infrastructure, we selected DataCore along with VMware to serve as a total virtual infrastructure spanning both servers and storage."

North American Stainless manufactures stainless steel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. Therefore, beyond an initial desire to add more capacity by adding virtual storage to the mix was an overarching objective to have a disaster recovery plan in place. For disaster recovery, the company now has two SANmelody nodes that are mirrored so as to offer synchronous replication. "If for any reason we have a server crash, the virtual infrastructure enables us to get up and running within seconds," noted Pieper-Young.

The two, redundant SANmelody SANs that are mirrored are connected to redundant switches that are in turn connected to four VMware ESX hosts, to remove any single point of failure. Now North American Stainless has redundant, high-availability SANs that are synchronous – connected with a direct-attached fibre link. With this in place, the company can withstand a full hardware failure at a server level, at a switch level as well as a SAN level and still be up and running, in production. Other than a facility failure, North American Stainless now has 100% uptime.

The IT Landscape – Virtualization Powers Mission-Critical Applications

The virtual infrastructure powered by VMware and DataCore supports the company's Oracle ERP system servers (including payroll), several SQL servers, Blackberry® server, fax servers, print servers as well as user data. The ability to add VMs "on-the-fly" was a primary objective in going virtual. This is made possible through the combination of VMware vSphere's live migration functionality and the DataCore SAN. With VMware and DataCore run in tandem, the IT team at North American Stainless is able to do testing on applications and do so in way that the any testing procedures for new applications are segmented from the overall system. This is accomplished with DataCore SANmelody serving as a complete virtual storage infrastructure and storage management system – whereby multiple terabytes of storage can be both partitioned in units for a specific use as well as aggregated for general consumption.

Both SANmelody nodes are running on IBM 3650 servers as are the VMs on the two additional servers.

No Large Support Team Required

For 1,400 users that the IT staff is charged with supporting, the IT computer operations team consists only of a Network Analyst, an Operations Analyst, two Help Desk analysts, a Computer Operations Supervisor and an IT Manager. All of the maintenance and management required to support the virtual infrastructure is now done in one place – and that is through DataCore through SANmelody.

Trusted Solution Provider Software Information Systems (SIS)

"When we first engaged with North American Stainless, they had isolated, stand-alone servers with local storage on each server – and this was growing," explained Pat Sigg, Regional Vice President of Sales at Software Information Systems (SIS), a DataCore partner. "What was needed was a storage sub-system with the flexibility and high-availability needed to support a virtual environment."

SIS wanted to deploy VMware and was convinced that to get the most out of the virtual machines running on the virtual infrastructure that shared storage was needed as the underpinning for everything. SIS saw the implementation at North American Stainless as an integrated approach that was "all in" in terms of a fully virtual environment – servers and storage- for its customer.

"It was clear to us that the storage sub-system had to provide extra functionality and it was also clear that any of the hardware-based, fibre appliances were going to be well into six figures in price," added Sigg. "This was not the path that we or the customer sought to take. Instead, what we found in DataCore's portable, software-based, SANmelody SAN solution was that it offered all the functionality needed – including high availability and zero points of failure – all at reasonable cost. For the price point, what you get in functionality with DataCore convinced us and sold the customer."

Virtualization Taking Off – Virtual Infrastructure Takes Hold in Other Departments

In North American Stainless' Level II area, the manufacturer's machinery is hooked to devices – such as product lifecycle management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) – that serve as IT systems which do nothing short of run the production at the plant. This department is also putting in an entirely virtual infrastructure as well – also encompassing both servers and storage. These truly mission-critical, manufacturing-centric, IT systems will now run on the VMware-DataCore virtual infrastructure too.

About North American Stainless

Founded in 1990, North American Stainless is fulfilling its promise to be the finest stainless steel producing mill in the Western Hemisphere. North American Stainless, part of the Acerinox Group of companies, is situated on 1100 acres in Carroll County, Kentucky. For more, information visit www.northamericanstainless.com.

North American Stainless Deploys DataCore Storage Virtualization Software with VMware for a Completely Virtual Infrastructure

http://www.snseurope.com/all_newsletter09/general/issue376.htm

Search Storage - Stainless steel provider virtualizes with DataCore, VMware

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1379370,00.html

DataCore Software Corp. said North American Stainless in Ghent, Ky., is deploying its SANmelody storage virtualization software along with VMware vSphere to consolidate servers and storage.

Search Storage: Host.net combines DataCore Software, VMware and Cisco to provide new cloud computing platform

2010-01-29T08:57:00.002-05:00

Search Storage: Host.net combines DataCore Software, VMware and Cisco to provide new cloud computing platform

DataCore Software announced that its storage virtualization technology is helping to power a cloud computing platform by Host.net. The Host.net platform also includes VMware server virtualization and Cisco Nexus virtual network technologies. With this platform, private clouds can be built on virtual servers from VMware vSphere, Cisco and DataCore storage virtualization. Each virtualization technology comes with different capabilities such as converged networking from Cisco, synchronous mirroring from DataCore and the ability to quickly grow storage from VMware. http://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid190_gci1379793,00.html#

“We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our cloud platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence,” said Jeffrey Slapp, VP of Virtualization Services for Host.net. “In three months’ time, dozens of companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages we have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.”

Cloud Agility through Hardware Independence

“It seems to me that any cloud computing platform needs to, at its very core, be based on portable software,” stated George Teixeira, President and CEO, DataCore Software. “Many clouds are being built from a hardware vendor-specific mindset. What is wrong with this picture? Well, the whole point of cloud computing is delivering cost-effective services to users – and that demands the highest degree of flexibility and openness, versus being boxed in to specific hardware platforms that may not adapt to changes over time. Aren’t clouds, after all, supposed to be soft and agile?”

Because the Host.net vPDC platform is comprised of software-based technologies, the company’s offering is not tied to any specific hardware. This avoids the problems associated with building clouds with a hardware provider sandwiched between virtual servers and virtual networks, enabling flexibility far beyond any cloud offering dependent on hardware vendors like IBM, EMC and NetApp. It also essentially eliminates any capital expenditure outlays from the customer.

“With or without a recession, companies are looking for cost-effective infrastructure solutions. A software-based cloud architecture helps answer that need,” said Lenny Chesal, Executive Vice President of Host.net. “This makes it a direct, positive impact on the customer’s bottom line as well as overall efficiency, enabling companies to do more with less.”

Host.net Combines DataCore Software, VMware and Cisco to Deliver an Innovative Software-Based Enterprise Cloud Computing Service
Best-of-breed technologies for virtual storage (DataCore Software), servers (VMware), and networks (Cisco's Nexus architecture) create enterprise virtual private data centers with cost-effective disaster recovery capabilities & no hardware dependency

DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization, business continuity and disaster recovery software solutions, today announced that its storage virtualization technology is powering the storage aspect of an all-virtual private data center (vPDC) platform developed by Host.net. Host.net delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach for the greatest flexibility.

