Virtual storage 2012: VDI, VM-aware and software dominate news

The biggest news stories of 2012 about storage for virtual environments and storage virtualization involved using storage better for virtual desktops and servers. Software, particularly for virtual appliances, was also big news, but old-fashioned storage virtualization systems have stuck around too.

Here are the major news stories and trends in this category in 2012.

1. VDI storage problems solved

At many companies, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology went from the test and development phase to successful implementations this year, largely because those companies solved their VDI storage problems.

Storage vendors are offering reference architectures and benchmarks for VDI deployments using their products alongside those of computing and networking partners. Increased use of solid-state storage is also improving user acceptance of VDI.

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Virsto upgrades virtual machine storage management SW for HA

Virsto Software Corp. this week updated its virtual machine storage management software for VMware Inc.'s vSphere server virtualization platform. Virsto for vSphere 2.0 includes improved high-availability functionality to protect data during hardware failures and increased support for Citrix Systems Inc.'s XenDesktop virtual desktop infrastructure platform.

Virsto launched in 2010 with support only for Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor, and added its vSphere product in January 2012. Virsto's software, which the vendor refers to as a storage hypervisor, uses a logging architecture to improve virtual environment performance. It also supports writable clones and snapshots for provisioning storage and protecting data.

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Nutanix offers scale-out storage options for its Complete Cluster

Nutanix Inc. today released a new series of its scale-out storage and compute cluster products, and updated its Nutanix Operating System. The new NX-3000 series lets customers scale storage and compute separately with performance nodes, and software advances include compression and replication for disaster recovery.

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ViaWest chooses SolidFire flash array for performance, storage QoS

Denver-based cloud service provider ViaWest turned to a SolidFire all-flash array for the underlying storage of its cloud to improve performance and management.

Matt Wallace, ViaWest's director of cloud architecture, knew an all-flash array would give him a performance boost, but he also needed to manage that performance for multiple customers. That led him to SolidFire, which offers granular quality of service (QoS) for its flash arrays aimed at cloud providers.

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HDS launches in-house flash controller for VSP arrays

Hitachi Data Systems Corp. today launched its first solid-state storage product using its internally developed flash controller. The proprietary Hitachi Accelerated Flash storage module is available for the HDS Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) and uses Hitachi's flash memory controller and multi-level cell flash technology in a 2U flash tray.

Hitachi also unveiled a new 8U chassis built specifically for the Virtual Storage Platform. Each 2U flash tray contains 12, 1.6 terabyte (TB) flash modules. Each 8U flash chassis can hold up to four flash trays. One VSP system can hold four new flash chassis for a total of 6.4 TB to 76.8 TB per flash tray, and 307.2 TB of flash per system.

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Nimble Storage hybrid array improves law firm's VDI performance

When traditional spinning disk arrays came up short on performance for its virtual desktop infrastructure, Minneapolis-based law firm Lindquist & Vennum switched to a hybrid array from Nimble Storage Inc.

The Nimble Storage hybrid array's solid-state drives (SSDs) provide enough performance for the company's 350 persistent virtual desktops, as well as other applications.

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Nimble, GlassHouse each deliver VDI reference architecture

With storage vendors paying close attention to virtual desktop infrastructure deployments, array vendor Nimble Storage and consultancy GlassHouse Technologies Inc. recently published reference architectures for configuring virtual desktops with VMware View.

The VDI reference architectures include guidelines for the required computing, server virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software and storage infrastructure. The companies tested and validated the VDI systems for simplified and accelerated virtual desktop deployments.

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Lab speeds up test app with Kaminario K2 all-flash array

When Nick Mahmood discovered in May that his legacy storage area network (SAN) couldn't supply the necessary IOPS and lower latency required to support his network consolidation project, he turned to a 10 TB Kaminario Inc. K2 all-flash storage array.

Mahmood is the vice president of IT for environmental testing laboratory TestAmerica Laboratories Inc., which analyzes environmental samples and provides analytical reports using its TALS laboratory information management system.

