
Welcome to The Virtual Viewpoint: Storage Virtualization - A Contributed Series by DataCore Software
Software-Defined Storage for Software-Defined Data Centers. Written by DataCore Software President and CEO George Teixeira
The move to a
software-defined virtualization-based model supporting mission-critical business
applications has redefined the foundation of architectures at the computing,
networking and storage levels from being "static" to "dynamic"; software defines
the basis for agility, user interactions and for building a long-term virtual
infrastructure that adapts to change.
In my last post on Software-defined Storage, I wrote about the software-defined
data center and that I had anticipated that VMware would be showcasing the theme
at VMworld 2012.
VMware is clearly promoting this new "software-centric"
concept and made "software-defined data centers" not only their new mantra but
their vision statement for the future. The industry conversation on this topic
is getting louder.
Since its formation, DataCore Software has likewise
embraced the need for "software-defined storage" as an essential element to
software-defined data centers. Virtual storage infrastructures are the
foundation for scalable, elastic and efficient cloud computing. While the
primary attention is focused on the computing and networking elements, the major
challenge continues to be storage. To make the software-defined data center a
reality, we need to overcome the hardware-defined mindset that has stalled the
redefinition of storage from being software driven.
Three key elements: Computing,
Networking and Storage
As users have to deal with
the new dynamics and faster pace of today's business, they can no longer be
trapped within yesterday's more rigid and hard-wired architecture models.
Infrastructure is constructed on three pillars - computing, networking and
storage - and in each area hardware decisions will take a back seat to a world
dictated by software and driven by applications.
Clearly the success of
VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V have proven the compelling value proposition that
server virtualization delivers. Likewise, the storage hypervisor is the key to
unlocking the hardware chains that have made storage an anchor to next
generation data centers.
Software-Defined Storage and the Role
of the Storage Hypervisor
The storage hypervisor's
main role is to virtualize storage resources and to achieve the same benefits -
agility, efficiency and flexibility - that server hypervisor technology brought
to processors and memory. To fully achieve this goal, a storage hypervisor must
meet certain requirements.
It must improve the utilization of existing
storage resources; improve application performance to virtualized storage
resources; integrate with heterogeneous hypervisors and popular operating system
environments (Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc.); support existing physical and new
virtual storage platform resources; and it must automate and simplify storage
management. For an overview of the requirements of a storage hypervisor, please
view the Storage Hypervisor Checklist: Nine Things to Look for In a Storage
Hypervisor.
Software-defined Storage and Tier 1
Applications
The storage hypervisor is intelligent software that abstracts,
transforms and optimally manages the many different device types into pools of
virtual resources that can be provisioned and mapped to application systems as
needed. With a storage hypervisor, all the available resources enterprise-wide
can be pooled and also automatically tiered to optimize performance and cost.
Automation and intuitive tools make it easier to achieve much greater levels of
productivity. The storage hypervisor and the larger virtualization movement are
clearly redefining the data center at the infrastructure
level.
Infrastructure, however, is simply a means to an end. It is the
way that you run applications that ultimately matters. The main goal of the
software-defined data center is to optimize the application experience. DataCore
understands that in the end, it is all about how the software makes business
applications more productive. For more details, please review how DataCore's
storage hypervisor Optimizes Your Application-centric Storage.
Also check
out our recent announcement: DataCore Storage Hypervisor Makes Mission-Critical and I/O
Intensive Tier 1 Business Applications Run Up to 5X Faster
Virtualized.
DataCore SANsymphonyTM-V 9.0, our newest release, boosts the speed,
throughput and availability of virtualized, I/O intensive tier 1 applications.
Customers report up to 5x faster response time performance and achieve better
than 99.999% uptime after virtualizing their existing storage with
SANsymphony-V. To learn more, see how DataCore's storage hypervisor benefits
these popular applications:
SAP Oracle Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft Exchange
DataCore fundamentally changes the
economics of performance - cost-effectively enabling application
overseers/administrators to virtualize their tier 1 applications as they
transform into private clouds and software-defined data centers. The DataCore
storage hypervisor harnesses the full power of server caches, solid state disks
(SSDs) and existing storage assets so that application owners no longer need to
"rip and replace" storage infrastructures and pay much higher costs to meet
their performance and uptime objectives.
Along with the virtualization of
server and network resources, DataCore's storage hypervisor provides the virtual
storage architecture needed to realize the vision and the benefits of the
software-defined data center.
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About the Author
George Teixeira is President and CEO of DataCore Software. See full bio here.