Link: Host.net’s Cloud Computing – Enterprise Virtual Solutions Overview

The Host.net platform also includes VMware server virtualization and Cisco Nexus virtual network technologies, plus unique architecture and transport capabilities such as ultra redundant compute and enterprise storage platforms deployed at multiple Host.net data centers, dedicated SANs for each compute cluster to eliminate disk overload, and connectivity within Host.net’s own multi-site network. The vPDC’s are geographically distributed across Host.net’s Cisco Powered 10G multinational backbone.

“We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our vPDC platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence,” said Jeffrey Slapp, VP of Virtualization Services for Host.net. “In three months’ time, dozens of companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages we have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.”

Cloud Agility through Hardware Independence

“It seems to me that any cloud computing platform needs to, at its very core, be based on portable software,” stated George Teixeira, President and CEO, DataCore Software. “Many clouds are being built from a hardware vendor-specific mindset. What is wrong with this picture? Well, the whole point of cloud computing is delivering cost-effective services to users – and that demands the highest degree of flexibility and openness, versus being boxed in to specific hardware platforms that may not adapt to changes over time. Aren’t clouds, after all, supposed to be soft and agile?”

Because the Host.net vPDC platform is comprised of software-based technologies, the company’s offering is not tied to any specific hardware. This avoids the problems associated with building clouds with a hardware provider sandwiched between virtual servers and virtual networks, enabling flexibility far beyond any cloud offering dependent on hardware vendors like IBM, EMC and NetApp. It also essentially eliminates any capital expenditure outlays from the customer.

“With or without a recession, companies are looking for cost-effective infrastructure solutions. A software-based cloud architecture helps answer that need,” said Lenny Chesal, Executive Vice President of Host.net. “This makes it a direct, positive impact on the customer’s bottom line as well as overall efficiency, enabling companies to do more with less.”

Storage in the Cloud & Beyond

Another key benefit relates to redundancy. Until now, it has been extremely difficult for companies to embrace a rock-solid, mirrored solution due to the costs involved with proprietary SAN solutions.

With Host.net’s vPDC platform powered by DataCore SAN virtualization software, Host.net’s client companies can have a full-blown, multi-path SAN available to them on demand. That includes the key benefit of a virtual disaster recovery component that eliminates the need for Host.net clients to incur massive upfront SAN-related capital expenditures that can run $100,000 or $200,000. It also feeds the corporate appetite for storage, both inside and outside the cloud.

“Interestingly, we are finding that the demand for storage far outpaces the demand for individual virtual systems. With DataCore technology, we can deliver a highly flexible storage solution both to the customers inside our cloud who are using virtual servers, and to the clients who are still utilizing physical servers in our data centers,” Slapp said. “Clients don’t have to make large capital investments to implement SAN solutions. We can carve out the storage for them very rapidly.”

A Cloud Built on Software

With Host.net’s vPDC platform, private clouds are built upon virtual servers from VMware, virtual storage from DataCore and virtual networks from Cisco. The platform includes:

VMware vSphere – As the de facto standard for compute virtualization as well as the market leader in the enterprise virtualization space, VMware gives Host.net the ability to dynamically grow compute, storage and network resources on the fly. It also offers powerful features and tools ranging from workload high availability and live migration to dynamic resource allocation.
Cisco Nexus platform – This converged networking and storage core equips Host.net with the latest networking capabilities in a highly dense and very powerful server architecture, along with valuable features such as policy-based virtual machine connectivity, mobile VM security and network policies, and a non-disruptive operational model.
DataCore storage virtualization – DataCore technology frees Host.net’s cloud computing platform of hardware dependency, provides critical synchronous mirroring for all storage resources in the cloud, and eliminates risky and time-consuming SAN hardware refreshes by enabling storage to be added and migrated on the fly transparently with no downtime.

“The benefits offered by our virtual private data center are not just available to the cloud client or to the colocation client,” Chesal noted. “Clients can be offsite in another data center, anywhere in the world. All they need is the right connection.”

For more on what makes Host.net’s cloud computing offering different, go to: http://www.host.net/?pid=228

About Host.net

Host.net is a multinational provider of network infrastructure services focusing on colocation, cloud computing and storage, and network transport and transit for education, finance, government, healthcare, wholesale and carrier clients. The company operates multiple enterprise-class data centers connected to an extensive fiber-optic backbone delivering Internet, MPLS and layer 2 communications using a wide array of last-mile options. It serves customers in most major metropolitan regions of North America as well as portions of Europe. Founded in 1996, Host.net is headquartered in Boca Raton, FL. For more information, visit www.host.net .

Cloud Computing Journal

http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1262427

Computer Technology Review
Host.net combines DataCore Software, VMware and Cisco to offer software-based cloud computing service
DataCore Software Corp., a provider of storage virtualization, business continuity and disaster recovery software solutions, announced on Wednesday that its storage virtualization technology is powering the storage aspect of an all-virtual private data center (vPDC) platform developed by Host.net.

Business Solutions Magazine
http://www.bsminfo.com/article.mvc/Hostnet-Combines-Datacore-Software-Vmware-0001

Virtualization Journal
http://virtualization.sys-con.com/node/1262427

VMblog
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/01/26/host-net-combines-datacore-software-vmware-and-cisco-to-deliver-an-innovative-software-based-enterprise-cloud-computing-service.aspx

DataCore adds support for logical volumes up to 1 PB and the Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) standard

2010-01-11T08:16:00.001-05:00

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/storage-soup/datacore-adds-support-for-logical-volumes-up-to-1-pb/

DataCore kicked off 2010 with updates to its SANSymphony and SANMelody storage virtualization software, adding support for logical volumes up to 1 PB and the Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) standard...

DataCore director of product marketing Augie Gonzalez said that as with last year’s 1 TB “mega-cache” support, the logical limit is beyond where most customers will be looking to stretch today. But the previous 2 TB limit had grown impractical for making RAID sets out of the latest 1 TB and 2 TB SATA disks.

“The logical volume expansion and thin provisioning allows users to say, ‘I don’t care how big the volume will be in the future’,” Gonzalez said. “Rather than defining LUNs up front and then having to make changes later, you can immediately set up a large volume and expand the storage with no applicvation or infrastructure changes.”

A DataCore service provider customers says adding ALUA support will improve management in his storage environment. Joseph Stedler, director of data center engineering for cloud computing and managed IT service provider OS33, said he uses DataCore’s SANSymphony software to host back-end storage for his SMB customers. Right now SANSymphony is running on IBM System x servers in front of IBM DS3400 arrays and Xiotech Emprise 5000 storage devices, mirroring between redundant sets of the tiered hardware. The logical volume expansion will be especially helpful in cutting down on backup administration overhead, Stedler said.

“With two terabyte volumes, we had to present things in 2 terabyte chunks to our Veeam [backup] server,” he said. “With a larger primary volume we could have fewer backup targets to manage.”

Stedler said the addition of ALUA support will be even more important for creating multipath I/O in OS33’s VMware environment. “ALUA solves a major pain for everybody running DataCore with VMware,” he said. “The way VMware understood it before was active-passive only. DataCore was able to do active-active failover but with VMware you’d have to run multipathing with the most recently used path. The new release is fully compliant with ALUA, so VMware can view it as active-active.”

