The void that Microsoft created when removing Drive Extender from Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials appears to have inspired a number of developers to step up and create innovative storage management solutions for the Colorado platform. Last week, the buzz surrounded two forthcoming contenders – StableBit DrivePool and Drive Bender. A third option, from storage virtualization specialist DataCore is also looking like an interesting prospect.
The sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted a holding page on DataCore’s website, which was published alongside Microsoft’s announcement of the Windows Home Server 2011 Release Candidate. There’s not a lot of detail over there regarding DataCore’s plans for a new storage management solution for Colorado so we were delighted when the company’s Vice President of Alliances & Business Development, Carlos Carreras, got in touch to tell us more.
Set to launch in Q2 2011, and distributed on OEM servers (initially), the company are seeking to cherry pick storage pooling and data protection features from their existing applications for Windows Home Server as well as advanced features such as disaster recovery and thin provisioning for SBS 2011 Essentials.
Whilst those plans are still being developed, Carreras stressed that the company was keen to hear from the community with feedback now on the storage features you want in Windows Home Server 2011 & SBS 2011 Essentials and to keep that conversation going after the solution, and subsequent releases are issued. Make sure you leave your comments for them below.
WGS: Can you tell us briefly about the DataCore business – what are your specialities, products and typical customers?
Carlos Carreras: DataCore has been in the storage business for over 13 years … which is a long time in this industry. We were founded by a team of engineers who had deep experience in managing storage environments for large enterprises – in this case, aerospace firms. They were frustrated by the typical approach to storage, that locks you into big expensive hardware. They felt there had to be a better approach – one that would provide flexibility and manageability … and give power to the user or administrator, as opposed to leaving it all in the hands of the hardware vendor. What they came on was the idea of abstracting the storage layer from the hardware and running the storage controller environment as a piece of software – built on the Windows platform.
Fast forward to today: That process – of abstracting the software layer from the underlying hardware for performance and cost efficiencies – is what we call virtualization. That’s what we do: we virtualize storage. By doing that you get the familiar benefits of virtualization: High availability, fastest performance, maximum utilization of existing hardware. In doing so, we like to say we’ve given the power in managing storage back to the user.
Over the years, we’ve had many customers who have seen the benefits of virtualizing storage. We currently have over 6,000 customers worldwide, ranging from small to very large, in all major industries and geographies.
WGS: You’re planning to use your expertise in business storage to support Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. What products, apps or services can we expect to see from you for these platforms?
CC: When Microsoft approached us about their plans to remove Drive Extender, we carefully considered the situation. We arrived at the conclusion that the needs of home and small business users are not significantly different at a high level than those of large enterprise datacenters: They want storage that is available, secure, reliable, flexible, easily accessible and cost-effective. That gave us a great place to start – taking select key features from our flagship product and making them available to current Microsoft WHS and SBS users today. And then looking down the road to migrate in additional features from our existing products … or new ones as we develop them. That model – of being able to leverage an existing set of features as well as the experience and proven capabilities – made tremendous sense to Microsoft for their WHS and SBS user communities, and to DataCore as well.
WGS: Are you planning to support consumers and small business customers with the same set of services – or different propositions for each?
CC: Our goal is to leverage our existing technology presented through the corresponding user interface for WHS and SBS. One of the consistent themes that we’ve heard from the user community is to keep it simple and make it intuitive to manage, protect and access data. There will be some differences in the features that are presented to the different user types, as an example, we’re considering introducing a disaster recovery option for remote replication between SBS servers.
WGS: With the removal of Drive Extender part way through WHS 2011′s development, the storage proposition is far weaker than in the current generation of the product. What aspects of Drive Extender could your technologies replace – or are you considering a different approach to storage management?
CC: What we’ve talked about with Microsoft is our ability to do more than replace Drive Extender. We’re looking to bring a new approach and a new set of capabilities to Microsoft’s products – much the same way we have been bringing storage virtualization value to Windows Server-based datacenters over the years. While we’ll definitely provide some of the basic functionality that DE users depend on, such as drive pooling and basic data protection – we now have the ability to bring to the WHS/SBS user much, much more. We’re already looking at building in DataCore’s thin provisioning and mirroring capabilities – new, advanced technologies that support significant functionality — as foundation technologies that will enable us to introduce a series of future enhancements. You’ll hear more from us on that point as our plans develop.
WGS: What other features are you seeking to deliver?
CC: Stay tuned! We’re just starting to look at all the advanced features we can leverage, such as our block-level snapshot functionality, to determine the value they can bring to the WHS/SBS user. We still need to work with Microsoft and the user community to prioritize needs and get feedback, but we’re excited about the possibilities.
WGS: Managing storage, especially advanced storage solutions, can be complex – how easy will your offerings be to manage for average consumers?
CC: Managing storage IS complex – which is why we’ve spent years fine tuning our approach, making it simple, and always listening to our customers. That gives us experience and insight that is unique in this business. We’ve always been known among our customers as making a complex task manageable. By expanding our focus into the home and small business community we’re looking forward to taking our intuitive tools to yet another level. Critically important, we’re focused on making things as easy as possible and on keeping things simple. For example, for WHS this means that you’ll be able to access the DataCore functionality by clicking on a tab within the WHS management console. You won’t have to launch an entirely new application.
WGS: Are you planning to distribute your services as standalone offerings for people to purchase and install, or will they be pre-installed in OEM systems?
Our initial plans are to distribute our solution through WHS OEMs.
WGS: When are you seeking to ship your services, given a 1H 2011 launch for Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows SBS Essentials 2011?
We’re targeting to release a solution for WHS in Q2 and look forward to feedback from the community as we progress. You can reach us directly at whs@datacore.com and we will post additional information at http://www.datacore.com/Solutions/storage-virtualization-and-virtual-server-desktop/Microsoft/homeserver.aspx as it becomes available.
As plans develop over at DataCore, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with what’s happening. In the meantime, don’t forget to leave your thoughts and ideas for DataCore on the storage features you want to see e in Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials.
