Container storage: Docker in flash, HCI and software-defined

We found the big storage players all have @Docker Volume Plugins for their products and some are building out container storage management platforms. But what about other storage players – the flash specialists, the #softwaredefinedstorage makers, and the #hyperconverged infrastructure suppliers? To run containers – usually Docker, which has emerged as a de facto standard – you do not have to provision persistent storage because any capacity required lives and dies with the container. But that hasn’t been sufficient for many use cases to which containers have been put, so efforts have been made to develop ways of providing persistent storage for Docker. That is, storage that remains once the container has been spun down, which is needed for all sorts of reasons in enterprise scenarios. To provide persistent storage for Docker means, at the least, having Docker Volume plugins available, APIs (application programming interfaces) written to work with the storage product in question. It could also mean having integration with higher-level containers management platforms, such as Docker @Swarm, @Kubernetes or @Mesosphere Marathon. Efforts are being made to develop standardised ways to integrate plugins/APIs with these platforms, such as with the Container Storage Interface. All the biggest storage suppliers – @DellEMC, @HPE, @Hitachi Vantara, @IBM and @NetApp – have container storage covered by at least Docker Volume Plugins. Read more on containers and storage We look at what the big five storage array makers – Dell EMC, Hitachi, HPE, IBM and NetApp – are doing to provide persistent storage for container-based deployments. Containers such as those from Docker are agile, lightweight, and can be short-lived, but they and their data often need to be protected. We look at the key options available. Outside the top five, the picture is more patchy, as you might expect. On the one hand, Pure Storage, one of the all-flash array market leaders, provides plugins as well as its own software that integrates with the leading orchestration platforms. Other all-flash array, hyper-converged and software-defined storage makers offer Docker Volume Plugins. And yet others go a bit further with, for example, Kubernetes integration or products aimed at container environments. Meanwhile, some mid-range storage array makers appear not to address container storage at all, but presumably containers are just not in the plans of their customer base. Flash specialists’ container capabilities Kaminario All-flash array maker Kaminario has Docker plugins for its hardware via the Kaminario K2 Flocker Plugin. Pure Storage Part of the leading group in the all-flash array market, Pure Storage has recently added to its container storage capabilities with the release of Pure Service Orchestrator. This allows storage-as-a-service-style management of container storage in Pure FlashArray and FlashBlade arrays to provide persistent storage for Docker containers, with on-demand provisioning based on policies. Pure Service Orchestrator integrates with Kubernetes and Mesosphere Marathon container environments. Pure also has Docker storage plugins for FlashArray and FlashBlade that allow for persistent storage on those arrays. Western Digital WD recently introduced Docker container support “for select customers” in its ActiveScale 5.3 Object Storage System. ActiveScale is an archiving product that uses the S3 protocol to access a single namespace cluster that can scale up to tens of petabytes. WD also has its Intelliflash arrays, taken on when it acquired Tegile in 2017, but doesn’t appear to have addressed container storage capability in that line of products. Software-defined storage sellers Datacore Datacore doesn’t seem to have Docker Volume Plugins, but does offer a Kubernetes PersistentVolume API to orchestrate creation and operation of containerised operations and to integrate storage into Kubernetes, as well as working with Docker Swarm. Hedvig This software-defined storage maker offers Docker support via Docker Volume Plugins to provide persistent storage. Nexenta Nexenta has Docker Volume Plugins for its NexentaStor and NexentaEdge block, file and object storage software products. It also offers a NexentaEdge DevOps Edition, which is a small-scale free product that allows developers to experiment. It allows containerised applications access to persistent storage. Veritas Veritas offers its Hyperscale for Containers platform which delivers container workload deployment across software-defined storage to create a kind of hyper-converged infrastructure platform for containers. It delivers a so-called “intelligent workload deployment” model that aims to provide quality of service for container storage. Container capabilities in hyper-converged infrastructure Cisco Cisco’s Springpath hyper-converged products run Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor and it offers Docker Volume Plugins for them. Nutanix This hyper-converged pioneer offers a Docker Volume Plugin that allows customers to attach persistent storage to Docker volumes created in its Acropolis hypervisor.

https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Container-storage-Docker-in-flash-HCI-and-software-defined

DataCore Unseats Nutanix to Become Highest Rated Software-Defined Storage/Hyperconverged Infrastructure Vendor in WhatMatrix Independent Evaluation

