Storage Virtual Appliance provides HA for VMware without the Costs

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/802119019

High Availability has become a mandate for most organizations irrespective of their size, IT budgets, or even the current economic climate. However, many IT administrators today do not have the resources to deploy the High Availability (HA) features available to VMware, because of the cost and complexity of the shared storage, one of the elements required in order to activate these features. While VMware presents you with many of the advanced features enabling business continuity you still require the shared storage that unlocks those features.

Recently, StorMagic introduced the SvSAN HA Kit, a complimentary Storage Virtual Appliance with High Availability. The SvSAN HA Kit allows you to initiate your Business Continuity plans without any associated costs. In this webinar, StorMagic will discuss the SvSAN HA Kit in more detail and cover the benefits of implementing High Availability in your organization. How would you like to experience the peace of mind in knowing your virtual environment is available and your business will continue without interruption without spending a nickel? Find out how on November 19^th^, 2009!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS!!

Company to Demonstrate Storage Virtual Appliance at VMworld 2009

Eden Prairie, Minn. - August 26, 2009 - StorMagic®, a fast-growing developer of iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized server environments, today announced that the StorMagic SvSAN^TM^ storage virtual appliance is supporting VMware vSphere^TM^ 4, which includes VMware ESX and VMware ESXi. Qualified users can get a free copy of the SvSAN for management of up to 2 TB and with no expiration date by visiting the StorMagic booth #2536 at VMworld 2009, August 31 through September 3, in San Francisco, Calif. At VMworld 2009, StorMagic is also sponsoring a "Crack-the-Vault" contest that gives attendees an opportunity to win $10,000 in cash, and also learn how they could save thousands of dollars.

The StorMagic SvSAN is designed to enable the deployment of a high-availability shared storage solution for less than $2,000, allowing VMware vSphere 4 users to take advantage of enhanced server virtualization functions without the need to purchase expensive shared storage.

Introduced in April 2009, VMware vSphere 4 is the industry's leading virtualization platform, transforming datacenters into dramatically simplified cloud infrastructures to enable the next generation of flexible, reliable IT services. VMware vSphere 4 is the most cost-effective way for small businesses to enable ‘Always On IT' - the high availability, reliability, and manageability of enterprise-class operations optimized for small and midsized businesses.

"With its support for VMware vSphere^TM^ 4, the StorMagic SvSAN can now better manage our infrastructure as an efficient, flexible and dynamic virtualized environment," said Kim Tauchen, director of operations/IT at Direct Enterprises, Inc. "Smaller companies like ours have similar needs to the enterprise, so to have an option like the SvSAN that cost-effectively delivers enterprise-class features is terrific."

"Customers are responsive, in part because they are now able to create, manage, and provision storage in their VMware environments through a user-friendly console," said Scott Brousse, chief technology officer at PBG. . "On top of this, the StorMagic solution allows them to build a business continuity plan, knowing that they can get the simplicity they want without giving up high availability - through rapid and automated failover - and performance."

"We are now offering VMware users storage virtual appliances to manage the storage infrastructures of virtualized environments," said Mike Stolz, vice president of marketing at StorMagic. "We launched SvSAN a few months ago, and the interest we have experienced from the VMware community is amazing. Our tests in real-world environments have shown that the SvSAN addresses the shared storage needs of SMBs and remote office environments, and delivers similar performance to external storage with a comparable number of disk drives."

StorMagic SvSAN includes features users would expect from an enterprise-class SAN and provides optional licenses for high availability and capacity management. By turning unused storage capacity into a virtual SAN, the solution is designed to enable users to take advantage of advanced features of VMware environments such as VMware High Availability (HA), VMware VMotion^TM^ and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), without the need for an external SAN. StorMagic SvSAN is also designed to work with VMware vCenter^TM^ Server, so that administrators are able to manage datastores, the StorMagic iSCSI SAN, and the internal RAID controller from within the VMware vSphere Client and VMware vCenter Server.

With capacity that starts at 2 TB and scales to unlimited storage, the SvSAN enables administrators to create, manage and provision datastores through a single-step process, which allows them to rapidly deploy datastores without managing multiple applications. Add-on features include active-active mirroring for high-availability and capacity management upgrades..

