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A new alternative in the so-called hyper-converged data center system business is coming to the market as a result of a new international partnership between Shenzhen, China-based telecom giant Huawei and DataCore Software of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The forthcoming new-gen server/storage system will offer channel partners a clear option to current systems offered by Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Maxta, Nutanix, Simplicity and several others. The announcement was made March 17.
The new offering consists of a Huawei FusionServer server running DataCore SANsymphony-V software; Huawei’s Oceanstor direct-attached storage then becomes a virtual storage area network (SAN) across two to as many as 64 servers. Additional third-party storage—on or off-premises—also can be virtualized with DataCore’s software, adding to a lake of virtual storage resources.
They are designed to address the need for simple, high-performance and scalable virtual SANs and hyper-converged solutions required in data center and IT environments.
Go here to view and/or download a PDF copy of the solution brief.
The systems may use preinstalled Microsoft or VMware server hypervisors and be optimized to support Microsoft with Hyper-V workloads in addition to VMware projects. The new package will support often-used data center apps such as SQL server, Oracle Database, Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics ERP, SAP middleware and various virtual desktop deployments, such as Citrix, Dell Wyse, HP and others.
“We’ve been working on some co-projects with them [Huawei], particularly in Europe, for about two years,” DataCore co-founder Ziya A. Aral told eWEEK. “About a year ago, some resellers put together some configurations that both companies liked. In January, Huawei was a sponsor at our customer event in Germany, and some high-level meetings occurred. And all of a sudden, this thing has moved like a rocket ship ever since.”
Huawei’s Oceanstor high-performance flash-based SSD storage systems and existing legacy storage systems can be easily added via iSCSI or Fibre Channel connectivity to extend system capabilities beyond the server-attached limitations of most other hyper-converged appliance offerings, Aral said.
The DataCore and Huawei Hyper-Converged solutions are available for shipment this month, starting at about $20,000.