Scottsdale Community College (SCC) has deployed DataCore’s storage virtualization software in conjunction with XenDesktop from Citrix in order to realize a fully virtualized IT environment. “By embracing total virtualization of servers, desktops, and storage, the college is now saving a quarter million dollars a year that would have been spent on hardware had we not deployed best-of-breed virtualization solutions from DataCore and Citrix,” states Dustin Fennell, vice president of IT and CIO, SCC. The full case study is available on DataCore’s website: “Virtual Storage Infrastructure Designed for Virtual Desktops.”

DataCore will also discuss results of its seminal work in the area of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with attendees. See “Benchmarking a Scalable and High-Availability Architecture for Virtual Desktops” for more details.

DataCore and Citrix Together Deliver a Fully Virtualized Data Center
Citrix customers around the globe running XenServer™, XenDesktop™ and XenApp™ rely on DataCore to get the highest availability, fastest performance, and fullest utilization from their storage assets. They employ SANsymphony-V software to abstract various storage components into idealized, virtual disks. The storage virtualization software pools and mirrors disk blocks across available devices to eliminate single points of failure and disruption. In the process, it speeds up I/O response and throughput using extensive infrastructure-wide caching. This lets customers take optimum advantage of Citrix’s full suite of capabilities for the best possible user experience. 

“Storage infrastructure and costs are a large part of any desktop virtualization implementation, and thus it is critical that IT manage these resources to ensure a successful rollout. With storage virtualization solutions like those from DataCore and its latest release of SANsymphony-V, customers are able to use their existing storage resources for Citrix XenDesktop in a more effective, and cost-effective manner,” said Natalie Lambert, director of product marketing, enterprise applications and desktops at Citrix. 

While some vendors in the virtualization field recommend that customers lock themselves into specific storage hardware configurations and exotic purpose-built appliances, SANsymphony-V frees customers from hardware vendor lock-in by decoupling the virtual infrastructure from the underlying disks. DataCore effectively virtualizes disk storage devices from different brands and vendors to eliminate incompatibilities across generations, models, and manufacturers and maximize the joint value derived from these resources. In doing so, SANsymphony-V eliminates the storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks, and financial hurdles that threaten virtualization projects. 

“Server consolidation and desktop virtualization stress the storage fabric in ways unfamiliar to those coming off isolated distributed systems” said Matt Zucker, director of alliance management at DataCore Software. “We’ve architected our storage virtualization software with these unique requirements in mind, and priced it so you won’t have to roll in wheelbarrows full of money to build out the foundation.”