Stedler said he’s looking forward to the addition of more granular scripting capabilities for the software in future releases.

DataCore virtual storage area network meets backup, disaster recovery needs for Legal Firm

2010-01-07T07:18:00.001-05:00

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1373949_mem1,00.html?ShortReg=1&mboxConv=searchServerVirtualization_RegActivate_Submit&

With about 3 TB of virtualized server data and another 2 TB of email and database data that needed to be backed up daily, Montreal-based law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP faced a growing problem. Virtual storage area network backups were taking 24 to 48 hours, and not all of the data was getting backed up properly.

What was needed, said Marco Magini, a network system specialist for the firm, was an almost instantaneous backup system. The firm chose DataCore Software Corp.'s SANmelody software, a virtual storage area network (SAN) that's installed on one or two x86 servers. The servers become virtual storage controllers for large arrays of physical and virtual storage disks. Those disks are then moved to existing networks to send data to application servers, according to DataCore.

SANmelody solved several other IT challenges, including disaster recovery shortcomings and high-availability needs for virtualized servers, Magini said. "I was not looking for storage virtualization. We had plenty of storage to fill our needs." But once the application was installed, we uncovered a host of new unexpected capabilities, he said.

Stikeman Elliott started testing SANmelody in June 2008 and then deployed it into production last September. The 1,200-employee law firm is using the product in its Montreal headquarters and will roll it out to six other offices around the globe.

Magini said he's still finding new ways to get performance gains using SANmelody. "We started small," he said. "It's not that you don't have faith in the products, but when you are moving business-critical data, you want to be sure it can handle it."

SANmelody also allowed the IT department to make use of all types of unused legacy disks. When added to the system, SANmelody's management system views them as one massive disk for storage. That allowed Magini to reuse about 50 old 72 GB drives that were sitting on a shelf.

Mark Bowker, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., said it's not unusual for a planned server or storage virtualization project to affect other IT needs. "People typically begin projects for something as simple as server consolidation or resource utilization," Bowker said. "But they find other infrastructure is needed. Once they start rolling out virtualization, they find there are other benefits to be had," including disaster recovery and improved backup capabilities.

DataCore Software Adds Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) Option for SANmelody

2010-01-05T08:39:00.001-05:00

See ASR description:
http://www.datacore.com/downloads/ASRbackgrounder.pdf

DataCore Software Adds Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) Option for SANmelody
http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/15736/DataCore-Software-Adds-Advanced-Site-Recovery-ASR-Option-for-SANmelody/

New option will better address business continuity and disaster recovery needs of remote and branch offices.

Fort Laudedale, Fla.-based DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization, business continuity, and disaster recovery software solutions, is kicking off the new year by launching an Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) solution for SANmelody. The software is designed to work across both virtual and physical storage infrastructures to eliminate or minimize business disruptions and data loss attributed to planned and unforeseen site outages and disasters.

ASR was first developed around SANsymphony to enable larger data centers and organizations to simplify remote site recovery while leveraging readily available IT assets between different sites. In releasing ASR for SANmelody, DataCore is providing a more cost-effective solution for smaller businesses and remote site deployments.

ASR makes distributed disaster recovery (D-DR) flexibility more practical for all organizations, thereby opening the field of users to smaller businesses. ASR can be tailored to whatever a company's cost structure allows.

"With ASR, DataCore has developed a distributed and cost-effective way to have IT assets at remote offices and branch offices (ROBOs) take over for the main data center when the central machines are unable to meet processing obligations," explains Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software. "Whether that is during planned facility outage or an unexpected disaster makes no difference. There are major cost savings from repurposing ROBO IT assets and personnel for business continuity."

ASR for SANmelody builds on DataCore's universal storage virtualization software to move IT operations from a central site to one (or more) distributed contingency locations--and back again. While SANmelody ASR can be used between two sites, the far more likely scenario is a "hub and spoke" model in which a SANsymphony ASR license will be used in the central site, with connections to multiple remote offices/branch offices running SANmelody ASR.

This solution allows organizations to spread DR responsibilities across several smaller sites. Additionally, the solution makes no distinction between physical and virtual servers, unifying their DR operations in a common, automated process. And, ASR for SANmelody does not depend on duplicating equipment offsite, such as disk arrays and specialized networking gear.

DataCore Increases Virtual Disk Size to 1 PB
http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/15739/DataCore-Increases-Virtual-Disk-Size-to-1-PB/

Twitter: DataCore Software Super-Sizes Virtual Disks with Its Latest Storage: http://twitter.com/DataCore/status/7163944766

Virtual disk capacity leaps in response to greater storage demands http://www.prosecurityzone.com/Customisation/News/IT_Security/Backup_Data_Recovery_and_Disaster_Recovery/Virtual_disk_capacity_leaps_in_response_to_greater_storage_demands.asp

DataCore Software Super-Sizes Virtual Disks DataCore Software Super-Sizes Virtual Disks with Its Latest Storage Virtualisation Software Release
http://www.it-director.com/technology/storage/news_release.php?rel=15147

DataCore Super-Sizes Virtual Disks (Up to 1PB)
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/software/datacore-super-sizes-virtual-disks

DataCore Software Super-Sizes Virtual Disks with Storage Virtualization
http://au.sys-con.com/node/1232015

DABCC: DataCore Super-Sizes Virtual Disks
http://www.dabcc.com/channel.aspx?id=208

2 TB max VVol size ... busted!
http://www.datacore.com/forum/thread/785/re-2-tb-max-vvol-size-busted-.aspx#post787

Top News of the Day - DataCore Rocks in 2010 with 1 Petabyte Support

2010-01-04T10:30:00.003-05:00

THE TOP NEWS OF THE DAY
DataCore Super-Sizes Virtual Disks (Up to 1PB)
With its latest storage virtualization software
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/software/datacore-super-sizes-virtual-disks

DataCore Software responds to market demands, this time by stretching the size of its virtual disks from 2 Terabytes (TBs) to 1 Petabyte (PB).

“Rather than inch up to 4 or 16 TBs as others are considering, DataCore made the strategic design choice to blow the roof off the capacity ceiling with 1 Petabyte LUNs,” commented Augie Gonzalez, Director of Product Marketing, DataCore Software. “But we’re still frugal on the back-end, using thin-provisioning to minimize how much real capacity has to be in place day one.”

