HDS first past VAAI post Hitachi Data Systems says it's the first virtualised storage array vendor to fully integrate with VMware's vStorage API and relieve the hypervisor of storage grunt work. The VMware storage API is called VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration), and the intent is that ESX can offload many storage-related operations to a …
@Barry - that may very well be true for your newest boxes, but HDS is the first to certify for third-party storage across all three primitives – Full Copy, Block Zeroing, and hardware-assisted locking, or SCSI reservation lock. So now users can get the benefits of VAAI on DMX, CX3 and other arrays via VSP - essentially virtualizing 100s of existing 3rd party arrays.
This was sent to me by EMC's Rick Lacroix, Director of Public Relations ∙ Storage Products and Software:-
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A point of clarification on today's VAAI integration story. HDS isn't first.
VAAI is GA on VMAX - it was announced in January and began shipping last December, it was a major part of our announcement in London.
We also announced it on our midrange systems at EMC World last May. GA in Q3 of '10
http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2010/20100511-02.htm
There's lots of VAAI integration work happening in the industry, but the subhead on today's story is inaccurate as it relates to EMC.
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Chris.
Like so many "we are first" pronouncements HDS' announcement needs to be read quite literally. They are the first VIRTUALISED storage array vendor to implement VAAI. This does not mean that they are claiming to be the first storage array vendor though I am sure they are happy enough to let people that don't pick up on this think it might be the case.
But to be honest who other than a vendor's PR staff cares about being able to claim they were the first?
So as of the latest OS release from NetApp, DataONTAP 8.01 7-mode, they too fully support VAAI on a virtual array (V-Series). Since 8.01 7-mode was released GA a couple of weeks back, I would say that HDS may be speaking out of turn. Does anyone know details suggesting otherwise?
Dell EQ started shipping VAAI support June 2010 including data copy offload, block zeroing, and locking.
To my knowledge, EMC Clariion/VNX, Symm/VMAX, and Netapp already have it too.
A little truth in advertising would be nice. This is about as bad as EMC marketing they released 41 new products in Jan.
Gerr's response above is really stating that HDS is first of anyone who does things exactly like HDS does. Pretty late to the game in reality.
I think HDS and EMC are underestimating the intelligence of customers when they release headlines like this. Maybe an article on truth in advertising would be timely and relevant. Suggestion for you Mellor.
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