Microsoft is expanding its storage workloads portfolio with the StorSimple Virtual Array.
The StorSimple product is designed to work with IT environments in satellite offices and can run on either VMware or Hyper-V. The company has made it so that it can be configured as network-attached storage or as a storage area network.
The company said that its StorSimple Virtual Array will be able to deliver integrated primary storage, data protection, archiving, and disaster recovery capabilities.
This is one of the products that come from the software maker StorSimple, which was acquired in 2012.
The product is aimed at small environments where there is minimal IT infrastructure and management, said the Microsoft.
Mike Neil, corporate VP, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise unit, said: "With the StorSimple Virtual Array, customers no longer need to centralize data protection and disaster recovery at the main data center."
Storage management is handled by StorSimple Manage, which is designed to provide a centralised view of the Virtual Array deployments.
In addition to the product release, the company has also updated the StorSimple 8000 series of hybrid cloud storage arrays.
The enhancement adds local volumes capability, so primary storage can be stored within the local tier of the 8000 series physical array or the Virtual Array.
The benefit of this is that data doesn’t need to be tiered to Azure, which provides the necessary performance required by applications that cannot tolerate cloud latencies.
Updates to the StorSimple Cloud Appliance have also been rolled out. The update adds support for solid-state drives, with the idea that higher storage performance can be provided.