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VeloBit tries to entice customers with trial HyperCache software, SSD

Trying to get customers to consider its caching software in a crowded field of contenders, startup VeloBit Inc. is offering a free trial version of its HyperCache product -- and a loaner SSD to use with the software -- through a partnership with solid-state drive (SSD) vendor Micron Technology.

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QLogic prepares server-side flash cache adapter cards

QLogic Corp. today announced a new host bus adapter (HBA) technology that will allow better management and sharing of server-side flash solid-state storage caching resources across connected servers. QLogic's Mt. Rainier HBA looks like a typical adapter to the server operating system, but it combines the HBA driver, solid-state disk (SSD) driver and filter driver on one card.

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NexGen Storage offers performance guarantee for hybrid storage array

NexGen Storage Inc. today declared it will back up its performance claims with a promise to upgrade customers for free if its hybrid solid-state storage array falls short. NexGen guarantees that its n5-150 combination PCI Express (PCIe) solid-state and hard disk drive array will increase the performance of a customer's previous disk storage system by 10 times, triple the IOPS per rack unit of hybrid storage arrays, or triple the raw capacity per rack unit of all-SSD arrays. Read more

Greenbytes revs IO Offload Engine to spark VDI adoption

Greenbytes Inc. today introduced its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) IO Offload Engine, built to separate VDI system traffic from data traffic and process that system traffic on an inline appliance. With the new appliance, Greenbytes is shifting from a storage array vendor to one dedicated to selling systems for VDI, although Michael Robinson, vice president of marketing communications, said Greenbytes will continue to support its GB-X, HA-3000 and Solidarity storage arrays. Read more

Virsto Software digs deeper into VM storage management

Virsto Software Corp. today expanded its VMware storage management features with Virsto for vSphere 1.5, adding more integration into vSphere workloads, rapid-deployment wizards for VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments, and improved migration with Storage vMotion. Read more

Upcoming Nimbus all-flash storage array to offer 10-year warranty

Nimbus Data Systems Inc. today said its third-generation all-flash storage array will include a new process and significant improvements in speed and capacity when it is released later this year. The Gemini flash array can scale to 48 TB in a 2U device. Nimbus claims it can sustain 1,000,000 IOPS and will offer a 10-year warranty -- about twice as long as the expected maximum life of most flash systems. Read more

SanDisk releases FlashSoft flash caching software for vSphere

SanDisk Corp. today introduced the VMware vSphere server virtualization version of its FlashSoft flash caching software, which is designed to accelerate application performance and virtual machine (VM) density. FlashSoft released Windows Server and Linux versions of the flash caching software prior to its acquisition by SanDisk in February 2012. Read more

Skyera releases all-flash array for $3 per gigabyte

Startup Skyera Inc. entered the all-flash enterprise storage market today with a series of iSCSI arrays that use consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) NAND to bring the price to less than $3 per gigabyte. And that price is before deduplication and compression.

CEO and founder Radoslav Danilak said the vendor dropped the price to about one-third or less than most enterprise flash storage systems by improving the life of the consumer-grade MLC instead of using more expensive single-level cell (SLC) flash. He said Skyera employed techniques such as lower write amplification and adaptive error correction codes (ECCs) to improve the life expectancy of the consumer-grade flash to five years of enterprise use.

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Tegile adds all-flash array to multiprotocol storage lineup

Tegile Systems today added an all-flash array and a higher-end hybrid solid-state drive (SSD) system to the startup's Zebi lineup of multiprotocol storage arrays. Tegile upgraded its controller to support an all-SSD array, and its metadata-accelerated storage system (MASS) now includes the option to pin volumes to SSDs to improve performance and minimize delays due to caching algorithms or tiering policies. Read more

Skyera releases all-flash array for $3 per gigabyte

Startup Skyera Inc. entered the all-flash enterprise storage market today with a series of iSCSI arrays that use consumer-grade multi-level cell (MLC) NAND to bring the price to less than $3 per gigabyte. And that price is before deduplication and compression. CEO and founder Radoslav Danilak said the vendor dropped the price to about one-third or less than most enterprise flash storage systems by improving the life of the consumer-grade MLC instead of using more expensive single-level cell (SLC) flash. Read more

