Open-E, Inc., a leading developer of storage management software, announced today that its flagship Data Storage Server (DSS) IP-Storage operating software has now been certified to work with VMware ESX Server 3.5.

Open-E's DSS is an all-in-one, fourth generation operating system software solution for centralized IP-storage management, combining full NAS and iSCSI SAN functionality. DSS is a powerful enabler for storage consolidation and is an effective alternative for enterprises to consolidate server virtualization resources, providing a dramatic improvement in cost of ownership.

VMware's ESX Server 3.5 is a key highlight of its award-winning, established infrastructure suite: the company's third-generation, production-ready virtualization series. An industry standard and widely integrated in enterprises across a wide range of industries, VMware's ESX features a robust, production-proven virtualization layer that abstracts processor, memory, storage and networking resources into multiple virtual machines.

Seamless integration of Open-E with the VMware ESX Server delivers significant ease of use, provides for consolidation of storage resources and enables organizations to automate and simplify their data management environment across both physical and virtual environments.

"We are very pleased that our comprehensive testing of VMware's ESX Server 3.5 with DSS have resulted in an industry 'must-have' solution for enhancing storage consolidation and complete data protection for organizations operating in a VMware environment," said Krzysztof Franek, president and CEO of Open-E. "VMware ESX delivers the highest levels of performance, scalability and robustness required for enterprise storage environments -- and our combined solution will now allow datacenters to provision their storage easily and cost-effectively. Moreover, the solution offers enhanced functionality with built-in data protection; virtualization; backup and recovery; and volume replication for disaster recovery -- all with virtually any connectivity."

Mike Sullivan, CTO of Alliance Technologies added, "Open-E provides us with established solutions for storage management -- and their integration with VMware enables us to provide a unique and certified solution for data management, archiving and disaster recovery to our customers."

Storage consolidation and provisioning capabilities enabled by the combined solution may also allow a single ESX server to run multiple operating systems and applications, helping organizations to be 'green environment friendly.' Concluded Franek, "The ESX server integrated with our DSS results in dramatically lowering the total-cost-of-ownership while giving a higher return-on-investment by eliminating the need to host additional servers, which in turn reduces the hardware footprint, decreases power, heat, cooling and maintenance overhead -- a win-win for all."

About Open-E's Data Storage Server (DSS)
Open-E's Data Storage Server (DSS) provides a fast, reliable, and scalable platform for IP Storage and is one of the easiest ways of implementing a NAS server and/or an iSCSI technology in a network. The DSS can be used with all x86 PCs containing USB ports, an IDE controller and an additional SATA controller on the main board or hardware controller.

DSS is built on Open-E's industry recognized NAS and iSCSI software technology, which is noted for its performance, superior security, robust operation and ease-of-use management advantages. With DSS, users may cost-effectively and quickly add storage to an existing network; consolidate storage and backups for multiple servers; centralize storage management with optimal performance and data protection; and improve data availability and efficiency.

The solution offers outstanding price-to-performance metrics, enhanced manageability, superior reliability and increased productivity for applications ranging from file sharing, storage consolidation, backup and recovery and virtualization to volume replication for disaster recovery.

DSS also supports a wide variety of hardware RAID platforms from the industry's leading names, as well as multiple types of network connectivity including GbE, 10GbE, Fibre Channel and Infiniband. The versatility of DSS also allows the user to combine NAS systems with iSCSI SAN systems, and provides built-in anti-virus and backup utilities, along with agents to support backup products from industry leading names.

Additionally, DSS supports software RAID functionality, taking advantage of current multi-core processing technologies.