@DataCore Software DataCore recently received the highest rating in the #softwaredefinedstorage/ #hyperconverged infrastructure (SDS/HCI) category in an independent evaluation by @WhatMatrix, replacing @Nutanix as the previous top-rated vendor. The third-party evaluation featured an in-depth technical evaluation and a comparison of 100+ rated criteria of nearly 20 offerings in the SDS/HCI market from vendors including @Cisco, DataCore, @DellEMC , @HPE, @Microsoft, Nutanix and @VMware. As the first crowdsourced-powered IT comparison community, WhatMatrix provides curated, free and "always-online" technology comparisons by respected industry experts. This significantly reduces the time and cost traditionally spent on researching the technologies needed to solve today’s business challenges.  DataCore’s SANsymphony™ software-defined storage platform and Hyperconverged Virtual SAN offering provide responsive, reliable and seamless access to data, automatically, anywhere it is needed. The new capabilities in DataCore’s PSP7 release , designed to meet the always-on business needs of its customers, are what elevated it to the number one position in the software-defined storage/hyperconverged infrastructure category. New top-rated features include multi-way and metro mirroring functionality to enhance continuous availability and scale-out resiliency, providing self-healing capabilities to enable non-stop business operations and data access. Customers can lose one system and maintain high-performance and high-availability redundancy, or can lose two systems and still continue operations. DataCore enables better business outcomes through software-defined flexibility and freedom of choice. In this age of digital transformation, DataCore’s approach to infrastructure modernization breaks down silos and provides customers with a choice of entry points and common management services, while preserving the value of existing investments in storage. DataCore is easily adaptable as the environment grows, works with any storage hardware that is already deployed, and future-proofs investments as new storage technologies are introduced and cloud adoption continues to grow. This technology, proven in thousands of diverse real-world customer sites, makes it easy for companies to address change, manage a range of deployment choices, and add new and future technologies such as flash, NVMe, cloud, and more – without disruption to business applications. DataCore’s position as the category leader in the SDS/HCI space is a testament to its long-standing innovation in the market.

https://www.datacore.com/the-virtual-viewpoint-post/posts/2017/12/15/datacore-unseats-nutanix-to-become-highest-rated-software-defined-storage-hyperconverged-infrastructure-vendor-in-whatmatrix-independent-evaluation

Global Storage Area Network (SAN) Market Forecast 2017: Cisco, Hitachi, Dell, IBM, Nutanix

The Global Storage Area Network (SAN) market research Report during 2017 to 2022 provide depth perception of the major regional market standing of the Storage Area Network (SAN) trade on a international level that basically focuses the core regions that contains of continents such as North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia and therefore the key countries like USA, Germany, India, China and Japan. Get Sample Copy of Report at: bit.ly/2zwSjbW This Storage Area Network (SAN) market state and future possibilities of the segment has jointly been examined. Additionally, key methods within the Storage Area Network (SAN) market that features partnerships, product developments, link-ups, and acquisitions, etc., are mentioned. Besides, upstream and downstream instrumentation and raw materials and downstream demand analysis are additionally organized.  Report Includes:- The Storage Area Network (SAN) report covers the marketing research and forecast of “Storage Area Network (SAN) Market” on a regional also the world level. The Storage Area Network (SAN) report composes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, experimental knowledge, help from business consultants alongside their most up-to-date verbatim and every trade makers via the market price chain. The future of this Storage Area Network (SAN) business section has been strictly investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. Global Storage Area Network ( #SAN) market: Top Manufacturers including; @Brocade Communications Systems @Qlogic @IBM @Dell @Hitachi Data Systems @Hewlett-Packard Company @NEC @Cisco System @Citrix Systems @DataCore Software @NetApp @Nutanix The research consultants have to prepare the general sales and revenue generation of this specific Storage Area Network (SAN) market. Additionally, this report conjointly delivers widespread analysis of many governing components, root market trends and macroeconomic indicators, including market enhancements as per each section. Enquiry Here: bit.ly/2zMeGxc The Storage Area Network (SAN) report is generically divided into six components and each half aims at the summary of the Storage Area Network (SAN) trade, past, present and future conditions of the market, feasibility of the investment alongside numerous methods and policies. Excluding the classification and definition, the Storage Area Network (SAN) market report conjointly discusses the analysis crucial and export and explain a comparison of the Storage Area Network (SAN) market that's centered on the trends and development. Alongside whole structure additionally to in-depth details, one will prepare and keep earlier than the competitors across the targeted locations. Each regional Storage Area Network (SAN) market has been studied totally during this report that deals with the exact data concerning the selling Channels and novel project investments. So the new contender, as well as the established market players, conduct involved analysis of trends and analysis in these regional markets. Acknowledging the standing of the surroundings and product's up gradation, the Storage Area Network (SAN) market report foretells every and each detail. At the end of Storage Area Network (SAN) report, complete key details, methods and variables are examined so whole helpful data are combined together for the learning and understanding the key facts related the worldwide Storage Area Network (SAN) market. The market share and production price in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated into this report.

https://www.openpr.com/news/811438/Global-Storage-Area-Network-SAN-Market-Forecast-2017-Cisco-Hitachi-Dell-IBM-Nutanix.html

