Symantec Rolls Out ApplicationHA & VirtualStore to Virtualize Business Critical Applications

August 23, 2010

Symantec ApplicationHA and Symantec VirtualStore provides customers the ability to confidently virtualize business critical applications and minimize storage costs on the VMware platform. ApplicationHA and VirtualStore are the result of extensive collaboration between Symantec and VMware, as the companies work closely to help customers accelerate the adoption of virtualization to mainstream applications.

Symantec ApplicationHA, based on Veritas Cluster Server technology, will provide high availability for business critical applications through application level visibility and control in VMware environments. Symantec VirtualStore, based on Veritas Storage Foundation technology, is a software-based storage management solution for VMware virtual machines that will provide rapid provisioning of servers and virtual desktops, efficient cloning and accelerated boot up of virtual machines. Both ApplicationHA and VirtualStore are seamlessly integrated with VMware management tools such as VMware vCenter Server, enabling customers to deploy these tools without impact to their operational model.

Customers have been aggressively virtualizing non-critical applications, and now that they are starting to move business critical applications like SAP and MS SQL Server databases to virtual platforms, they require high availability of the applications inside VMware virtual machines. Symantec ApplicationHA, for the first time, will ensure application high availability by providing visibility, control and integration with VMware vCenter Server and VMware High Availability (HA).

Symantec ApplicationHA:

Administrators can fully manage all operations of Symantec ApplicationHA through VMware vCenter Server, avoiding the need for additional tools and associated training. Deep discovery and auto-configuration allows administrators to easily install, configure and administer Symantec ApplicationHA with a few clicks.

Built on the industry-leading Veritas Cluster Server technology, ApplicationHA supports a wide range of applications including MS SQL Server, Exchange, IIS, Oracle and SAP. It provides consistent functionality and usability across both Windows and Linux operating systems and is fully compatible with VMware vMotion and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).

As organizations scale their virtual environments, they find themselves challenged by the ever increasing storage requirements and performance bottlenecks that are associated with retaining hundreds or even thousands of virtual machine images on traditional hardware filers. VirtualStore will enable administrators to fully benefit from their virtualization investments with a software-based NAS solution that scales servers and storage independently, efficiently provisions virtual machines, and delivers advanced storage optimization capabilities for VMware environments.

Like ApplicationHA, VirtualStore fully integrates with VMware vCenter Server. Based on Symantec’s Veritas Storage Foundation technology, VirtualStore can:

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments can also be managed more efficiently. VirtualStore’s ‘FileSnap’ feature lets administrators easily and rapidly clone and provision thousands of virtual machines in minutes through its VMware vCenter Server integration. Through innovative page caching, VirtualStore also eliminates the performance bottlenecks created when multiple users boot up their virtual machines (‘Bootstorm’).