Quantum Adds StorNext M660 Metadata Appliance

Quantum Corp. is adding a larger, more scalable metadata appliance with greater functionality to its StorNext product line.

New StorNext M660 metadata appliance is built to centrally control up to eight StorNext file systems for a total of 800 million files and to manage large-scale, fast-growing datasets, including up to petabytes of economical, tiered content archives.

By combining this extended scalability with streaming performance, it provides the power and flexibility required for data-intensive environments that span from digital media and life science research to surveillance and energy exploration.

Highlights of StorNext M660 appliance

• It increases the number and size of file systems a StorNext appliance can manage, while providing streaming client performance for faster ingest, file sharing and data analysis.
• It includes an embedded gateway function which delivers Ethernet-based access with performance improvement over traditional NFS or CIFS protocols. It is offered in two models, 1GbE and 10GbE for higher StorNext gateway performance.
• The flexibility to interoperate with heterogeneous server platforms, applications and storage is a critical factor for long-term cost-effectiveness and investment protection.
• It enables reliable and fast access to applications running on Windows, Unix, Linux and Mac platforms and interoperates with workflow environments that leverage industry-standard storage offerings.
• It provides ready-to-deploy compatibility with the  StorNext AEL for building multi-petabyte online archives. StorNext enables built-in data protection and policy-based data migration between storage tiers for secure long-term retention and disaster recovery protection.

By leveraging StorNext 4.3 software when it becomes available this summer, the StorNext M660 will increase the number of managed files supported from  400 million to 800 million per appliance.

Quantum will begin shipping the StorNext M660 appliance next month. Pricing starts at $120,000, which includes 10 StorNext File System SAN client licenses, dual nodes for high availability, dual gateways for high-speed LAN access and distributed data mover software to speed archive times.

Jason Kranitz, VP of Sales, Integrated Media Technologies, Inc., said: "Quantum’s StorNext M660 will answer the need for a higher powered, more fully featured metadata appliance for customers with large-scale operations. The media and entertainment industry faces continuous digital content growth that must be effectively managed and kept available forever. With more StorNext appliance options, customers can choose the solution that best fits their environment."

Janae Stow Lee, SVP, Filesystem and Archive, Quantum, said: "There is a fundamental shift taking place for organizations that manage workflow and archives in data-intensive environments. StorNext’s flexibility, performance and scalability enable customers to stay ahead of these market changes, leverage prior investments and continue operations. We’ve built the StorNext M660 to simplify the daunting task of managing very large scale, fast-growing datasets, so customers can focus on extracting more value from their assets or collected information."