VMware vSphere Storage Appliance ($5,995) for SMBs

VMware, Inc. unveiled the vSphere Storage Appliance, a new software product that will bring the rich business continuity and automated resource management capabilities of vSphere to SMBs without the cost and complexity of shared storage.

  vSphere storage appliance turns internal server storage
                 into a single shared storage resource.

VMware also announced a comprehensive cloud infrastructure suite, including the release of VMware vSphere 5, a significant update to VMware vSphere.

According to an October 2010 Gartner survey of mid-market companies, SMBs are adopting virtualization at a very aggressive pace – by 2012, slightly more than 75 percent expect to have server virtualization in wide use – with disaster recovery representing the largest area of IT investment for SMBs over the next two years.

Until now, customers wanting to leverage the rich high availability and automated resource management functionality enabled by VMware vSphere’s resource pooling capabilities needed separate shared storage hardware, which presented a cost and complexity barrier for some SMBs. The new VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will transform server internal storage into shared pools of storage, removing the shared storage hardware requirement and enabling more SMBs to take advantage of the business continuity and automation capabilities of VMware vSphere, including High Availability, vMotion, and Distributed Resource Scheduler. The vSphere Storage Appliance will be simple to install and configure, eliminating the need for specialized storage skills, thus bringing high application availability to SMBs with few mouse clicks.

"With the introduction of the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, we will continue to bring the business continuity and cost efficiency benefits of virtualization to companies of all sizes," said Bogomil Balkansky, vice president, product marketing, VMware. "Business continuity and disaster recovery top the list of priorities our SMB customers are tackling, and with this new offering we hope to empower SMBs with all the automation capabilities of VMware vSphere without the costs or complexity of shared storage.  SMBs will also find that if they do invest in shared storage hardware down the road, they’ll be able to transition without any service disruption using VMware vSphere Storage vMotion."

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance Features
The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will offer a cost-effective alternative to shared storage that will enable SMBs to take advantage of the features of VMware vSphere, including High Availability, vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler.  

The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance software
will deliver:

• Simplicity, Install in Few Clicks – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will be easy to install and will be integrated with VMware vCenter Server to enable simplified management of both servers and storage from a single console.
• VMware vSphere High Availability without Shared Storage Hardware – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will run as a virtual appliance on VMware vSphere, pooling server internal storage across servers to create a virtual pool of protected shared storage without the need for external storage hardware. Because it runs on multiple servers simultaneously, the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will ensure data is available to any workload, even when one of the servers in the cluster fails.
• Datacenter Automation for Small Environments – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will empower SMBs with the performance and efficiency of enterprise datacenters. Its pooling capabilities will maximize hardware usage, while enabling customers to use the ‘set and forget’ intelligent automation features of vSphere, including vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler, to guarantee application service levels.

Virtualization and Cloud Computing for SMBs
SMBs represent the fastest-growing segment of VMware’s customer base, with the majority of SMBs choosing VMware as their virtualization provider. In the last two years alone, VMware has tripled the number of customers in the SMB segment by introducing solutions and services aimed specifically at this market. VMware delivers a portfolio of virtualization and cloud computing offerings for businesses of all sizes, including:

• VMware vSphere Kits for SMBs: VMware provides all-in-one solutions for SMBs of all sizes. VMware vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits enable small offices to consolidate workloads, improve availability, and centrally manage their environments with a low up-front investment. VMware Acceleration Kits provide midsize businesses with a scalable virtualization platform, with policy-based automation to help ensure application service levels and the option to add advanced management capabilities such as multi-site failover protection.
• VMware Go: VMware Go is a free, Web-based IT management service delivering simplified asset tracking, inventory and security services for SMBs. VMware GO also guides users of any expertise level through the installation and configuration of VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
• VMware Go Pro: VMware Go Pro is a cloud service that enables SMBs to consolidate, manage, control and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructures. Available today by subscription, VMware Go Pro provides a single pane of glass for SMBs to manage both virtual and physical infrastructures, simplifying IT management so that SMBs can focus resources on high-value initiatives instead of routine tasks.
• VMware vSphere Hypervisor: VMware vSphere Hypervisor is an easy way to get started with virtualization—and it’s free. Based on VMware ESXi, the hypervisor architecture that sets the industry standard for reliability, performance and ecosystem support, VMware vSphere Hypervisor allows customers to consolidate applications onto fewer servers and start saving money through reduced hardware, power, cooling and administration costs.

Broadest Virtualization Partner Ecosystem
VMware has a virtualization partner ecosystem with more than 25,000 technology partners, solution providers, distributors, service providers and systems integrators, as well as major global hardware manufacturers. This broad ecosystem provides SMB and ROBO customers with a variety of servers, storage devices, networking and applications that interoperate with VMware solutions and are supported by each vendor. In addition, VMware vCloud partners are delivering SMB business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that directly leverage public cloud computing services.

Pricing and Availability
The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance is expected to be available in Q3 2011 for $5,995. In Q3 VMware also will introduce a limited-time promotional offering for SMBs, bundling VMware vSphere 5 Essentials Plus and the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance for $7,995, which represents a 40 percent discount on the list price of the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance.