Press Releases

3PAR Ignites Utility Benefits in VMware ESX Server Deployments

Utility Storage Provider Greatly Increases Storage Utilization and Flexibility for Linux and Windows Environments

FREMONT, CA, US — October 19, 2005

3PAR, the leading provider of Utility Storage, announced today a utility computing solution with VMware ESX Server that will enable organizations to easily and quickly adapt to ever-changing business demands in an extremely cost-effective, pay-as-you-use manner. 3PAR Dynamic Optimization allows for the online, non-disruptive optimization of data service levels. VMware VMotion allows for the online, non-disruptive optimization of processing service levels. The integration of the 3PAR InServ Storage Server and 3PAR Dynamic Optimization with VMware ESX Server and VMotion enables customers to simply provision and maintain optimal service levels for both data and processing in their data center.

Maintaining data center resources—processors and storage—simply and with high utilization over time is a challenge for organizations deploying traditional server and storage technology. Since optimization approaches based on data and server migration are prohibitively time-consuming and complex, IT organizations are often forced to choose between over-provisioning to assure service levels and tolerating sub-optimal service levels in order to improve storage and processor utilization. However, when 3PAR Dynamic Optimization is used in conjunction with VMware ESX Server, this difficult choice is no longer necessary.

With the integration of the 3PAR InServ with VMware ESX Server, customers benefit in the following ways:

Ability to respond swiftly to changing business needs: both data and processing service levels can be changed dynamically—online and non-disruptively—with 3PAR Dynamic Optimization and VMware VMotion.
Pay only for what is used: capacity is consumed only as the application writes data with 3PAR Thin Provisioning. Server resources are granularly provisioned from a virtual processing pool with VMware ESX Server. Overall server and storage resource utilization rates are improved many-fold. Capacity utilization approaches 100% versus 25% with traditional "fat provisioning." Processing utilization approaches 80% versus just the 5% to 15% commonly found with underutilized servers.
Rapid server provisioning: ESX Server and associated applications can now be provisioned instantly and on-demand to the appropriate servers from a golden image on the 3PAR InServ using 3PAR Virtual Copy. This eliminates time-intensive manual steps such as loading and configuring software on each server.

"Seattle University currently has five VMware ESX servers with over 40 virtualized servers, all running on the 3PAR SAN-based disk array. Everything "just works" the way it is supposed to. This includes advanced VMware ESX functionality such as VMotion which means we can migrate a running virtual machine to a different physical server connected to the same SAN without service interruption," said Jason Hernandez, Director of Network Services at Seattle University.

"The VMware virtualization capabilities, such as the ability to quickly instantiate new virtual servers when needed, help us respond to customer requests in a more timely fashion. The 3PAR virtualization capabilities make the disk array both simple to manage and automatically maintain the high performance of the array. Performance, availability, and support have been excellent from both 3PAR and VMware," added Charles Gentry, Unix Architect and Systems Manager with Seattle University.

"ESG is seeing rapid adoption of VMware in companies of all sizes and industries," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "Additionally, customers are embracing 3PAR in mission-critical environments because of its utility storage, thin provisioning, and Enterprise-class features and reliability. These two solutions together bring a great deal of utility computing and consolidation value to customers and represent an evolution from traditional approaches."

"3PAR is focused on delivering the simplest, most efficient storage platform for the utility data center," said David Scott, President and CEO of 3PAR. "Where organizations are considering server virtualization or blade servers to improve server utilization and simplify management, 3PAR is the answer for storage."

The 3PAR InServ Storage Server is on the VMware qualified HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) with VMware ESX Server versions 2.5.1 and 2.5.2. The integration of the 3PAR InServ Storage Server and 3PAR Dynamic Optimization with VMware ESX Server and VMotion is available today. The 3PAR InServ Storage Server with 3PAR Dynamic Optimization is priced below $100,000 for an entry configuration.

About 3PAR
3PAR® (NYSE Arca: PAR) is the leading global provider of utility storage, a category of highly virtualized, tightly-clustered, and dynamically-tiered storage arrays built for utility computing. Organizations use utility computing to build cost-effective virtualized IT infrastructures for flexible workload consolidation. 3PAR Utility Storage gives customers an alternative to traditional arrays by delivering resilient infrastructure with increased agility at a lower total cost to meet their rapidly changing business needs. As a pioneer of thin provisioning — a green technology developed to address storage underutilization and inefficiencies — 3PAR offers products designed to minimize power consumption and promote environmental responsibility. With 3PAR, customers have reduced the costs of allocated storage capacity, administration, and SAN infrastructure while increasing adaptability and resiliency. 3PAR Utility Storage is built to meet the demands of open systems consolidation, integrated data lifecycle management, and performance-intensive applications.