http://www.it-director.com/technology/data_mgmt/news_release.php?rel=11646
Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS) is implementing DataCore’s SANmelody™ as the storage platform to sit behind their VM4 Rent service.
OUCS Network Systems Management Service (NSMS) provides high quality and cost effective IT services for all members of Oxford University by centrally operating, developing and supporting the University’s primary computing infrastructure and services on a charge back basis across 25 colleges and 15 departments across many campuses throughout Oxford. As a department, NSMS’ time is frequently spent supporting smaller departments with very limited IT resources.
To this end, NSMS is moving towards adoption of a totally self automated, self provisioning, web based virtualised model known internally as “VM4rent” by, in effect, renting Virtual Machines to their customers (Previously NSMS’ data centre would provide storage services out across Fibre Channel SANs served by IBM/EMC direct attached storage). The infrastructure behind the VM4rent model includes two centralised VMware ESX 3.5 servers and virtualised storage through DataCore’s SANmelody™, supporting VMware applications and seamlessly provisioning storage on demand. This virtualised computing on demand service is extremely useful for those departments who require a temporary service – such as a research project that has been granted funding for a year.
…Jon Hutchings, Senior Systems Engineer, OUCS Network Systems Management Service, notes of SANmelody, “The principles behind our VM4rent scheme are perfectly echoed and served by SANmelody; allowing us to plug in storage and support virtual servers as and when we need, ultimately providing a cost-effective storage solution that we are happy to recommend”
