3PAR introduced the 3PAR Replication Adapter for VMware Site Recovery Manager. This software enables 3PAR Remote Copy, 3PAR’s remote data replication software for 3PAR InServ Storage Servers, and VMware Site Recovery Manager, a new product for disaster recovery management and automation, to provide end-to-end disaster recovery for utility computing.

VMware Site Recovery Manager is part of VMware’s suite of management and automation products for the data center. VMware Site Recovery Manager simplifies business continuity planning and testing, and reduces the risk and complexity associated with implementing disaster recovery. The combination of 3PAR Remote Copy and VMware Site Recovery Manager is designed to help customers build resilient utility computing infrastructures, protect applications at a lower cost, and recover data more quickly and efficiently compared to traditional disaster recovery offerings.

Protecting application data from disasters is critical to keeping a business running. The cost and complexity of replicating data using traditional recovery products, however, has deterred some customers from implementing disaster recovery altogether. Remote Copy cost-effectively protects and shares data from any application, made possible in part through thin copy technology. Because Remote Copy is thin provisioning-aware, it allows customers to replicate only written — not allocated — capacity. It is also easy to set up and maintain. This simplicity eliminates prolonged and costly professional services engagements or the need for protocol extenders or converters. With Remote Copy the traditional complexity of remote application recovery and backup is virtually eliminated as a barrier to disaster protection.

The new replication solution builds on 3PAR Remote Copy, which is deployed in many VMware environments. Working closely with VMware, 3PAR Replication Adapter was developed for VMware Site Recovery Manager to provide integrated virtual infrastructure and disaster recovery management, including data replication between 3PAR InServ Storage Servers with 3PAR Remote Copy.

The combined benefits of VMware Site Recovery Manager and 3PAR Remote Copy include:
 

• Simplified Disaster Recovery: Enables users to replace independent storage and server disaster recovery processes with a single automated process and centralized interface, ensuring rapid and reliable recovery. This is complemented by the ease and simplicity with which 3PAR Remote Copy is set up and tested, with just a few commands, eliminating the usual need for professional services. Together, VMware and 3PAR ensure that recovery time and recovery point objectives are met simply and predictably.
• Flexibility of Replication: With VMware Site Recovery Manager, organizations can recover virtual machines on different x86 server hardware. 3PAR Remote Copy enables customers to flexibly replicate between 3PAR InServ Storage Servers of any model and between different service levels (for example, RAID level or drive type) for greater infrastructure agility.
  

"The combination of 3PAR Remote Copy and VMware Site Recovery Manager blends the unique capabilities of each company for compelling disaster recovery for VMware deployments," said Laura DuBois, IDC Research Director for Storage Software. “Customers who have stringent disaster recovery requirements yet want an automated, easy-to-use solution should evaluate this combined offering.”

“VMware Site Recovery Manager is ideal for businesses of all sizes and particularly those that have yet to implement a disaster recovery solution because of cost and complexity,” said Parag Patel, Vice President, Alliances at VMware. “3PAR Remote Copy complements VMware Site Recovery Manager to offer these customers an effective, affordable way to protect against disasters and enable their businesses to keep running.”

3PAR is a 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 providing 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.