At CeBIT 2013 (Hanover, Germany (March 5th – 9th) DataCore Software, the premier provider of storage virtualization software, is showcasing the latest advances in its SANsymphony™-V Storage Hypervisor and introducing the new DataCore VDS (Virtual Desktop Server) software platform to European solution providers in search of simple, affordable VDI solutions to target the large base of small to mid-size businesses.
DataCore Showcases SANsymphony-V Storage Hypervisor Advances
At the “Virtualization & Storage Forum” (Hall 2, Stand A40), organized by DataCore’s distribution partner Arrow ECS and CeBIT, DataCore is presenting its latest SANsymphony-V performance acceleration and auto-tiering enhancements, more powerful CDP capabilities, greater scalability, support for Windows Server 2012 and highly optimized integration of Flash-based storage to dramatically speed up mission-critical tier-1 applications. For more information read here.
DataCore Introduces a New Software Product line: DataCore VDS – The Virtual Desktop Server
DataCore VDS is designed to cost-effectively deploy and serve virtual desktops. DataCore VDS is a VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) application-specific use case that optimally applies DataCore’s architectural advantages to make it practical to deploy persistent ‘stateful’ virtual desktops at a lower cost and higher performance than alternatives.
DataCore VDS: A Powerful ‘Stateful’ Virtual Desktop Solution
True virtual desktops are ‘stateful’ (or persistent), they deliver a similar user experience as if a user is on a physical desktop or laptop PC. With ‘stateful’ virtual desktops an end-user is assigned a virtual machine for their own use to run applications, to browse, to do downloads. Turn the virtual desktop off and then back on and it retains the ‘State’ of what you were doing, it is just like when you close and open a laptop.
DataCore VDS addresses unfulfilled SMB market demand for cost-effective solutions
Small and medium businesses want to adopt desktop virtualization for the same reasons large enterprises do – to reduce desktop management costs, improve productivity and increase business agility, but they often find enterprise-class solutions overkill for smaller environments.
Unlike VDI offerings aimed at ‘Big Companies’ on the market which are complex and require many 1000’s of desktops to justify the high costs involved, DataCore VDS dramatically lowers the complexity and significantly reduces the cost per VDI instance. The solution is priced and sized for small, medium size businesses and departmental users. DataCore VDS addresses this unfulfilled market demand with cost-effective and simple to use solutions specifically designed to meet the budgets and needs of 50 to 200 virtual desktop deployments. Most importantly, DataCore VDS makes economically possible to not sacrifice performance and a ‘true’ desktop user experience.
The Ultimate Objective: A Great User Experience
Other VDI approaches tend to be complex, costly and inefficient. Also, they are difficult to install and manage. While the ultimate objective is to provide users with a virtual desktop that performs and works as well or better than a physical computer, this objective is the first to be sacrificed due to the high costs needed to achieve the ‘true’ desktop experience and responsiveness that end-users expect. Storage has been the major barrier and cost factor; current VDI approaches have had to use expensive storage networks, enterprise storage arrays, fast disks, SSDs and shared storage to achieve needed performance. However the economics do not make sense. The cost of storage has limited VDI deployments only to large companies with big budgets. All the above arguments together dictate the need for a new approach to address the storage cost and performance challenges.
DataCore VDS Compelling Benefits
DataCore VDS is the easy and affordable virtual desktop solution designed for SMBs. It deploys on a single server, and includes the tools Windows® administrators need to rapidly deliver centrally-managed virtual desktops to any user for less than the cost of new PCs.
The DataCore VDS highly efficient architecture eliminates up to 75 percent of VDI costs without compromising performance and most importantly the user experience. DataCore VDS is:
- Simple and Fast to Install, Administer and Use
– Runs on off-the-shelf servers; any storage
– Intuitive and easy for administrators to use - Affordable and Super Storage Efficient
– Uses a fraction of storage compared to other VDI architectures - A High Performance Optimized Architecture
– Delivers ‘Best in Class’ price performance
– Optimally manages I/O traffic and caches to achieve high performance - A Powerful ‘Stateful’ Virtual Desktop Computing Solution
– True Desktop computing. What users expect!
“DataCore VDS addresses a major new business market opportunity, and for us, it is a real “sweet spot”. It allows us to deliver simple and affordable VDI solutions well matched for 50 to 200 virtual desktop environments. Unlike highly complex VDI solutions that may be cost-effective for very large 1000 or more desktop projects, DataCore VDS removes many implementation barriers and greatly reduces the cost per virtual desktop instance,” says Jürgen Thurau, Senior Consultant at DataCore partner IT-On.NET GmbH. “Small and medium enterprises can finally operate a virtual desktop infrastructure economically to improve productivity and reduce costs. We are extremely optimistic and ready to work with the DataCore to establish DataCore VDS solution successfully in the marketplace.”
DataCore is focused on solving storage problems and VDI is storage challenged
“We are not moving away from our core business, we are doing what we do best. DataCore VDS is fundamentally a storage solution that leverages Microsoft virtualization capabilities and DataCore’s powerful architectural advantages to makes VDI practical and affordable,” states George Teixeira, CEO and President, DataCore Software.
Product Pricing, Roll Out and Availability
DataCore VDS will be released in April in Europe where select partners have already been trained. The solution will be made available during Q2 exclusively in Europe through DataCore’s established network of trained and authorized EMEA based solution providers.
Pricing starts at under EURO 4.600 for a DataCore VDS software license able to support 50 virtual desktops.
