SAN JOSE — May 9, 2012 — Today at the STA (www.scsita.org) Technology Showcase event co-located with the May T10 Standards meeting, a newly innovated Windows offloaded data transfer (ODX) technology was exhibited by Microsoft, Dell, HP, IBM and NetApp. Windows ODX enables the host system to interact with the storage arrays to perform data movement without consuming computer network bandwidth or host CPU cycles. By putting the storage array in charge of the data transfer, the server is left to perform other tasks. Microsoft and storage array partners have cooperated to develop a new T10 standard that specifies the range of blocks to be moved at the file level. This is a completely new way of doing data block movement within and between storage arrays. This capability is now available in Windows Server 2012 Beta and ODX capable storage arrays.
“Microsoft is leading innovation and product development in enterprise storage systems,” said Steve Olsson, Principal Lead Program Manager, Storage and File Systems at Microsoft. “Continuous work with our partners to deliver critical features such as Windows Offloaded Data Transfer, Thin Provisioning and Storage Management infrastructure for storage systems reaffirms Microsoft’s commitment to storage technology and innovation for our customers.”
“As a result of our continued, collaborative relationship with Microsoft and the T10 SCSI standards committee, Dell today can demonstrate ODX capabilities that further expand our innovation on intelligent storage technologies with Dell EqualLogic arrays,” said Laz Vekiarides, executive director, Dell EqualLogic software engineering. “As Dell continues its commitment as a leader in driving new storage innovations, we see our investment in ODX as an opportunity to support our customers with this new enabler for advanced virtualization and cloud technologies.”
“Companies are looking to increase IT agility to deal with unpredictable cloud workloads,” said Steve Crimi, Director, Storage Solutions and Alliances, HP. “HP and Microsoft’s collaboration on Windows Offloaded Data Transfer converges server and storage technologies, including HP 3PAR Storage, so clients can quickly and non-disruptively adjust to new requirements and drive end-user productivity.”
Santosh Rao, Technical Director, NetApp said “Working together, NetApp and Microsoft are focused on innovating to bring differentiated solutions that offer outstanding efficiency and flexibility to customers who rely on Microsoft to run their business. With ODX support for Windows Server 2012, customers can leverage industry leading data management capabilities of NetApp storage systems to provide Windows users and applications a high performing and efficient data mobility experience with minimal utilization of server and network resources. Along with the broader set of Thin Provisioning and Storage Management capabilities supported for Windows Server 2012, NetApp looks forward to providing these innovative capabilities to our joint customers.”
Storage industry leaders together to deliver enterprise storage features
Windows ODX is a joint effort in between Microsoft and storage array partners. At today’s announcement, Dell, HP, IBM and NetApp demonstrated ODX data transfer features with Windows Server 2012 Beta OS. The demonstrations run on a physical system or virtual machines (VM). ODX technology showcases rapid VM deployment and high-performance copy offload among ODX capable physical arrays, SMB shared disks, and virtual hard disks (VHD). The ODX feature delivers high performance data transfer, efficient CPU/Network bandwidth consumption and flexible data transfer path design. Microsoft and its storage partners are committed to continuous enterprise storage innovation and delivering the most productive and reliable storage solutions to Windows customers.