Softbank, Xsigo Demo Solution

TOKYO -- Xsigo Systems, Inc., the technology leader in data center I/O virtualization, and SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp. (hereinafter called 'SOFTBANK TELECOM'), the fixed-line telecommunications segment of SOFTBANK group and one of Japan's largest telecommunication firms, today announced that the companies have demonstrated an automated disaster recovery solution that allows VMware virtual machines to be automatically failed over between sites which are over 500 KM apart. Built on a Wide Area Virtualization Infrastructure, the solution dramatically accelerates system recovery times, reduces the need for manual intervention, and minimizes business loss due to system downtime.

The demonstration included the automatic transfer of a complete system environment to another data center and rapid recovery from a system failure, enabled by a Wide Area Virtualization Infrastructure consisting of Xsigo VP780 I/O Directors and wide area SONET technology. The solution successfully transferred both the virtual machine environment and the virtual storage environment quickly and automatically between SOFTBANK TELECOM data centers in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan.

While redundant systems are essential for mission critical applications, the cost of creating and maintaining comprehensive disaster recovery systems remains a hurdle. Furthermore, the data recovery process remains a complex, manual procedure that may take days to complete. By virtualizing server I/O, the Xsigo I/O Director delivers a flexible server I/O infrastructure, with remote management and clustering capabilities that simplify and accelerate long-distance disaster recovery.

"Our customers know the complexity of recovering systems in a virtual machine environment. Using today's technologies, disaster recovery requires skilled engineers on-site, and may take anywhere from a few hours to several days," said Takeshi Hashimoto, senior research engineer of SOFTBANK TELECOM Laboratories. "With Xsigo virtual I/O, we demonstrated that failover can be rapid, automated, and managed remotely, capabilities that have been difficult to achieve with existing solutions."

Xsigo Systems Inc.