Quantum: StorNext 6 Scale-Out File System

Quantum Corp. announced availability of StorNext 6, a release of the company’s StorNext scale-out file system.

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It delivers a combination of new data management features for on-premise, hybrid cloud and public cloud environments and streaming performance. StorNext 6 is shipping with the company’s Xcellis workflow storage solutions, enabling users to overcome the limitations of traditional NAS systems in keeping up with the demands of large, rapidly growing data-intensive workloads and driving business value from that data. This latest StorNext release provides more efficient and cost-effective ways to share and access files across geographically distributed teams, to manage and protect archived data, and to audit changes to data throughout its lifecycle.

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Multi-site file replication and sharing for easier collaboration
One of the challenges in highly data-intensive environments, such as genomics, academic research, video surveillance and government security, is enabling dispersed teams to work together using a common data set for creative, analytical or other purposes.

StorNext 6 addresses this challenge with two new features,
FlexSync and FlexSpace:

• FlexSync provides a fast, flexible and simple way to synchronize data between multiple StorNext-based systems in a highly manageable and automated fashion. It supports one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one file replication scenarios and can be configured to operate at almost any level: specific files, specific folders or entire file systems.

• FlexSpace allows multiple instances of StorNext – and geographically distributed teams – to share a single storage repository and easily access the same data set. To reduce costs, the shared repository avoids maintaining duplicate copies of data at each site while providing access to all users, in any location, at any time. It supports both public and private cloud storage that uses the S3 protocol, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud as well as Quantum’s Lattus object storage and third-party object storage such as NetApp StorageGRID, IBM Cleversafe and Scality RING.

Enhanced StorNext-client functionality for agility
Performance file storage users may have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of clients accessing a system at any time, which can hinder workflows and create other inefficiencies. To address this problem, StorNext 6 includes a new QoS for optimizing performance across all client workstations, and on a machine-by-machine basis, to align with business priorities.

Users can:

• Allocate more bandwidth to individual workstations for more demanding applications involving urgent projects.

• Set parameters so that less time-sensitive activities do not consume an unnecessary amount of bandwidth.

• Make adjustments quickly as priorities change.

StorNext 6 also enables client platforms to browse archive directories that contain offline files – which can number in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions – without having to retrieve the entire directory. As a result, this feature streamlines the archive retrieval process, enabling users to get the files they need more quickly.

File copy expiration for increased ROI and file auditing for deeper insights
As the foundation for a single, integrated solution that can span a single namespace across flash, spinning disk, object storage, tape and the cloud, StorNext has long reduced overall storage costs through tiering. StorNext 6 adds:

• A new copy expiration feature, enabling automated removal of file copies from more expensive storage tiers, thereby freeing up space and increasing the overall ROI.

• The ability to track changes in files across the data lifecycle and report who changed a file, when the changes were made, what was changed and whether and to where a file was moved – all of which provides administrators with file management granularity and insight into usage patterns and helps support compliance requirements.

StorNext 6 is shipping with all newly purchased Xcellis appliances and is available at no additional cost to current Xcellis users running StorNext 5 under existing support contracts.

Molly Presley, VP, global marketing, Quantum, said: “As we talk to customers, it’s clear that traditional NAS and general-purpose, scale-out storage offerings often can’t meet the performance and parallel workload demands resulting from the rapid growth of large unstructured data volumes. In contrast, our StorNext 6-based Xcellis workflow storage solutions provide an unparalleled combination of high performance and advanced data management that enables users in highly data-intensive environments to achieve their business and mission objectives more efficiently and cost-effectively.“

Resources:
StorNext 6
Xcellis scale-out storage