Primary Data DataSphere Storage-Agnostic Virtualization Platform

Primary Data, Inc. unveiled its storage-agnostic DataSphere data virtualization platform for dynamic data mobility across different storage types, including server flash, SAN, NAS and cloud storage.

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At VMworld 2015 US, the company showcased how DataSphere unites EMC Isilon, NetApp ONTAP, Intel NVMe and Amazon S3 cloud storage under a single global dataspace.

DataSphere transforms existing storage tiers from isolated silos pinned to an application, into globally available, infinitely scalable resources that can be accessed as needed by applications. By operating out of band, DataSphere ensures this limitless scalability with no performance or application impact.

“There are $300 billion dollars of existing datacenter storage from various vendors in use around the world, and with DataSphere, the diversity of these different storage silos can finally be connected in a way that allows data to be shared seamlessly in a global dataspace,” said Lance Smith, CEO, Primary Data. “Uniting existing storage across the enterprise and the cloud on a storage agnostic platform sets the stage for companies to finally focus on managing data, rather than storage silos.“

Using industry-standard protocols, DataSphere abstracts data from underlying storage through data virtualization, which makes it possible for applications to see a single global dataspace. This enables DataSphere to give applications, servers, and clients the ability to transparently access data across flash, SANs, NAS, and private and public clouds. In addition, DataSphere features a dynamic policy engine that provides the agility for IT teams to instantly respond to new and changing Service Level Objectives. Once policies are set, DataSphere automatically places data on the resource that best meets evolving application requirements, and alerts IT when policies are at risk of noncompliance. Service Level Objectives can be changed across different storage types within the DataSphere interface.

The Primary Data VMworld demo hosted 762 million files utilizing 226TB of storage space, with objectives mapped to VM storage policies through vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA). VMs are created and assigned with storage policies, and automatic remediation of Service Level Objectives maintain policies through dynamic data mobility across various storage types. DataSphere supports offloaded VM snapshots and clones, and provides the ability to add and remove backup storage without application disruption.

DataSphere platform delivers numerous benefits
to create possibilities that enable enterprises to:

• Adapt to continually changing business objectives with intelligent data mobility

• Scale performance and capacity linearly and limitlessly with unique out of band architecture

• Reduce costs through increased resource utilization and simplified operations

• Simplify management through global and automated policies

• Accelerate upgrades of new solutions such as vSphere 6 with migration using existing infrastructure

• Reduce application downtime with automated non-disruptive movement of data

• Deliver a range of data services across all applications in the datacenter

“Even though last week’s hot data quickly becomes cold, today most data is stuck in the same storage silo where it was first created because of the complexity and cost of data migration,” said Steve Wozniak, chief scientist, Primary Data. “This can be an expensive problem that ties up storage resources. Primary Data finally makes it possible to automatically have the right data on the right storage type at the right time, without the need to rip and replace a single storage system.“

It will be available this fall as software or integrated in a virtual or dual-node, highly available hardware appliance,