Hall 4, Stand B04
DataCore and Citrix Users Laud the DataCore and Citrix Combination for Their Virtualization Environments.
HANNOVER, Germany and FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – March 3, 2009 – DataCore Software will use CeBIT 2009, the leading business event for the digital world, to highlight the newest features in the forthcoming releases of its SANmelody(tm) and SANsymphony(tm) storage virtualization solutions. In particular, DataCore is touting that the new versions of its solutions deliver SAN-wide performance boosts and provide radically simple, high-availability, and optimum disk utilization for Citrix(r) XenServer(tm), XenDesktop(tm) and XenApp(tm) environments. At the show, Citrix will showcase its recent announcement “New Citrix XenServer Release Makes Enterprise-Class, Cloud-Proven Virtualization Free for Everyone.” CeBIT runs from March 3-8, 2009 in Hannover, Germany.
“We are pleased to welcome DataCore to showcase their solutions on our booth during CeBIT,” says James McNab, Senior Director of Marketing and Business Development at Citrix. “Storage is critical to rapidly deploying virtualization solutions, and DataCore’s storage virtualization solutions have been validated with Citrix XenServer and are deployed with XenServer in a growing number of customer installations. DataCore’s affordable, flexible, high availability SAN storage solutions will help our mutual customers to overcome the cost barriers and complexity that SAN storage can present.”
Key distributors and resellers that are seeing first-hand the benefits of selling DataCore in conjunction with Citrix include: Albora (Spain/Portugal), itX (Australia), Miel (France), Ready Informatica (Italy), ADN (Germany), DNS (UK and Europe), as well as Ingram Micro (USA), Moose Logic (USA), MTM (USA) and J4 Systems (USA), among many others. Moreover, numerous new customers are embracing SANmelody storage virtualization in conjunction with Citrix XenServer, as they are finding the tandem represents an affordable solution that is far more flexible than a proprietary approach.
Ingram Micro is the exclusive distribution partner for Citrix in North America and they recently signed up DataCore. According to the announcement, “DataCore is an enabling software product that our resellers can add to their arsenals, providing their customers with a solution set to virtualize their disks and achieve greater utilization of their storage investment,” states Jodi Honore, vice president, vendor management for Ingram Micro.
DataCore value-added distributor ADN Advanced Digital Network Distribution is one of the biggest Citrix distributors in Europe and offers integrated end-to-end IT infrastructure virtualization from desktop to storage out of one competent hand. “The concept of total enterprise virtualization from desktop, application, server to storage becomes increasingly accepted. Here DataCore’s storage virtualization proves to complement Citrix perfectly. With the Citrix and DataCore combination customers benefit from a flexible, high-performance and cost-efficient infrastructure solution with high-available storage,” says Christian Geilen, Business Unit Manager Storage & Virtual Products at ADN.
High availability Solutions for Citrix
DataCore’s lineup of solutions, which are Citrix Ready(tm) for XenServer 5, have been met with broad appeal worldwide and the momentum keeps rolling for DataCore storage virtualization solutions delivered in combination with Citrix XenServer.
Recently announced DataCore and Citrix customers include Washington Archives Management, Statewide Title Company, Inc., and Alameda County Medical Center, just to name a few. These customers are each testifying that DataCore yields the highest availability, fastest performance and fullest utilization from their storage assets, making it an essential element of Citrix configurations. A case in point is Statewide Title Company, Inc. “The selection of DataCore was designed to pave the way for the Citrix XenServer implementation that we are now in the process of deploying,” explains George Overstreet, systems administrator, Statewide Title, Company, Inc. “For purposes of ease of management, efficiencies and centralizing storage, we went with SANmelody. With DataCore, you just have greater flexibility. And on top of this, with DataCore we can also meet all of our disaster recovery (DR) requirements as well.”
Moreover, according to Benjamin Crill, partner, ESI Technology Advisors, “DataCore is the perfect complement to server virtualization with XenServer. They are hardware independent, portable – and above all, ‘open’ solutions. Both DataCore and XenServer are feature rich and value-packed. DataCore’s storage virtualization solutions make storage management easy. They enable customers to maximize resources and lower costs, while delivering high availability, better utilization as well as enhanced performance and productivity.”
