Datacore touts a next level for virtualization

Perhaps no other vendor’s history has a more profound intertwining with storage virtualization than DataCore Software, a company that if chaired by the former VP of the US Al Gore would probably claim to have “invented” storage virtualization.

Ziya Aral, Chairman and CTO of DataCore doesn’t go that far but his comments are nonetheless pungent:

In our segment of the industry virtualization was so hot that produced over 200 companies in the US, most of whom had never got beyond the slideware stage

– he tells me during our interview –

Mr. Aral doesn’t shy away from self-criticism either:

We had a fairly competitive strategy in mind. When we first started to come out we were going to take on the major storage vendors. Instead we ended up allying or doing OEM with almost all of them. So we ended up in bed with our enemies

he jokes.

Our advantage is that we don’t have to carry around a locomotive sized chunk of hardware

Aral continues.

DataCore is announcing today version 6.0 of SANsymphony Enteprise that promises numerous interesting new features such as creating separate SAN domains to better manage resource allocations, discrete levels of service and security requirements.

It’s worth visiting the DataCore site for a more comprehensive outline of the new release of SANsymphony.

DataCore characterizes the new release as the first step toward a new level of virtualization.

SANsymphony 6.0 is the first half of the re- architecting of the base kernel for 64-bit. We are going to shovel a whole lot of new technology at the top such as the Traveler CDP (continuous data protection) technology. That’s the first of about half a dozen announcements we will do during the year

Aral explains.

SANSymphony 6.0 Enterprise Edition is available immediately. DataCore suggests a starting retail price of $25,000.