In an attempt to meet the rapid changes and  quick growth of IT environments, many organizations have responded by consolidating data centers and infrastructure. A major focus is to create a more agile and efficient data center by closely aligning infrastructure and the applications they support in a way that provides significant ROI. Server virtualization is one way of doing this with its ability to enable organizations to reduce capital expenses and operating costs while providing higher service levels. That is why today we are announcing Symantec VirtualStore.

Server virtualizations come its own challenges, most notably storage management for ESX environments. While a majority of VMware ESX servers connect to their datastores using either Fiber Channel or iSCSI, NFS for VMware has squashed many associated myths related to performance and scalability and is now a very popular protocol for ESX servers.

To solve the storage challenges associated with server virtualization, Symantec is introducing VirtualStore, a highly scalable, clustered NAS solution for VMware virtual machines based on the industry leading Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File System from Symantec.

VirtualStore improves storage management for server virtualization in a number of ways:

• It can help administrators deploy a scalable and highly available NAS solution for a fraction of the cost of traditional NAS solutions.
•  It reduces storage costs associated with the high number of virtual machines images.
• It allows users to leverage their existing storage investments as they migrate to virtual environments.

 Symantec VirtualStore uses an efficient FileSnap solution, which creates space optimized clones of virtual machines along with patented cache optimization solutions to pack more virtual machines into a single NAS head. In addition to the FileSnap solution, there are a number of reasons one should choose VirtualStore for VMware instead of using VMFS volumes over Fiber Channel or iSCSI.

• You get thin provisioning by default helping you saving over 50% disk space upfront.
• You can administer and manage your NFS datastore efficiently .
• You don’t have to deal with VMFS or RDM or the associated problems with Fiber Channel including zoning, LUN sizing, HBA and identical LUN IDs.
• FileSnap gives you the ability to clone a single VM and create 100s of VMs from a template quickly.
• Since the ESX block size is small and extremely random, network bandwidth isn’t an issue. VirtualStore comes with Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) to give you the I/O performance you need.
• You can not only leverage existing storage investments, you can also use different tiers of storage within a single datastore.

 By providing an integrated solution that combines the capabilities and performance of VirtualStore with the industry leading virtualization solutions from VMware, IT administrators can deliver advanced storage management capabilities over NFS while increasing business agility and driving down the total cost of ownership.

For more information

• Visit the Symantec VirtualStore product page
• View the Symantec VirtualStore video
• Join us at VMWorld