About StorMagic

StorMagic is a fast-growing provider of cost-effective storage management software solutions that simplify, automate, and manage data storage for virtual server environments. With an executive team of storage veterans from companies such as Adaptec, Xiotech, and Eurologic, the company has brought to market an easy-to-use and highly reliable software with superior data management and migration capabilities, helping organizations protect and manage their mission-critical data. StorMagic has offices in Bristol, United Kingdom, and Eden Prairie, Minn. For more information, please call (800) 517-5282 or visit http://www.stormagic.com/.

PR Agency Contact:

Georgiana Comsa

Silicon Valley PR

(408) 435-1500

georgiana@siliconvalleypr.com

There is a lot going on in the server virtualization market these days. HP announced the new virtualization bundles that incorporate a Storage Virtual Appliance from LeftHand (acquired by HP). At VMWorld last fall, VMware started to promote the concept of Storage Virtual Appliances and presentations on vSphere 4.0 include Storage Virtual Appliances as an area of interest for VMware.

Why is there so much noise about it?

First of all, you need shared storage in order to take full advantage of the enhanced features of VMware. VMotion isn't compelling if you're able to move the application, but the datastore becomes unavailable. HP has already demonstrated that by incorporating a Storage Virtual Appliance they can offer bundles at prices that are attractive for SMB and branch office customers while providing access to VMotion and DRS at the same time.

Why is this important?

SMB customers and branch offices have had to go without the high availability and ease of management features they get with VMotion and DRS, because of the cost of the external shared storage. With a Storage Virtual Appliance, the cost of the shared storage is a fraction of the cost of a traditional SAN or NAS.

What's still missing?

It's still too complicated. Most of the virtual appliances have tried addressed the issue of leveraging the server's resources, but haven't addressed the complexity issue. Many are using them as a means to either demonstrate core functionality or to move customers into an external SAN.

Our suggested solution

With a free download of the StorMagic SvSAN software, users can leverage up to 2 Terabytes of internal disk storage and begin sharing datastores right away. To expand beyond 2 Terabytes, it's a simple license key to grow their environment to unlimited capacity. If high availability is important, users can activate it with a license key as well.

With SvSAN, by integrating all of the management functionality (SAN, datastores and RAID) into VMware vCenter and providing automation of routine tasks, administrators can manage everything from vCenter, saving time and simplifying management. Automated datastore provisioning and intuitive management functions also minimize the time required to manage the shared storage.

Do you have to sacrifice performance for lower cost?

StorMagic customer surveys showed that the primary factor affecting storage performance is the underlying performance of the disks under random I/O loads. The Storage Virtual Appliance and other software components can easily keep up with the demands, and would deliver similar performance to external storage arrays with a similar number of disks.

Learn how to implement a Virtual SAN for ESX shared datastores (Sponsored by StorageVirtualAppliance.com)

• STORAGE allowing you to implement a high availability ESX environment with VMotion & shared datastores
• VIRTUAL SAN utilizes the internal disk and processor resources of your ESX server
• APPLIANCE allows management of datastores, SAN & RAID right from vCenter

Click here to register NOW!

Learn how to implement a Virtual SAN for ESX shared datastores (Sponsored by StorageVirtualAppliance.com)

• STORAGE allowing you to implement a high availability ESX environment with VMotion & shared datastores
• VIRTUAL SAN utilizes the internal disk and processor resources of your ESX server
• APPLIANCE allows management of datastores, SAN & RAID right from vCenter

A Storage Virtual Appliance (SVA) unlocks the processor and data storage resources of the ESX server and provides a virtual SAN that enables datastores to be shared in the same way as an external shared storage system. By using the internal disk drives of the ESX server to create a virtual SAN, SVAs provide a cost effective shared storage environment without having to install a complex external SAN.

Storage Virtual Appliances are quickly setting the trend for an economy that continues to look for cost effective and efficient solutions to manage data storage in virtual environments. Don't be left behind!

During this 45 Webinar, you will have an opportunity to learn about how SVAs are revolutionizing the ESX environment by allowing you to cost effectively leverage advanced virtualization features. Join your hosts John McArthur (President of Walden Technology Partners and former Group Vice President and General Manager at IDC) and Mike Stolz (VP of Marketing, StorMagic)

Want to learn more?

