by Justin Braun, Microsoft Product Specialist — November 5, 2008

Compellent is participating in the Microsoft Failover Cluster Configuration Program (FCCP), which is a vendor partnership program that promotes validated hardware configurations for use with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering. Instead of having to search Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List and select individual components that have been tested, simply select a solution that we've validated through the Failover Cluster Configuration Program.

As we validate different failover cluster configurations, we'll post them on our Qualifications and Validations page.

by Bob Fine, Director of Product Marketing — October 14, 2008

This week at SNW we announced a new business continuity automation feature we’re working on here at Compellent: Live Volume. Live Volume provides coordinated access to data stored on Compellent SANs – and it doesn’t matter where the data is actually housed or how far the sites are from each other. We believe this new technology will complete the server virtualization story by enabling storage to automatically follow the application wherever it is migrated.

Since Live Volume is fully automated, the setup is a simple process. In a virtual server environment, you configure VMs and map volumes for replication, and then you migrate virtual servers using an OS virtualization platform. (Compellent doesn’t require host-based agents or third-party software to support the virtualization platforms.) Following setup, Live Volume provides continuous data connectivity and automatically handles storage migration and connection optimization – all with no changes to the original applications.

Live Volume detects when the application has moved to another server located at the same site or to a different site and, if needed, automatically swaps the data access from the primary to secondary SAN. Here’s a screen capture of the beta version of the Live Volume GUI, which shows the storage migration underway. In the screen shot you can see Live Volume (shown with some development codenames) in the process of swapping the roles for two SANs. The Primary SAN (#908) is becoming Secondary while the Secondary SAN (#909) is becoming Primary. In normal operation, this will happen automatically when a major topology change has occurred, requiring no user intervention and a minimum amount of time.



We think the Live Volume technology fills a large void in the virtualization world and addresses the promise of the virtual data center: that data is available regardless of its physical location. Our development continues at a fast pace and Live Volume will evolve and improve as we work closely with early access customers and partners. Their feedback on operation, user interface options and best practice usage will all combine to a great launch of this product in Q2 2009. Stay tuned to this site over the next few months for more updates from industry voices, and to learn more about our technology innovations.

by Lawrence E. Aszmann, Chief Technology Officer — September 11, 2008

Two of Compellent’s key technologies – Data Progression and Replays – have recently been accepted for patents.

I’m excited to tell you that as of the patents’ issue dates, July 8^th and July 22^nd, we are the only company with these proprietary technologies. We have many other patents pending.

You can read the full patents, in all their legalistic language, at the US Patent and Trademark Office site, but for those of you who aren’t lawyers, here’s what they mean:

Data Progression Patent

Our Dynamic Block Architecture is the foundation for everything Compellent does and is the key to the way blocks of data are metatagged and manipulated. Unlike legacy storage systems, Compellent manages data inside the volume, and DBA enables all the features that Compellent offers in one SAN – and competitors can’t – like Data Progression (automated tiered storage), Dynamic Capacity (thin provisioning), Fast Track, Free Space Recovery and other storage management applications.

The patented Data Progression software takes a problem—information lifecycle management—that can’t be solved well manually, and automates storage tiering. Simply, Data Progression moves unused (or rarely used) data to lower-cost, more energy-efficient storage. Because you aren’t using the data anyway, it’s there, it can be easily retrieved, but it isn’t eating up your IT budget. When the data is used again, it automatically moves back to a higher tier, to eliminate latency.

The key advantages of Data Progression are cost, footprint and energy savings. In a recent test, 146 GB were stored on RAID-10 volumes, versus 1 TB stored on RAID-5 SATA drives. The terabyte of data, although much greater in quantity, used just 8% the cost, 8% the footprint and 6% of the energy. This translates into real savings.

The configuration of Data Progression is now optimized in the latest version of Storage Center, version 4.1. We’ve incorporated best practices for tiering storage, and have applied recommended parameters automatically to volumes, which will make it easier to get the benefits of automated tiered storage right out of the box. If customization is needed you can create profiles and apply that same tiered setting for one volume, a group of them, or all volumes--for instance, you can create a unique tiered setting for all digital images.

Here are some screen shots of the old and new interface for comparison.

Data Progression Interface – Storage Center 4.0

Data Progression Interface – Storage Center 4.1.x
1. Default, optimized setting: No configuration needed, all active data written to RAID 10, Replays written to RAID 5 for all volumes

2. Creating Customized Automated Tiered Storage Profile

Data Instant Replay Patent

Our patented Data Instant Replay technology enables continuous snapshots but does it in a way that’s more efficient – we only copy changed data, not full clones of entire volumes. This makes it easier to replicate data over IP networks, using Remote Instant Replays, for a relatively inexpensive disaster recovery solution.

Storage Center 4.1 now makes it possible to automatically migrate Replays within a single tier. This means you can dynamically migrate Replays between RAID volumes – e.g. from RAID 10 to RAID 5—within one tier of storage.

Compellent improves storage performance by creating practical and innovative ways of managing your active and inactive data. We want to hear from you. What are the greatest challenges to you in terms of managing your storage? How are you tiering storage today?

by Lawrence E. Aszmann, Chief Technology Officer — September 3, 2008

With the average businesses’ data doubling every 18 months, and that data becoming increasingly valuable, having a reliable and fast disaster recovery plan is more critical than ever. Compellent partners Fordway, Foresight Computer, Winslow Technology, and Davenport Group discuss the importance of disaster recovery to end-users and customers Ares Management, Munder Capital Management and London Borough of Hillingdon tell us why, as Mike Dufek of Munder Capital Management explains, “I put my investments… where my data’s at, because that’s the most important thing to me.” Mike is also quoted, along with our customers Tidewater and OfficeWare, in a news release we issued today describing the different applications and benefits of our thin replication technology.



Want to see more videos? Compellent’s now on YouTube. Check it out.

by Stephen Anderson, Director of Alliance Marketing — April 29, 2008

The talk surrounding Interop today is about how much larger the show is than last year. The show is hot and exhibitors and attendees have grown considerably; a testament to the continued importance of driving storage and networking efficiencies in the data center. Compellent is no exception to the trend. We made our show debut today inside the Riverbed Pavilion.

Many are flocking to the show seeking innovations to help them make the most of their resources. Today our team in the booth will be telling attendees how the combination of Compellent and Riverbed can help them optimize their disaster recovery plan, even in the face of shrinking budgets.Compellent’s thin replication and Riverbed’s WAN acceleration has made remote replication a reality for mid-sized businesses by allowing them to save thousands each month replicating over low-cost IP lines without impacting performance.

As recent joint tests show, Riverbed Steelhead Appliances can improve copy time by as much as 87% when using a 100Mb/s WAN link—talk about making the most of your storage and network resources. The plug-and-play integration between Riverbed and Compellent can be up and running in about 15 minutes. If you are unable to make it to Interop this year, you can hear how Rudolph Technologies combined Compellent and Riverbed to do just that at our upcoming webinar.