The expandable Verde disk solution provides raw storage capacities from 48 TB to 7.1 petabytes. Designed for a variety of workloads, a single Verde NAS solution supports three disk drive types, including 4-TB, 8-TB, and 12-TB enterprise drives; 8-TB archive drives; and high-performance SSD drives. Partnering with Spectra Logic, Komprise’s mission is to help busi- nesses handle the incoming flood of data by providing automated software that adapts to the customer’s environment and scales across their storage silos on premise and cloud storage. The Komprise data- aware management software empowers businesses to manage today’s massive scale of data growth while unlocking data value. Komprise analyzes data across network file systems (NFS) and server message block/common internet file system (SMB/CIFS) storage, and moves data transparently by policy across NFS, SMB/CIFS, and REST/ S3 storage (also known as object or object-based storage). The modern scale-out architecture required no agents, no dedicated hardware or storage, no complex setup or proprietary integrations, delivers native access to data in the cloud, and is delivered as a hybrid cloud service. NFS is a client/server application that lets a computer user view, and optionally store and update, files on a remote computer as though they were on the user’s own computer. The NFS protocol is one of several distributed file system standards for NAS. NFS is widely distributed to host VMWare data-stores or share network folders in a Linux/UNIX environment. SMB/CIFS storage is the standard way that computer users share files across corporate intranets and the internet. An enhanced version of the Microsoft open, cross-platform SMB protocol, CIFS is a native file- sharing protocol in Windows 2000. REST/S3 (object) storage is a computer data storage architecture that manages data as objects, as opposed to other storage architectures, such as file systems, which manage data as a file hierarchy; and block storage, which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks. Each object typically includes the data itself, a variable amount of metadata, and a globally unique identifier. Object storage can be implemented at multiple levels, including the device level (object storage device), the system level, and the interface level. In each case, object storage seeks to enable capabilities not ad- dressed by other storage architectures, such as interfaces that can be directly programmable by the application, a namespace that can span multiple instances of physical hardware, and data management func- tions, like data replication and data distribution, at object-level granu- larity. Object-storage systems allow retention of massive amounts of unstructured data. Object storage is used for purposes such as storing photos on Facebook, songs on Spotify, or files in online collaboration services such as Dropbox. LJA Engineering can now manage projects, user data, and files in a dual disk and tape network environment. The Verde NAS Solution, located in the firm’s Houston office, doubles as an ideal archive reposi- tory and a backup target with room to grow as data sets increase over
time. Data is identified by Komprise and automatically archived to the Verde NAS Solution from various storage systems, including Windows and Linux file servers. All of LJA’s offices are on a single network that allows the data that is housed in one office to be accessed by any of the other offices. This is true for data that is stored on primary storage or in the other tiers of storage, like the Spectra Verde product, for example. Each office has a Komprise Observer virtual machine (VM) loaded onto it that analyzes the data across storage that is located in their facility, and moves inac- tive data by policy to the Spectra Verde. Regardless of the location (in the same building or in another office), the data is sent over the network to the Verde, where the data is stored. With Komprise, the user experience remains unchanged, Subramanian said. Any user, accessing any file in any location, can simply click and open the file they need. The data is then pulled from either the primary storage, if that is where the data lives, or the Spectra Verde, if it has been moved to a lower-cost tier of storage. Komprise provides a single view of the organization’s data across its storage platform and makes it simple to reduce storage costs without impacting users. Primary storage offers high performance, but it is also expensive. And data stored on primary storage is often also replicated on primary storage, and protected via backup software and storage — so every terabyte of data stored is actually 3 to 5 terabytes, once man- aged, Subramanian said. More than 80 percent of this data is typically cold and not used within weeks of creation, and managing cold data on primary storage is expensive. With Komprise, organizations can easily locate the cold and inactive data and move it to the lower-cost tier of storage. This is the primary cost reduction for users, and by moving this inactive data out of the actively managed footprint, Komprise also eliminates the need to repli- cate and backup this footprint on expensive primary storage. Komprise, along with cost-efficient secondary storage such as Spectra Verde and BlackPearl products, eliminate more than 70 percent of storage costs, according to Subramanian. One other major benefit of the solution is that user experience is com- pletely unchanged; no additional training is required, no change in process, no interruption to the work being done. This is unusual for a storage solution to not only save money, but leave the current workflow and user experience unchanged, Subramanian said. “Together, the Spectra Logic and Komprise solution enables us to man- age data growth efficiently,” Kimball said.
Information provided by Spectra Logic (www.spectralogic.com) and Komprise (www.komprise.com).
26
csengineermag.com
march 2018
Made with FlippingBook Annual report