Why Storage Companies Are Partnering with Microsoft Azure for Cloud Storage

These days, everyone who is anyone in data storage appears to be partnering with one or more of the big three of the cloud – #Amazon Web Services ( #AWS ), #GoogleCloudPlatform ( #GCP ) and #MicrosoftAzure. Of late, Azure seems to be in the ascendancy. The likes of #DataCore, #Panzura, #Nasuni, #Zadara, #Veritas, #Caringo, #Datapipe and many others have announced deals with Azure to harness its cloud platform as part of their storage offerings. “Storage and data protection vendors need to have a point of presence in and with the cloud providers, such as Azure, for their customers,” said Greg Schulz, an analyst with #StorageIOGroup. “If vendors don’t add support on and for those cloud platforms, somebody else will do it and their customers or prospects may look elsewhere.” Another way to look at it is that cloud platforms such as Azure are another tier of storage. But more than that, their underlying compute platforms have local cloud instance of storage backed by elastic block, file and object storage. Storage vendors can deploy their own storage software on this foundation. This gives users options and flexibility regarding where and how they want their storage software deployed. “Azure continues to expand including with the new Azure Stack which enables hybrid deployments,” said Schulz. Some data storage vendors simply connect to cloud service providers via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or a gateway. Others port their storage software to run on a cloud instance (VM) or emerging Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and Dedicated Private Servers (DPS). In this latter case, instead of the storage vendor’s functionality running on a local hardware appliance, VM or container, it runs in the cloud, using a mix of instances and persistent cloud storage, said Schulz. The advantage, he added, is that when vendor software is running on Azure or another cloud instance, its technology is now in the cloud and using cloud resources. Examples include Caringo Swarm on Microsoft Azure, which brings file storage into the cloud using Azure’s worldwide network of managed data centers. The Zadara Storage Cloud delivers block, file and object storage for applications leveraging Azure. By leveraging a Zadara VPSA storage array on Azure, you can migrate applications such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint and others to Microsoft Azure without having to reconfigure them. Similarly, Box and Microsoft are working together on Box cloud content management using Azure services. They are exploring ways to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and add Azure regions outside the U.S. to Box Zones for in-region storage on Azure. Nasuni is another company with a strong Microsoft Azure relationship. “Microsoft has a massive base of enterprise customers who, in many cases, already have Azure subscriptions,” said Warren Mead, vice president, alliances and business development, Nasuni. “They are looking for ways to increase their use of Azure as a means of achieving digital transformation, and Azure object storage is a natural first or second foray into the cloud, especially given every enterprise is dealing with storage growth pains.” That’s why he said it makes good business sense for storage software companies like Nasuni to partner with Microsoft. This provides an opportunity to help users transition from legacy, device-constrained NAS and SAN infrastructure to a scalable, Azure-based storage infrastructure. Mead believes cloud object storage is the “new disk,” as it provides limitless capacity, high availability and geo-redundancy with cloud economics. How does Nasuni add value? Without a file system, object stores are merely containers, and it is difficult for enterprises to tap their potential for file sharing and collaboration. Nasuni has developed a global file system that lives in and scales with the cloud. Nasuni enterprise file services, powered by the Nasuni UniFS global file system, leverages Azure object storage to provide primary NAS and archive capacity, backup/recovery, disaster recovery (DR) and global file access in one hybrid cloud. By storing all metadata and files in Azure first and using on-premises caching appliances to provide fast, secure access only to the active data, it is said to offer unlimited capacity on demand, pay-as-you-grow flexibility, rapid recovery points and recovery times, DR anywhere you have power and bandwidth, file access through any device, file collaboration without version conflict and centralized management. DataCore, too, has made its DataCore Cloud Replication software available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace to support DR efforts. Those with on-premises DataCore deployments can use the Azure cloud as an added replication location to safeguard high availability systems. “For DataCore users seeking hybrid cloud storage, Azure offers a convenient and economically attractive way quickly to roll out and scale a secure remote replication site to safeguard and archive their data; especially when compared to setting up and maintaining a dedicated remote location at a branch office or data center for just this purpose,” said Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software. DataCore software replicates data from on-premises virtual storage pools to a remote pool in Azure cloud storage. The asynchronous remote copy travels over standard Internet links protected by a virtual private network (VPN). The on-premises configuration consists of either a software-defined storage infrastructure controlled by DataCore SANsymphony or DataCore Hyper-converged Virtual SAN. They communicate with other instances of DataCore software executing in Azure. Should the on-premises site suffer a major outage or have no space to keep a long-term archive, the copy stored in Azure may be accessed from anywhere. Managed service providers (MSPs) are also leaping on the bandwagon. Datapipe, for example, has added Azure cloud storage into its portfolio. The company utilizes local disk storage all the way up to its own cloud storage solution. “Being able to include products like StorSimple for Azure allows our clients to keep investments they already have in one of our storage solutions and expand into Azure,” said Tim Campbell, product manager, at Datapipe. “Start with an easy project like server backup to Azure storage as a way to get backups off site in a cost-efficient manner and gain familiarity with cloud storage technologies.” Speaking of backup, Veritas and Microsoft have inked a multi-year partnership to link Azure (cloud storage, compute, analytics and machine learning) with new management and governance capabilities from Veritas. This includes collaboration to sell hybrid cloud storage jointly to mutual customers. As part of the partnership, Veritas NetBackup 8.0 now supports storage tiering to Azure. This is said to improve data lifecycle management by optimizing the movement of data to Azure cloud storage. This reduces or eliminates the need to deploy additional storage with a separate point product. For small and midsized businesses, Veritas Backup Exec 16 supports the movement of backup data to Azure. Veritas is also leveraging Azure to drive greater efficiencies for its own workloads. The company has selected Azure as the cloud backend on which to run its Enterprise Vault.cloud service, which provides policy-based information retention to streamline eDiscovery and helps Office 365 subscribers to find archived information quickly. “Enterprises are increasingly looking to Microsoft to help power their digital transformation as they adopt Azure cloud services and Office 365,” said Chris Mancebo, global strategic alliances, Veritas. “Such hybrid cloud storage scenarios will enable customers to take advantage of the cloud (or multiple clouds) to reduce their storage costs while increasing business agility, and to extract greater value from their data.”

