DataCore adds Hyper-Converged Services plus OpenStack Cloud Support

The new PSP2 update release adds support for OpenStack Cinder, enabling DataCore to deliver its comprehensive set of Software-Defined Storage services to private, hybrid and public clouds built with OpenStack. The release also includes new features and servicesto centrally control and manage end-to-end I/O performance, optimize flash, integrate backups, improve space efficiency, serve virtual desktops, and automate hyper-converged and enterprise-wide Software-Defined Storage deployments.

A number of services have been incorporated to enable industry-standard x86 servers to gain the essential enterprise-class storage functionality needed to meet today’s demanding business requirements. DataCore’s ability to deliver the industry’s most complete and unified range of hyper-converged, virtual SAN and Software-Defined Storage platform services has also fueled a growing list of alliances and server vendor partnerships with companies seeking to leverage their hardware platforms with DataCore’s latest release. The PSP2 release is now GA and shipping.

Extends Powerful Enterprise-wide Services: The All-Embracing Software-Defined Storage Platform

New services and enhanced features include:
Brings Software-Defined Storage to Cloud Architectures; adds OpenStack Support:Enterprises and cloud service providers can now use a DataCore SDS platform to centralise the provisioning and management of new or existing storage resources via standard OpenStack Cinder commands. Previously, organisations tasked with creating a cloud infrastructure with OpenStack were challenged to utilise already available storage investments or find new cost-effective storage that was OpenStack-compatible and yet able to deliver enterprise-class capabilities to power their cloud environments.

Hyper-Converged Virtual Desktop Services:This release introduces new VDI services and deployment tools to automate the creation and management of stateful, highly-available virtual desktops. The resulting high-density VDI implementations are cost-effective and especially well-suited for organizations seeking to deploy desktops at a departmental level. The software utilises DataCore’s high-performance caching and thin provisioning to diminish the dependency on physical storage. In comparison to other hyper-converged VDI offerings, DataCore does not require expensive flash or disk subsystems to achieve needed performance levels; it optimises industry-standard servers and DRAM, plus uses fewer, lower-priced internal disks in place of higher-priced external storage, to significantly lower the overall cost per virtual desktop.

Universal Virtual Disk Deduplication and Compression Services: Virtual disks can now be deduplicated, compressed and scheduled in the background to reduce the space they occupy on disk. Unlike other vendors that limit this type of functionality to their own proprietary or array-specific storage devices, DataCore’s space-saving services apply universally across the infrastructure; it extends block-level deduplication and compression to any storage and any file system or hypervisor.

Backup Integration Services, Added Veeam Support and Automation:DataCore works with popular third-party backup products to simplify end-to-end data protection and ensure rapid data recovery at a granular level. DataCore already supports products such as CommVault Simpana’s IntelliSnap technology and Microsoft Data Protection Manager, which take advantage of DataCore online snapshots to centralize backups for a wide range of applications, hypervisors, operating systems and storage devices. This update provides a similar capability to trigger Veeam backups to use DataCore’s highly efficient snapshots to relieve the burden of using VM snapshots on hosts. Backups can now be scheduled and taken more frequently with minimal impact on applications, improving Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and resulting in greater productivity and speedier recovery.

Console Services and Centralised Management for Distributed Groups: Organisations with virtual storage pools distributed across multiple locations can now manage the different DataCore server groups from a single user interface. Separate levels of control can be assigned to different administrators across a hierarchy of server groups making it possible to centrally manage, control and delegate responsibilites over widely distributed storage infastructures with fewer people.
Hyper-Converged and Popular-Use Case Deployment Services:With this update, DataCore continues to greatly simplify and automate how software can be installed, configured and updated to meet different use cases and deployment scenarios. This latest release makes it easy to set up hyper-converged environments, scalable file systems over clusters, VDI configurations, mixed file / block storage and multi-node high-availability deployments running the software on either physical or on virtual platforms (VMs).

Delivers a Centralized and Powerful SDS Platform to Manage Overall I/O Performance End-to-End DataCore SANsymphony-V10 works infrastructure-wide across all types of storage (flash, disk and cloud) to automate and optimise performance and resource allocation. The new release offers a powerful set of tools to profile, monitor, instrument, identify ‘hot spots’ and manage performance-impacting application workloads. New performance-enhancing additions included in PSP2 are:
Performance Optimisations for Flash: Enhancements have been introduced that impact how DataCore cache performs read operations from flash-based and solid-state storage technologies. The net result is faster application response, lower overhead and better utilisation of costly flash memory.

Expanded Instrumentation and Metrics: The PSP2 release provides greater visibility to the I/O behaviour of virtual and physical disks so users can accurately understand what is happening with storage resources. Updates include additional performance metrics for virtual disks, improved heat maps and performance trending analysis reports and added support for S.M.A.R.T. alerts from physical storage to help IT administrators better isolate performance and disk problems. The new capabilities improve productivity and make it easier to manage larger-scale deployments while reducing the time and expense to troubleshoot root causes of application slowdowns.

Production-Ready Random Write Accelerator (RWA): The previous update introduced this new innovation for experimental use under certain conditions; the experimental designation is now removed in PSP2. This powerful capability converts high-latency random writes into storage-friendly sequential writes, yielding up to 30 times faster performance for the random-write-heavy workloads that frequently updates databases, ERP and OLTP systems. The result is SSD-like speed from lower-cost spinning disks and a reduction in the need for costly flash resources. This capability also helps optimise flash storage performance.

Closing the Server to Storage Gap; Empowering Server Vendors to Meet Enterprise Demands
The gap between servers and storage continues to erode as servers become more powerful and more storage capable. In this new era of commoditised hardware, what matters is the software. DataCore recognised this inevitable shift and pioneered the movement to Software-Defined Storage solutions. With this release, DataCore advances its platform to deliver the industry’s most complete and proven SDS services stack. The software is comprehensive in scope, providing end-to-end data and storage services that are not limited to a single device, but work across different vendors and types of storage from flash to disk to cloud storage. The new release combines a rich set of enterprise-class storage services with an enduring software architecture designed to harness the continually improving cost curves and technology advances of the underlying hardware to close the gap. Numerous partnerships signed with leading global server vendors attest to this new trend of server vendors seeking to benefit by providing DataCore Software-Defined Storage with their platforms, including: Huawei , Cisco , Fujitsu and Dell.

“As the leading innovator of Software-Defined Storage technology for more than 17 years, DataCore has seen countless storage devices come and go that are all managed and administered differently. We created DataCore Software-Defined Storage solutions to break down those walls and create an enduring and flexible platform to allow any vendor’s storage technology to work together seamlessly,” said George Teixeira, CEO of DataCore. “We continue to evolve our SANsymphony-V and Virtual SAN solutions to enable our customers to take full advantage of their existing investments and to prepare them for the long term with a software architecture that is designed to absorb new technologies without disruption as the industry advances.”