Washington Archives Management Deploys DataCore for a High-Availability Storage Virtualization Solution to Safeguard Citrix XenServer and Maximize Business Uptime

A Shared Storage Approach from DataCore Combined with Citrix XenServer Delivers
High Availability - Thereby, Eliminating Costly, Storage Related Downtime
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(Business Wire)--
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization, business
continuity and disaster recovery software solutions, today announced that its
SANmelody software has been selected and deployed at Washington Archives
Management (WAM) to serve as a high-availability, virtualized, storage area
network (SAN) that works in conjunction with virtual servers from Citrix to
deliver the redundancy this customer was desperately seeking. Now WAM has a
fault-tolerant storage virtualization infrastructure that provides automated
failover and failback recovery in the event of a network or hardware calamity in
order to maximize business uptime. WAM is a 50-person archiving service that
stores, archives and manages paper records.

"A forward-thinking approach combined with technological advances in
virtualization has meant that our firm could avoid past failures," says Tom
Radford, System Administrator, Washington Archives Management. "And by deploying
redundancy in our network - as well as leveraging advances like automated
failover and multi-pathing, XenMotion and - above all - a software-based SAN
that delivers on the promise of virtualization, WAM has made it possible to
eliminate costly, storage related downtime."

WAM`s bread and butter is hardcopy storage. It also engages in document imaging
and X-ray digitizing. WAM archives all of these various documents offsite as
part of its service. For over two years, DataCore partner Moose Logic has
managed the whole network for WAM. "However, when a hardware failure occurred we
took that failure as an opportunity to upgrade and grow our infrastructure,"
explains Radford. "DataCore partner Moose Logic was tapped to re-architect how
our company addressed storage and did so by deploying a SAN solution from
DataCore."

A hardware failure leads to a fresh start on the storage front

"Two ESX servers had WAM`s environment virtualized onto them, but the ESX
servers had no shared storage," notes Steve Parlee, Senior Systems Consultant,
Moose Logic. "The two servers were running local, internal storage - and one had
a direct-attached drive shelf. This was not a very convenient set-up because we
could not, for example, VMotion the guests between servers in case of a
failure."

Moving the virtualized guests to the other server (in case of a hardware
failure) was difficult because there was no shared storage - no SAN was in
place, which is necessary to "motion" the virtual guests. As fate would have it,
the firm did experience one ESX server failure and therefore was forced to run
on only one ESX server. Without redundancy in the network, if any other
component had failed, Washington Archives Management would have been "out of
business" until it was fixed.

WAM considered two options. The firm could either go back to where it had been
with the two VMware ESX servers and simply try to become more stable, or it
could do some forward-thinking and put in place a SAN that would make the
consequences of hardware failure a thing of the past. "We could have just
replaced the ESX server and stayed on the path we were - risking future hardware
failures that would yet again impact business operations," says Parlee. "The
choice Washington Archives Management made was to go with a shared storage
approach and to use DataCore as the foundation of that whole strategy."

Utilizing XenServer and shared, network storage - a "no-brainer"

Moose Logic advised WAM to deploy DataCore because it allows the firm to
replicate in real time their storage between two nodes. In addition, Moose Logic
replaced the ESX servers with Citrix XenServers. With the XenServers, Moose
Logic was able to utilize something called multi-pathing. "With muti-pathing, we
have been able to take down half of WAM`s network for maintenance - without
impacting day-to-day operations," comments Parlee.

"Because of the shared storage and the fact that the storage is virtual, WAM now
has the ability to `XenMotion` the guests back and forth between two different
pieces of hardware," continues Parlee. "The other notable capability is high
availability. If any of the Citrix XenServers were to crash, it will
automatically restart on the other server. And what makes this possible is the
back-end, shared storage."

What accounts for the storage being "virtual" lies in the fact that DataCore
enables a system administrator to take a "volume" (i.e. a piece of disk space
for storage) from each of the two SANmelody nodes and mirror them. When these
volumes are mirrored together, this creates a single "virtual volume" which is
what is then presented to the application server (e.g. XenServer, Windows
Server, etc.). By doing this, the application servers only see the one instance
of the "virtual volume," but in reality that virtual volume is tied to the
mirrored volumes. It is this key feature - inherent to SANmelody - that enables
the system to failover.

A virtualized IT environment - radically simple, high availability storage
virtualization solution

The redundant SANmelody SAN servers that are currently in operation on the
back-end are mirrored to each other using synchronous replication. "It is all
about the redundancy - the fault-tolerance for failover," explains Parlee. "We
can lose up to three components - two servers and a switch - and everything
keeps running. You see, either one of the SANmelody servers can present storage.
Only one is presenting it at any time, but if one goes down, without impacting
the environment whatsoever, the system seamlessly switches over to SANmelody
number two and just keeps right on running."

Summarizes Radford, "The bigger picture here is that technology like this has
previously been prohibitively expensive for a small to mid-size business
customer. Sure, large companies have been deploying virtual servers and virtual
SANs, but they have had to pay a huge price for doing so. DataCore`s SANmelody
enables the small business to get this kind of virtualization environment built
and to do so without paying for Fibre Channel or paying over $100,000 for the
SAN alone, which is what has made having a SAN unattainable for a large number
of customers - before DataCore paved the way."

Free 30-day trial - Try DataCore Today!

For a free 30-day test drive, please visit: www.datacore.com/trialsoftware.

About Washington Archives Management

Washington Archives Management offers a complete range of information management
services that are designed to support customers` strategic and day-to-day
operational requirements. The company focuses on providing safe, secure, and
economical storage and retrieval options for its customers. Their professional
and friendly staff utilizes the latest technological tools to optimize
customers` ability to track, archive and access records. For more information
please visit www.washingtonarchives.net.

About Moose Logic

Moose Logic is a managed services provider that designs, develops and maintains
networking systems and IT infrastructures. With over 500 systems under
management today, Moose Logic is a recognized leader serving Pacific Northwest
businesses of all sizes. Launched in 1993, Moose Logic utilizes industry leading
computing solutions, fault-tolerant business critical solutions, and
best-of-breed virtualization products. Moose Logic is a certified reseller for
Microsoft, Citrix, DataCore Software, NSI Software, Motion Computing Tablets,
Ultrabac, Marathon Technologies, Scriptlogic and Watchguard Technologies. For
more information on Moose Logic, visit www.mooselogic.com.

DataCore Software

DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software,
fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software
that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of
hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making
storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore's portable
storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and
centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS, NetWare, VMware
and other leading open system and virtual server platforms. DataCore is
privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
For more information, call (877) 780-5111 or visit www.datacore.com.

DataCore, the DataCore logo and SANmelody are trademarks or registered
trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service
names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software
Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may
be trademarks of their respective owners.

DataCore Software
Bettye Grant, 954-377-6000
publicrelations@datacore.com
or
Red Nine PR
Stuart Smith, 336-896-1874
ssmith@redninePR.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009