http://mobile.enterprisestorageforum.com/storage-management/why-storage-companies-are-partnering-with-microsoft-azure-for-cloud-storage.html

Software-Defined Storage Offers Agencies Flexibility, Security and Savings

State and local governments face relentless pressure to store and manage a rapidly increasing amount of digital information, fueled by the push to digitize decades of paper records, new encryption mandates, closed-circuit video, data analytics and more. With their data approaching petabyte proportions, IT departments now look beyond hardware solutions, often to technologies loosely categorized as software-defined storage (SDS). Some SDS products are key components of software-defined infrastructure solutions that offer converged compute and storage services (hyperconvergence), while others use software to pool and manage existing storage resources, says Julia Palmer, research director with Gartner. As part of the trend to deliver infrastructure resources as services, all SDS products help to increase flexibility and reduce the management burden on IT departments. “With the pressure on growing data volumes, we have no choice but to improve agility and break down silos in storage components and in the infrastructure as a whole,” Palmer says. “Software is the only way that’s going to be achieved, which is why we’re seeing more and more use of various SDS strategies.” Mohave County Moves Beyond Migration Efficiency Mohave County, in northwest Arizona, simplified the management and administration of its storage area network (SAN) hardware environment four years ago by implementing SDS with the DataCore SANsymphony-V storage ­services platform. The initial driver of the county’s SANsymphony deployment was to reduce the downtime involved in migrating data from one physical storage appliance to another, says Nathan McDaniel, the county’s IT director. “We needed DataCore because hardware storage solutions don’t play well together,” McDaniel says. “Once you choose a hardware platform, you’re essentially locked into that environment. But with SANsymphony in front acting as the controller of your physical storage, there is almost no migration downtime, and we can use any hardware we want.” Regardless of the hardware, McDaniel says, SANsymphony-V provides central management along with features that include snapshots and backups, thin provisioning, continuous data protection, auto-tiering, deduplication and compression, analysis and reporting, as well as integration with cloud storage solutions. “We save a lot in hardware costs because we now buy very simplistic physical storage — essentially just RAID — and DataCore does the rest,” he says. Support and maintenance costs for SANsymphony are low, yielding more savings for the county, he adds. The success of the SDS deployment pushed Mohave County toward a highly virtualized data center, as the county has adopted VMware for most of its other services and the IT team eyes the possibility of a hyperconverged infrastructure, McDaniel explains. “Our experience with DataCore has been amazing, and we’ve gone on to build a highly advanced data center,” he says. Santa Clara County Taps Dell to Deal with a Data Tsunami Typically, data storage needs in Santa Clara County, Calif., increase 15 to 20 percent annually, says Ljubisa Matavulj, the county’s enterprise infrastructure manager. Beyond initiatives to go paperless, other efforts — for example, new encryption mandates, the county’s plunge into data analytics, and a stepped-up disaster recovery program — add to the data tidal wave. To meet the challenge, the county deploys #VMware and its #DellEMC storage hardware.

“We have a storage profile, and when we generate data, VMware uses that profile to assign the data based on how we will use it,” says Matavulj. “If we need capacity, VMware will send the data to one store; if we need performance, the software will sent it to another.”

Santa Clara County’s #VMware platform meshes with storage hardware arrays through #EMC Virtual Storage Integrator. VMware provides unified, policy-based management for storage provisioning. Together with EMC #VNX and #XtremIO fully automated storage tiering, deduplication and compression capabilities, it makes storage more efficient and easier to manage, Matavulj says. The county hasn’t adopted an ­additional virtualization layer largely because it has standardized on EMC hardware, eliminating many of the integration issues found in more heterogeneous environments, he says.

“We studied it and found that virtualization’s costs exceed its benefits for our environment,” Matavulj says.

Performance is the most pressing storage issue, increasing the need for software-based solutions to automate functions and make them more agile and efficient, Matavulj adds.

Demand for storage capacity is not abating, however, as programs such as video surveillance and body-worn cameras for law enforcement create new data streams. The cloud can provide scalability, especially for static and archival data, but that option will require a major investment in the county’s networks and in SDS with auto-tiering and cloud integration, Matavulj says.

“You can’t just magically move to the cloud,” he says. “You need the ­bandwidth to move lots of data and the ­software to automate the process.”

With its existing SAN hardware reaching the end of its life, officials in Mecklenburg County, N.C., plan to escape from their reliance on dedicated storage hardware altogether, Technical Services Director Clifford Dupuy says.

Mecklenburg County Finds Hope in Hyperconvergence

“We want to be out of mechanical drive storage and into a hyperconverged ­infrastructure that includes storage,” Dupuy says.

Mecklenburg County will deploy #DellEMC ’s #VxRail #hyperconverged appliance, which combines compute, networking and virtualization resources along with #VMware #vSAN storage software. The county already uses #Microsoft #Azure’s #StorSimple 8000, a policy-based tiered solution that sends archival or infrequently used data to the Azure cloud.

The county’s initial investment in VxRail roughly equals the annual support and maintenance fees for the aging SAN, and its maintenance costs represent a fraction of that incurred by the old storage environment, Dupuy says. Yet, the promise of increased agility and security for storage resources impresses county teams at least as much as the cost savings.

