FalconStor Supports Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering and Hyper-V

FalconStor Software, Inc. announced that, as part of its ongoing support of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization technology, FalconStor Network Storage Server (NSS) software works seamlessly with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering to provide instantaneous disaster recovery (DR) over the wide-area network (WAN) in both physical server and Hyper-V virtual server environments.

Integrating both logical and virtual worlds, the combination of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering and Hyper-V virtual servers enables automatic failover of business-critical applications running on geographically dispersed physical and virtual servers. The solution provides companies with integrated data protection, less expensive DR and immediate recovery from server failure.

FalconStor’s open software-based SAN replication and cluster protection software, FalconStor NSS, is tightly integrated with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering, enabling not only protection of the host server but also of individual Hyper-V virtual machines configured as clustered servers. FalconStor is the first data protection vendor to deliver replication and automated failover processes in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 environments at the block level, which eliminates any performance impact on the host.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V in multi-site cluster deployments enables IT organizations to cost-effectively adopt virtualization, improve utilization, optimize infrastructure and rapidly provision new servers using systems management tools for both physical and virtualized environments. FalconStor NSS software provides a real-time software-based replication and multi-site failover solution with application integrity optimized for Microsoft virtual server environments.

"As an early adopter of Microsoft Hyper-V in our production environment, which runs hundreds of virtualized servers created with Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology, we have been able to benefit from FalconStor NSS software’s support of Hyper-V for nearly a year,” said Øyvind Kaldestad, vice president of Corporate IT for Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., a provider of globalization, development and testing services that designs and develops custom training courseware. “Also, having tested FalconStor NSS software with Microsoft Windows 2008 Failover Clustering and Hyper-V using different SANs between the primary and DR site, we are excited to see how well the failover process works without locking us into identical storage hardware at each location.”

FalconStor NSS software automatically protects both Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V clusters through WAN optimization and automated multi-site cluster failover integration. With FalconStor NSS software, customers can unify their multi-vendor SAN environments and replicate to a remote site using nearly any vendor’s storage equipment at either location.

“In the past, integrating high availability and disaster recovery capabilities together into a ‘geo clustering’ solution has been an expensive proposition that required significant administration sophistication and expertise,” said Eric Burgener, senior analyst at The Taneja Group. “FalconStor now has added capabilities to its core NSS software offering that makes creating these configurations for Windows Server 2008 environments simpler and more cost-effective, giving customers a much more approachable, integrated HA/DR solution. With evolving business and regulatory mandates turning DR into a must-have capability, this development will be welcomed by mid-market and enterprise customers alike.”

"Our storage virtualization and data protection software provides a totally Open, enterprise-proven solution for businesses seeking to improve their recovery-time and recovery-point objectives in a cost-effective manner,” said Bernie Wu, FalconStor vice president of business development. “The integration work we’ve done with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Failover Clustering takes this one step further by providing overall multi-site application availability and consistency."

FalconStor NSS software provides a disaster recovery suite for Windows Server 2008 that seamlessly supports Microsoft’s multi-site failover clustering feature for physical servers or Hyper-V virtual servers while ensuring application integrity during failover. Transactional applications – such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Exchange and others – present a huge data-integrity challenge when they are configured within multi-site clusters where DR is required. Because of the latency and distance that the WAN introduces, there is no guarantee that every block of data will arrive at the secondary site in the event of a failure. FalconStor NSS software enhances data protection for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering in multi-site environments by ensuring at the sub-block level that each application has a clean, consistent restart point just before service was interrupted.

FalconStor and Microsoft have a strong history of working together to provide scalable business solutions for the mid-tier and enterprise markets. FalconStor is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a managed ISV partner and has earned Microsoft’s Advanced Infrastructure Storage Solution Specialization Competency.