DDN WOS Object Storage Updated

Managing vast amounts of data within IT and business systems has always been a challenge. But with the rise of cloud, social media, mobile devices, sensor generated data and other technologies, organizations are now struggling to deal with an explosion in information known as unstructured data.

To solve this unstructured data challenge, DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN) is introducing a major update to its flexible object storage platform that supports the entire data life cycle across multiple geographies, simply and efficiently. 

With the launch of the DDN WOS 360 solution, customers can deploy a versatile object storage with flexible access choices through the WOS Connect development program. Whether they operate in one or multiple data centers around the globe, organizations that require high performance or archive storage will now benefit from the efficient, easy-to-manage and scalable benefits of object storage.
 
News Facts

• DDN announced an update to its WOS object storage platform, adding next-generation software features and capabilities that now make WOS a complete and versatile object storage platform.
• The shift to object-based storage is accelerating quickly as a means of solving today’s unstructured storage challenges. According to the February 11, 2014 Gartner report on the Critical Capabilities for Object Storage, “The explosion in unstructured data, which is growing at 40 to 60% on a yearly basis in most enterprises, has catapulted object storage as an inexpensive, scalable, self-healing, multitenant platform for storing petabytes of data.”
• Available, the WOS 360 full-spectrum object storage update enables users to build a reliable, infinitely-scalable and efficient storage pool for all their unstructured data needs. The WOS 360 update redefines the architecture of scale-out storage infrastructures through a set of new data protection, archive, collaboration and distribution capabilities designed to meet the five key object storage requirements of customers today: scalability, accessibility, efficiency, reliability and performance.
• With the WOS 360, a single object storage platform can support the complete lifecycle of unstructured data. It’s easier or more cost-effective for users to tune storage and data protections options to meet the requirements of any data set, in any location and with any storage architecture as IT needs change.
• New scale-out advancements in the WOS 360 update include Global ObjectAssure which builds on DDN’s existing data protection schemes and provides customers with the broadest data protection capabilities available.
• Scale out options can now leverage single data center, multiple data center for data protection and data sharing, as well as long-term retention archive storage with the introduction of the new WOS Archive Node hardware option.
• In addition to these software and hardware platform updates, the company is also accelerating the growth of its partner ecosystem with a new application integration program called WOS Connect. This partner development program enables integration and compatibility testing with WOS technology, as end users and application providers integrate object storage into their environments.  

Large Scale Applications Require Scale-Out Storage Repositories

• Data intensive applications require a new approach to storage that addresses the five key requirements customers consider when defining the architecture of their scale-out storage infrastructures: scalability, accessibility, efficiency, reliability and performance.
• While traditional tiered storage architectures reduce the overall TCO of storing data, for large scale environments where multiple locations, data types or applications may coexist in a single infrastructure, this paradigm is increasingly impractical, prompting users to consider less complex and more efficient alternatives to the file system approach.
• WOS 360 addresses these challenges as a platform that is enabled through an underlying NoFS (No File System) architecture. Unlike most object storage platforms which still have a POSIX file system layer on the disk level, WOS technology was designed as a true object storage platform, with a flat, single layer address structure where objects are stored in a contiguous group of blocks so that disk operations are minimized, performance is maximized and disks are used at full capacity.

Range of Data Protection Schemes Provides Users
With Choice and Flexibility to Adapt to Changing Business Needs

• With preservation, retention and deletion of data a critical requirement, WOS 360 offers a broad range of object storage protection schemes, ranging from smart replication to the company’s ObjectAssure erasure coding offerings. Unlike traditional dispersed erasure encoding techniques that limit the choice in number of sites or data protection levels, WOS technology is the only platform that provides local, replicated and globally distributed erasure coding, affording customers full flexibility to select the protection scheme that best meets their needs. Data protection mechanisms are policy-based and can be set up as granularly as per object.
• With the latest WOS update, the company introduces Global ObjectAssure, a new kind of distributed erasure coding, designed for multi-site deployments where customers require very low-cost infrastructures for very large data sets. Global ObjectAssure, with local and global data protection capabilities, is designed for use cases in which low network overhead and high levels of data durability are key decision criteria.
• In addition to the new Global ObjectAssure capability, DDN continues to offer the following data protection schemes within WOS technology:
  •  Replication – allows for high level of performance and data durability, and is typically implemented in content delivery and data collaboration scenarios where speed of access outweighs the increased cost of storing multiple complete copies of the data.
  •  Local Copy ObjectAssure – reduces storage overhead while maximizing durability for single-site deployments. This schema is often used as an alternative for traditional RAID for cost-efficient storage of frequently accessed and modified data. Often, an additional copy is stored on tape.
  • Replicated ObjectAssure – offers data protection and DR by copying data to a second site. WOS object replication is WAN optimized, lowering the network overhead by up to 30 compared with traditional object storage replication strategies. This deployment scenario is typically selected for large object, multiple data center environments typically scene in web, content and cloud service environments.

WOS 360 and New Archive Nodes Lower the TCO of Scale-out, Archive Infrastructures
To meet customers’ need to lower the overall cost of storage, DDN is also introducing the new, low-cost WOS Archive Node. For organizations looking to build large scale active archives, the Archive Node in combination with Global ObjectAssure helps drive down costs of the object storage environment even further.
 
WOS Connect Partner Program Accelerates Ecosystem Build Out,
Providing Users with Increased Value

• The firm is also accelerating its partner ecosystem build out by connecting application and solution partners to deliver more value to customers. The WOS Connect program breaks the dependence on traditional file systems by enabling end users and partners to integrate with native RESTful APIs.
• WOS Connect further enables partners to deliver integrated technology solutions supported by joint sales and marketing programs. In addition, the WOS Connect onboarding program helps educate and enable partners with go-to-market training and tools.

WOS 360 is shipping in limited availability, and will be fully available by the end of March 2014.

Molly Rector, CMO, DDN, said: “As more organizations re-evaluate their storage architectures to meet the demands of modern massive scale environments, there is a rapid acceleration in the interest and deployment of object storage platforms. Some of the largest data environments in the web, cloud and research fields are DDN WOS customers. Our WOS 360 announcement today, which includes new software and the Archive Node hardware, reflects DDN’s commitment to listening to our customers’ business requirements and delivering technology to help solve their rapidly changing storage needs.”
 
Simon Robinson, research VP, storage and information management practice, 451 Research, said: “A growing number of organizations are measuring their unstructured data in terms of petabytes of capacity and trillions of files; this is a level of scale that moves beyond the capability of traditional file-based storage architectures. That a new approach is required is becoming clear, but at the same time IT managers are wary of introducing yet another silo into their storage infrastructure. Hence, those new architectures should be capable of meeting a broad range of business and information management requirements, spanning scale, efficiency, data protection and performance. With the introduction of its newest WOS solution, DDN has a software-based approach that moves past ‘one size fits all’ by recognizing that IT organizations require a flexible next-generation storage architecture that can be optimized for their own environments.”