“It’s a win for us in IT and a fiscal win for the county’s citizens,” Dupuy says. “They’re going to save money, and their data is going to be more secure in a system that’s more robust and dynamic.”

https://statetechmagazine.com/article/2017/07/software-defined-storage-offers-agencies-flexibility-security-and-savings

DataCore Achieves Category Leadership for a Software-Defined Storage Offering with Highest Rating in Independent Evaluation by WhatMatrix

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DataCore today announced that it has received the highest rating for a software-defined storage offering in a rigorous, independent evaluation by WhatMatrix. Moreover, DataCore achieved second place in the overall software-defined storage (SDS)/hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) combined category, coming in at less than 1% below Nutanix, the top rated product. "We conducted a rigorous, independent evaluation of DataCore for our combined SDS/HCI category," said Herman Rutten, category consultant, WhatMatrix. "In a comparison of nearly 100 rated criteria, DataCore has emerged as a category leader in the SDS space, a testament to their long standing innovation in this market." WhatMatrix's mission is to provide a comparison platform driven by visitor demand and IT community collaboration. The independent, third-party evaluation featured an in-depth technical evaluation of more than 20 offerings in the #SDS / #HCI market from vendors including #Atlantis, #Cisco, #DataCore, #DellEMC, #HPE, #Microsoft, #Nutanix, #Simplivity, and #VMware. Featuring a rich set of automated data storage services, automation and unmatched performance driven by Adaptive Parallel I/O technology, DataCore offers powerful benefits not widely known by general IT infrastructure professionals (but loved by customers and validated in independent surveys). These include infrastructure-wide management from a single console, and a robust, hardware-agnostic solution that can be deployed in multiple different configurations to best serve customer use cases (hyperconverged, hybrid-converged, cloud, converged server SAN and storage virtualization). DataCore is easily adaptable as the environment grows, works with any storage hardware that is already deployed, and future-proofs investments as new storage technologies are introduced and cloud adoption continues to grow. "The full capabilities of our software-defined storage solutions are often underestimated, but our top rating in the WhatMatrix SDS/HCI category will now help more companies make smarter choices in their evaluation of SDS/HCI solutions," said Carrie Reber, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at DataCore Software. "Additionally, our ranking highlights DataCore's importance in this market segment. DataCore has been around for nearly 20 years, serving more than 10,000 customers."

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/datacore-achieves-category-leadership-for-a-software-defined-storage-offering-with-highest-rating-in-independent-evaluation-by-whatmatrix-300486127.html

DataCore Introduces Hybrid Cloud Replication on Azure Marketplace for its Software-Defined Storage Solutions

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #DataCore today announced that its DataCore Cloud Replication software solutions are now available in the #Microsoft #Azure Marketplace to support customers' disaster recovery efforts. Customers with on-premises deployments of #SANsymphony™ software-defined storage and #Hyperconverged Virtual SAN can use the Microsoft Azure cloud as an added replication location to safeguard highly available systems.  For example, on-premises stretch clusters split between two sites in a metropolitan area can also replicate a third copy of the data to Azure to protect against data loss in the event of a major regional disaster. Critical data is continuously replicated asynchronously within the hybrid cloud configuration. In addition, customers with a diverse mix of storage brands or models can run DataCore software-defined storage on-premises to consolidate and unify data replication to the Azure cloud for all storage assets versus dealing with the complexity and cost of implementing piecemeal vendor by vendor approaches. The ongoing and rapid growth of data, the diversity of storage devices, and the wide variety of compliance regulations to which many organizations must adhere requires that all essential data and applications be available at a remote site accessible from anywhere to ensure that business operations can be restored in the event of an unforeseen event or disaster scenario. Enterprises are increasingly turning to the cloud to avoid the difficulties of setting up and maintaining a dedicated remote location for just this purpose. The availability of DataCore Cloud Replication in the Azure Marketplace makes it much simpler for enterprises to take advantage of the scalability, agility and cost-efficiencies of the Azure cloud to quickly roll out a secure remote replication site, while enjoying unified storage management between their on-premises infrastructure and the Azure cloud. This offering delivers the flexibility to choose where critical data is restored should a catastrophe occur. In some cases, it will be best to restore at the original on-premises location. In other cases, IT may prefer to run some of their workloads directly in the Azure cloud. "DataCore Cloud Replication in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace provides our customers with the potential to realize substantial CapEx and time savings, while offering the benefits of greater protection and flexibility for remote replication," said Sushant Rao, senior director, product marketing at DataCore Software. "This will ultimately help enterprises more effectively achieve mission-critical business objectives such as efficient disaster recovery through the use of flexible and cost-effective cloud services." "Hybrid cloud deployments are one of the fastest growing technology segments in the industry today," said Dietmar Hensch, managing director, Crew Services at Kramer & Crew (GmbH & Co. KG). "DataCore's Cloud Replication offering in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace provides us with a greater ability to provide more advanced hybrid systems to our customers, along with a faster and more convenient way to address the need for critical disaster recovery services." Qualifying licenses are available from DataCore channel partners that are ready to provide the professional services necessary to set up the remote replication sites, and can tailor the appropriate services for each customer's recovery requirements.