Performance wise, these immense virtual disks benefit from DataCore’s 1 TB per node, 64-bit 'mega-caches.' “You can be big, and very fast too,” added Gonzalez.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DataCore increases size of virtual disks - From two terabytes to one petabyte
http://www.cbronline.com/news/datacore_increases_size_of_virtual_disks_091229

DataCore boosts storage virtualization options
http://hosting.onestopclick.com/technology_news/datacore-boosts-storage-virtualization-options_19533397.htm

Computer Technology Review: DataCore increases virtual disks with latest storage virtualization software release
http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8127:datacore-increases-virtual-disks-with-latest-storage-virtualization-software-release&catid=231:storage-software&Itemid=2701181

Recent DataCore Tweets:
http://tweetmeme.com/search?q=datacore

Virtualization.com –

http://virtualization.com/news/2009/12/23/datacore-stretches-size-of-virtual-disks-to-1-petabyte/

InfoStor-

http://www.infostor.com/index/articles/display/4041920569/articles/infostor/business-briefs/2009/12/recent-announcements2.html

VMblog.com –

http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/12/23/datacore-software-super-sizes-virtual-disks-with-its-latest-storage-virtualization-software-release.aspx

DABCC -

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=12991

Virtualization Times -

http://www.virtualizationtimes.com/datacore-stretches-size-virtual-disks-1-petabyte

SANmelody Tunes -

http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2009/12/psp3-for-sanmelody-30-release.html

Virtualization Predictions: Desktop and Storage Virtualization are the next "Big Wave"

2010-01-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

David Marshall from Infoworld/VMblog has posted a series of interviews on 2010 predictions.
DataCore and 2 DataCore solution providers - Helixstorm and Mirazon Group share their outlook on 2010 trends. Read the full article at:

http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/12/31/desktop-and-storage-virtualization-are-the-next-big-wave.aspx

Desktop and Storage Virtualization are the next "big wave"

DataCore Software's CEO George Teixeira shares his viewpoint on 2010. Plus, representatives from two DataCore solution advisor partners weigh in on what they see coming in the virtualization space in 2010.

George Teixeira - President & CEO of DataCore Software

Prediction: Consolidation was the driver of the first wave of virtualization. In 2010, both storage and desktop virtualization will go mainstream.

Prediction: The growing cost disparity between Hypervisors and traditional SANs and shared storage arrays, needed to support virtual infrastructures, will slow down the pace of virtualization adoption.

Prediction: Microsoft Hyper-V has created another wave - the whole Microsoft world -that is embracing virtualization and this trend will continue to accelerate in 2010.

Prediction: This will be the year of virtual desktop proof of concepts (POCs) and pilots; greatest challenge to success is overcoming the cost of storage and the ability to scale storage effectively.

Prediction: Because virtual servers are starting to become a commodity - this puts even more importance on getting the storage piece right.

DataCore performance testing with Sun 'Thumper' server

2009-12-20T08:44:00.000-05:00

Recently had the chance to configure a SUN x4500 "Thumper" server with SANmelody 3.0.2 for connection to an VMware Vsphere4 environment. I was able to put together some basic benchmark numbers for this very interesting configuration which highlights the flexibility that DataCore software brings in designing storage solution to fit specific budget and storage requirements.See the complete post and results at SANmelody Tunes:http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

Network Computing Feature: WHY A STORAGE BACKBONE BENEFITS FROM HARDWARE INDEPENDENCE WHEN BUILDING A STORAGE VIRTUALISATION STRATEGY.

2009-12-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

http://networkcomputing.co.uk/articles/reviews.asp?a_id=253
From Network Computing Vol 18

Over the past 12 months as the credit crunch has deepened, organisations have sought alternatives from purchasing costly storage hardware. In turn, many have explored the adoption of software virtualisation to enable and optimise their storage. They have understood that software based Storage Area Networks (SAN) offer immediate advantages to the bottom line, invariably meaning that the IT Department can enable the project to progress, rather than be stopped at sign off. The Finance Manager has also seen that software based SANs enable the IT Manager to repurpose existing hardware, or to elect to buy lower cost hardware, as opposed to always chasing newer, high cost hardware, to get the required functionality.

The inherent beauty of storage virtualisation software is that it can bring high performance and high functionality along with hardware independence at lower investment and with lower operational costs. This approach can also be highly complementary to an IT Department's preferred hardware, giving an extra lease of life, or adding that extra functionality normally only available on highend disk arrays. So storage virtualisation, like server virtualisation, implies the use of software to overcome inherent hardware limitations, without regard to the make or model of the underlying storage devices; those who limit use of this powerful technology to a given hardware configuration, are doing the industry a disservice, setting users up for avoidable obsolescence. The central point of the debate lies not in hardware versus software, but in the hardware choices offered to run the storage virtualisation code, this year, next year, and the year after that.

Pick an appliance and your fate is sealed. The moment that appliance runs out of steam, be it processing power, I/O bandwidth or expansion slots, determines its end of life. The rate of change in the computer industry suggests that could be as short lived as 6 months. What would you say to anyone who told you that your server virtualisation license can only run on your current server? And that you have to buy a new license to move it to a bigger or faster server? Worse yet, that you have to buy them together from the same supplier, who only offers two models! And it only supports their "special" disks.

Pretty ridiculous, but that is exactly what storage virtualisation appliance vendors promote under the header of being 'factory integrated'.Does it matter whether you use Fibre Channel or iSCSI for a software based SAN? Both provide solutions for different needs today. Fibre Channel is very fast and easily outperforms iSCSI at the moment. It was designed and optimised for a SAN, and many companies have taken the jump and invested in Fibre Channel switches, Host Bus Adapters and storage, but it is costly compared to IP SANs where iSCSI uses NICs and switches that are commodity items, available at commodity prices. Often an enterprise that has already invested in Fibre Channel or needs the performance of Fibre Channel for its hightransaction and high workload applications also uses iSCSI for lower performance applications.

Using the existing skills in an organisation of IP Networks rather than the 'dark magic' of Fibre Channel, means that human resources are more readily available and their costs are invariably lower. But as technology moves forward and iSCSI speeds increase from 10Gbit to 100Gbit and eventually to 1Tbit, the cost differences will be minor, let alone looking at FCoE, and other network technologies of the future.

Once again, only a truly independent software virtualisation solution can work with all these technologies today and future proof the options for tomorrow. Those who have adopted a hardware appliance have done so at their own peril, playing the future-guess game and possibly limiting their business.

Deploying DataCore Storage Virtualization Software And Microsoft Hyper-V

2009-12-12T08:48:00.000-05:00

Deploying DataCore Storage Virtualization Software And Microsoft Hyper-V
http://www.datastorageconnection.com/article.mvc/The-Sweet-Smell-Of-Server-And-Storage-0001

"What we have found with the DataCore and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 + Hyper-V combination is a virtual infrastructure that is redundant, reliable, flexible and expandable," stated Mary Toupin, Office Manager, Northwest Wholesale Florists. "Moreover, the redundant storage with DataCore complements the redundancy built into the VM system. We are very pleased with the way the system has performed."

A Virtual Infrastructure that Combines Servers and Storage – with Live Migration Functionality

"Our IT environment is now comprised of a virtual infrastructure whereby DataCore SANmelody is deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. With a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster, our company now has the ability to live migrate our virtual machines (VMs). Because these VMs can ‘live migrate' between the two hosts, the DataCore-Hyper-V virtual infrastructure minimizes and even eliminates downtime – when we need to do system maintenance."

