DataCore Unveils "True' Storage Virtualization, Breakthrough "Virtual Capacity' Liberates Your Disks, Adds Disk Space Automatically without Downtime and Hassles

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (December 13, 2004) — DataCore Software today announced a major breakthrough that redefines storage virtualization – "Virtual Capacity'. End-users have been continually confused by conflicting and misleading claims regarding storage virtualization. Just like virtual memory, users want "virtual capacity' disks that grow capacity automatically to meet their needs, eliminates their ‘out of disk space' warnings that force system shut downs to add more disks, and yet performs as fast as local disks even if located over a network. Users have high expectations; simply put they don't want to be burdened by the operational details of disk management. They wish they could automate manual tasks and abstract themselves away from the fixed size constraints of hard drives to cope with the unrelenting growth, complexity and endless change they face daily in IT environments. Users also want the flexibility and freedom of choice to buy latest open market disks to avoid being locked-in to specific storage suppliers. But, with all the hype in the marketplace, users are disappointed to find that vendors are using the term "storage virtualization' to describe everything but what they truly need, that is until now. DataCore pioneered "true' storage virtualization, the capability to do what users expect on its proven enterprise-level SANsymphony™ platform installed at hundreds of sites worldwide. DataCore's simple but powerful "Virtual Capacity' auto-provisioning capability known as Network Managed Volumes is now available on SANmelody™ platforms. This dramatically lowers the entry price point so that the vast majority of storage users can finally afford to experience the compelling productivity and cost savings benefits of automated "Virtual Capacity'.

"The current manual approaches for provisioning storage often require hours not seconds to create volumes and make them available to an application or an end user. Many of the newer virtualization products on the market require users to lock in to a specific hardware vendor's 'solution set' and concerns remain over whose hardware can be included in the hardware-based virtualization scheme. DataCore's approach is superior. I am hard pressed to think of any other storage software vendor who offers anything close in terms of giving users so much choice on which vendor's disks and hardware to use," says Jon William Toigo, renowned storage author, IT consumer advocate and CEO of Toigo Partners International in Tampa Bay, FL."

DataCore's powerful auto-provisioning capability lets users serve up massively large logical disk volumes, sized from gigabytes to terabytes. To application servers, these ‘virtual capacity' disk volumes are simple to use since they appear, perform and work just like any other locally attached disk. The difference is that the actual physical disk capacity is drawn from a storage pool on an as-needed basis therefore ensuring optimal disk space utilization. Setting up disks that grow automatically is simple and requires just a single command. "Virtual capacity' volumes work not just over fibre channel SAN networks but also on existing IP/LAN-based infrastructures using iSCSI storage networking.

"Aside from performance, one of the distinct advantages that was instrumental in my buying decision was the flexibility DataCore provided – it runs on standard servers, uses any disk, works over iSCSI, Fibre Channel or both, and it can serve up virtual capacity efficiently to a wide variety of Windows, Novell, Linux, and Unix application systems' – Ann Schneider, IT department, CPA firm Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C.
"DataCore's virtual capacity is a major leap forward. You now can defeat the ‘running out of space' downtime problem and avoid the ‘guesswork' cost of over buying storage. This innovation truly automates the process of storage provisioning and delivers dramatic improvements in utilization.' – John Padovano, Manager of Technology for EngenderHealth.
DataCore's "just enough space just-in-time' – Don't pay for storage until you need it!
To gain a better understanding, let's look at an example of how one might provision storage for a new application. Let's take the case in which a system administrator allocates 1 Terabyte (TB) or roughly a trillion bytes of disk capacity to a particular user's database application. That capacity once committed cannot be used by any other application. As a new application, only some portion, say 100 Gigabytes (GB) is actually being stored; basically one-tenth the total is really used upfront. But because the administrator is anticipating growth, he or she precommits and pays for the full 1 TB amount of disk space. Over the life of that application, it may actually only use 500 GB; therefore 500 GB is left unused and wasted – in other words, 50 cents on a dollar was spent and never utilized.
With DataCore, a system administrator allocates 1 TB to a volume, but it is not committed. In other words, the application sees a 1 TB volume but only 100 GB of physical storage is actually being consumed. As more data is stored, it just gets more disk space from the pool of storage as needed. You therefore pay only for what you need and the storage gets allocated "just-in-time' so there is no waste. You dramatically improve savings by maximizing disk utilization since other applications can use the excess capacity and since you only need to buy disks when you absolutely need to – from a cost savings standpoint, you get the ability to postpone some purchases and leverage falling drive prices far more effectively.
Breaks the link between allocated and purchased capacity
For a variety of reasons (notably, the need to service application data growth and avoid disruption from disk additions), IT administrators tend to significantly overbuy disk capacity, which sends overall capital and operating costs skyward. According to some industry estimates, as little as 25% of allocated physical capacity is actually ever consumed in user environments. DataCore's "virtual capacity' lets you pay only for the capacity you need and since storage gets allocated "just-in-time', there is no waste.
Increases R.O.I. and Cost Savings
DataCore's auto-provisioning software significantly improves savings by:
• Accelerating return on investments since upfront committed costs are kept to a minimum
• Allowing more applications to be quickly deployed while leveraging the existing storage assets
• Eliminating "overbuy' disk capacity expenditures immediately
• Lowering hardware costs due to being able to buy any open market disks (e.g. SATA)
• Enabling greater purchasing power by timing buys of falling drive prices more effectively
• Lowering the maintenance, power, cooling and floor space costs for unnecessary disk drives
• Stopping application shutdowns to allow reconfiguration and rebooting when adding capacity
• Reducing workload impacts on storage, system and DB administrators

"Virtualization technologies have been all the rage in storage, as vendors have been looking for unique ways to help users manage and provision disk storage with greater efficiency. IBM's recent SAN Volume Controller, HDS TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform and EMC's recent announcements have rekindled interest but they still haven't delivered on the promise of virtualization. The lack of true automation, the unwillingness of vendors to break their lock-in features - allowing open hardware purchasing flexibility, and the high prices being charged have made these solutions far too costly and impractical for most companies,' stated George Teixeira, CEO DataCore Software. "DataCore's powerful ‘virtual capacity', openness to hardware choice, and new pricing combine to break down these barriers'.

Latest SANmelody and Auto-provisioning Pricing, White Papers, and Information are available at:
http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody.asp

About DataCore Software
DataCore Software fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. The company's award-winning SANsymphony and new low-cost SANmelody disk server software products provide unprecedented purchasing flexibility and future-proofing by empowering customers to fulfill portability and price/performance requirements across a broad choice of systems and devices. Small to Medium Enterprises, Global 2000 data centers and OEM storage subsystems rely on this comprehensive product portfolio to deploy disk servers, to easily add capacity expansion and to centralize and automate storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare systems. DataCore is privately held with corporate headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For international office locations and more information, visit www.datacore.com.

DataCore, the DataCore logo and SANsymphony and SANmelody are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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