Whatever the nature of your SME, there'll come a time when you need to enter the world of shared storage.

At its most basic, shared storage is any storage system used by multiple users and computers across a team or company. It's a bit like exchanging a locker room for one giant locker – but without sacrificing the safety of anyone's gym kit.

Shared storage can save you both time and money. Instead of backing up on multiple hard drives, you have one centralised copy of your data. This copy is far easier to index and organise than its multi-disc alternative.

In practical terms, this means that if you need to send somebody a file, you won't waste precious time rummaging through hard drives. What's more, all your files will be up-to-date for everyone who can access them.

They say a watched pot never boils. In the digital age, you could say that a watched file never downloads. Shared storage means you're not growing old copying and sending files. It's all there in one big, safe digital warehouse.

So what's the catch? Well, shared storage hardware is pricey. As well as the initial outlay, there are maintenance costs to budget for. This expense often stops SMEs from adopting virtualisation at all.

That's where the vSphere Storage Appliance comes in. It gives you all the benefits of shared storage without you having to spend a penny on hardware.

So if you're looking for cost-effective shared storage, vSphere Storage Appliance could be just the solution for you.

How can vSphere Storage Appliance help your SME?

VMware's vSphere Storage Appliance is a piece of software that gives you all the perks of shared storage without digging the bottomless budgetary pit of hardware installation and maintenance. It's ideal for SMEs that currently lack shared storage hardware.

Its job is to make sure that your applications and data aren't vulnerable to a single point of failure. If a server goes down, it shouldn't be the end of the world – and with vSphere Storage Appliance, it's not. This software automatically fails over to another server within its cluster – so your data is safe as houses.

It does this by turning your internal hard drives into a storage resource that's both shared and protected. It protects your storage in two ways: first, through RAID protection that guards against hard disc failure and, second, through server mirroring to protect against server failure.

What this all adds up to is a storage solution that means your applications and data are still accessible even in the event of a hard drive or host failure.

It's also a piece of cake to install and configure. With just a few clicks in the VSA manager tab within vCenter, you can choose which hosts you'd like to use in your cluster. Even a shared storage newbie will find it a doddle to deploy.

It's software that gives you all the benefits of shared storage without any hardware – or any faff. Oh, and it also gives you access to advanced vSphere features – ones that are usually only available to businesses with shared storage hardware.

What advanced vSphere features does vSphere Storage Appliance unlock?

Usually, you'd need shared storage hardware to unlock these advanced vSphere features. But VSA gives you them as part of the package.

    • Migrate VMs without downtime

    • Carry out hardware maintenance during business hours

    • Automatic failover protection from hardware and OS failures

    • Fault tolerance

    • Distributed Resource Scheduler

    • Storage vMotion

    • Storage I/O Control

After all, why should these features be the preserve of large enterprises? vSphere Storage Appliance unlocks advanced functionality for small environments such as branch offices.

Is it scalable?

Yes, vSphere Storage Appliance is scalable. The amount of data held by any company is growing exponentially – and with it, the amount of storage needed. With vSphere Storage Appliance, you can simply add more hard disc drives to your cluster without having to deal with any downtime.

Is vSphere Storage Appliance just for SMEs?

Let's take as read that your SME wants to grow – and that when it does, you'll want to splash out on some state-of-the-art shared storage hardware. Does vSphere Storage Appliance mean that you're tied to one shared storage solution… forever?

Luckily for you, the answer is "no". If you do eventually invest in shared storage hardware, vSphere Storage Appliance allows you to migrate applications and data without any disruption to service.

What can I use it with?

vSphere Storage Appliance works with any edition of vCenter. You can either buy it as a standalone bit of software or as a bundle with vSphere Essentials Plus.

The bottom line

The protection offered by shared storage solutions doesn't have to be eye-wateringly expensive. VMware's vSphere Storage Appliance gives you all the protection of a traditional shared storage solution without a price tag that will make you wince – and it's as easy as pie to install and configure.

No more headaches searching for the right version of a file on multiple external hard drives. No more money frittered away on hardware maintenance – or the downtime it creates.

With vSphere Storage Appliance, you can boost your collaborative workflows with a resilient, affordable piece of kit that turns your servers into a pooled, protected resource.

Ascend Cloud Solutions is staffed by VMware experts. We provide a range of cloud computing services to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

We see it as our mission to offer tailored support that will save you time, money and hassle. And with 400 successful cloud migrations and counting, we're well placed to help you realise your ambitions.

Interested? Please don't hesitate to get in touch today.