Hitachi Data Systems claims it is the first to achieve compatibility with VMware Site Recovery Manager, supporting heterogeneous virtualised storage.

Following tests with VMware, Hitachi has created a Storage Replication Adapter - a software plug-in device.

The vendor claims it provides replication and automatic failover capabilities to ensure data protection and disaster recovery for VMware environments.

According to Simon Elisha, Hitachi’s chief technologist, the benefits for resellers mean "people can have a software for simpler disaster recovery and they can test it regularly."

“Channel organisations can bring new options and solutions to customers that may use legacy storage hardware, and are looking for a more robust and reliable disaster recovery plan,” he said.

“This is part of a wider discussion around DR readiness and overall infrastructure resilience. By using Hitachi technology, the customer has the most flexibility when deploying storage to support VMWare environments,” he added.

Elisha claims the offering is unique because due to the virtualisation capabilities of Hitachi storage, both Hitachi and 3rd-party storage can be managed using a single adapter with a single replication tool.

“This enables simplicity in the environment as well as re-use of existing storage assets. For example, a customer may want to replicate from Melbourne to Sydney, but their older storage arrays may not have this capability.

“By using Hitachi storage virtualisation, Hitachi Universal Replicator and the new Storage Replication Adapter, all storage in the environment can be replicated long distance and integrated under the one management framework with complete VMWare integration,” said Elisha.