StorMagic Offers Virtual SAN Appliances For VMware

StorMagic's new SvSAN allows the deployment of a high-availability, shared storage solution in VMware ESX virtual server infrastructures, said Mike Stolz, vice president of marketing for the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based vendor.

SvSAN is a virtual appliance that allows shared storage in a VMware environment in a manner similar to virtual appliances from companies like FalconStor, DataCore and LeftHand Networks, which was acquired last year by Hewlett-Packard, Stolz said.

Unlike physical appliances, which include an application and the operating system installed on a specific piece of server hardware, virtual appliances are prebuilt, preconfigured software bundles, including the application and operating system designed to be downloaded onto a virtual machine. This lets ISVs configure and harden their applications without regard to the underlying hardware.

Aimed at small and midsize businesses, it runs as a virtual machine under VMware ESX, and enables a virtual SAN to be created using ESX server's internal disk storage and one or more attached external arrays, he said.

The key technology difference with virtual SAN appliances from other vendors is its automated management features, including the ability to create, provision and manage data stores, Stolz said.

"We've significantly cut down the number of steps users need," he said. "We've consolidated it all into one application."

When customers purchase two SvSAN virtual appliances and configure them on two separate physical host servers, they get a high-availability solution that allows active-active mirroring between the two, Stolz said.

With active-active mirroring, data is written simultaneously to two separate targets, each of which continues to operate if one of them should fail.

SvSAN also provides the ability to migrate virtual servers from one physical host to another via VMware's VMotion functionality without the need to go through a separate shared storage device, which Stolz said is a big advantage to smaller customers who need SAN functionality but who cannot afford to invest in a separate array.

That is an important feature for customers such as the school districts who work with Data Impressions, a Cerritos, Calif.-based solution provider.

Rick Venuto, service manager at Data Impressions, said the SvSAN allows smaller companies to capitalize on VMotion without the need for shared storage.

"With SvSAN, customers still have to use VMware's Storage VMotion if they want to take a [physical] server down," Venuto said. "But at least they'll be able to move the virtual machines freely. Right now, they need to move the VMs to a shared NAS or iSCSI array."

Data Impressions is planning to test SvSAN this week, but so far it looks like a good product to go with VMware server virtualization, Venuto said. "If it does what it's supposed to do, it looks like a nice way to work with virtual machines," he said.

StorMagic, which also offers a hardware appliance version of the SvSAN, sells its products only through indirect sales channels, Stolz said.

To help solution providers learn about the new SvSAN, the company is for a limited time offering solution providers a promotion key, which they can give to customers. That promo key allows customers to immediately download a copy of SvSAN at no charge while alerting the solution provider of the download.

"It's free software for life, the full version, with all the features and the ability to manage up to 2 Tbytes of data," he said. "Resellers can then go sell additional licenses, higher capacity levels and other virtualization services."

Once the solution provider gets its unique promo key, the company is automatically registered as a reseller and gets a registration on the potential deal when the customer downloads the software, Stolz said.

"The reseller automatically knows the customer is downloading the software, so it's a warm lead," he said. "The reseller can then go provide extended VMware technology, especially VMotion."

A single license for SvSAN is list-priced at $995 for up to 2TB of storage, with additional licenses available for up to 4TB, 8TB and unlimited capacity.

Customers can freely download as many copies of the 2TB version as they want. However, for the high-availability option, customers will have to buy two licenses with a total list price starting at $1990, Stolz said.

SvSAN is currently available for VMware environments only, but versions for Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer environments are planned, Stolz said.