A modern storage architecture?

Based on a re-architected high-performance engine, Quantum’s StorNext 5 metadata appliances take management of unstructured data to a new level. Greater flexibility and usability gives users the choice of the best topology for their needs by providing optimised support for IP, NAS, SAN, and cloud-based networks. The new StorNext 5 appliances deliver up to 10 times greater performance and five times the scalability of previous StorNext versions and are optimised for evolving end-to-end content and data workflows where distributed teams need greater efficiency for handling large and small unstructured data files. Additionally, StorNext 5 provides an intelligent framework for unified management of flash, disk, tape and object storage technologies from a single interface.

With over two decades of experience in managing assets in many of the world’s most demanding content management environments, Quantum has continued to provide new StorNext innovations and helped address how modern workflows are changing the way organisations collect, share and store their data. Today, content and data captured from multiple video, image and sensor sources are 100 percent digital and stored with the objective to repurpose or analyse it for future monetisation or scientific research. Project teams are globally distributed and must access files that may vary in size, which can range from large video streams for broadcasting to smaller data files for metadata or analytics. Network topologies are also evolving to where cloud, NAS and/or SAN environments are viable options for a scale-out digital workflow.

Built from the ground up to effectively and efficiently address the needs of complex digital workflows, Quantum’s StorNext 5 appliances include:

· High-Performance for Large and Small Unstructured Data Files
– Up to 10x faster performance throughout the StorNext 5 platform while supporting a greater number of users and files through highly efficient cache management and
CPU utilisation.
– 100 percent improvement in small file performance expands applications for StorNext 5 to include more compute-intensive environments, such as financial analytics and high-performance computing (HPC), where fast file creation and deletion speeds for files as small as 4K are essential.

· Uncompromised Scalability
– 5x increase in scalability, with up to five billion files shared in a single StorNext 5
File System.
– Metadata scales to petabytes with no slowdown as data grows and ages.
– Automatic tuning for application and file size, providing independent scaling and capacity management benefits.

· Flexibility to Match User Needs
– Expanded storage architectures, including SSD optimisation and native InfiniBand support to enable the use of low latency applications such as HPC and analytics.
– Built to optimise advanced technologies used in multi-tier, nearline storage and long-term archiving environments – for example by enabling maximum throughput performance for Quantum’s Lattus™ object storage and providing native support for LTFS. Moving beyond SAN to include user and application connectivity for IP (NAS) and HTTP/REST, in addition to Fibre Channel (SAN), this topology-agnostic approach allows data to be transferred in StorNext 5 at the full speed of the protocol.

· Modern Architecture with a Long-Term View
– Designed to maintain consistent performance for growing long-term archives with a scalable and finely tuned infrastructure.
– Seamless non-disruptive software updates and a framework for intelligent reporting
and management.
– Multi-core, multi-processor and multi-threading awareness for highest throughput and lowest CPU utilisation.