DataCore CEO Talks Virtualization at VMworld
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
DataCore Software: Fujitsu Maximizes Business Continuity and Flexibility of Cloud Storage Architectures with DataCore Storage Virtualization
A Fujitsu-Qualified Integration of DataCore SANsymphony™ with Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY Products Will Provide Customers with More Interoperable and Flexible Solutions and Options for Customized Storage Infrastructures
DataCore Software announced that 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.”
Additional links –
Fujitsu Press Release: Fujitsu Maximizes Flexibility of Cloud Storage Architectures with DataCore storage virtualization http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/.
Friday, September 3, 2010
VMworld 2010: DataCore Showcases Why Its Storage Virtualization and Stretch High-Availability Software Eliminates Business Outages that Jeopardize Cloud Computing
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."
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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
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) www.ashp.org/ 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 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!”
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.”
Friday, August 27, 2010
Stop by and Visit DataCore Booth 1607 at VMworld - DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Makes Clouds Happy.
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.
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.
Monday, August 23, 2010
DataCore virtualizes FusionIO SSDs, HP storage arrays into SAN for NIEDAX GROUP
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.”
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.”
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saginaw Intermediate School District Deploys a Flexible, Virtualized Cloud Infrastructure Using DataCore and VMware
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.
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.
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/27/saginaw-intermediate-school-district-deploys-a-flexible-virtualized-cloud-infrastructure-using-datacore-vmware-and-xiotech.aspx
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/27/saginaw-intermediate-school-district-deploys-a-flexible-virtualized-cloud-infrastructure-using-datacore-vmware-and-xiotech.aspx
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Total Wine Taps DataCore Software to Virtualize Storage, Enhance Its EMC SAN Investment and Add High-Availability for Microsoft Hyper-V Platforms
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
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 and we were out of disk space and we 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 is now totaling 10 TBs. In terms of the user community, that is divided between 230 users at total Wine's 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 Wine's 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 not only to grow in terms of the size of the user community it supported but in terms of performance, simultaneously. 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 don't 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 don't 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 Wine's 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 DataCore's "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 Wine's 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 that resource utilization is crucial to the retail model. "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 .
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 and we were out of disk space and we 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 is now totaling 10 TBs. In terms of the user community, that is divided between 230 users at total Wine's 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 Wine's 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 not only to grow in terms of the size of the user community it supported but in terms of performance, simultaneously. 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 don't 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 don't 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 Wine's 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 DataCore's "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 Wine's 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 that resource utilization is crucial to the retail model. "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 .
Monday, August 9, 2010
Real-world Success with DataCore Storage Virtualization Software
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/07/j4-systems-sees-datacore-software-as-pivotal-to-an-overall-virtualization-strategy.aspx
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."
“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.”
Real-world Success with DataCore Storage Virtualization Software: In addition to Rocklin Unified School District and Ahtna Government Services Corporation, other J4 Systems customers that have already reaped the rewards of cost-savings, flexibility, productivity and risk mitigation include American Building Supply, AWI Management Corporation, 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 Corporation, 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 DataCores 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."
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."
“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.”
Real-world Success with DataCore Storage Virtualization Software: In addition to Rocklin Unified School District and Ahtna Government Services Corporation, other J4 Systems customers that have already reaped the rewards of cost-savings, flexibility, productivity and risk mitigation include American Building Supply, AWI Management Corporation, 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 Corporation, 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 DataCores 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."
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2010: Visit the DataCore Booth - Is that Steve Ballmer?
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Virtualization Partners See DataCore Software as Pivotal to an Overall Virtualization Strategy
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."
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."
Friday, July 2, 2010
Wimbledon 2010: The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Takes Advantage of DataCore Virtualization for Flexible Storage Provisioning and Disaster Recovery
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.”
Thursday, July 1, 2010
DataCore Software Wins 2010 Storage Award for "Virtualization Product of the Year"
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
Monday, June 28, 2010
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 ]
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 ]
Monday, June 21, 2010
American Health Network: Fail-safe Tested DataCore supports Citrix environment
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,” comments Stuart Donnelson, data centre server manager, American Health Network.
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.”
“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,” comments Stuart Donnelson, data centre server manager, American Health Network.
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.”
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Photos from Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software, Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers
Customers showcased 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. 
For more info: Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers to the 3rd Dimension
Monday, June 7, 2010
At Tech-Ed 2010 – Metro Clustering Using Microsoft and DataCore
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 .
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 .
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Serious about High-availability? Eliminate Storage-related Downtime, Not Just Hardware Device Failures
Storage Switzerland White Paper: http://www.datacore.com/downloads/SeriousHA.pdf
The economic downturn is no time to compromise on data availability, especially when storage virtualization software has made it possible to eliminate costly, storage-related downtime without paying a premium.
