NetApp Announces VMware Products

from the "It's about time" department.

Network Appliance announced February 12th that they were planning to release two products for VMware ESX Server.

The first is SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure. This product will manage backups, recovery, and replication of NetApp storage connected to VMware Virtual Infrastructure systems. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/server-suite/smgr-virtual-infrastructure.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2741_snapmanager.pdf

The second product is Provision Manager which is designed to simplify and accelerate storage provisioning. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/data-suite/provisioning.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2742_provisioningmgr.pdf

In related news, with the release of NetApp OnTap 7.3 deduplication is available in primary storage for Network Appliance systems without the purchase of a Nearstore license. This should improve efficiencies in storage, especially where deployed systems are based on common images.

ESX 3i Embedded Availability Imminent

With VMworld Europe in full swing we can expect some product announcements and press releases happing every day.

VMware ESX 3i Embedded will be available from at least 4 major vendors "real soon now". At least that's the word on the street. I've definitely heard similar things from my vendor contacts.

I'm very excited about this since it will be great to use in some of our regional sites. It's tough to get disparate hardware in and have to juggle configs around to get on that new hardware remotely. This should really smooth things out.

Here are some announcements in that arena:

Fujitsu Siemens announces immediate availability: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/fsc_vmworld.html

HP announces March 31 availability:
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/hp_vmworld.html. This comes with the announcment that HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2 will support ESX 3i. HP SIM 5.2 is already available here: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/hpsim/index.html

Dell announces early April availability:
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/dell_vmworld.html

IBM is only included here as part of the "available within 60 days":
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/3i_rollup_vmworld.html, however a search of their site shows they are well along in preparing to support 3i.