15 Hot Storage Products For Virtualized Data Centers

Storage: Key Enabler Of Virtualized And Cloud Environments

Storage is a key enabler of virtualized and cloud environments, and what better place to showcase a wide variety of hardware and software targeting such environments than at VMware Partner Exchange.

Virtualization and storage have in common the fact that both are primarily implemented through solution providers, and vendors of both used VMware Partner Exchange to show how partners can profit in a variety of ways.

Here are 15 hot offerings from VMware Partner Exchange that can help partners rearchitect their customers' data center infrastructures.

Acronis: Data Protection For Macs In The Enterprise

Acronis, a Woburn, Mass.-based developer of data protection technology, used VMware Partner Exchange to introduce a backup and data protection architecture for Apple Macs to help provide the seamless and secure integration of Macs in the enterprise. The new solution helps eliminate business continuity and compliance risks of Mac use without disrupting the user or administrator experience.

Astute: Storage Appliances Certified With DataCore

San Diego-based Astute Networks said at the show that its Astute ViSX solid-state storage appliance has been certified by DataCore Software as a "DataCore Ready" solution validated for use with DataCore SANsymphony-V Storage Hypervisor-based infrastructures.

DataCore Nodes provide storage virtualization functionality, including caching, thin provisioning, snapshots, replication and continuous data protection of virtual volumes. Astute increases application performance by resolving critical I/O bottlenecks with the ViSX family of solid-state flash-based Performance Storage Appliances. The joint solution targets cost-constrained multivendor IT organizations deploying desktop and server virtualization with the need for a disaster recovery and business continuity solution.

Atlantis ILIO: Sub-$300 Storage For Persistent VDI

Mountain View, Calif.-based Atlantis Computing showed its Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI 4.0 in-memory virtual desktop infrastructure storage solution that enables businesses to deliver persistent virtual desktops that run completely using server RAM as storage. Atlantis claims the solution delivers a better-than-PC user experience at an infrastructure cost of less than $300 per desktop while fully automating the deployment for thousands of users.

Atlantis ILIO In-Memory storage technology delivers the performance of local server RAM while maintaining a realtime optimized backup using a small amount of shared SAN/NAS storage to ensure data protection and availability.

EMC: Self-Service Cloud Storage Platform

EMC, Hopktinon, Mass., used VMware Partner Exchange to launch VMAX Cloud Edition, a self-service, enterprise-class platform that provides easy access to storage for public, private and hybrid cloud deployments for service providers and enterprises. VMAX Cloud Edition offers self-service access, ease of use, and flexible pre-engineered and preconfigured service levels that form a service catalog from which tenants can choose. Users without specialized storage skills can switch between different services and quickly provision storage.

VMAX Cloud Edition also features automation of day-to-day tasks; prepackaged metering and chargeback reporting; REST APIs to integrate reporting, operation and self-service into the existing management and orchestration layer; and a linear cost model.

FalconStor: Automated Disaster Recovery Tool

FalconStor Software introduced RecoverTrac 2.6, the newest version of the Melville, N.Y.-based storage software vendor's automated disaster recovery tool. RecoverTrac 2.6 technology features deep integration with VMware, reduced failback times, automatic repairing of replication policies, and the ability to recover virtual machines using the VMware Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) format.

For businesses using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM), the RecoverTrac tool extends protection capabilities to all areas of the infrastructure not covered by VMware SRM by automating failover and failback services and leveraging replication and snapshot technologies.

RecoverTrac 2.6 capability is a standard feature of FalconStor Continuous Data Protector and FalconStor Network Storage Server data protection solutions.

GreenBytes: Virtual Storage Appliance For Virtual Desktops

GreenBytes vIO is a virtual storage appliance version of the Providence, R.I., company's desktop virtualization solution, the IO Offload Engine. The vIO offers additional virtual desktop deployment flexibility utilizing existing infrastructure resources, enabling enterprises and service providers to scale their virtual desktop environment as their businesses require. GreenBytes' zero latency inline deduplication technology lets IT deliver full-featured persistent virtual desktops at cloud-scale, providing end users with a virtual desktop experience similar to the physical desktop performance they expect, with up to 97 percent less storage space required compared to traditional solutions.

NetApp: Physical Storage In SDDC Environments

NetApp used VMware Partner Exchange to show how nonstop storage operations powered by Clustered Data ONTAP provides the agility to utilize physical storage resources in a software-defined data center. The company also showed performance acceleration with its Flash technologies including array-based FlashPools and host-side Flash Accel.

NetApp also showed the scalability of VMware vCloud and Horizon Suites Workspace through VAAI and VCAI integrations, as well as enterprise-level backup and recovery with NetApp Snap Creator and Snapshot backups and data protection for vCloud and Horizon Workspace.