If you are serious about high availability, look for storage virtualization software that provides the ability to stretch the two mirrored locations, potentially several kilometers apart yet still present mirrored virtual disks to applications as if they were single, high-performance drives.
The economic downturn is no time to compromise on data availability, especially when storage virtualization software has made it possible to eliminate costly, storage-related downtime without paying a premium.
If you are serious about high availability, look for storage virtualization software that provides the ability to stretch the two mirrored locations, potentially several kilometers apart yet still present mirrored virtual disks to applications as if they were single, high-performance drives.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Visit DataCore Software at Microsoft Tech Ed in New Orleans, June 7 – 10
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· Join thousands of customers worldwide and Go Virtual! with DataCore storage virtualization software
We look forward to seeing you! The DataCore Software Team
Friday, May 28, 2010
Citrix and DataCore: American Health Network Adds DataCore Storage Virtualization Software
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
New Paper: Virtualization – Did You Overlook Storage?
“With the spotlight on server, desktop and application virtualization, it is easy to forget that your approach to data storage must also change.” Download: Virtualization – Did You Overlook Storage?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Citrix TV showcases latest videos from Synergy 2010 on DataCore; Virtualization is 3 Dimensional
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
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
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Solution resilience: What is DataCore High Availability with Synchronous Mirroring?
Check out the posts on SANmelody Tunes:
High Availability - Where is your weakest link?
It surprises me how often I see companies spending money (large amounts) on technology to make their core business applications resilient to infrastructure failure, but fail to build redundancy into all critical infrastructure components. See complete post and diagrams at:
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2010/04/high-availability-where-is-your-weakest.html
So, what is DataCore High Availability with Synchronous Mirroring?
In simple terms, DataCore HA with Synchronous Mirroring protects and ensures data from ANY single component failure in the storage solution, including environmental, back-end disks, DataCore storage controllers and IO channels.
Not only that, but additional levels of redundancy can be achieved at each layer of the storage network....read the full post and examine a number of failure scenarios at:
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2010/04/datacore-solution-resilience.html
Failure resilience scenario's
A Healthy Solution:
Two node configuration, redundant mirror channels, redundant disk channels, redundant app channels.
Can be geographically separated - Whether racks, rooms, building, states.
High Availability - Where is your weakest link?
It surprises me how often I see companies spending money (large amounts) on technology to make their core business applications resilient to infrastructure failure, but fail to build redundancy into all critical infrastructure components. See complete post and diagrams at:
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2010/04/high-availability-where-is-your-weakest.html
So, what is DataCore High Availability with Synchronous Mirroring?
In simple terms, DataCore HA with Synchronous Mirroring protects and ensures data from ANY single component failure in the storage solution, including environmental, back-end disks, DataCore storage controllers and IO channels.
Not only that, but additional levels of redundancy can be achieved at each layer of the storage network....read the full post and examine a number of failure scenarios at:
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2010/04/datacore-solution-resilience.html
Failure resilience scenario's
A Healthy Solution:
Two node configuration, redundant mirror channels, redundant disk channels, redundant app channels.
Can be geographically separated - Whether racks, rooms, building, states.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
DataCore at Citrix Synergy 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Citrix Projects to the 3rd Dimension; Going Beyond Servers and Desktops to Virtualize Storage
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
New White Paper: Metro Clusters and Virtualization; Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites
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
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
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
DataCore Virtualization Ensures Uptime and Makes Metro Clusters Possible for Continuum Health Partners – One of the Largest Health Care Providers in the U.S.A.
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 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
Monday, May 10, 2010
Storage Insights: Virtualizing Your Storage Along with Servers and Desktops
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.
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.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Meet DataCore at Citrix Summit & Synergy 2010! Virtualize your Desktops and Virtualize Your Storage.
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
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
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Drive Down Server Virtualization’s Storage Costs
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.
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.
Monday, March 29, 2010
New DataCore and Hyper-V White Paper: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites
Failover Cluster support in Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V provides a powerful mechanism to minimize the effects of planned and unplanned server downtime. It coordinates live migrations and failover of workloads between servers through a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV). The health of the cluster depends on maintaining continuous access to the CSV and the shared disk on which it resides.
In this paper: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites
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.
In this paper: Uninterrupted Access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Synchronously Mirrored Across Metropolitan Hot Sites
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.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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…Read More!
Friday, March 19, 2010
DataCore Software's SANmelody Storage Virtualization Solution Wins 2010 Network Computing Award: Wins Storage Product of the Year
DataCore Software's SANmelody Storage Virtualization Solution Wins 2010 Network Computing Award: Wins Storage Product of the Year
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.
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.
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.
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