Hammerspace Expands Global Data Environment to Include Data on Tape, Providing Visibility and Standards-Based File Access on Any Storage Type

Hammerspace, Inc. announced that its Global Data Environment software now incorporates data on any storage option – from flash, NAS, object, cloud and now tape.

Hammerspace Global Data Environment provides global file access
and data orchestration across multi-vendor storage environments,
including tape, cloud and multi-site
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The company provides organizations with a software-defined, high-performance parallel global file system that provides standards-based file access across any existing 3rd-party storage, coupled with automated data orchestration to place data in the optimal storage media type or geographic location to meet latency, performance and cost requirements.

Together with technology partners Grau Data GmbH, PoINT Software & Systems GmbH, and QStar Technologies, Inc., the company enables organizations to present data on tape, along with data on any other storage type, in an active global namespace via its Global Data Environment.

The expansion of the firm’s 3rd-party storage support to include tape benefits HPC, M&E, government and enterprises with large data sets stored on large tape systems to meet economic, power efficiency and ransomware protection goals. Now, such data will be accessible via the company, to enable users and applications seamless visibility and standards-based file access across silos to all their data, no matter which storage type or location it is stored. In this way, the vendor delivers the experience of high-performance local access to data that may live on any storage type, in one or multiple storage silos and locations, including on-premises and cloud storage.

When combined with the firm’s software, data on tape is always available and active, with the ability to support high-performance file access with any combination of existing or new storage platforms from any vendor without the need for proprietary clients. Benefits of the integrated tape solution include:

• Global access and control of data across all silos and locations. This increases user efficiency and reduces IT operational complexity, providing the experience of a single globally available dataset even across otherwise incompatible storage silos.

• Scalable storage for large datasets. With datasets growing to multiple petabytes, the addition of tape support enhances the ability of organizations to cost-effectively scale storage for long-term archive.

• Strengthened governance, security and compliance. Tape enables organizations to retain control over their archive data and its security by storing it ‘in-house.’ Further, the air gap characteristic of tape provides resilience vs. cyberattacks.

• Cost-effective solution. Bringing tape into an organization’s environment for specific datasets can lower operating and energy costs.

• Support for corporate ESG initiatives with ‘Green’ Storage. For organizations with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives, storing inactive data on tape helps to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint.

“IT budgets are continually pressed to create, retain, analyze and use ever-increasing capacities of unstructured data. When I founded the Active Archive Alliance nearly 15 years ago, the industry was coming together to bring tape data to applications in a standard file format instead of being buried within a proprietary format in a backup file,” said Molly Presley, SVP, global marketing, Hammerspace. “Now, with the advancements at Hammerspace, we have taken another massive step forward in putting ALL data to work in a single active global file system, delivering performance, access and collaboration to AI models, applications and users anywhere, using data, everywhere. No other solution in the industry provides organizations access to their data when and where they need it. Hammerspace delivers a massive competitive differentiator in providing data at the speed of the largest GPU compute environments from any storage silo located anywhere.”

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“By seamlessly integrating XtreemStore with Hammerspace’s advanced data orchestration capabilities, we empower organizations to effortlessly manage their entire data lifecycle. Inactive data is automatically stored and archived in the highly secure and long-lasting XtreemStore platform, accessible through the intuitive Hammerspace interface,” said David Cerf, chief data evangelist, Grau Data. “This approach eliminates the need for costly and complex management of dedicated tape libraries while delivering unparalleled efficiency and scalability. The collaboration with Hammerspace marks a significant step forward in data management, providing a transformative approach to long-term data retention that is both cost-effective and future-proof.”

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“With increasing data volumes, organizations are looking for more cost-effective alternatives to long-term data storage. PoINT Archival Gateway is a flexible S3-to-tape solution that enables the integration of a highly cost- and energy-efficient storage class into the Hammerspace software,” said Sebastian Klee, CMO, PoINT Software & Systems. “Our joint solution provides a scalable, long-term archive for growing data volumes and offers additional security and compliance.”

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“For all industries, the final resting place for data is archive storage, and for many, due to the extremely low total cost of ownership and massive scalability, organizations are choosing LTO tape libraries,” said Dave Thomson, SVP sales and marketing, QStar. “Hammerspace now has the ability to automate data orchestration through the entire data lifecycle, as QStar software makes archived data on tape quickly and easily accessible through an S3 interface/bucket. Together, we can help our current and future customers manage their data across multiple storage platforms, including tape as an active archive.”

Field CTO office hours
Hammerspace is introducing a live monthly webinar series called Field CTO Office Hours, where attendees can speak with our Field CTO team to learn more about the company’s software and use cases. The 1st episode will be on January 25 on Adding Tape to a Unified Global Data Environment. (registration required)

Register today for this Office Hours session for a live conversation on any tape-related topic of your choice. Johan Ballin, Eric Bassier and Floyd Christofferson, Hammerspace, will also cover how to:

• Enable global access and control of data across different storage silos and locations.

• Scale both high-performance and cost-effective storage in a single parallel global file system.

• Strengthen governance, security and compliance initiatives.

• Simplify support of corporate ESG Initiatives with ‘green’ storage.

Resources:
Blog: Hammerspace Now Supports Data On Tape
eBook: Unstructured Data Management for Dummies, Hammerspace Special Edition (registration required)
Hammerspace Technology
Solution brief: Hammerspace and XtreemStore (Grau Data)
Solution brief: PoINT Software & Systems and Hammerspace
Solution brief: QStar Technologies and Hammerspace