The original desire to upgrade its IT infrastructure was driven by the fact that NWF was moving to a new warehouse – and needed to do that while running operations from the existing warehouse. NWF looked to its partner to design a new IT infrastructure system and provide a smooth transition. In this case, there were a number of benefits in deploying Hyper-V, even before the release of Windows Server 2008 R2. However, after the R2 release of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V has been infused with live migration functionality – which was not in Hyper-V prior to R2. "As a reseller, the combination of DataCore with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V gives our firm and this customer a lot of flexibility," commented Scott Gorcester, President, Moose Logic, a solutions provider and DataCore partner in the Pacific Northwest. "Using DataCore storage virtualization combined with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V in joint configurations is already proving to be a great combination for both resellers and users alike."

Re-purposing Existing Hardware and Deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V

Knowing that there were two sound pieces of hardware that could be re-purposed, Moose Logic recommended a solution based on Windows Server 2008 R2 running Hyper-V. The firm built the customer two Hyper-V servers with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, running in a failover cluster. Coupled with the clustered pair of Hyper-V servers is a pair of DataCore SANmelody servers – one on an existing HP DL 380 G5 that was repurposed after adding new disk drives and more memory and the other on a new HP DL 380 G5 server to match the existing one. These G5 servers became the SAN nodes. This system went live at the customer's new location on October 1, 2009. Thirty-plus (30+) users benefit from the system daily.

Delivering Peace of Mind and Avoiding Unnecessary Downtime

"The bottom-line is that with the DataCore and Windows 2008 Server R2 with Hyper-V environment, NWF can weather multiple equipment failures and continue to run its business, which ultimately provides peace of mind because the virtual infrastructure avoids unnecessary downtime."

Host.net a BroadbandOne Company offers Cloud Computing Solution - VMware, DataCore and Cisco - vServers, vStorage and vNetworks

2009-12-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

Check out the new Cloud solution offering from Host.net. Virtual Servers & Virtual Storage for Enterprise Scalability: http://www.host.net/Uploads/HostnetCloudInsertV10.pdf

Barren County Schools Deploys DataCore Storage Virtualization to Support VMware and Provide a Complete Virtual Environment

2009-12-06T08:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=13668&result=datacore

"This is not one of those products where we were sold more than we bought," concluded Gumm. "With DataCore SANmelody, we bought more than we were sold. We are getting far more out of it than I thought we would, which is a wonderful thing."

"The biggest benefit for us was realizing a virtualized data infrastructure," stated Steve Gumm, IT director, Barren County Schools. "Because we adopted storage virtualization, we now have a front-end piece whereby we can deploy any hardware behind it that we want. We can bring in an additional SAN if we want – whatever vendor we choose – and still use the DataCore product. We can just fold those SANs into our infrastructure and it would be seamless to the end user. Beyond this – with DataCore we were able to repurpose old equipment."

"For all intents and purposes, we are 100% virtual," commented Gumm. Barren County Schools has two data centers – one primary and one secondary. VMware vSphere is currently running on two, new PowerEdge servers. The Xiotech storage arrays are in both data center locations – the primary one and the "offsite," or secondary, data center. The two locations contain a similar, mirrored, environment which includes two DELL vSphere servers and a Xiotech array which are attached to the SANmelody SAN server. To get to this, Barren County Schools migrated everything it had on an existing EMC SAN to the DataCore and Xiotech based SAN in a live environment using SANmelody to do so. The IT team mapped LUNs from the old SAN to the new SAN and while in production migrated all of the data to the new location.

DataCore Software: Who Invented Thin Provisioning for SANs?

2009-12-01T04:16:00.001-05:00

The original post on the subject on DrunkenData: http://www.drunkendata.com/?p=1162

More recently:

Check out DataCore Software, the company that invented thin provisioning. Yes, ‘invented’, the first company to ship the network-wide thin provisioning capability, ala a SNIA defined Sparse Volume, back in 2002, well before 3Par, the company credited with the term “thin provisioning”. DataCore and 3Par were several years ahead of and have several years more experience in, thin provisioning, than the competition.

DataCore also provides space reclamation for any host O.S. type and does what 3Par, Compellent, NetApp, HDS and all the other hardware centric storage providers DON’T do, DataCore allows the end user to choose who’s disk and what type of disk technology they want to use, freeing them from the shackles of the storage silo model of having to fill all those expansion trays and drive slots from the given company, where the first time buyer sweetheart deal is long gone.

Test Drive it now!Try thin provisioning with your disks or storage array, a 30 day trial download is available at: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp

Plus, given the fact it’s openly running on industry standard commodity hardware, it’s always at least a generation ahead of all the ’specialized’ array controller heads, that are also running on commodity hardware in reality. Add to that the flexibility that type of solution provides when it comes to adding interfaces (iSCSI, FC), increasing interface density, speed (the first 8Gb FC target and FCoE on the market), cache for performance accelleration, etc., you can’t find a better overall value.

Dave Brown: http://www.cinetica.it/2009/10/14/start-thin-stay-thin-think-thin/

Eweek: Live Migration Coming into Play in System Refreshes

2009-11-28T15:10:00.001-05:00

http://blogs.eweek.com/storage_station/content/general/live_migration_coming_into_play_in_system_refreshes.html Storage virtualization provider DataCore Software is now deploying its SANmelody system in conjunction with the second release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, working in clustered Hyper-V systems.

The news here is that a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster now has the ability to "live-migrate" the virtual machines, meaning two cluster nodes have read/write access to the disk at the same time. This wasn't possible in the first release.

The time and money savings of this feature are potentially significant. Live migration elicited a lot of interest recently when DataCore showcased its storage virtualization software at Microsoft's TechEd Europe show in Berlin.

"What this DataCore-Hyper-V setup does is to minimize or even eliminate downtime, when we need to make system changes," said Jack Weisberg, IT director of an early adopter, the New York law firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. "So far this system is working very nicely. Plus, everything is redundant. We have redundant storage with DataCore. And we have redundancy built into the VM system.

"When making the purchasing decision to replace some legacy hardware and software," Weisberg said it boiled down to DataCore's SANmelody versus an HP/LeftHand Networks system.
"In comparing both systems, we found both to be strong in terms of their capability of avoiding single points of failure," Weisberg said. "But I really like not being tied to specific hardware -- something DataCore enables. It was very important for us not to get locked into older platforms, when there is newer hardware available on the market that we could use with SANmelody."Using DataCore, the storage solution provider, P&J Computers, was able to use its preferred hardware of choice -- in this case, enterprise-class 6GB SAS drives. DataCore enabled administrators to add a couple of 10GB NICs (network interface cards) in these servers at a very low cost.

So, there's some real-world decision making at work. Is that something you're looking at for 2010?

DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Proves to Be a Great Fit for Microsoft Hyper-V and Cluster Deployments

2009-11-23T10:04:00.001-05:00

Case in Point - Law Firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/16/datacore-storage-virtualization-software-proves-to-be-a-great-fit-for-microsoft-hyper-v-and-cluster-deployments.aspx

DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Proves to Be a Great Fit for Microsoft Hyper-V and Cluster Deployments; Case in Point - Law Firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
Microsoft Hyper-V and DataCore Software's Storage Virtualization Are Winning New Customers Together by Successfully Powering Virtual Infrastructures

DataCore Software announced its SANmelody storage virtualization solution has been deployed along with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ at the law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. "McNamee/Lochner" is one of the largest law firms in Albany, New York. "The combination of DataCore with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for Hyper-V allowed us a lot of flexibility to deploy the best solution possible at McNamee/Lochner with the available hardware," stated Kelly M. Knowles, Network Engineer, P&J Computers, Inc.