Nimble builds hybrid solid-state storage to scale

Nimble Storage this week adopted a scale-out architecture for its hybrid solid-state drive (SSD) iSCSI SAN arrays, adding a performance platform and a series of expansion shelves to grow capacity. The CS400 series of arrays and ES expansion shelves are the key hardware pieces of what Nimble calls a "scale to fit" architecture. The new Nimble OS 2.0 enables scale-out clustering with any of the vendor's storage products. Read more

Virident FlashMax II MLC PCIe flash card hits 2.2 TB

Virident Systems Inc. today unveiled the second generation of its FlashMax solid-state storage server PCIe cards, which more than double the capacity of its multi-level cell (MLC) NAND device. Shiva Shankar, Virident's director of product marketing, said the PCI Express (PCIe) Virident FlashMax II series announced today includes models with both MLC and single level cell (SLC) flash. But going forward, the card series will focus on NAND MLC flash storage for its cost benefits, he said. Read more

Quantum tunes up StorNext for 'big data' files

Quantum Corp., is updating its StorNext file management and archiving software to better handle "big data" files. According to Quantum, the product is designed to handle large numbers of files as well as large single files generated by industries that deal with lots of data, including media and entertainment, oil and gas exploration, video surveillance and life sciences.

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Protecting petabytes: Best practices for big data backup

One of the issues created by holding voluminous data sets (also called "big data") in your storage environment is how to protect that data.

Petabyte-size data stores can play havoc with backup windows, and traditional backup is not designed to handle millions of small files. The good news is that not all big data information needs to be backed up in the traditional way.

Nick Kirsch, director of product management for EMC’s Isilon scale-out NAS platform, said it helps to be more intelligent about the data you have when doing big data backups. He advises that, before you consider how to protect your data, you should take a good look at what data needs to be protected. Machine-generated data – report data from a database, for instance – can be reproduced easier than it can be backed up and recovered.

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Varonis seeks to provide cloud file sharing, without the cloud

Varonis Systems Inc. is preparing an application called DatAnywhere that performs on-premises file sharing and syncing that mimics cloud file sharing services.

Varonis said it will begin beta testing DatAnywhere Aug. 1.

According to David Gibson, Varonis’ vice president of strategy, DatAnywhere allows existing traditional file servers and network attached storage (NAS) devices to sync files to users’ remote devices while adhering to existing organizational security restrictions.

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NextIO shares I/O resources via PCIe virtualization approach

Within the shrinking I/O virtualization market, NextIO Inc., of Austin, Texas, has staked its claim on PCIe virtualization. The company’s V-series product line uses high-speed PCI Express technology instead of InfiniBand to consolidate and share I/O resources at the top of the rack. Read more

Amid shrinking I/O virtualization market, Xsigo I/O Director brings flexibility to IT shops

Virtual I/O, also known as I/O virtualization (IOV), hasn’t proven as popular yet as server virtualization or even storage virtualization. Most of the startups that offered the technology a few years ago are gone. Aprius Inc. and 3Leaf Systems went out of business, and Virtensys Ltd. was acquired by Micron Technology Inc. in January. At the time of the acquisition, Micron said it would use Virtensys’ PCIe virtualization technology to virtualize Micron’s solid-state drive (SSD) storage. That leaves Xsigo Systems Inc. and NextIO Inc. as dedicated I/O virtualization vendors, although larger vendors use the technology with networks running their servers and connectivity. Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Virtual Connect is an example of vendor-specific I/O virtualization. But while the options for I/O virtualization are dwindling, the need for it is not. Xsigo has been able to capitalize on the rise of virtualization in the data center and cloud computing as well as renewed interest in InfiniBand to gain traction with its Xsigo I/O Director, which connects x86 servers to any storage or network devices. Read more

