DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software, celebrates its ten-year anniversary at VMworld Europe (Stand 46, Palais Des Festivals, Cannes, February 26-28) with some impressive announcements. At the show, the company will announce a number of new storage virtualization solutions all ready to run on VMware virtual machines, the highlight being a pre-announcement of SANharmony™, the first virtualization platform integrating management of both NAS and SAN storage. In addition, DataCore will be announcing the enhanced Virtual Infrastructure Foundation PLUS (VIF+) package, which now supports even greater capacity, delivers snapshot technology and offers Fibre Channel support together with advanced thin provisioning and iSCSI support. Further announcements will include a range of new DataCore featured-packed high availability and disaster recovery solution packages based on its SANmelody™ and SANsymphony™ platforms. All the above offer the best out-of-the-box experience on the market, whereby any of these DataCore solutions can run on any physical or virtual machine of choice: Intel/AMD based hardware servers and blades as well as VMware, Microsoft VS, Oracle VM, SUN VM, Virtual Iron and Citrix XenServer virtualization platforms.

SANharmony – New Virtualization 2.0 Platform That Integrates SAN and NAS:

DataCore will pre-announce a new framework that integrates and launches storage services and management from within a simple-to-use Windows environment. SANharmony extends DataCore's Virtualization 2.0 program by enabling a new class of storage applications with the virtualization layer – harmonizing storage with virtual servers and enabling DataCore services and I/O performance acceleration to be applied to not only the SAN storage but to NAS storage in the network (i.e. allowing Microsoft NAS to benefit from DataCore's SAN performance acceleration and advanced storage capabilities). The first new storage applications announced with SANharmony are DataCore's thin provisioning, fail-safe data protection and high-speed caching functions for NAS volumes. From this significant announcement DataCore will follow with other solutions that enable the underlying SAN and NAS storage to work seamlessly with Virtual Servers. DataCore will start shipping SANharmony in Q2 2008.

Virtual Infrastructure Foundation PLUS (VIF+):

The enhanced Virtual Infrastructure Foundation Package now supports more capacity, delivers snapshot technology and offers Fibre Channel support in addition to advanced thin provisioning and iSCSI support. The new and improved Virtual Infrastructure Foundation (VIF) package will be marketed and sold as Virtual Infrastructure Foundation PLUS (VIF+). VIF+ takes the original Virtual Infrastructure Foundation to new heights. Just like the original VIF, VIF+ includes thin provisioning, iSCSI support, SANmotion data migration technology and performance caching. However, instead of just supporting 3TBs, VIF+ raises the game to support 4TBs. In addition to Fibre Channel support, it also includes snapshot technology. This new package sells for under $2,750 delivering unmatched SAN functionality.

Portable, Feature-Packed VM Starter SAN Supporting Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery:

For entry-level business continuity and disaster recovery, DataCore has announced a starter SAN, running on VMware, Microsoft VS, Oracle VM, SUN VM, Virtual Iron and Citrix XenServer virtualization platforms, Intel/AMD based hardware servers and blades. This feature-packed version of DataCore’s SANmelody comes bundled and ready-to-use. Priced under $4,500 (per SAN server), the VM Starter SAN bundle includes auto-allocating thin provisioning storage support, SANmotion data migration technology, storage performance acceleration caching software, snapshots for fast disk backups, auto failover and auto recovery data protection via synchronous network mirroring as well as remote site IP mirror replication for disaster recovery. The DataCore VM Starter SAN provides the simplest and most affordable way on the market to get started fully realizing the cost savings and productivity benefits of a full-featured, virtual SAN that can scale and survive hardware obsolescence.

DataCore’s unique “Value Carry-forward" Upgrade Program applies to the new VM Starter SAN as well as the new line of SANmelody and SANsymphony feature-packed virtual storage bundles. “Value Carry Forward” means that users only pay the difference in cost should they add options like Fibre Channel, upgrade to higher capacity, or upgrade to larger scale SANsymphony platforms at some future time. Buy – upgrade – and only pay the difference. It is that simple. For more information on the full-line of Feature-Packed Virtual Storage Solutions, please visit: www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody_buy.asp.

DataCore Virtual SAN Solutions Run “Hardware-Free” on Virtual Machines:

Rounding up the bill of multiple announcements is the news that DataCore’s storage virtualization and management platforms SANmelody™, SANsymphony™, and Traveller™ for continuous data protection can now be implemented ‘hardware free’ on virtual machines in combination with today’s leading server virtualization platforms – VMware, Microsoft VS, Oracle VM, SUN VM, Virtual Iron and Citrix XenServer. As virtual SAN servers, the solutions provide a new level of consolidation and flexibility never previously experienced.

"Virtualization 2.0 represents a continuation of the paradigm shift in IT and extends it into storage,” commented James E. Price III, Vice President, Product and Channel Marketing, DataCore Software. “Storage server solutions running on virtual machines (VMs) shift the solution away from hardware-based storage solutions towards flexible, hardware-independent, software-based, storage solutions and infrastructures. Storage is becoming increasingly a software topic and with DataCore it has become an application like any other. DataCore’s portable software enables storage to be delivered as a network service. Our latest enhancements go one step further: they enable the NAS world to gain the advantages of DataCore’s SAN virtualization capabilities. DataCore fundamentally adds performance, advanced features like thin provisioning and scalability to the underlying NAS resources. VMworld Europe is a great platform to inform users about the new DataCore solutions and the next generation of storage virtualization that harmonizes NAS with SAN."

DataCore Software’s CEO, George Teixeira, will be available to meet journalists throughout VMworld Europe. To schedule an appointment, please contact KPR Global.