Hardware Independence - Optimized by Virtualization

McNamee/Lochner had reached a point where the firm needed to increase its storage capacity. "Our storage was growing at a much faster rate than it had in the past," noted Jack Weisberg, IT director, McNamee, Lochner, Titus and Williams. "Moreover, the hardware that we were running on was out of warranty - so we were looking to get something new." Since 2004, the firm had been using a clustered SAN - an HP MSA 1000. Initially, a key requirement in a new system was something that had a solid approach to redundancy, as well as one that offered ease of expansion.

Whereas LeftHand Networks was an early front-runner, since it seemed a logical replacement to the MSA SAN, P&J Computers presented DataCore SANmelody to the firm as well. "In comparing both systems, we found both to be strong in terms of their capability of avoiding single points of failure," noted Weisberg. "But I really like not being tied to specific hardware - something DataCore enables. It was very important for us not to get locked into older platforms, when there is newer hardware available on the market that we could use with DataCore SANmelody."

With DataCore, P&J was able to their preferred hardware of choice - in this case enterprise-class disks 6 GB SAS drives. Knowles praised the ability of DataCore to enable administrators to add a couple of 10 GB NICs in these servers for a very low cost as "tremendous."

P&J Computers - Trusted Solution Providers
DataCore partner P&J Computers, Inc., a data storage and IT service provider, sees the DataCore and Microsoft Hyper-V combination to be not only a good fit - but a great opportunity for both resellers and users alike. It also showcases P&J Computers' ability to be one of the first to implement the latest Windows Server 2008 R2 technology, which was released to the manufacturer (RTM) in July and was just released publicly in October 2009.

P&J Computers is engaged in several accounts where they are deploying DataCore storage virtualization, Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V in joint configurations. What the partner saw in the new R2 release of Windows Server 2008 release was an opportunity for McNamee/Lochner to take some of the complexity out of its existing environment. What was imperative to making this possible was the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and the live migration functionality - which was not in Hyper-V prior to R2.

A Virtual Infrastructure - Combining Servers and Storage to Support Mission-Critical Applications

DataCore SANmelody is now deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. Moreover, with a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster McNamee/Lochner now has the ability to "live migrate" the virtual machines (VMs). Both cluster nodes have read/write access to the disk, at the same time. Running on this infrastructure, there are four (4) VMs that can "live migrate" between the two hosts. Currently, the second node at McNamee/Lochner is located onsite, albeit in a separate rack. "What this DataCore-Hyper-V set-up does is to minimize or even eliminate downtime, when we need to make system changes," noted Weisberg. "So far this system is working very nicely. Plus, everything is redundant. We have redundant storage with DataCore. And we have redundancy built into the VM system."

The multi-Terabyte data pool at McNamee/Lochner and the system is currently supporting 130 users. A third node - running Microsoft Data Protection Manager - is deployed for back-up. The applications McNamee/Lochner uses run on HP DL 380 G6s (dual processor, quad core with Nahalim). The 24 GB of memory can be expanded to 144 GB, if need be. "All the bread and butter applications for running McNamee/Lochner's business will run on this by year-end," noted Knowles.

The next phase of the migration will entail moving what was clustered on Windows 2003 on the old SAN into the virtual environment as well. Space is allocated and P&J Computers just needs to schedule a date to do the cut-over.

Value Protection That Meets Business Objectives
In embracing a virtualized approach, McNamee/Lochner is looking three or four years down the road. Therefore DataCore's "Carry Forward Value Protection Program" - which translates to "Buy - Upgrade - And only pay the difference" - is for McNamee/Lochner a real insurance policy, whereby they might look at new hardware and still keep the same software. "I love this policy that DataCore offers," commented Weisberg. "I am entitled to upgrade the hardware I use with DataCore storage virtualization software. Rather than be forced to scrap my MSA 1000 SAN when it is at its end-of-life, with DataCore I can just buy new hardware and I can continue to use the software - on any new environment I choose. I really think this is awesome."

"We were looking for something redundant, reliable, flexible and expandable," summarized Weisberg. "The DataCore-Hyper-V combination really fit our needs. I certainly like the virtual environment. I also really like having redundant storage. And having seamless failover was key for us as well."

About McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
Based in Albany, New York, McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams is one of the Capital Region's oldest and largest law firms with multiple practice areas ranging from civil litigation to business transactions, reflecting a diverse clientele. For more, visit www.mltw.com .

About P&J Computers, Inc
For connectivity, network and data center solutions, P&J Computers has served as a complete source for IT solutions since 1984. www.pjcomp.com .

DataCore Virtual SAN Appliance Software Lets Customers Experience New Migration and Clustering Features in Microsoft Hyper-V without Buying a New SAN

2009-11-20T06:10:00.000-05:00

http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=13508&result=datacore
DataCore Software says that customers who don't have a SAN can now experience new features in Microsoft Hyper-V including live migration, dynamic load balancing and high-availability, simply by downloading DataCore's pre-configured Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA).VSA makes it possible for two physical servers to share disks and that is something of great significance to Hyper-V users – since many Hyper-V capabilities require just that. The DataCore VSA comes in a standard VHD format for Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft Hyper-V.The VSA can be downloaded at http://www.datacore.com/msvsappliance/ .

Fully operational in just a few minutes With DataCore's Virtual SAN Appliance Microsoft Hyper-V users can quickly:

Utilize Microsoft virtualization environments with an iSCSI SAN created from their server's internal disks. No need for new hardware!
Pool up to 1 Terabyte of disk space "Thin Provision" storage to the virtual machines. See how much capacity it saves!
Leverage DataCore's "mega cache" capability – this speeds up performance for Exchange, SQL and others applications using surplus server memory to cache I/Os from the virtual SAN
Use Snapshots for Instant Volume Cloning and Fast Disk-to-Disk Backups Create a SAN from their server's internal disks

DataCore™ Virtualizes Storage for Microsoft Hyper-V Users "Why wait until you can roll in a SAN?" said Augie Gonzalez, Director of Product Marketing at DataCore Software. "When DataCore can virtualize the physical storage from internal or direct-attached disks to make it behave like a shared storage pool."

Microsoft Tech-Ed Virtualization Pavilion Showcases DataCore’s Advanced Site Recovery Software

2009-11-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=13495&result=datacore
http://www.it-director.com/technology/storage/news_release.php?rel=14301

DataCore Software was featured last week within the Microsoft Tech-Ed Virtualization pavilion. DataCore showcased its ground-breaking Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) solution for virtual and physical IT infrastructures. Unlike other site recovery approaches that are limited to a specific vendor's virtual machine recovery, DataCore ASR enables both physical and virtual servers to be protected across multiple sites. The combination of DataCore ASR and Microsoft Hyper-V™/ Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Failover and Clustering features enables businesses to embrace "real-world" Distributed Disaster Recovery (D-DR) – allowing organizations to cost-effectively spread disaster recovery (DR) responsibilities across several smaller sites.

