Virsto for vSphere 2.0 Delivering Software Defined Storage to Data Center

Virsto Software Corp. announced the availability of Virsto for vSphere 2.0.

The version offers integrated support for both Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View, enhanced HA capabilities and significant workflow optimisations. XenDesktop customers can achieve an over 50% reduction in storage cost per desktop, while improving VDI performance up to 10x.
                                                        
Just as the hypervisor did for servers, Virsto’s storage hypervisor achieves new levels of efficiency, affordability and agility for storage in virtualised environments. Traditionally, provisioning storage in virtualised environments required a compromise: production-level performance or efficient storage capacity consumption. With its hypervisor-agnostic, 100% software approach, Virsto combines performance and efficiency to transform the economics of storage for VMs.
 
Virsto for vSphere 2.0 delivers
efficient, affordable and agile storage for VMs
Virsto delivers differentiated software-defined storage functionality to each virtual machine, regardless of the underlying storage. All storage presented to VMs is high performance, thin-provisioned and instantly available. Virsto removes the storage inefficiencies of virtualised workloads and enables IT to achieve the performance potential of the block-based storage deployed to support virtualised environments. IT administrators no longer need to trade off performance against space efficiency based on workload, with Virsto software, all workloads can now be virtualised cost effectively, with predictable high performance.
 
New features and benefits
in Virsto for vSphere 2.0 include:

• Data centre ready: It offers a series of enhancements providing improved support for tier 1 applications with faster, more automated recovery options, monitoring of the Virsto infrastructure now integrated into vCentre and the ability to leverage pre-existing vCentre security roles and permissions, while taking advantage of Virsto-enhanced workflows.
• Support for Citrix XenDesktop VDI: In the same way that Virsto supports VMware View on vSphere, it now also integrates with XenDesktop to completely preserve the image, image update and image rollback workflows that XenDesktop administrators are already using in Citrix Desktop Studio, while delivering higher-performance, space-efficient VDI for 50% lower cost per desktop for storage.
• Improved integration with existing workflows: Customers can experience a seamless handoff between Virsto and Citrix Desktop Studio and menu-level integration with VMware vCentre to maintain existing provisioning workflows – delivering all of the value of Virsto’s space efficient, high performance VDI with no additional training required.
• Integrated wizard-based provisioning: Optimised for cloud scale deployments, integrated wizard-based provisioning can instantly create up to 10,000 high performance, space-efficient, cluster-aware clones. Virsto delivers capital expense savings, as well as operational efficiencies

Virsto for vSphere 2.0 is available with subscription based pricing starting at $2,500 per TB.

"With the new release of Virsto for vSphere, we are continuing to drive innovation through software in the storage hypervisor, delivering sophisticated data services, per-VM management granularity and increased business agility. Virsto’s leadership in software defined storage is extended yet again," said Mark Davis, CEO, Virsto.
 
"Enterprise storage decisions must always look beyond the upfront costs, and consider the long-term costs of management, hardware additions, human resources and so on. For VDI initiatives, a failure to appreciate this, and act accordingly, leads to projects that stall or fall apart. One of the specific contributory elements is the under-utilisation of storage – aka wasted money – that’s inherent in much traditional storage; conversely, Virsto’s approach increases utilisation and improves storage management, without compromising performance or efficiency; and it can thus be central to a fully software defined data centre," said Mark Peters, senior analyst, ESG.