Virsto launches virtualised storage accelerator technology to channel

US start-up Virsto Software has launched its hypervisor-based storage virtualisation software in Europe as a channel offering with direct touch likely to follow later in the year.
The software intelligently manages block data on any type of storage architecture and has been validated by Microsoft using a Citrix VDI environment at its Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond.
During independent testing compared to dynamic disk access, the addition of Virsto used 30 perent less spindles and consumed 70 percent less storage. The higher performance Virsto architecture the firm claims cost 45 percent less in storage costs than a comparable implementation or a saving of more than $90,000 in the test rig. “It’s a big benefit for them [Microsoft],” explains Eric Burgener, Virsto’s VP of product management. “If you combine our software with their Hypervisor they can present a very compelling alternative to VMware, which will significantly outperform VMware.”
The software also uses built-in thin provisioning, tiers and snapshot technology to help achieve performance improvements and costs savings. The technology shines in environments with more random access and write intensive applications such as Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL and Oracle databases. “These applications don’t get virtualised very often because the virtual environment typically can’t offer the performance in these environments. With this speedup we will make it much easier to virtualise these types of applications,” explains Burgener.
The system is applicable to block-based storage and currently only supports Microsoft Hyper-V but says Burgener: “It is a hypervisor-agnostic design so we do ports for different hypervisors – in the second half of the year we will do a port for VMware.”
A Citrix version is planned for later in the year and although the software could also work on Oracle’s VirtualBox platform “it is not a focus” for the firm.
Channel model
Virsto only has “several dozen” customers at the moment and sells in a direct and indirect model in the US. In Europe, the firm has launched a single tier channel and has confirmed RealServe IT as its first partner in the UK.
 
Gregg Holzrichter, the firm’s VP of marketing believes the “formal partnering programme will make it easier for our partners to take our technology and build solutions around it.” The company has a flat rate per-host licensing model of around $2400 which makes it well suited to larger service provider models. The firm offers partners an opportunity registration programme to register deals directly into Virsto’s CRM tool for additional discounts. On the ground Virsto’s sales team is expected to land in the UK to help grow the European channel later this year and the firm will be offering 24/7 support from its US operations centre.
Holzrichter also talked about early discussions to OEM the technology to both Hypervisor and larger storage vendors to help speed up VDI that could potentially “take it off the market.”
 
Channel Pro comment:
From talking with Virsto and looking at its Microsoft-validated data, it is clear that the company has hit upon a neat niche. The fact that they are only supporting Microsoft at the moment is a limitation but the relatively low cost licensing model will encourage partners to at least “suck it and see”. It will be interesting to see if these guys are still independent a year from now. The claims of massive performance and costs savings seem too good to be true but the few case studies on the company website suggest a real innovator has emerged in the storage virtualisation space. One to watch!