Suite of portable, layered software services removes hardware dependencies.
DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization software, announced today major enhancements to its centrally-managed SANsymphony™- V solution. Combined, these new features elevate SANsymphony-V to the role of storage hypervisor, placing customers in the unique position to fully leverage their existing storage assets, including direct-attached storage (DAS), storage area networks (SAN) and solid state disks (SSD), and negotiate the best deals among competing storage manufacturers without concern for long-standing hardware vendor lock-ins.
“The sprawl and multiplication of storage systems and the rising number of specialty devices are now the norm. The intelligence of a storage hypervisor provides a strategic advantage to managing the many as one,” said George Teixeira, president and CEO of DataCore Software. “SANsymphony-V enables users to take control of how their storage infrastructure evolves versus being subject to the dictates of tactical point-in-time decisions.”
SANsymphony-V 8.1 is a portable, centrally-managed software suite capable of enhancing the combined value of multiple disk storage systems, including the many purpose-built storage appliances and SSD type devices arriving to the market daily. The storage hypervisor supplements the individual capabilities of specialized equipment with a broad range of device-independent, integrated services. The new release adds:
- Automated Storage Tiering to maximize price/performance of available storage assets
- Open APIs, VSS and PowerShell support for greater management integration
- Expanded Microsoft Failover Cluster support for greater scalability
SANsymphony-V also features an improved, highly integrated and enhanced suite of services, including:
- Adaptive Caching for performance acceleration
- Thin Provisioning for space efficiency
- Synchronous Mirroring for high-availability
- Asynchronous Replication for remote sites and disaster recovery (DR)
- Low-Impact Online Snapshots for high-speed disk to disk backup
- Pass Through Disks for non-disruptive migrations
- Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for any point in time backup and recovery
- Unified Storage for managing file shares (NAS) and SANs
This comprehensive set of storage control and monitoring functions provide a transparent, virtual layer across consolidated disk pools to improve the availability, speed and utilization of contemporary data centers as well as private, public and hybrid clouds.
Optimal Use of Equipment
Given the specialized nature of today’s storage hardware, the need to optimally harness these diverse resources has become imperative. DataCore’s storage hypervisor intelligently oversees the allocation of capacity from DAS, SAN-connected arrays and board-level SSD with equal ease.
The just released device-independent auto-tiering feature illustrates the power and scope of one of the many centrally-managed SANsymphony-V functions that work infrastructure-wide. It dynamically selects which class of storage device best suits each workload, promoting the most demanding activity to the faster, higher performance units for quickest response. SANsymphony-V factors in all the equipment in the resource pool, ranging from quicker SSDs to low-cost, high capacity SATA drives, based on site preferences.
Managed with Ease
DataCore provides a single pane of control for its storage hypervisor with an intuitive graphical user interface. The comprehensive management tools make it simple to direct the wide variety of storage equipment as if it were one homogeneous collection. Administrators are guided by automated wizards that implement best practices gained over a decade of experience in large, multi-vendor data centers. Also new in this release is a complete open application programming interface (API) used to coordinate SANsymphony-V actions and notifications with other workflows in the data center.
Efficiency and Productivity
“DataCore’s storage hypervisor significantly improves system performance and extends the life of our existing storage investments. The infrastructure-wide features fill in for missing device level functionality while efficiently automating and simplifying administration,” said Dave Patel, chief operating officer, CompuTech City. “From the standpoint of future hardware expansion and refreshes, DataCore gives us a powerful bargaining chip to shop for the best value without being locked in by choices we made in the past.”
Akin to Server Hypervisors
Consistent with the freedom and flexibility offered by hypervisors when choosing server hardware, DataCore SANsymphony-V software insulates IT operations from the hardware attributes of the underlying disk systems. This is accomplished by layering the most prized storage services across the available storage devices in a uniform manner, making the choice of hardware devices largely interchangeable.
Conceptually, the storage hypervisor is situated between hosts and disks where it provides more effective and flexible use from existing and future storage investments than if the devices were connected directly and employed in isolation. The software executes on physical and virtual servers or can co-reside with server hypervisors. The storage hypervisor is portable across all these platforms.
As importantly, DataCore’s storage hypervisor allows storage equipment to be easily upgraded, expanded and replaced non-disruptively, while associated data migrations take place silently in the background, without any awkward scheduling of downtime.
Hardware Independence
“Server hypervisors from the likes of VMware and Microsoft have changed the game for users in their selection and exploitation of computing platforms by making them simultaneously more flexible and practically interchangeable. DataCore’s SANsymphony-V storage hypervisor brings those same advantages to storage infrastructures by leveraging the full potential of – and often adding extra capabilities to – the collective strength of existing storage devices, without relying on some unlikely level of co-operation among the storage vendors,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.
Pricing and Availability
SANsymphony-V Release 8.1 is available now.
Software licenses for a fully redundant, high-availability configuration start under $10,000 U.S.D., including annual 24x7 technical support.
Storage Hypervisor Definition
A storage hypervisor is a portable, centrally-managed software package used to enhance the combined value of multiple disk storage systems, including dissimilar and incompatible models, by supplementing their individual capabilities with extended provisioning, replication and performance acceleration services. Its comprehensive set of storage control and monitoring functions operate as a transparent virtual layer across consolidated disk pools to improve their availability, speed and utilization.
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