Storage Partners Support VMware at VMworld 2013

VMware storage partners are out in force at VMworld 2013 this week in San Francisco. EMC, NetApp, Nimble Storage and Kingston Digital all have announcements in support of VMware software and solutions.

EMC invests in software-defined storage.  EMC and VMware announced a major investment and commitment focused on rapid advancement of software-defined storage architectures and emerging models for the way applications consume storage in virtualized environments. With a focus on tight integration of VMware Virtual SAN with VMware vCenter Server, the efforts will focus on joint research and development projects, the creation of joint EMC and VMware proven solutions, and joint test and validation labs. Targeting a range of use cases for software-defined storage in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), each case will e optimized for deployment on VMware Virtual SAN infrastructure, supported by storage policy-based management and featuring significantly reduced TCO through the use of low-cost server-side storage. “EMC and VMware together are defining a new class of highly integrated storage infrastructure to reduce cost and complexity in VMware environments for SMBs and SMEs. A best-of-breed offering based on the combination of VMware Virtual SAN with EMC’s market leading storage hardware and software portfolio will help expand the market opportunity for both companies,” said Jeremy Burton, Executive Vice President, of Product Operations and Marketing at EMC Corporation.

NetApp announces new VMware integrations. NetApp (NTAP) announced new integrations with VMware solutions and NetApp clustered Data ONTAP software to enable nondisruptive migration of data for hundreds of virtual machines at a time. NetApp announced the Virtual Storage Console 5.0 (VSC 5.0), a new release of its end-to-end storage management software for VMware environments that includes support of and integration with VMware vCenter Server 5.5, and Flash Accel 1.2 server cache for integration with vSphere 5.0 and 5.1 for management of server-level cache. “The cloud is enabling this new era of IT service delivery to help businesses be more flexible, responsive, and competitive," said Brendon Howe, Vice President, Product & Solutions Marketing at NetApp . "One movement—software-defined storage—is part of this transformation in IT that helps break down technology barriers, driving increased agility, simplicity, and efficiency. NetApp and VMware will continue to align our development efforts to help organizations and CIOs realize the agility of the cloud and the power of clustered Data ONTAP and its integration to VMware vCloud Suite to focus on IT server delivery versus hardware limits.”

Nimble Storage launches SmartStack.  Nimble Storage announced a new converged infrastructure reference architecture leveraging Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and VMware vSphere. At the core is VMware vSphere 5.1, flash-optimized Nimble Storage CS-Series arrays, and Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers. Together, these components allow IT organizations to scale as needed to respond faster to changing business needs, while lowering project risks and capital expenses. Nimble launched a series of SmartStack pre-validated reference architectures that minimize the challenges associated with deploying application, server, hypervisor, networking and storage components as an integrated solution. The reference architecture has been validated to support department scale deployment of 500 users for Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL server. “When managing business-critical applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL server and SharePoint, to drive business operations, organizations are burdened with constant increases in cost and complexity," said Radhika Krishnan, vice president of product marketing and alliances at Nimble Storage. "SmartStack for Business-Critical Applications provides a truly modular approach, simplifying the management and deployment process of virtualized business applications. With this pre-validated architecture, organizations are better equipped to respond to changing business needs with the ability to scale as needs grow.”

Kingston launches SSD.  Kingston Digital, the Flash Memory affiliate of Kingston Technology announced the SSDNow E50, the company’s latest enterprise-class solid-state drive (SSD). SSDNow E50 enables performance-focused organizations that do not have heavy endurance needs to obtain the same enterprise-level performance as Kingston’s SSDNow E100 but at a more cost-effective price point. With greater IOPS and higher bandwidth the SSDNow E50 helps alleviate I/O latencies and server bottlenecks. It also features DuraWrite technology that extends the life of the SSD by effectively and efficiently reducing the number of Flash writes via an intelligent compression engine without sacrificing data integrity. “We found that there was a demand within our customer base and partner community for an SSD that offers enterprise-strength reliability and superior features but with lower endurance capabilities and associated costs,” said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston.