As part of vSphere 5.0 release VMware also announced the vSphere Storage Appliance 1.0 (VSA). The VSA allows customers to utilise the local disks within their ESXi hosts to provision a shared storage environment without an expensive SAN. So lets have a look at the top benefits of VSA to SMBs:
- 99.99% availability without shared storage hardware
- World Class datacentre capabilities for small environments such as HA, DRS & vMotion
- Simple deployment in minutes
- Supports up to 64TB of local storage on each ESXi host
So the VSA is a major foot in the door for VMware at SMBs who simply don't have the budget for shared storage but want to utilise the enterprise features that vSphere 5.0 can provide. The majority of SMBs have either adopted or are looking at adopting Server Virtualization and by 2012 it is estimated that over 75% will have Server Virtualization in wide use. One of the main reasons for SMBs adopting Server Virtualization is due to the increase in importance surrounding Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. Gartner estimate that Disaster Recovery will represent the largest area of IT investment for SMBs over the next two years.
After installing and configuring VSA and completing a vMotion of a Virtual Machine from local storage to local storage I can confirm that as per VMware's claim it is easier than setting up a wireless router!
For more information on VSA go to the VMware Website or if you have any queries feel free to get in contact with me via wbush@virtualvizion.com
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