http://news.sys-con.com/node/4113417

Study Provides Insights Into Software-Defined Storage

#DataCore Software just published the results of its sixth annual "State of #SoftwareDefinedStorage, #Hyperconverged and #CloudStorage" survey. The survey was designed to assess the impact of "software-driven" storage deployments within organizations across the globe. The survey asked respondents about levels of spending on technologies including software-defined storage (SDS), flash technology, hyperconverged storage, private cloud storage and #OpenStack, with software-defined storage topping the charts in 2017 spending. Major Business Drivers of SDS The respondents indicated that major business drivers for implementing SDS include: To simplify management of different models of storage – 55 percent To future-proof infrastructure – 53 percent To avoid hardware lock-in from storage manufacturers – 52 percent To extend the life of existing storage assets – 47 percent Only 6 percent of those surveyed said they were not considering a move to SDS. Although surveys of this type often do not ask about project failures and disappointment, the respondents were asked "What technology disappointments or false starts have you encountered in your storage infrastructure?" The top three answers: Cloud storage failed to reduce costs – 31 percent Managing object storage is difficult – 29 percent Flash failed to accelerate applications – 16 percent Dan's Take: Software Defined Storage Is Increasingly Important Although I usually don't comment on surveys done by other research firms, this one appears to offer solid information and the analysis provides useful insight. The findings of the survey are consistent with the results of smaller-scale work done by my company and are worth knowing about. I found what enterprises are seeking through the use of this technology to be rather interesting.

https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2017/05/31/study-provides-insights-into-software-defined-storage.aspx?m=1

A Case Study on Improving SQL Server Performance 20X with Hyper-converged

Imagine what it's like to be responsible for an application where performance is a matter of life and death. Well, wonder no more – that’s Corey Nelson who runs IT for Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon (ECSO). #DataCore’ s very own Sushant Rao and Corey speak with us a little bit about why DataCore’s Hyper-converged Virtual SAN ( #HVSAN ) was the only product suited for ECSO’s application used for 911 operators to get police, fire and health responders out to an emergency as fast as possible. In addition, when a police officer makes a traffic stop and enters in a car’s license plate into their computer, they don’t know who’s in the stopped vehicle until this same application pulls the information from other agencies and provides a consolidated view. The longer the application takes, the longer lives and property are in jeopardy. Unfortunately, the dispatching application was too slow for ECSO’s standards, making the 911 operators wait while they were on the phone with a caller. At the heart of the application was a SQL Server database that was slowing down the entire application. When Corey did some root cause analysis, he found that it was his SAN that was the bottleneck, hitting 200 milliseconds of latency multiple times a day. So, Corey was looking for a solution that would provide the I/O performance his SQL Server needed, to ensure his critical application ran fast and Corey decided to go with a hyper-converged solution from DataCore

http://www.datacore.com/the-virtual-viewpoint-post/posts/2017/05/18/a-case-study-on-improving-sql-server-performance-20x-with-hyper-converged

DataCore’s SANsymphony-V Software Receives Editor’s Choice ‘SVC 2016 Industry Award’ due to its Outstanding Contribution to Technology

(PRLEAP.COM) READING, UK: – Dec 8, 2016 – #DataCore, the leader in #ParallelPoweredSoftware and #Hyperconverged #VirtualSAN solutions, have announced that their tenth generation #SANsymphonyV platform has received the coveted Storage, Virtualisation and Cloud ( #SVC ) 2016 Industry Award from an editorial judging panel, held at a London-based glittering ceremony, last Thursday evening. “SANsymphony-V firmly deserves this important industry award based on two counts. Firstly, on the maturity and longevity of the platform – DataCore were the first to market Software-Defined Storage back in the early 2000’s, bringing software powered storage to thousands of customers. And secondly, on the immense impact that Parallel IO processing is having today within data centres, handling compute with unprecedented ease and on a scale never witnessed before.” notes Brett Denly, Regional Director, DataCore Software UK. Brett collected the Award alongside DataCore’s Neil Crispin and Pierre Aguerreberry. With unparalleled numbers of vendors to select from within the Storage, Cloud and Virtualisation space, the eminent editorial judging panel of Digitalisation World stable of titles contemplated long and hard before bestowing the 2016 SVC Industry Award to DataCore Software, noting:- “DataCore Software is a leader in software-defined storage backed by 10,000 customer sites around the world, so they must be doing something right!” said Jason Holloway, Director of IT Publishing at Angel Business Communications, Organiser of the SVC Awards SVC Industry Awards continue to set a benchmark for outstanding performance on the contribution of individuals, projects, organisations and technologies that have excelled in the use, development and deployment of IT.

http://satprnews.com/2017/01/16/datacores-sansymphony-v-software-receives-editors-choice-svc-2016-industry-award-due-to-its-outstanding-contribution-to-technology-3/