Nimble Storage: Reference Storage For VMware Horizon View 5.2

San Jose, Calif.-based Nimble Storage unveiled a reference storage design to complement VMware Horizon View 5.2 for midsize virtual desktop infrastructure deployments. The Nimble Storage SmartStack for VDI with VMware is delivered by channel partners using the company's reference architecture for a solution that Nimble said eliminates the risk and uncertainties of deploying desktop virtualization.

Nutanix: More Reference Architecture For Storage And VDI

San Jose, Calif.-based Nutanix showed its first VMware-validated comprehensive reference architecture that enables virtualization and cloud teams to design and deploy the complete VMware Horizon Suite on a single platform. The Nutanix reference architecture for VMware Horizon Suite provides scalable, high-performance, and flexible data center infrastructure to meet end-user computing and cloud-based service needs. The various VMware Horizon Suite components, including VMware Horizon View and VMware Horizon Workspace, run on a single Nutanix appliance and allow enterprise IT managers scale their Nutanix-based infrastructure one node at a time.

OCZ: Integrated Virtualization For Flash Storage Performance

OCZ, the San Jose, Calif.-based SSD developer, used VMware Partner Exchange to unveil OCZ VXL Software, which works in conjunction with OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs to provide an integrated virtualization solution for efficient on-demand distribution of flash to help maximize application performance.

The upcoming Version 1.3 of the software features synchronous data mirroring and automatic server failover mechanisms to enable SAN-less, highly available, fault-tolerant environments based entirely on virtualized host flash. The new release also enables flash cache to be preloaded with critical data at predetermined schedules to ensure that data is available on SSD flash when required by the application.

Riverbed: Performance Solutions For VMware View Deployments

San Francisco-based Riverbed partnered with VMware to integrate multiple Riverbed performance solutions with VMware View deployments to provide acceleration, control and management for virtualized desktop initiatives.

The combination of Riverbed's WAN optimization and its ability to prioritize PC-over-IP (PCoIP) at a granular level along with other traffic on the same WAN help organizations balance desktop virtualization and business applications that traverse the same WAN.

Riverbed also said its Granite technology is VMware-certified with VMware View 5.2 to support high-performance remote and branch office desktop virtualization. Also, the integration of its new Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager with VMware View provides acceleration, business continuity and high availability for end users requiring constant access to desktops, applications and data from any device.

Tegile: Going 100 Percent Channel

Tegile Systems, a Newark, Calif.-based developer of enterprise-class hybrid arrays with both disk-based and flash storage, used VMware Partner Exchange to unveil its first channel sales program. The startup, which is already working with more than 60 solution providers, implemented a 100 percent channel sales model and is backing that decision with a program that provides its partners with a high level of deal protection and return on investment, said Chris Noordyke, Tegile's new director of channels.

Tegile also demonstrated its new Zebi hybrid arrays, which combine disk and flash storage along with both NAS and SAN connectivity in a fully redundant, highly scalable solution.

Tintri: Reference Architecture For VDI Storage

Tintri, Mountain View, Calif., unveiled a new reference architecture with VMware for high-performance virtual desktop infrastructure. Tintri said that testing at VMware labs validated the reference architecture for 1,000 simultaneous VDI users at Ultrabook-level performance from just a single Tintri T540 storage appliance. With no tuning or special configuration, the Tintri storage platform went from power-on to storing the first VM in just eight minutes, according to Tintri.

Veeam: Extending Backup Support To VMware vCloud Director

Veeam Software, Baar, Switzerland, said at VMware Partner Exchange that it is extending support for its Veeam backup console to VMware vCloud Director (vCD). Using the vCD API, Veeam can display the vCD infrastructure directly in Veeam Backup & Replication, back up all vApp metadata and attributes, restore vApps and virtual machines directly to vCD, and restore fast-provisioned virtual machines as a way to help midsize and large enterprises deploy cloud infrastructures.

Zerto: Disaster Recovery For Virtualized Environments

Boston-based Zerto showcased Zerto Virtual Replication (ZVR) 3.0, a simple, automated disaster recovery technology for virtualized workloads at the virtual machine level. This includes mission-critical or tier-two applications in local or remote branch office scenarios whether based in virtual data centers or hosted in clouds.

ZVR 3.0, scheduled to ship next quarter, includes robust disaster recovery capabilities for branch offices, a parallel recovery feature to quickly recover large applications, and a new "test-before-commit" function. For cloud service providers, ZVR 3.0 includes the Zerto Self-Service Portal (ZSSP), which integrates seamlessly into an existing portal for disaster recovery services, and Zerto Cloud Manager (ZCM), which provides a single view of a customer's data across one or more locations.