Inside From Panzura Combines Hybrid Cloud NAS Software With Flash Arrays and Hyperconverged Systems

Panzura, Inc. announced Inside, a program that enables enterprises to easily combine company’s hybrid cloud NAS software with flash arrays and hyperconverged systems to deliver performance storage for block and file workloads.

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Together, the modern hybrid cloud-based architecture eliminates the need for outdated NAS systems, reduces costs by up to 70% and unlocks the power of data by taking advantage of unlimited cloud computing for analytics, search, index, virtual desktop and other services. The Panzura Inside virtual controller is currently tested with Nimble Storage, Inc., Nutanix, Inc., Tegile Systems, Inc., and SimpliVity Corp.

With Inside, a firm’s virtual controller is deployed beside a flash array or on a hyperconverged system using SSD capacity from the array or system for caching active unstructured data. In both cases, all unstructured data in the enterprise is moved to public or private cloud storage while only the active data is cached on the virtual controller. Active data is cached automatically on the virtual controller while inactive data is moved to cloud storage where it is protected by 11 nines of durability and redundant copies in multiple datacenters. This modern cloud plus cache model with the flash array or hyperconverged system not only enables customers to eliminate the NAS or file server, but also backup, DR, replication, and archiving infrastructure and operations at each location.

“We implemented Nimble as we needed high performance for our block-based workloads and Panzura so that we could collapse all of our unstructured data into the cloud with Panzura caching active data on-premise,” said Simon Johns, director, IT, Sheppard Robson LLP. “This powerful combination gives us the best of both worlds and not only enables us to replace the gamut of systems and processes for all of that unstructured data, but also allowed our distributed teams to collaborate on technical applications like they were in the same office.“

With the success of flash arrays and hyperconverged systems, enterprises now need a complimentary solution to handle the growth of unstructured data. Unstructured data makes up 80% of all data and is growing at 60% a year. 70% of that unstructured data has not been accessed in two months and a massive 90% of unstructured has not been accessed in six months. At the same time, the shift from on-premise to cloud storage is well underway with spending on public cloud storage almost doubling between 2015 and 2017 with AWS and Azure becoming two of the top five enterprise storage providers in 2017.

With the growth in unstructured data and the rate at which it quickly becomes inactive, a different approach to manage unstructured data is required. Panzura plus hyperconverged and flash is the solution for the complete data set.

“The Nimble Storage Predictive Flash platform gives users the fastest, most reliable access to data while simplifying operations,” said Suresh Vasudevan, CEO, Nimble Storage. “Many of our over 8,500 customers are looking to hybrid cloud solutions for unstructured data. The combination of a Nimble all flash array and a Panzura virtual controller provides a solution that blends the high performance storage enterprises need for block data with hybrid cloud storage for file data. This solution eliminates the need to have both an all flash array and a traditional NAS.“

“We are excited to announce the Panzura Inside program and help customers eliminate the storage status quo of high costs and brittle, 30-year old storage architectures,” said Patrick Harr, CEO, Panzura. “With Panzura Inside and our great partners, customers can seamlessly replace their aging NetApp and EMC environments with a modern, high performance cloud-based architecture for all their workloads.“

Inside virtual controllers are available and have been tested with Nimble and Tegile flash arrays as well as with Nutanix and Simplivity hyperconverged systems.

Company’s patented software is also available on the recently announced 5000 series hybrid cloud controllers or as cloud controllers running in AWS and Azure for new cloud services including analytics, search, index and VDI-as-a-service.