Virsto for vSphere 1.5 Optimizes VM Storage

Virsto Software Corp. announced the availability of Virsto for vSphere 1.5.

It delivers VM-level storage management and integration with VMware vSphere, for simplified management of VM storage, up to 10x performance improvements, and a 90% reduction in storage capacity consumption. The new version provides high level of provisioning, management and utilization of storage for the Software-Defined Datacenter.

Just as the hypervisor did for servers, Virsto’s storage hypervisor achieves efficiency, affordability and agility for storage in virtualized environments. Traditionally, provisioning storage in virtualized environments required a compromise in production-level performance or efficient storage capacity consumption. With its hypervisor-agnostic, software approach to storage virtualization, Virsto combines performance and efficiency to transform the economics of storage for VMs.

Storage Hypervisor is ‘Missing Link’
in Software-Defined Datacenter
The concept of the Software-Defined Datacenter (SDD) is gaining interest, as IT moves away from infrastructure traditionally defined by hardware toward a more flexible infrastructure built around software and applications. In the SDD, all virtualized storage, server, networking and security resources required by an application can be defined by software and provisioned automatically. Virsto’s VM-centric storage hypervisor is purpose built to support this vision, providing the missing link of efficient storage agility, performance and efficiency to realize more agile IT.

Introducing Virsto for vSphere 1.5
First unveiled at VMworld 2011, Virsto for vSphere offers an approach to storage for virtual environments. Virsto enhances VMware vSphere by providing native support and VM-level storage management, integrating directly with existing management and provisioning workflows with which vSphere administrators are already familiar. The product delivers value through consistent performance, storage thin provisioning and simplified, self-service bulk provisioning of VMs, all managed through an integration with the vCenter management interface.

Features and benefits in the new version include:

• Per-VM snapshots and clones: It offers performance per-VM and per VMDK snapshot and clone support for rapid, efficient VM provisioning, and backup and recovery. The combination of performance and scalability allow snapshots and clones to be used in ways that conventional implementations are not able to support. Snapshots can be taken more often, kept longer, and used to meet RTO and RPO objectives – all without impacting the performance of source VMs.
• Rapid deployment wizards, including Fast Prep: It integrates rapid deployment wizards into native management tools and workflows. With Virsto installed, administrators can use the native vSphere workflows they know to achieve performance, space-efficient, instantly provisioned storage.
• Enhanced integrations for automated storage provisioning: Familiar VDI operations like compose, re-compose, and refresh can natively leverage Virsto’s high performance, space efficient vDisks for production level performance with the space-efficiency of a Linked Clone.
• Improved VM storage agility: It offers simple, transparent vCenter VM-storage provisioning and automated space reclamation that allows customers to achieve end-to-end VM lifecycle management and improved agility without reliance on storage administrators for day-to-day provisioning.
• Increased Efficiency and Flexibility: It supports up to 10,000 space-efficient, high-performance Virsto vDisks per vCenter Server – with no performance degradation – and provides non-disruptive VM snapshots and clones. With Virsto installed, customers no longer need to quiesce VMs.
• 100% SSD performance, 90% less SSD: The architecture delivers 100% SSD performance, with 90% less SSD capacity, which delivers the lowest dollar per IOPS architecture and guarantees QoS across heterogeneous virtual workloads on shared hosts.

"To truly realize the promise of the Software-Defined Datacenter, you need to appropriately virtualize CPU, memory, storage and network. VMware, Microsoft and Citrix have already figured that out. CPU and memory are done, and M&A is heating up on the network side beginning with VMware’s acquisition of Nicira. The last virtualization mile for the Software-Defined Datacenter is storage. Virsto’s storage hypervisor is the most flexible, efficient and scalable implementation of software-defined storage. Virsto’s technology is all about optimizing performance and capacity for storage. Virsto for vSphere was built to solve the performance, capacity consumption, and manageability challenges of storage in VMware environments," said Mark Davis, CEO, Virsto.

"Virsto has developed differentiated storage hypervisor software that takes a unique approach by delivering a range of crucial storage management services – such as high performance, thin provisioned snapshots and clones – at the VM level, while still reducing or removing the IO bottlenecks that plague many virtualized environments. Virsto delivers the abstracted storage resources necessary to achieve the requisite high utilization and extreme flexibility that are the storage hallmarks of a software defined datacenter," said Mark Peters, senior analyst, ESG.

Pricing and availability
Virsto for vSphere 1.5 is available with subscription based pricing starting at $4,000/GB.