Enhancements in SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0
DataCore Software enhancements in SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0 aimed at Citrix shared storage requirements include the following new features and functionality:
64-bit “Mega Caches” Boost SAN-wide Performance
Leading the list of new features in SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0 are support for 64-bit mega caches. “In large scale, consolidated data storage, cache is king,” comments James Price, Vice President of Channel and Product Marketing, DataCore Software. “DataCore’s solutions will now support up to a terabyte (TB) of cache – per node. They dwarf anything in the market and scale linearly with each node that you add to the fabric.” Entire working sets of numerous virtual machines can now be kept in SAN-wide caches for unheard of performance. Behind the caches, Citrix customers can grow their storage pool from a few hundred gigabytes to multiple petabytes.
Radically Simple, High-Availability for Non-Stop Storage
Needless to say, storage pools of such immensity are in constant flux. With this in mind, the new product enhancements are fully integrated into DataCore’s radically simple, high availability solutions for Citrix disk farms. Only DataCore allows maintenance, upgrades, expansion, and failures to take place throughout portions of the storage infrastructure without disrupting applications.
Full Use: Space Reclamation for Thinly Provisioned Storage
Both SANmelody and SANsymphony offer the choice to thinly provision virtual disks rather than tie up physical capacity when LUNs are first created. This is particularly desirable with virtual machines that generally consume only a small fraction of the total volume assigned to them. With the new releases, once-occupied, thinly provisioned space will be automatically reclaimed in the background after applications or file systems zero it out. In this way, the SAN gives back capacity that may have been temporarily needed, further optimizing resource utilization.
Windows Server 2008-based, Universal Storage Controllers
Configuring DataCore software on x86/X64 Windows servers transforms them into universal storage controllers. Citrix servers and virtual machines (VMs) needing storage, connect to the DataCore controllers using iSCSI or Fibre Channel. All of the popular operating systems, including Windows Server 2003, 2008, Unix, Linux, NetWare and MacOS can take advantage of DataCore’s SAN-wide storage virtualization features. In small configurations, the DataCore controller is hosted on a VM as a virtual appliance alongside application VMs. The SAN is completely virtual needing no external storage. Larger configurations dedicate physical servers to this storage virtualization role and typically include both internal disk drives and external arrays. The new SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0 releases have been re-architected to exploit the power and scalability of 64-bit Windows Server 2008 virtual and physical platforms as universal storage controllers.
New Hypervisor Migration Support
DataCore’s “Transporter” time saving migration facility is a new option in SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0. Transporter migrates disk images and workloads between different operating systems, hypervisors and storage subsystems – eliminating lengthy backups and restores due to complicated format conversions
All DataCore Packages for Citrix will be Updated to SANmelody 3.0 and SANsymphony 7.0
DataCore has a suite of SANmelody-based Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) packages available for Citrix environments, ranging from Feature Packed BC/DR SAN Starter Virtualization Bundles to a Feature Packed BC/DR 32 Terabyte SAN Virtualization Bundle to virtually unlimited capacity SANsymphony Bundles.
Key features include:
- Highly Available, Shared Virtual Disks
- Thin Provisioning
- Online Snapshots
- Disaster Recovery (DR)
- High-speed Caching
By end of March 2009, all the BC/DR Packages will be shipped with the new SANmelody 3.0 capabilities. For more details on the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery packages, please visit: www.datacore.com/SANpackages.
DataCore’s virtual SAN appliance and storage virtualization software are Citrix Ready(tm) for XenServer 5. The Citrix Ready program recognizes Citrix partner products that have been validated by Citrix and/or partners to work in Citrix environments, making it simpler for customers to identify solutions that can be used with confidence in Citrix environments.
Free 30-day trial – Try DataCore Today!
DataCore’s storage virtualization software solutions pool and mirror disk blocks across available devices, despite differences in make and model. In the process, they speed up I/O response and throughput using extensive SAN-wide caching. For a free 30-day test drive, please visit: www.datacore.com/trialsoftware.
About CeBIT 2009 – The leading business event for the digital world
See DataCore at CeBIT, March 3-8, 2009, in Hannover, Germany. DataCore is located in Hall 4, Stand B04.
CeBIT is the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. For more information, visit www.cebit.de.
About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore’s portable storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare operating systems as well as hypervisors from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other suppliers. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information, call (877) 780-5111 or visit www.datacore.com.
DataCore, the DataCore logo, SANmelody and SANsymphony are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Corporate Contacts:
DataCore Software
Bettye Grant
Tel: 954-377-6000
publicrelations@datacore.com
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Red Nine PR
Stuart Smith
336-896-1874
ssmith@redninePR.com