Anchors Away! DataCore Storage Virtualization and SAN Solutions Run 'Hardware-Free' on Virtual Machines


Storage Solutions Join Business Applications in the Movement to 'Run Virtual'

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept 10 / / -- Leading storage virtualization vendor, DataCore Software, today announced support for implementing its storage virtualization and SAN management solutions as "virtual servers" - running on many different server virtualization platforms, such as those from VMware, Xensource, Microsoft and Virtual Iron. The implications of creating a DataCore(TM) virtual SAN storage server on a virtual server, sometimes referred to as a "virtual machine" or "VM," are meaningful in terms of savings through consolidation and in the new opportunities it affords for practical collaboration between the DataCore software and the server virtualization platforms. Even more significant is what this represents to the continuing evolution of the market away from fixed, single purpose, hardware-based storage solutions to flexible, hardware- independent, software-based storage solutions and infrastructures.

According to Arun Taneja, Founder, president and consulting analyst of the Taneja Group, "What DataCore has done here by putting DataCore virtual storage servers on virtual machines is a subtle way of further emphasizing that its hardware independent software solutions can go places and do things that hardware-based solutions can't because of their physicality and built-in limitations on the other devices and systems with which they will work. This will not be lost on the server virtualization players, like VMware, Microsoft and Xensource, and is likely to spur opportunities for technical and commercial collaboration with DataCore."

ANCHORS AWAY! Changing Requirements Demand Flexibility and Software Portability

"Certainly the biggest anchor on the virtualization of enterprise infrastructures has been the physical configurations and complex mapping schemes of storage subsystems and network topologies," said Ziya Aral, CTO and Chairman, DataCore Software. "It is here that the uniqueness of the DataCore solution becomes readily apparent - with DataCore, the storage server is of the same genus as the applications it serves. Both strain to slip their hardware bonds in the desire to achieve true portability."

"The release of DataCore's SANmelody(TM), Traveller(TM) and SANsymphony(TM) as virtual servers has a symbolic significance for that reason alone," continued Aral. "It underscores what has been a dominant reality for over half a dozen years - that storage servers are today identical to all other servers in that they exist primarily as storage applications running on ever more standard hardware."

'One Size Almost Never Fits All' - Constant Reconfiguration of Hardware is Necessary

"But, this symbolism also underscores a far more important reality," stated Aral. "The very same reasoning that drives server virtualization for all other applications also drives server virtualization for storage. Indeed, because storage is usually a part of the implementation of most other application strategies, virtualizing storage is more important. The same drivers apply here in spades: portability, the ability to consolidate or disperse storage services, the constant reconfiguration necessary for optimal solutions - each of these yields tremendous advantages in today's IT environments. Yes, there are moments when a perfect match may be achieved by matching one storage server to a particular hardware platform. Yet, how long does this happy match last? Inevitably, changing requirements turn this into the example which proves the rule - in data centers today, one size almost never fits all."

DataCore Storage Virtualization: The Storage Foundation for a Smarter World(TM)

DataCore storage virtualization software provides cost-effective, SAN and storage solutions for businesses and environments of all sizes and complexity, including comprehensive and automated storage management and control, thin provisioning, disaster recovery, auto fail-over high availability and Continuous Data Protection (CDP), among others. Like VMware, Citrix and its other virtualization cousins, DataCore is "hardware independent" software; it runs on any standard server. DataCore storage virtualization software works with nearly all storage hardware and can serve that storage to Windows, MacOS, Linux, UNIX, Solaris, AIX, and Netware servers, whether physical or virtual.

The innovation of running a DataCore storage virtualization server on a virtual machine is subject to the same considerations of resource commitment present whenever running any application on a virtual machine is contemplated. DataCore believes that DataCore storage virtualization on virtual servers will have a number of practical applications in the large number of small business and other environments in which storage production demands and application server utilization will comfortably accommodate such cohabitation in exchange for stretching IT budgets. It will also reduce cost and eliminate other barriers that have hampered server virtualization deployment. It radically simplifies SAN infrastructures and shared storage for VMs.

Breaking Through the Hardware Barriers

This breakthrough represents yet another way that DataCore customers and partners can exercise creativity confidently in implementation design. Test labs and development groups can also easily set up complete virtual environments including servers and SAN storage in minutes. In addition, DataCore's solution providers gain the advantage of being able to rapidly and easily set up proofs of concept (POCs) to demonstrate the advantages of going virtual.

"DataCore doesn't tie the customer to hardware as the price for gaining storage functions and services," said Tom Zorn, executive vice president, co- founder and technology visionary of Alternative Technology, a leading North American specialty distributor for value-added resellers. "Their software makes each solution an open-network service available to any of the constituents on the network. Hardware no longer defines or limits the solution and where it can go. Instead, with the DataCore storage foundation in place, hardware plays a supporting role, giving customers maximum flexibility and freedom to match hardware to their needs, budgets and preferences, without sacrificing the solution. DataCore blows the lid off the possible choices, giving our solution providers more to work with and, thus, more opportunities to add value in their engagements."

DataCore Transforms Virtual Machines into a Virtual Infrastructure Foundation

For more information on running DataCore's Virtual Infrastructure Foundation on your VM server, please visit: www.datacore.com/VMstoragefoundation.

Come and meet DataCore at VMworld 2007, September 11-13th in Booth 215.

About DataCore Software

DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore's disk server software easily adds capacity expansion and centralized storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, VMware, MacOS, and NetWare systems. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information, call (877) 780-5111 or visit www.datacore.com.

DataCore, the DataCore logo, SANsymphony and SANmelody are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: DataCore Software

Web site: www.datacore.com/VMstoragefoundation
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