iSCSI Storage: Virtual Iron Certifies LeftHand Networks' Open iSCSI Storage Area Networks

Virtual Iron Software , a provider of enterprise-class software for server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management, recently announced that it has certified LeftHand Networks' open iSCSI storage area network software. The combination delivers enterprise-class server and storage virtualization capabilities to the mainstream market and enables more users to take advantage of the significant benefits of virtual infrastructure management.

By deploying LeftHand Networks' SAN/iQ open iSCSI SAN with Virtual Iron virtualization and management software, users gain a simple, flexible and cost-effective virtual server and storage infrastructure that easily adapts to changing business needs. The combined capabilities deliver immediate improvements in resource utilization, simplified patch management, back up and disaster recovery for more cost-effective capacity management.

"Virtual Iron and LeftHand Networks provide a robust and feature-rich combination for managing virtual server and storage environments," said Greg Wolff, Area Vice President of Product Marketing at MPC Computers. "By adding these enterprise-class capabilities to our offerings, MPC is providing its customers with a level of infrastructure management flexibility and cost efficiency not available from traditional physical server and storage environments."

Virtual Iron provides an enterprise-class server virtualization and management platform for a fraction of the cost of comparable alternatives. LeftHand Networks leads the open iSCSI SAN market and its SAN/iQ storage software platform enables a virtual infrastructure environment that enhances storage utilization, data protection and virtualized server availability. The combined solution offers customers highly available and completely scalable virtualized server and storage environments that enable a number of powerful capabilities. For example:

• Virtual Iron enables the provisioning of new virtual machines to meet increasing application demands in the data center or to create new environments for software development and testing. SAN/iQ supports these capabilities by allowing users to clone storage volumes almost instantaneously and with minimal additional use of storage. This enables users to automatically allocate server and storage capacity to workloads as needed, without administrative intervention.
• Virtual Iron Live Migrate migrates running virtual machines with their operating systems and applications from one physical server to another with zero downtime and without complicated clustering environments. This allows users to balance workloads and perform server maintenance without affecting service levels. SAN/iQ offers similar storage functionality, allowing volumes to be moved from one storage system to another with zero downtime and without modifying the virtual environment.
• Virtual Iron LiveRecovery provides business continuity for all applications by automatically re-starting virtual machines affected by server failure without any downtime and without complicated clustering software. SAN/iQ architecture allows organizations to distribute their storage networks so that access to the virtual machines' storage volumes can continue uninterrupted even through the loss of an entire data center.

"LeftHand SAN/iQ and Virtual Iron software create a powerful end-to-end virtualization solution that simplifies server and storage management, improves utilization and increases data center flexibility," said Karl Chen, vice president of alliances and business development for LeftHand Networks. "By continuing to extend the benefits of storage throughout the enterprise, LeftHand Networks is helping customers make significant reductions in hardware costs, data center complexity and administrative overhead."

"Together, Virtual Iron and LeftHand Networks deliver affordable, production-ready virtualization and management solutions to the mainstream market," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron Software. "The flexible and open architecture of SAN/iQ combined with Virtual Iron's advanced virtual infrastructure management and live workload migration capabilities, enable users of all sizes to leverage the full power and ROI of virtual infrastructure management."

About LeftHand Networks
LeftHand Networks pioneered IP-based storage area networks (SAN) in 2001. SANs built using LeftHand's SAN/iQ software are uniquely able to distribute and protect data across a cluster of industry-standard storage servers. The company's patented architecture increases data availability, allows users to start small and grow the SAN seamlessly, and simplifies management. The LeftHand SAN is ideal for server consolidation and virtualization projects, Microsoft Application environments, and disaster recovery solutions. For more information, contact LeftHand at info@lefthandnetworks.com.

About Virtual Iron Software, Inc.
Virtual Iron provides enterprise-class software for server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management at one-fifth the cost of comparable alternatives. Its solutions enable companies to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of managing and operating their data center. Virtual Iron delivers advanced virtualization capabilities that exploit industry standards, open source economics and built-in hardware-assisted acceleration. Large and mid-sized enterprises use the software for server consolidation; development and test environments; rapid provisioning; high availability and disaster recovery; capacity management; and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The software is available for free download at www.virtualiron.com/free. The company is privately held and based in Lowell, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.virtualiron.com.

SOURCE: Virtual Iron Software