As many of you have heard by now, EMC World marked yet another significant event this year as EMC launched its first software-defined storage platform based on the industry-leading VNX midrange storage technology stack. This first release of the vVNX enables users to create a virtual VNX unified storage environment on a standard VMware ESX platform, no VNX or VNXe hardware required.
New Deployment Options for Familiar Capabilities
Given the historically tight integration between the VNX operating environment and EMC’s purpose built hardware platforms, it is a mind shift to think about the uses for software that deploys on an industry standard server and virtualization platform. This flexibility for extemporaneous deployments has opened up numerous opportunities for expanding non-production capabilities such as test and development
Customer Response
Hundreds of EMC World participants attended the vVNX technical sessions at the event, anxious to meet with the development team, ask their questions and provide one-on-one feedback. Users are responding to this first of its kind VNX capability with evident enthusiasm, downloading over 2,000 copies of the vVNX software in the ten days following the announcement.
What We Hope to Learn
Our goal for this initial release of vVNX is to encourage as many users as possible to install the software on a VMware platform, experience its capabilities, and provide feedback on how they would like to see the product evolve. To that end, EMC is providing user-friendly means to obtain the software and engage the community of developers and other users.
The software-only model of vVNX provides the option for a tremendous range of potential deployment schemes, from the edge of the network to the cloud. This first release is effectively an open beta: an opportunity for users to explore the technology and provide knowledgeable input on how the product envelope can and should be expanded. At the same time, users can take advantage of the interoperability between vVNX and EMC hardware platforms such as the VNXe3200.
Accessibility and Support Resources
If you are interested in a quick introduction to the operation of vVNX, you can watch the brief demonstration video available on www.emc.com.
Users and those interested in learning more about vVNX can take advantage of the numerous resources available via www.emc.com, including:
- The VNX Product Page, where the vVNX software-define storage s found along side the VNXe and VNX storage hardware platforms;
- The vVNX EMC Store, where current EMC users and well as potential customers can find product and configuration information on EMC’s storage offerings;
- The vVNX Download Page, providing access to the free software download and registration process,
- The vVNX Support Community Page where users can participate in the vVNX forum and find comprehensive product documentation and demos.
If you decide to take advantage of this opportunity to explore the world of software-defined storage, we would love to hear from you.