DataCore Tackles Storage Virtualization Barrier

Targeting the midmarket, DataCore Software is addressing what it calls the biggest barrier to widespread adoption of virtualization: storage. The infrastructure ISV says that its SANsymphony-V storage virtualization software enables data centers to use existing equipment and conventional storage devices, instead of the rip-and-replace approaches being proposed to support desktop and server virtualization projects.

Two years in development, the software uses adaptive caching and performance-boosting techniques to absorb wildly variable workloads while simultaneously removing storage as a single point of failure and disruption. Available in five models, software licenses for a fully redundant, high-availability configuration start at less than $10,000, including annual 24-by-7 technical support.

The company's objective is to be the logical third dimension of a virtualization strategy by combining the first two dimensions, server and desktop virtualization, with the virtualization of storage assets. The business benefits of a stable software infrastructure spanning multiple models and manufacturers across generations of hardware are as compelling for servers and desktops as they are for storage, states DataCore.

By decoupling the virtual infrastructure from the underlying disks, SANsymphony-V frees customers from hardware vendor lock. And by instituting best practices through the use of automation and guided workflows, it reduces complexity and operational costs. The benefits include faster application response by auto-tuning "mega caches" and selecting the best I/O paths, high availability through physical separation with full auto-failover and recovery capabilities, optimal disk space utilization through thin provisioning and pooling, and continuous data protection to rapidly rollback in time and recover workloads and virtual machines.

While somewhat dismissive of the "purveyors" of server hypervisor technology (saying they are "peddling fluff"), Jon Toigo, CEO and managing principal of Toigo Partners International LLC, gives good marks to DataCore's SANsymphony-V. He says the software provides a layer of functionality over the block storage infrastructure that simplifies the three main tasks of storage administration as conceived today: capacity management, performance management and data protection management.For capacity management, SANsymphony-V provides a way to virtualize all block storage capacity (Fibre Channel-attached and iSCSI-attached) into a pool that can be easily connected to servers. Then, once virtual volumes are associated with servers, SANsymphony-V allocates actual physical storage to the server's virtual disk on an as-needed basis, watching the size of the capacity pool and notifying administrators well before any shortfalls arise. "That's thin provisioning, and it is provided much more efficiently on the storage virtualization layer than it is on an individual array controller."

The software also helps to optimize the performance of the virtualized storage infrastructure, by caching all reads and writes to the physical storage, but also by managing and load balancing traffic across available traffic paths. "Most of this is done behind the scenes, and we saw a 3-times improvement in storage performance after it was virtualized. That means you get brand-name storage performance out of simple JBODs [just a bunch of disks]. That could translate into significant cost-savings to companies by eliminating the need to buy more expensive rigs and by breaking vendor lock-ins."

For the third task, data protection management, Toigo says SANsymphony-V provides rock-solid protection for data at three layers. "By ticking a checkbox next to a virtual drive, you can initiate an I/O logging function that captures every single write made to the volume. You can use this log to recover back to any point in time--as granular as a write function-- which provides outstanding protection at the data layer."

Overall, Toigo says this product is crucial for anyone who is thinking about virtual servers because it fixes most of the I/O and storage mapping problems that arise in server virtualization efforts but are rarely addressed by the initial server virtualization strategy. "It will also be key as more companies embrace desktop virtualization. ... The market potential for VDI [virtual desktop infrastructure] is significantly greater than server virtualization--400 million PCs waiting to be virtualized--but to do so, the storage infrastructure must be affordable, scalable and resilient. With SANsymphony, I think you get all three."

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