A new route to ultra-low cost infrastructure virtualisation

Storage specialist DataCore Software has launched the Virtual Infrastructure Foundation which, it claims, “resets the industry price point for virtualisation, IP SANs [storage area networks] and automated storage provisioning.” In fact, users can now get a complete virtualisation solution that supports Ethernet-based iSCSI SANs, with multiple terabytes of capacity, and ‘Auto-Grow’ thin provisioning (automated virtual capacity functionality) all for less than $1,000. Its Virtual Infrastructure Foundation (part of the SANmelody family of products) is about allowing users to begin experiencing the benefits of going virtual. The software includes DataCore’s automated virtual capacity functionality, which hiterhto was restricted to high-end data centre systems. It’s aimed at small as well as mid-sized businesses and workgroups that want to achieve a new level of efficiency and flexibility through hardware independence and through managing and automating utilisation of their storage resources to multiple systems using affordable Ethernet IP-based networks. “Virtualisation means flexibility, faster response to change, better resource utilization and hardware independence,” insists George Teixeira, president and CEO of DataCore Software. “This is our way of helping enterprises get started in embracing virtualisation.”