3par Supporting Red Hat Server Virtualization

3PAR, Inc. announced support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers, a server virtualization solution that includes a standalone Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor and server management tools. With this announcement, 3PAR InServ Storage Server customers can choose the enterprise-class Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor to build and deploy a virtualization environment on a scale necessary for public or private cloud datacenters.

With this expansion of the server virtualization platforms currently supported by the 3PAR InForm Operating System, joint 3PAR and Red Hat customers are now able to leverage Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization to gain access to the following benefits of combining highly virtualized storage with server virtualization:

• Up to 50% reduction in physical server purchases. 3PAR Utility Storage has been shown to increase virtual server performance without sacrificing reliability, which in some cases allows server virtualization customers to double the number of virtual machines configurable per physical server (also known as ‘VM density’) without sacrificing performance or reliability. This means that Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization users may be able to purchase and deploy up to 50% fewer physical servers by choosing 3PAR Utility Storage over traditional storage arrays.
• Simplified administration. 3PAR Utility Storage has been shown to reduce customer storage administration time by up to 90% in virtual server environments. The InServ platform includes autonomic storage management features designed to complement Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, such as 3PAR Autonomic Groups. Combining the administration benefits of highly virtualized 3PAR Utility Storage with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization results in a leaner, more agile datacenter that can require less time to manage and maintain than datacenters using traditional storage.
• Greater cost savings. 3PAR Utility Storage arrays reduce customer storage capacity requirements via thin technologies that break the traditional link between allocated and purchased capacity. For example, by leveraging 3PAR Thin Provisioning software during the up-front provisioning of storage resources, Red Hat customers are able to purchase and consume physical storage capacity only as needed. In addition, 3PAR’s new Get Thin Guarantee program guarantees qualifying customers converting from existing "fat" volumes on traditional storage to new thin volumes on 3PAR a 50% reduction in storage capacity needed to support their Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization deployments.

The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor is based on KVM technology and is managed by Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers, a feature-rich server virtualization management system. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization can be deployed either as a standalone bare-metal hypervisor, or as part of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 or later deployment. In the latter case, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is configured as a hypervisor host and managed through the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager.

"Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization builds on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform, which is trusted by many organizations around the world for their mission-critical workloads," said Navin Thadani, Senior Director, Virtualization Business at Red Hat. "Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization provides compelling performance and scalability at a lower total cost of ownership, and the portfolio is well-suited to be deployed as a foundational cloud technology."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is an important platform for 3PAR customers," said Craig Nunes, 3PAR Vice President of Marketing. "By combining the new Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor with 3PAR Utility Storage, we believe that service providers and other organizations building their own private clouds can get the job done on top of their existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment with fewer servers and less storage, in less time."

All InServ models running the InForm Operating System Version 2.3.1 or later support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 2.1.