Updated Version of Isilon OneFS Scale-Out NAS OS

At EMC World, EMC Corp. announced the next version of its Isilon OneFS scale-out NAS operating system, code named Mavericks. 

File-based, unstructured data represents the fastest-growing component of today’s enterprise data centers. To better support customers as they address the associated issues, this upcoming version of OneFS will incorporate new levels of data protection, security, system performance and interoperability. Mavericks is being designed to enable enterprises to extend the scalability and efficiency of EMC Isilon storage systems to a range of enterprise applications and infrastructure environments.

Isilon scale-out NAS solutions have set the standard for addressing the challenges of managing large, growing file-based and unstructured data environments for organizations in data-intensive industries including media and entertainment, life sciences and energy exploration. Mavericks is designed to extend those advantages to mainstream enterprises now contending with the challenges of managing their own growing unstructured data across large-scale home directories, files shares, archives, virtualization and business analytics.

In addition the ability to provide massively scalable, efficient storage that is simple to manage, Mavericks will incorporate new data protection and security tools and increased levels of performance and interoperability that enterprises can use to gain a competitive edge while meeting essential large-scale corporate IT requirements.

New Enterprise Customer Benefits:

• Security – Mavericks will bring enterprise enhancements for regulatory compliance, ensuring absolute retention and protection of business critical data-including the stringent SEC 17a-4 requirements. Roles-based administration with Mavericks will create a strict separation between storage administration and file system access, improving security by preventing malicious or accidental change. Authentication zones will enable the creation of secure, isolated storage pools that allow IT departments to consolidate for increased operating efficiency without compromising organizational security.
• Availability – Mavericks, with the scale-out enterprise replication technology, will simplify and accelerate DR and BC at scale with integrated, push-button failover and failback capabilities, reducing both RPO and RTO for mission critical applications. It will also provide near-immediate restoration of snapshot backups to recover critical files in the event of error or attack.
• Performance – To support demanding applications and workloads across the enterprise, Isilon NAS platform will deliver more than 100 gigabytes per second of system throughput and remains the record holder with 1.6 million SpecSFS2008 CIFS operations per second. Mavericks will increase overall throughput by 25%, improving performance for large-scale enterprise applications. In addition, Isilon will provide an improved caching capability to reduce average latency by 50% for I/O intensive applications.
• Interoperability – With OneFS Mavericks, Isilon will enhance integration with VMware by leveraging VMware’s VAAI and VASA APIs to accelerate and simplify scale-out NAS for virtualization. Mavericks will also incorporate a new platform API to provide third-party ISVs and enterprise IT with a more robust automation and control interface to OneFS. These new levels of interoperability enable enterprises to leverage their large data assets with more flexibility, with a range of applications and workloads, and across a more diverse IT infrastructure environment.

Benjamin Woo, program VP, WW Storage System, IDC, said: "A major factor that sets Isilon apart in this era of big data is its interoperability with a wide array of applications delivered through a range of industry standard protocols. Isilon recently enhanced this capability to include native integration with Hadoop. With OneFS Mavericks, Isilon is again raising the bar on interoperability with enhanced integration with VMware and a new platform API that provides additional options to enterprises to integrate and manage Isilon storage systems with third-party applications. With its expanded security features, including SEC 17a-4 compliance, OneFS Mavericks is addressing another vital need of enterprise customers. Innovations like these strongly position Isilon scale-out NAS to help enterprises successfully address the challenges of big data."

Terri McClure, senior analyst, ESG, said: "The two worlds of big data and enterprise IT are converging, creating new opportunities for enterprises to develop new products and services and accelerate the growth of their businesses. To achieve this, enterprises need a highly scalable infrastructure that provides both the capacity and performance to keep pace with ever-growing business demands. EMC Isilon pioneered the delivery of scale-out NAS to address these needs. With OneFS Mavericks, Isilon is building on that leadership by providing increased levels of data protection and performance to meet the still emerging business requirements in this new world of big data in the enterprise."

Sujal Patel, co-founder and president, EMC Isilon, said: "Big data has penetrated the enterprise and brought with it enormous opportunities to transform business. It also has introduced challenges, often times eroding operational efficiency and threatening data security and the performance of business processes. Isilon’s scale-out NAS is the clear choice for enterprise customers looking to protect, share and manage sensitive data as they scale to petabytes. Increasingly, enterprises will need to consider scale-out storage for its ability to simplify management and accelerate access to their storage in the pursuit of new opportunities."

Availability
EMC Isilon OneFS Mavericks will be available for customers later this year.