DataCore announced that it has brought to market a new and enhanced Virtual Infrastructure Foundation (VIF) package that will be marketed and sold as Virtual Infrastructure Foundation PLUS (VIF+). VIF+ takes the original Virtual Infrastructure Foundation to new heights. Like the original, VIF+ includes thin provisioning, iSCSI support, SANmotion data migration technology and performance caching. However, VIF+ adds support for thin provisioning storage pools up to 4TBs, includes snapshot technology for high-speed disk-to-disk backups and supports high-speed Fibre Channel networks. “VIF+ goes beyond simple iSCSI solutions and opens up entry for users seeking affordable iSCSI or Fibre Channel SANs, or fast disk-to disk backup and recovery solutions,” said George Teixeira, president and CEO, DataCore Software. “The original Virtual Infrastructure Foundation helped many small business users embrace storage virtualization. However, a number of those users – especially those considering Fibre Channel SANs or a mix of iSCSI and Fibre Channel – were looking for additional functionality for their base SAN.” This new package sells for under $2,750, delivering unmatched virtualization and SAN functionality.

Market impact and user benefit
As with Virtual Infrastructure Foundation, VIF+ is portable software that can run on standard Intel/AMD hardware servers, blades or on Virtual Machines (VMware, Citrix XenServer, Oracle VM, Sun VM, Virtual Iron, and Microsoft Virtual Servers). The release of the original VIF last year represented a major industry first in breaking through the $1,000 price point for a SAN software solution that includes automated virtual capacity functionality (thin provisioning). DataCore iSCSI and thin provisioning capabilities have led to thousands of companies worldwide deploying entry-level, SANmelody and Virtual Infrastructure Foundation solutions.

iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or both: the flexibility to address change
“Clearly we are seeing an increase in the adoption of iSCSI SANs,” commented Teixeira. “However, Fibre Channel SANs are still dominant in the marketplace. With DataCore’s VIF+, users can now choose one or the other, or both. Companies merge or find themselves with departments with a mix of SAN types all the time. And with DataCore, Fibre Channel and iSCSI SANs can co-exist together. Our software is ‘wire and network agnostic’ – providing users with the agility to not be caught off guard by change, now and in the future.”

The compelling advantages of virtualization
VIF+ represents a straightforward and easy way for users to see the benefits of going virtual, including flexibility, faster response to change, better resource utilization and hardware independence. The newly enhanced VIF+ package offers thin provisioning over iSCSI or FC SANs, meaning it provides thin slices as needed of the total disk capacity available across the network to application servers. Features and benefits include:

• Virtual Capacity Flexibility – “Auto-Grow” thin provisioning of disk space
• The ability to consolidate and manage up to 4TB (Terabytes) of storage
• Snapshot technology for fast disk-to-disk backups and recovery
• Fibre Channel and iSCSI support, or a mix of both
• The ability to utilize existing Ethernet IP/LAN connectivity and networks
• Simple-to-use iSCSI SAN storage networking
• Advanced SANmotion data migration capabilities
• Intelligent storage I/O caching and performance acceleration support
• Hardware independence enabling user choice in systems and storage devices and the ability to serve many different servers and types (Windows, MacOS, Linux, UNIX, Netware, Solaris, etc.)
• VIF+ is portable software that can run on standard Intel/AMD servers, blades, or on a wide range of Virtual Machines (VMware, Citrix XenServer, Oracle VM, Sun VM, Virtual Iron, and Microsoft Virtual Servers).

Part of the SANmelody family of products, VIF+ optimizes storage space and automates and optimizes capacity utilization across many servers. Because it is powered by DataCore’s SANmelody, the solution transforms a PC into a powerful and cost effective virtual storage server that serves disk space over a network via an affordable IP storage network or a Fibre Channel-based SAN. By enabling “virtual capacity” based upon DataCore-pioneered thin provisioning technology, VIF+ presents very large virtual volumes (capacity that can be terabytes) to applications, but only allocates and uses disk blocks and space dynamically as the applications actually consume it. This “just-in-time” storage allocation “auto-grow” capability maximizes disk space utilization and enhances productivity through automation.