… Compellent …

Compellent Technologies announced the integration and certification of its Fluid Data storage platforms with VMware vSphere 4.1, the latest version of the VMware virtualization platform introduced today.

VMware vSphere 4.1 offers scalability and performance enhancements with new management capabilities to deliver a powerful foundation for cloud infrastructures. The combination of Compellent virtualized storage and VMware vSphere 4.1 provides a foundation for automated, scalable and cost-effective management of both cloud services and virtualized data centers.

VMware virtualization enables enterprises and service providers to lay the foundation for cloud computing by aggregating an elastic pool of computing resources that can be accessed on-demand while enabling policy-based automation and management to increase efficiency. By combining its built-in automation and intelligence with VMware vSphere 4.1, Compellent enables data to flow throughout an organization in a way that best suits the data demands of the business.

New Compellent API integration offers customers
the following benefits for VMware vSphere 4.1 environments:

• Superior efficiency: Compellent Fluid Data systems deliver virtualized storage technologies such as automated tiered storage, thin provisioning, continuous snapshots and thin replication to increase storage utilization while lowering storage-related costs by as much as 80 percent. VMware customers can automatically optimize capacity of Compellent tiered storage used in VMware datastores. Customers can also automate provisioning, backup and recovery to cost-effectively store and protect their data online.
• Self-managing virtualized storage: Compellent provides an automated data movement engine, non-disruptive system upgrades and storage resource management tools to enable IT as a service in public or private clouds and virtualized environments. Compellent Enterprise Manager integration with VMware vCenter Server allows customers to easily administer their VMware vSphere 4.1 environment. New tools can manage multiple virtualized servers and storage volumes at a time, with advanced features such as automated storage cloning for virtual machines and reports on data utilization.
• Flexible architecture with the future built-in: The persistent hardware and software architecture of Compellent offers the flexibility to mix and match the right technology, performance and quality of service using any storage and networking protocol. Customers can deploy new applications and technologies without ripping and replacing existing investments, scale their virtualized infrastructure to meet rapidly changing business needs and grow capacity without pre-allocation restrictions.

Brandon Jackson, CIO of Gaston County, North Carolina, said:" Compellent storage virtualization pairs seamlessly with VMware technology, enabling us to better serve the public by consolidating IT resources, reducing our data center footprint and improving energy efficiency in the data center. We’ve reduced cooling requirements by 40 percent, and we save about 20 percent of our operating budget annually on storage management costs and avoiding constant server refreshes. Compellent’s virtualized storage is the backbone of our new highly available enterprise environment."

Bruce Kornfeld, vice president of alliances and business development, Compellent, said: "VMware’s focus on delivering efficient, simple and secure cloud services through end-to-end virtualization is in line with our vision for the data-driven economy. The integration of VMware vSphere 4.1 and Compellent Fluid Data storage enables corporate IT departments and service providers to seamlessly deploy and manage virtualized servers, storage and desktops in the enterprise. VMware and Compellent together help customers increase efficiency and reduce costs by creating a self-managing infrastructure that automates data movement while protecting against risk and downtime."

Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware, said:: "We anticipate that VMware vSphere 4.1 can reshape how companies view the economics of enterprise computing, as more customers seek to achieve the levels of utilization and automation that cloud computing promises. Solutions that include Compellent storage and VMware vSphere offer customers an intelligent, self-tuning data environment that is ready for virtualization and lays the foundation for cloud computing."