Click here to..

• Register for the Webinar
• Access to a complimentary White Paper
• View a Storage Virtual Appliance Demo Video

Eden Prairie, Minn. - April 1, 2009 - StorMagic®, a fast-growing developer of iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized server environments, today unveiled the results of its promotion following the launch of the SvSAN^TM^ storage virtual appliance. Over the past six weeks, the website has been inundated with requests for the software, and, as a result, users have downloaded more than 1,000 copies of SvSAN.

"We came across the StorMagic SvSAN promotion and decided to try it out, because the software addresses a need that we have been unable to meet for some time," said Jacob Cooper, president and owner of Cooplabs. "The SvSAN passed the test with flying colors; building the SAN with the VMware ESX host's internal drives was very straightforward and, after only a few minutes, we were up and running."

Many features of the StorMagic SvSAN have had a strong reception; from the VMware vCenter^TM^ integration capability that allows end users to manage their datastores, RAID and iSCSI SAN right from within VMware vCenter, to using VMware VMotion^TM^ without the need to purchase an expensive SAN, the feedback has been impressive. The StorMagic SvSAN high-availability option has also been a hit with end users. "To be able to create a high-availability infrastructure with shared storage for less than $2,000 is rather unique. To have it include responsive and thorough technical support is indispensable," said Joel Hurford, a principal at Mitsis LLC.

"If you need any more proof that the VMware world needs a simple easy way to make storage-related problems all but disappear, just look how fast StorMagic's product has taken off," commented Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "More than 1,000 people have already downloaded their stuff, and the word back is nothing short of stunning. These guys could attain cult status at this rate."

"We are impressed with the response that the SvSAN has triggered; it shows that there is a marked need for an easy-to-use solution that allows small to mid-size organizations to build a cost-effective, virtual SAN," said Mike Stolz, vice president of marketing at StorMagic. "Many organizations that downloaded the software as part of the promotion are already implementing it in their VMware ESX environment, and are leveraging the internal disk drives as a virtual SAN."

The channel community also welcomed the StorMagic SvSAN, because it addresses a huge gap in the SMB space. The solution has allowed resellers to target many unutilized VMware ESX hosts without the required shared storage to perform advanced tasks such as VMware VMotion, Single Operation Provisioning and automatic HA discovery.

The StorMagic SvSAN is available today through a worldwide network of channel partners at an MSRP starting at US$995 for a single virtual appliance license and 2-Terabyte capacity management license; capacity management licenses are available for 4, 8 and unlimited terabyte configurations. Qualified customers can get a promo key for free access to the StorMagic solution (not a trial version) by visiting http://www.stormagic.com/.

About StorMagic
StorMagic is a fast-growing provider of cost-effective storage management software solutions that simplify, automate, and manage data storage for virtual server environments+.+ With an executive team of storage veterans from companies such as Adaptec, Xiotech, and Eurologic, the company has brought to market an easy-to-use and highly reliable software with superior data management and migration capabilities, helping organizations protect and manage their mission-critical data. StorMagic has offices in Bristol, United Kingdom, and Eden Prairie, Minn. For more information, please call (800) 517-5282 or visit http://www.stormagic.com/.

I recently came across a very interesting blog (http://www.vmworldunderground.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2147195%3ABlogPost%3A3481&page=1#comment-2147195_Comment_3521) that mentioned some very intriguing predictions for VMworld Europe 2009.

Among some of the points mentioned, I was particularly interested in Number 4 which mentions the possibility that StorMagic could have a major role to play in shaking up the traditional SAN market. And why not? With an easy and FREE way to turn your ESX server into a Shared Storage platform, the SAN industry is about to get a major shake up! After all, very few solutions allow users to build a cost effective Highly Available ESX environment from an ESX server they had to begin with!

With close to a 1000 downloads of it's SvSAN in the span of 1 week, StorMagic has clearly created a buzz by providing the market with a cost effective solution to their storage woes. And nothing speaks higher in this current market than a product that is absolutely FREE! Try it for yourself and see what all the buzz is about..

1. Visit http://www.stormagic.com/
2. Click on the Download Link for SvSAN
3. Enter "freesan09" as your promo code