DataCore Software: Hyper-Converged Storage Podcast – Episode 268

 In episode 268, Douglas Brown interviews Sushant Rao, Sr. Director of Product & Solutions Marketing at #DataCore Software. Sushant and Douglas discuss DataCore Software’s hyper-converged storage solution.. Sushant is another deep technical expert from DataCore and does a great job diving deep in to #hyperconvergence , DataCore, storage, parallel processing and much more! This is a very technical deep dive from one of the industries true experts. This is 4rd in a series of podcasts with DataCore Software, if you missed the previous issues then look no further: Hyper-converged: A Noun or a Verb? Podcast with DataCore Software – Episode 262 DataCore: Parallel I/O and Virtualized Storage Deep Dive Podcast with Guru Ziya Aral – Episode 248 DataCore Software – VMware Virtual Volumes ( #VVols ) Storage Podcast – Episode 246

http://www.dabcc.com/datacore-software-hyper-converged-storage-podcast-episode-268/

DataCore and Supermicro Offer Ultra-High Performance Enterprise Class Hyper-Converged Solutions

PRNewswire/ -- #DataCore Software, a leading provider of Hyper-converged Virtual SAN, #SoftwareDefinedStorage and #AdaptiveParallel I/O Software, today announced that it has partnered with #Supermicro to create an enterprise-class Hyper-converged solution that delivers the benefits of ultra-high performance and web-scale simplicity. While priced to provide a cost-effective option for traditional Hyper-converged use cases such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and ROBO, these systems deliver the world's fastest Hyper-converged performance and can also run demanding enterprise applications such as databases and ERP systems using a fraction of the nodes required by others to run similar workloads.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/datacore-supermicro-offer-ultra-high-140000749.html

Gartner Research on Software-defined Storage: The CxO View

Welcome Fellow CxO, Today’s business climate carries a great deal of uncertainty for companies of all sizes and industries.

To seize new business models and opportunities, systems must be flexible and easily adjusted in order to respond to growth spurts, seasonality and peak periods. Likewise agility helps us mitigate risk .With the sluggish economies across the world, there is a need to be prepared to react quickly to changing fortunes. From cutting back when needed to rapidly growing when opportunities present themselves, companies are less focused on long-term planning in favor of quick decisions and meeting quarterly expectations. #datacore

Technology is changing business dynamics as well. Social, mobile and cloud are impacting companies’ operations, meaning they need to be able to meet changing demand 24x7. This has put a premium on companies’ ability to react quickly while being able to absorb and analyze all the data they are gathering.

In survey after survey, CxOs highlight the following challenges when it comes to IT:

Dealing with the rapid growth of dataHigh cost of storing this dataDelivering high-performance applicationsMeeting Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery requirements

When looking at IT infrastructure, it’s pretty clear that compute and networking have taken the lead in meeting these demanding requirements. But, storage is a laggard.

Enter Software-defined Storage (SDS). Aside from being the latest buzzword, what is SDS and will it help companies like yours succeed?

Put simply, SDS delivers agility, faster time to respond to change and more purchasing power control in terms of cost decisions. Gartner defines SDS as “storage software on industry-standard server hardware [to] significantly lower opex of storage upgrades and maintenance costs… Eliminates need for high-priced proprietary storage hardware”.

Our own research based on thousands of customers real-world feedback shows a growing interest in SDS. By separating the storage software from storage hardware, SDS is able to:

Pool data stores allowing all storage assets and their existing and new capacity investments to work together ;enabling different storage devices from different vendors to be managed in commonProvide a comprehensive set of data services across different platforms and hardwareSeparate advances in software from advances in hardwareAutomate and simplify management of all storage

The benefits to your company are potentially enormous. In a recent survey of over 2000 DataCore customers that have deployed SDS, key findings include:

79% improved performance by 3X or more83% reduced storage-related downtime by 50% or more81% reduced storage-related spending by 25% or more100% saw a positive ROI in the first year

http://www.datacore.com/blog/posts/2016/07/12/gartner-research-on-software-defined-storage-the-cxo-view

Sources: Nutanix poised to gobble PernixData

Four independent sources say hyper-converged poster child @Nutanix is buying hypervisor flash-cacher @PernixData, thus gaining crucial technology to speed up its appliances. #Nutanix spokesman Declan Waters told us: "No comment." A #PernixData spokesperson added: "We are not commenting at this time." A PernixData insider told The Register: "Everything is in a state of flux right now." That's the scoop. Here's the background information. PernixData was founded by CEO Poojan Kumar and CTO Satyam Vaghani in 2012. It received a $7 million A‑round that year, $20 million in a 2013 B‑round, and $35 million in a C‑round in 2014, giving it $62 million in total. The main product is FVP, with a recent Architect product providing infrastructure analytics in virtual environments. The company has had some employee attrition, and here is a 2015 round-up of some of that. Kirk Arrowood, director of northeast sales until November when he left and went to Zerto as regional sales manager, northeast. Michael Foy, ex-channel sales manager who left in August to be director of partner sales at DataCore and is now channel account manager at Silver Peak. Brian Gagnon, ex-channel and technology evangelist who left in August to join HGST as a principal engineer. James White, ex-A/C exec who left in October to join Sentieo as head of enterprise growth. Cory Barnard, currently in sales at Interana, who left his director of corporate sales post at PernixData in September. David Schneider, now systems engineering manager at Veeam, who left a systems engineer post at PernixData in October. Taka Yamada, who left his regional sales manager position in October and is now a regional director at Silver Peak. Jeff Germscheid, middle Atlantic regional sales manager who left in May and is now sales director at DataCore. Rob Bergin, system engineer, who left in October and is now at Springpath. Kiet Duong, currently director of customer success at Netskope, who left his post as director of support in November. Todd Mace, FVP product manager, now tech evangelist at DataCore.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/hyperconverged_nutanix_could_be_buying_vmcare_cacher_pernixdata/

