DataCore Software today announced that it will be previewing its next-generation, flagship virtualization solution, SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0, at Storage Network World (SNW). This new milestone release builds on the many lessons learned from thousands of virtual SAN deployments and users. Major emphasis was placed on advancing centralized management and administration and on developing a comprehensive iSCSI capability - the industry's first true Enterprise iSCSI solution. Moreover, SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 serves as the foundation for what DataCore has labeled "Virtualization II."
SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0: The first half of Virtualization II "SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 is the first deliverable of our Virtualization II strategy and as such it lays the architectural foundation for the future," said Ziya Aral, Chairman and CTO, DataCore Software. "DataCore is known for being an inventor and visionary of many of today's storage virtualization innovations, however, when SANsymphony 1.0 came out, true virtualization was more theory than substance. Now the opposite is true. We started the virtualization movement with a gleam in our eye, but now after thousands of customers and dozens of imitators this release incorporates a new level of capabilities based on the knowledge and real experience of thousands of virtual SANs."
With SANsymphony 6.0, DataCore has taken the first step in launching the second-generation of virtualization systems. SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 re-architects the platform, advances centralized administration (tools, wizards, interfaces), adds Enterprise iSCSI services, enables greater automation (by enhancing network-wide volume management and thin-provisioning) and lays the foundation for an innovative Universal Storage Interface (USI) networking scheme that expands virtualization and management beyond storage devices.
Redefining Storage Management - Laying a Foundation for the Future "What we have done here is profound and strategic," said George Teixeira, President and CEO, DataCore Software. "SANsymphony 6.0 is the first half of Virtualization II and addresses the growing role that iSCSI plays in data centers, the need for centralized management tools and universal SAN administration and the requirement to automate and simplify storage tasks. In the second half of Virtualization II, these capabilities will continue to be advanced and the SANsymphony kernel will be updated to an entirely new 64-bit kernel."
SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 advances the state-of-the-art in storage management, while opening up networking choices - enabling the benefits of virtualization and the full complement of DataCore's storage services to be delivered and scaled network-wide over Enterprise iSCSI or Fibre Channel connections, or a mix of either.
Showcasing the Industry's First True Enterprise iSCSI SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 is the industry's first, true Enterprise iSCSI solution. The Enterprise iSCSI capabilities are built on a fault tolerant N+1 scalable architecture to ensure business continuity, while delivering advanced storage services such as thin-provisioning storage capacity over existing Ethernet LAN/IP based infrastructures.
"The attempt by some vendors to fit iSCSI offerings at the very bottom of their product hierarchy has meant that enterprise customers are often faced with a de facto 'bait and switch' from iSCSI to expensive Fibre Channel infrastructures" commented Aral. "In order to gain modern storage functionality and failover protection features, one often has to give up iSCSI altogether. DataCore rectifies that."
SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 now delivers true parity for iSCSI-based networks to match enterprise-level, Fibre Channel SAN features and covers all the critical functionality needs that were previously unavailable to IP SAN users. These include:
- Business-critical, end-to-end iSCSI network mirror failover and enterprise-level data protection using existing Ethernet LAN connections.
- Redundant I/O path failover support capabilities using iSCSI connections - Multipath I/O. SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 is the first solution to support path failover across either FC or iSCSI (e.g. a Fibre Channel connection serves as primary path and iSCSI serves as the failover secondary path).
- Automated, thin-provisioning "Virtual Capacity" and network-wide storage services designed to be delivered over iSCSI infrastructures.
- IP-based, Synchronous and Asynchronous remote site disaster recovery services and replication.
- SANmotion over iSCSI for simple data migration.
- SANsymphony's hardware independent N+1 architecture is designed to be easily upgraded and to scale storage servers over iSCSI links to add performance and failover services.
- Rapid emergency recovery and diskless boot support for iSCSI IP SANs.
- iSCSI support for Microsoft Clusters, Virtual Servers (e.g., VMware ESX) and Blade Servers.
"As a whole, the new capabilities have made SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 software a first in providing iSCSI users with the comprehensive range of advanced SAN features and network storage services," said Teixeira. "For users, this makes it practical to build robust, scalable and affordable SANs using standard IP networks and LANs utilizing iSCSI protocols."
Enterprise iSCSI is just one example of what is available in SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0. A full list of new features will accompany the general release of this version in January 2007.
Availability SANsymphony Enterprise Edition 6.0 is available for shipment this month to upgrade current SANsymphony customers and will be released as a GA (general availability) release in January 2007.
For more information, please go to
www.datacore.com or visit DataCore in booth PP33 at SNW. Storage Network World runs from October 31 - November 3, 2006 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort, Orlando, Florida.