Monday, February 15, 2010

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


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.