Seanodes introduced the latest version of its Exanodes - Virtual Machine Edition, which offers easy connectors and integration with server virtualization solutions to extend their capabilities to application servers' internal disks by converting direct attached storage into networked storage.

As with previous versions of Exanodes, the VM Edition is designed to alleviate the pain points associated with network storage by enabling consolidation of an organization's underutilized server storage into a high-performance virtualized storage pool. By combining disparate applications' and operating servers' storage throughout the enterprise and eliminating the need for a dedicated network storage array, Exanodes VM Edition creates a virtual SAN to provide total server virtualization, tackling cumbersome IT issues of complexity, performance, reliability and cost head on.

"Seanodes uniquely provides virtual server hypervisors the ability to utilize the internal and external direct attached storage (DAS) to itself and other virtual servers as a virtualized SAN without the requisite cost and complexity of a 'physical' SAN," said Marc Staimer, President of Dragon Slayer Consulting. "The end result is a great deal simpler, higher performing, lower cost storage that more perfectly aligns with the promise of server virtualization."

Exanodes VM Edition redefines simplicity with installation, configuration and deployment measured in minutes rather than days for typical SAN deployments. It requires no target management, no additional hardware, no need for external SAN storage or fabrics and no specific storage competencies. It provides a high level of performance through improved parallelism and full utilization of hardware at the user's disposal. Exanodes offers highly available reliability through catastrophic fault tolerance that includes self-healing capabilities and less than 40-minutes to rebuild a 1TB disk. The solution is the first to help IT managers redefine the economics of storage avoiding the investment in traditional SANs that are as much as 20 times more expensive.

"We are calling our Exanodes VM Edition ‘Server Virtualization Storage Nirvana' because its ability to transform enterprise storage into something that is not limiting in nature but rather one filled with new expectations and one that is redefining storage metrics as we previously knew them," said Jacques Baldinger, CEO of Seanodes. "By approaching the issues of cost efficiency, simplicity and performance from an entirely new way of thinking, we are providing companies with a new paradigm in storage and empowering them to take advantage of a fully virtualized and consolidated infrastructure that enables complete utilization of commoditized application Servers."