Quantum StorNext Software Architecture and H4000 Series Line of StorNext Appliances

Quantum Corporation announced a StorNext architecture and line of StorNext appliances that simplify how organizations manage, store and protect their video content, imagery, and business critical data.

The H4000 Series of appliances combines the latest hardware technology with the company’s signature StorNext software, a fast file system for video workloads. This offering is based on a simplified and converged architecture that accelerates time to value, reduces power and cooling costs, eliminates networking complexity, and makes it easier to deploy StorNext for edge processing, remote production, and in the core data center.

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“IDC’s forecast for global data creation and replication shows a CAGR of 23% over the 2020-2025 forecast period,” said Matt Leib, research director, infrastructure systems, platforms and technologies group, IDC. “With this type of data growth, customers across a wide range of applications need simplified and consolidated architectures such as StorNext to store more data in less space and at lower costs.“

In addition to improvements in networking complexity and IT administration, the solution introduces reductions in space and energy consumption – a critical need as unstructured data sprawl challenges organizations of all sizes. By consolidating multiple components onto a single appliance, StorNext 7 software on the H4000 Series delivers a 66% reduction in components over traditional data center installments. This efficiency reduces needed rack space by 50%, reducing power and cooling costs, and conserving physical space.

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“As a long-time StorNext user, I am excited to have access to a new architecture that eliminates major roadblocks for us, such as server complexity, rack space, and energy costs,” said Kevin Bass, chief engineer, Rock Paper Scissors/A52/Elastic. “The compact design makes it an ideal solution for our LA and New York studios, where space and power are big considerations.“

StorNext 7 advancements simplify administration
In conjunction with the H4000 Series platform, the company continues to enhance its StorNext File System software to provide the best user experience. The latest StorNext 7 innovations introduce user-focused interfaces and capabilities to make administration easy-even from remote locations.

These include:

• File system monitoring using web services

• StorNext File System cluster monitoring and management

• System performance charting and graphing

• Enhanced alerting, log management and health monitoring capabilities for hardware components such as the server enclosures and drive health

All of these advancements build on the ongoing investment the company is making in ease of use and distributed multi-site management, building on capabilities like the firm’s Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA) software and the new user interface design first introduced in StorNext 7.

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“Organizations that manage large amounts of data have long valued StorNext for its industry-leading performance and data management capabilities,” said Ed Fiore, GM, primary storage, Quantum. “With this new architecture, we’ve made it easy for any organization to leverage StorNext to improve collaboration, accelerate their workflows or production pipelines, and manage their unstructured data from ingest through archive – without the need to deploy a storage network. Finally, this new architecture unlocks the future potential to run certified applications like the Quantum CatDV media asset management software on the same server, which will further simplify media workflows and other use cases.“

The H4000 Series is available to purchase, with first customer shipments planned for end of May.