Red Hat Storage Server Supports OpenStack

Red Hat, Inc. announced the
availability of Red
Hat Storage to help enterprise realize the potential of deploying
an open software-defined storage solution without compromising on
capabilities, performance, and manageability.

Also announced is Red Hat Storage Test Drives on AWS to give
customers a free experience with Red Hat Storage Server on AWS.

The shift in enterprise storage infrastructure has been caused by
the movement to cloud, growth of unstructured data and big data
applications. Capacity requirements have climbed from terabytes to
petabytes and enterprises need an approach to support this data
growth.

IDC has determined that the company’s approach to scale-out
storage can present a value. In a published IDC white paper,
sponsored by Red Hat, on the economics of software-based storage, it
states Red Hat open software-defined storage servers can generate up
to 52% in storage system savings and an additional 20% in operational
savings.

Version 2.1 combines the reliability and features of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.4 with the latest GlusterFS community release,
oVirt, the open source virtualization platform, and XFS file system
to deliver open software-defined storage. It is designed and tested
to meet exacting performance and scale demands for enterprise storage
workloads and lays the data foundation for cloud and big data
applications.

OpenStack Support

• Customers benefit from access to the full private cloud stack with
  Red Hat Storage Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack
  Platform that is integrated, engineered, and supported by a single
  vendor.

• Integration with the latest OpenStack release with object storage
  capabilities are accessible using the Object Storage (Swift) API
  layer in the OpenStack Grizzly release.

• Storage back-end for OpenStack’s Block Storage (Cinder) and image
  service (Glance).

• Geo-Replication performance for data protection

• Geographical replication technology enhances global data
  protection and availability by providing replication of unstructured
  data over a WAN link to a DR site to support data recovery
  objectives. Internal Red Hat testing demonstrated a 38 times increase
  in performance compared to existing versions of Red Hat Storage.

• Geo-replication also enables proactive fault handling through
  integrated monitoring and deep insight into the health of replication
  operations.

• Enhanced interoperability and security for Windows workloads

• Server Message Block 2.0 protocol compatibility, integration,
  and support for Microsoft AD and performance enhancements make Red
  Hat Storage a choice for Windows file serving, sharing, and
  enterprise ‘synch and share’ capabilities. Internal testing resulted
  in three times the performance with SMB 2.0 and enhanced AD when
  compared to SMB 1.0.

• Server management and supportability capabilities

• Red Hat Satellite integration to install, provision, and maintain
  Red Hat Storage Servers and provide a solution to enterprises
  requiring control over and privacy of the maintenance and package
  deployments.

• Updated technology preview of Red Hat Storage Console provides
  functionality and flexibility for managing the entire Red Hat Storage
  cluster lifecycle.

• Red Hat Customer Portal integration with Red Hat Storage Console
  enables customers to access support information, knowledgebase
  articles, technology briefs, videos, and other assets.

In addition, the company offers the Storage Server Administration
course to teach storage administrators and system administrators how
to install, configure, and maintain a cluster of Red Hat Storage
Servers with a focus on HA with CIFS/SMB and NFS using CTDB, unified
file and object storage and geo-replication. It also offers the
Certificate of Expertise in hybrid cloud storage which is earned by
passing a hands-on exam in these same areas.

Ranga Rangachari, VP and GM, Red Hat storage, said: "Red Hat Storage continues to work to redefine and
revolutionize the way enterprises manage their unstructured data,
while setting the open source standard for software-defined storage.
The new features in Red Hat Storage servers are designed to help
customers optimize BC service levels, drive business agility, and
further simplify and improve operational efficiency across private,
public, and open hybrid clouds."

Iain Gray, VP services, Red Hat, said: "The new Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Hybrid cloud
Storage provides a credential that validates a technology
professional’s skills and knowledge in setting up, fine-tuning and
deploying flexible, scalable and reliable software-defined storage
solutions using Red Hat Storage Server. Similar to all other Red Hat
certifications and Certificates of Expertise, technology
professionals earn this credential by passing a rigorous, hands-on
exam in which real-world skills and knowledge must be applied."

Katsumi Nagata, board director and executive director, technology
and engineering division, NTT
Plala Inc., said: "We provide a wide range of entertainment services, such
as TV channels, Video on Demand (VOD), music, and games on the cloud.
It is important for us to choose appropriate storage for each service
offering. Red Hat Storage delivers HA and scalability with low cost,
which takes advantage of GlusterFS technology. We are thus able to
build robust platforms to meet the requirements of service
providers."

Dan Bretherton, HPC manager, department of meteorology, University
of Reading, said: "My priorities are to ensure not only that the department
can store hundreds of terabytes of research data efficiently and
securely, but that good performance is maintained as the I/O load
from our growing compute cluster increases. When I started talking to
Red Hat, I received the assurances I needed that the challenges I’d
experienced with managing scale-out NAS could be solved. I also knew
I’d get the extra help I needed from Red Hat to fine-tune the product
for our academic, data-intensive HPC environment."

Jeff Echols, senior director, product marketing and business development, CommVault Systems,
Inc., said: "Red Hat’s innovative approach runs parallel to
CommVault’s Solving Forward vision to deliver a modern approach to
data management. The integration of CommVault Simpana 10 software
with Red Hat Storage server 2.1 delivers an enterprise, scale-out
backup and archive solution that increases resiliency and up-time to
the business – all from a single software platform."

John Gromala, senior director, Hyperscale server product management, Hewlett-Packard Development Company LP, said: "HP has a long history of working with Red Hat to provide
the platform infrastructure for leading, open-source based solutions
and has continued this collaboration to deliver a compelling
scale-out storage solution for big data workloads. For organizations
looking for a solution to manage growing amounts of data in a
cost-effective fashion, Red Hat Storage running on HP ProLiant SL4500
Gen8 servers offers greater scalability, high performance and volume
economics for storage of unstructured data."

Bev Crair, GM, storage division, Intel
Corporation, said: "Intel and Red Hat have a long-standing collaboration to
bring innovative open source solutions to our customers. We share a
vision for software-defined storage and its ability to enable more
scalable, automated, and cost-effective data center infrastructure.
Intel Xeon and Atomprocessor-based servers, together with Red Hat
Storage Server 2.1, provides enterprise customers with the
intelligent, agile and efficient platform required to effectively
support today’s cloud and data center workloads."

Charles Liang, president and CEO, Super Micro
Computer, Inc., said: "Supermicro’s leadership in server and storage solutions
is based on technology innovation coupled with an extraordinarily
wide selection of high performance, energy efficient, server building
block solutions. Our collaborative efforts with Red Hat extend our
platform advantages offering customers unprecedented economic
advantages with best-in-class open software-defined storage
solutions. With the launch of Red Hat Storage 2.1, our integrated,
Red Hat certified solutions address a range of new and emerging
workload needs including backup and archive, enterprise drop box,
backend video processing applications, and more."