Market Forces: New Virtualization Drivers; Comprehensive Solutions
Despite the tough economic times, Microsoft has noted recent studies which have reported that over 30% of businesses surveyed this year indicated DR will be their main driver for virtualization. These reports show a continued shift, as IT professionals look at addressing new challenges beyond test/dev and basic server consolidation scenarios in deploying virtualization technologies.

Microsoft has clearly recognized the importance of site recovery solutions in terms of addressing real-world user scenarios and the benefit of partnering to provide end-to-end solutions that together overcome the limitations of single-vendor, specific site recovery solutions such as VMware's SRM.

Microsoft and DataCore Software Combine to Address ‘Real-World' Site Recovery
Taking machines from one site and replicating them to another site before a calamity unfolds is not new. But buyer beware. Many other disaster recovery products are limiting in that they assume recovery, from one environment to an identical or very similar environment or they support only a subset of the infrastructure. Often physical servers are not supported or require a separate solution from applications and virtual servers. DataCore ASR enables users to execute site recovery operations in a way that is fundamentally different from existing solutions in the marketplace today by bringing the data center together into a single solution.

"The industry is conditioned to think of DR as a one-to-one proposition. This places unreasonable demands on a single recovery site that mirrors the main site," argues Augie Gonzalez, product marketing director at DataCore Software."But most organizations aren't structured that way. They look more like a hub and spoke, with smaller branches emanating from the central data center. For this reason, DataCore's Advanced Site Recovery distributes the disaster recovery workloads among these smaller entities, allowing each of them to accept a more manageable role in keeping the business going.

"The combination provides a cost-effective way to have IT assets at remote office and branch offices (ROBOs) take over for the main datacenter when the central machines are unable to meet processing obligations. Whether this is during planned facility outage or an unexpected disaster makes no difference.

"We recognize that economic pressures preclude all but the most affluent organizations from dedicating another mirror site to back up their main data center. So we've chosen to tap the horsepower available at the ROBOs during emergencies," adds Gonzalez. "Given a choice, customers will opt to run their business on systems in a remote office or branch office machine versus not doing business at all."The combination of DataCore's storage virtualization, ASR software and Microsoft supports site configurations where different physical servers and storage devices are used at ROBOs from those found at the central site, as is commonplace in most distributed organizations.

Create a virtual SAN for Hyper-V

2009-11-16T09:03:00.000-05:00

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid94_gci1374013,00.html#
DataCore released a version of its Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) this week for Microsoft Hyper-V environments. The product allows customers to access Hyper-V features such as live migration, dynamic load balancing and high availability without having to purchase an external storage area network (SAN) storage.

Using locally attached internal disk drives, the DataCore VSA creates a virtual iSCSI SAN that can pool up to 1 TB of capacity. VSA includes the ability to "thin provision" VM storage to save capacity, create snapshots for instant volume cloning and speed up application performance by leveraging surplus server memory.

DataCore VSA comes as a virtual appliance in Microsoft-standard Virtual Hard Disk format, and can be downloaded from the DataCore website for a free 30-day trial.

School district maintains uptime with Xiotech, DataCore

2009-11-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

Storage Technology News: http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1373639,00.html
"We can manage whatever maintenance needs to be done, whenever we need it," Gumm says of his new setup. "The biggest benefit coming down the road is we're not going to have to do forklift upgrades. When it comes time to add storage, we won't have to rip out the unit. We can add to the unit and allow DataCore to manage where we move data to."

DataCore Software Updates Storage Virtualization Free Trial Software; Performance Acceleration, Migration Tools + iSCSI, Fibre Channel, FCoE Support

2009-11-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/03/datacore-software-updates-storage-virtualization-free-trial-software-includes-performance-acceleration-migration-tools-and-support-for-iscsi-fibre-channel-and-fcoe.aspx
DataCore Software announced that it has updated its Free Trial software, which is architected to optimize and manage users’ storage. This free trial of SANmelody™ iSCSI, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel SAN evaluation software, comes with performance acceleration, content migration, snapshot and thin provisioning – all included. The evaluation software enables data centers and IT departments to consolidate and maximize their disk capacity utilization. SANmelody simplifies management and leverages existing storage hardware and networking to efficiently serve the storage needs for Windows, Netware, MacOS, UNIX, and Linux systems as well as Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtual servers and desktops.

The Free Trial software http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp supports group snapshot and cloning, simple content migration and iSCSI and Fibre Channel as well as FCoE.

FCoE Connectivity - Access Fibre Channel storage pool via the LAN switching infrastructure. Application servers and other storage consumers can now access SANmelody nodes equipped with Fibre Channel SAN connections using their Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs). This capability takes advantage of the new Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocol and FCoE-compliant switches.

Group Snapshot and Clone Command - Synchronize online snapshots across inter-dependent volumes. This capability coordinates multiple snapshots to occur at the same time across a group of related volumes. It ensures point-time synchronization of file systems and application data that reside on different disks. Fast and efficient disk-to-disk backups across volumes are greatly simplified – plus it ensures that clones created on new equipment are an exact replica of their predecessor.

Content Migration - Relocate active drives into the virtual storage pool. This feature enables existing drives formatted with NTFS file systems to be incorporated easily into the SANmelody storage pool. These physical drives are first un-mounted from the application servers where they were once active, and then reconnected behind a SANmelody node. The SANmelody node acts as an intermediary between the application server and these drives. To take full advantage of SANmelody advanced virtualization features, their contents may be copied to virtual disks using snapshots. The relocated drives can then be wiped clean and included in the physical storage pool as additional capacity, or they may be decommissioned.

See the following announcement on recent DataCore SANmelody enhancements – link: http://www.datacore.com/pressroom/pr_live.asp?date=10/14/2009

SANmelody Free Trial Software with iSCSI + FCoE + FC SAN Support: Try It Now!

DataCore SANmelody software converts standard Intel/AMD servers, blades or virtual machines (VMs) into fully capable SAN-wide storage servers that virtualize disks and serve them over existing networks to application servers. For a FREE 30-day trial go to: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp.

With the SANmelody evaluation software, users can:

· Pool up to 1 Terabyte of disk space.
· Support a mix of iSCSI/Ethernet, FCoE and Fibre Channel connectivity.
· Speed up application performance with “Mega-Caching” – using surplus server memory to cache I/Os from the virtual SAN.
· "Thin Provision" storage.
· Use Snapshots for Instant Volume Cloning and Fast Disk-to-Disk Backups
· Create a SAN from your server's internal disks. No need for new hardware!