DataCore’s Virtual SAN Solution Brings Business Continuity and a Hyper-Convergence to Major European Chemical Plant

@DataCore , a leading provider of Software-defined Storage ( #SDS )and #Hyperconverged Virtual SAN solutions, have implemented the DataCore™ Virtual SAN software as part of a Hyper-Converged Data Center solution at LERG S.A., a major European chemical plant based in Poland. Through implementation of a software-defined infrastructure, the chemical manufacturer is now benefiting from high availability data protection, enhanced business continuity and improved productivity whilst reducing storage-related expenses by 50% and improving performance by more than 500 per cent.

“The hyper-converged mirrored data center running DataCore Virtual SAN software has enabled us to set up a multi-site business continuity process which delivered improved performance and far greater productivity. The new infrastructure also provides greater flexibility with high level of investment protection for our future .” Adam Bek, Financial Director at LERG S.A.

Headquartered in Pustków (Poland), LERG has nearly 500 employees with annual revenues of over 100 Million Euros supplying customers across 25 countries around the world, producing and exporting resins and their chemical by-products for their use in a wide range of applications in various industries. The company has grown steadily in recent years, as has the need to rapidly respond to requests from the expanding customer base. Other business challenges include maintaining the high quality level of products for which LERG is renown, as well as meeting a variety of EU regulatory requirements, which were challenging the flexibility, reliability and performance of the existing IT systems

http://www.dabcc.com/datacores-virtual-san-solution-brings-business-continuity-and-a-hyper-convergence-to-major-european-chemical-plant/

DataCore Up-scales Its Record-Breaking Hyper-converged Performance with Multi-node Highly Available Server SAN

#DataCore today announced new record-breaking performance results for high-availability #hyper-converged storage solutions, demonstrating the effectiveness of DataCore™ Parallel I/O technology in harnessing the untapped power of multi-core processors and disrupting the status quo of the storage industry. The new results are sure to send a wake-up call to a storage community obsessed with debating how to speed up latency-sensitive applications. 

Using the industry's most recognized storage benchmark for driving enterprise-level database workloads -- the Storage Performance Council's SPC-1 -- DataCore took on the classic high-end external storage arrays with a fully redundant, dual-node Fibre Channel Server SAN solution, running its #SANsymphony™ Software-Defined Storage Services Platform on a pair of off-the-shelf Intel-based servers.

"With our first SPC-1 Price-Performance™ record1, we set out to prove what could be accomplished with Parallel I/O in a single server, combining the benchmark's database workload and our storage stack in a single, atomic, hyper-converged system," saidZiya Aral, chairman of DataCore Software. "Now just a few months later, we are showcasing our progress and the effectiveness of multi-node scaling."

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/datacore-up-scales-its-record-breaking-hyper-converged-performance-with-multi-node-highly-available-server-san-300282222.html

DataCore Parallel I/O Software Takes the Gold in the Storage System Software Category of StorageMagazine/SearchStorage.com Products of the Year Awards

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#DataCore, the leader in Parallel-Powered #SoftwareDefinedStorage, Application-Adaptive Data Infrastructure and #Hyperconverged Virtual SAN solutions, today announced that its Adaptive Parallel I/O software was named a Gold winner in the Storage System Software category of the 2015 Products of the Year Awards announced this month by StorageMagazine/SearchStorage.com. The awards, presented annually by the editors of TechTarget’s Storage Media Group, were judged by the Storagemagazine/SearchStorage.com editorial staff, in conjunction with a team of users, industry experts, analysts and consultants.

The judging panel rated DataCore™ Adaptive Parallel I/O first in performance among the 13 finalists in the Storage System Software category. Comments from the judges included that there is nothing else like DataCore's Adaptive Parallel I/O on the market, and one called the software "potentially revolutionary." Another noted that most software-defined storage products, or storage virtualization, are not capable of parallel I/O.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006163/en/DataCore-Parallel-IO-Software-Takes-Gold-Storage20160310006163/en/DataCore-Parallel-IO-Software-Takes-Gold-Storage

DataCore Announces Universal VVols Support to Expand Reach of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#DataCore Software, a leader in Software-Defined Storage and Hyper-converged Virtual SAN solutions, today announced universal vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) support which extends the scope and impact of this important industry advance. Many administrators crave the power and fine-grain control promised by vSphere Virtual Volumes; however, most current storage arrays and systems do not support it or are not currently certified as VVol capable. This powerful new capability enabled by DataCore allows VMware’s VVols benefits to work universally across all kinds of storage. With DataCore enabled, VMware vSphere administrators can self-provision virtual volumes from virtual storage pools -- and can instantly specify the capacity and class of service needed for their applications without having to know anything about the storage or underlying hardware. The new capability is already shipping and comes included within the current release of DataCore’s VMware certified SANsymphony™-V Software-Defined Storage and DataCore™ Hyper-converged Virtual SAN.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151214005144/en/DataCore-Announces-Universal-VVols-Support-Expand-Reach