3PAR LAUNCHES VIRTUAL MACHINE SOFTWARE FOR UTILITY STORAGE

This one came just in, I'm delivering it to you just how the 3PAR guys sent it to me ;):

3PAR®, the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today 3PAR Virtual Domains, new virtual machine software for 3PAR InServ® Storage Servers that delivers secure access and improved storage services for different applications and user groups. 3PAR Virtual Domains enables organizations to deliver customized, secure, and even “self-serve” storage services to multiple users, applications, departments, and external customers on a shared infrastructure for workload consolidation. By providing secure, administrative segregation of users and hosts within a tiered, massively parallel 3PAR InServ Storage Server, individual user groups and applications are able to affordably achieve greater storage service levels (performance, availability, and functionality) than previously possible with dedicated workload infrastructures.



3PAR Virtual Domains is ideal for internal and external IT service providers that need to offer independent privacy, control, reporting, and compliance capabilities but also want the benefits of a simple and efficient consolidated storage environment. “With 3PAR Virtual Domains, we are able to consolidate what would otherwise have been multiple physical storage arrays,” said Eric Putter, Director of IT, AON Consulting. “We achieve compliant volume isolation and improved service levels while reducing the size, complexity and cost of our storage environment.”



Traditional high-end array partitioning schemes rely on the physical and manual segregation of array resources. 3PAR Virtual Domains offers a new approach that uses a policy-based, logical implementation to deliver secure, shared access for up to 2,000 virtual arrays per InServ Storage Server. Through private, logical separation of users or groups of users, hosts and storage resources, Virtual Domains is designed to give organizations the security and control they require while preserving the inherent benefits of a massively scalable tiered-storage platform, including the fine and even distribution of each and every application workload across all system resources (e.g., ports, processors, cache, loops, and disk drives). With 3PAR Virtual Domains, overall storage utilization is maximized and individual users or groups of users retain end-to-end security and control with higher, more affordable levels of service.



Problem: Security and Control as Barriers to Consolidation

While the benefits of storage consolidation are well understood, too often disparate user groups, departments, and external customers cannot share traditional storage resources due to concerns surrounding privacy, control, the potential for administrative error, and even compliance requirements. The result is that organizations must resort to the costly purchase and time-consuming management of separate physical resources--either within monolithic storage systems or through multiple, dedicated modular storage systems. In either case, these concessions mean forfeiting the consolidation benefits of greater resource utilization, reduced administration, centralized backup, and reduced energy and floor space consumption.

Here's the rest of the Press Release.