Special Offer: Go Beyond the Evaluation “Free Trial” Package with a Feature-Packed, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery SAN Software

For users who need to go beyond the “starter” Free Trial version because their requirements are more demanding, DataCore is offering special promotions on “Feature-Packed SAN Software,” which provide additional, more advanced features such as auto-failover, high-availability mirroring and asynchronous IP Mirroring.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody_buy.asp
For info on Customer Promotions: http://www.datacore.com/customerprograms/ or contact DataCore directly at: info@datacore.com

SearchStorage: School district maintains uptime - DataCore SAN Management plus Xiotech

2009-11-08T07:16:00.000-05:00

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1373639,00.html
The Barren County, Ky., school district discovered it could make good use of management features such as thin provisioning and remote mirroring even if they're not included natively with its storage arrays. As part of a virtualization project, the district installed an Emprise 5000 storage system from Xiotech Corp. and DataCore Software Corp.'s SANmelody software to increase uptime and decrease the impact of maintenance on its users.

Barren County school district includes around 4,600 students and 700 faculty. IT Director Steve Gumm and his team handle a high school, middle school, seven elementary schools, the board office, a day care location and four other buildings...

Gumm revamped his storage setup over the summer after the district virtualized all 30 of its servers with VMware. Gumm thought it would be a good time to modernize his storage network, which consisted of a four-year-old EMC iSCSI SAN. The district first went to its server vendor Dell and took a look at an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. But Gumm wasn't comfortable with the idea of failing over between EqualLogic controllers in different sites during frequent network upgrades.

...Barren installed two 16 TB Fibre Channel systems in separate buildings and Gumm uses SANmelody to manage them with the uptime he wants.

"With SANmelody, we can thin provision those SANs," he said. "We're not utilizing all the space, and thin provisioning lets us use just what is needed at the time. We also use it for data mirroring between both locations. If we need to do maintenance or I need to re-boot my SAN for whatever reason, we drop the SAN here, failover, do our maintenance, failback, and we're up and going."...

"We can manage whatever maintenance needs to be done, whenever we need it," Gumm says of his new setup. "The biggest benefit coming down the road is we're not going to have to do forklift upgrades. When it comes time to add storage, we won't have to rip out the unit. We can add to the unit and allow DataCore to manage where we move data to."

Homecare Homebase deploys DataCore storage virtualization solutions

2009-10-30T10:10:00.000-04:00

Homecare Homebase [HCHB] deploys DataCore storage virtualization solutions
...HCHB empowers the homecare and hospice industry to be more effective in providing healthcare to patients. Currently 4,375 office workers and over 11,000 field agents rely on applications running on HCHB’s IT systems infrastructure. Everything HCHB customers do is mobile and all of the applications HCHB offers these agents in the homecare industry are both mobile and real-time.

“The combination of the VMware platform along with the DataCore SAN has really given us a lot of flexibility to more rapidly deploy consistent images of systems – especially in the Citrix farm,” explained Chris Kane, director of technical operations, Homecare Homebase. “In addition, the VMware-DataCore combination has given us much improved VMotion capability – where the SAN enables us to do maintenance on the host in the middle of the day, if we have to.”

...“We quickly outgrew the storage we had – both in terms of the amount of space presented by those units as well as the performance of those units,” noted Kane.HCHB has a big Microsoft SQL Server shop and tended to back-up its customer information using these snap units at each site to replicate for disaster recovery purposes. According to Kane, the units were just not able to keep up with the back-up planning and also the synchronization of the data. “The storage we had before DataCore became troublesome,” commented Kane. “We were in desperate need, not only of space, but also of reliable storage.”

...On its own, HCHB looked at EqualLogic from Dell, LeftHand from HP, as well as EMC and NetApp.Noted Kane, “The DataCore SAN solution suits our IT administrative style better than the other solutions we saw. The more we looked at traditional SAN solutions – encompassing hardware, software and professional services – for us, these weren’t the type of solutions that we have typically dealt with. We have a lot of skilled technology people in house and we like to be able to get our hands on every piece of technology we bring in. The fact that DataCore is Windows-based gives us a little more control – particularly being able to manage the hardware ourselves. Moreover, DataCore gave us a full, high availability solution. Not to mention that DataCore is very competitive price-wise – so all of this made DataCore the best choice for us.”

...Virtualizing the Citrix environment with VMware and DataCore running in tandem has provided a real, tangible benefit in terms of system maintenance and administration. Before – with the physical, Citrix environment, the IT team at HCHB was very limited in terms of what they could do with those systems during the working day.“Just the patch management aspect of keeping up with all the physical boxes has been greatly improved in the virtual environment because we can deploy patch templates versus having to constantly update from Microsoft or other vendors,” added Kane.With the SAN in place, the virtual environment at HCHB has delivered real benefits to customers and system administrators alike. These benefits are a direct result of the improvements made possible through these new virtualization capabilities. For instance, HCHB as a whole is able to roll out new services more rapidly and consistently. The current databases and applications that HCHB uses internally to run its business, such as file servers (documentation that support internal needs) or Microsoft Office Sharepoint (that supports customers), have benefited, either directly or indirectly, from the VMware virtual infrastructure and the DataCore storage virtualization SAN.

...“It has been very rapid growth for us recently,” summarized Kane. “And I am very, very happy with the performance we are getting both out of VMware and the DataCore SAN at this point. The SAN has made a world of difference to us. There were many choices for a SAN – from a variety of SAN vendors. For us, DataCore was the right fit. DataCore gives us the ability to select and maintain the hardware of our own choice. It gives us the ability to have a fully redundant, highly available SAN – not just at the controller-level, but at the storage-level itself. That, combined with the price point DataCore’s portable SAN software offers – even when having to purchase hardware and licensing – is still much more effective than anything else we found on the market.”

DataCore Piles on Resources for VARs

2009-10-23T08:09:00.000-04:00

http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/14641/DataCore-Piles-on-Resources-for-VARs/;jsessionid=BF7AD2B261245AC04F57A62E1A43EC16
In the last several months, storage virtualization and recovery innovator DataCore Software has initiated new services and support as well as new products to help SMBs optimize storage solutions.

DataCore SAN Software carries out storage virtualization projects in CA hospitals

2009-10-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

Disaster recovery news briefs
http://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid190_gci1371655,00.html
DataCore SAN Software carries out storage virtualization projects in CA hospitals
DataCore Software announced that a southern California partner, Far West Technologies, has implemented solutions that give compliance, virtualization and business continuity to two hospitals: Anaheim Memorial Medical Center and San Gabriel Valley Medical Center. Using DataCore SAN software, the hospitals were able to carry out a storage virtualization project and implement a high-availability storage area network (SAN). Also, the clinical center was able to use over 15 TB from a mix of SATA and FC disk subsystems, as well as integrate their Oracle databases and Microsoft Exchange into the SAN.

DataCore Video - 6 years old - content applies

2009-10-22T12:07:00.001-04:00

DataCore Video - 6 years old - content applies
Take a look at the following video from DataCore Software created over 6 years ago, the content in this clip is more relevant today that ever. It demonstrates how far ahead DataCore Software was at that time and shows that their core ...DataCore SANmelody tunes - http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/

New Capabilities for DataCore SANmelody

2009-10-22T12:06:00.000-04:00

New Capabilities for DataCore SANmelody
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/software/datacore-sanmelody-30
Aimed at SMBs eager to upgrade their disk subsystems and storage network infrastructure