Iomega adds SMB NAS with Ivy Bridge processor, native antivirus

Iomega Corp. continued its push into the upper echelon of the SMB storage market today with the introduction of the 2U high-performance px12-450r network attached storage (NAS) array. The px12-450r uses the new Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2 “Ivy Bridge” processor. The system runs on McAfee’s VirusScan Enterprise for Linux natively on the storage device, supports 10-Gigabit Ethernet networking and 3 TB SATA drives with the capability to handle 4 TB drives when they hit the market. Read more

Virsto software adds support for XenDesktop VDI environments

Virsto Software Corp. has identified improving virtual desktop storage performance as a major area where its software aimed at improving virtual machine (VM) I/O can help. This week it released a beta version of Virsto for Citrix Systems Inc.’s XenDesktop 5.5 virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) platform on VMware vSphere.

Virsto for XenDesktop follows the company’s vSphere support release in January and its initial product launch for Microsoft Hyper-V in February 2010.

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CloudSigma offers SLA-guaranteed SSD cloud

CloudSigma AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based cloud computing service provider, is adding a solid-state drive (SSD) cloud storage service backed by service-level agreements (SLAs) for performance and availability. CloudSigma launched the cloud service in a private beta program this week, and plans to make it generally available later this year. Read more

Pivot3 pivots more toward VDI, View

Pivot3 is continuing its push in the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) space by working closer with VMware.

Last week, Pivot3 announced that its virtual storage and compute (vSTAC) line of appliances for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments for SMBs now support VMware’s View 5.1 virtual desktop system as part of the Pivot3’s participation in VMware’s Rapid Desktop Program.

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Bocada offers backup reporting software for virtual, physical reports

Bocada Inc. this week launched vpConnect, an agentless data protection software monitoring and backup reporting software product that integrates capabilities from its products for physical servers and virtual machines. Bocada’s vpConnect queries log files and uses backup target APIs to determine backup and replication success, capacity usage, file age and other metrics. It allows administrators to set event alerts for data protection failures such as unsuccessful backup attempts. Read more

VDI storage system options include flash appliances, bundled stacks

Virtualization has clearly changed the way storage interacts with the rest of the IT environment. First, the rise of virtual machines (VMs) had a big impact on storage. Now virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) adoption is changing the way storage systems are architected and managed.

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Symantec aims Data Insight 3.0 at unstructured data management

Symantec Corp. took another step toward integrating its storage management and security technologies this week when it released Data Insight 3.0 for unstructured data management items such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails.

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Iomega upgrades SMB NAS with server-class drives, management features

Iomega Corp., today ships its StorCenter PX Server Class Series of SMB NAS devices that support 3 TB SATA drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), as well as software enhancements for management and data protection that the company says is better suited for business use than its SOHO and prosumer systems.

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Scale-out network-attached storage: Options in today’s market

In storage, scale-out systems are becoming a popular option to deal with rapid data growth. File data is growing the fastest, making network-attached storage (NAS) the most popular type of scale-out storage. Clustered NAS systems that fit the “scale-out” tag are targeted at processing heavy applications such as “big data” analytics and large file environments.

Storage vendors differ over the best way to architect a scale-out network-attached storage system, but the largest vendors and many smaller ones have pushed into the market. Most scale-out NAS systems use individual device nodes, which can be commodity servers or proprietary devices. As interest in scale-out systems has increased, well-known storage vendors such as Dell Corp., EMC Corp., Hewlett Packard (HP) Co., Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and NetApp Inc. have acquired technology to offer their own scale-out NAS products. IBM OEMs NetApp’s technology while it develops its own.

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EMC Isilon aims to make Hadoop storage ready for enterprise

EMC Corp. is tackling Hadoop storage by integrating the open source “big data” analytics framework with EMC Isilon scale-out NAS.

Today, EMC said its Isilon OneFS 6.5 operating system natively supports the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) protocol. The vendor also released EMC Greenplum HD on Isilon. EMC launched Greenplum HD last May, putting Hadoop on its Greenplum data analytics appliance. Now the Greenplum appliance works with Isilon back-end storage.

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