Quantum unveils Xcellis high-performance workflow storage solution

Geoff Stedman discusses benefits of Xcellis

For customers in highly data-intensive fields such as video production, intelligence, surveillance and technical applications (e.g., genomics, medical imaging, oil and gas exploration), meeting business and mission objectives depends on the ability to derive value from their digital assets. However, a key challenge has been storing and managing this data in a way that cost-effectively meets performance and access needs in an end-to-end workflow. While scale-out NAS products have enabled organisations to leverage their IP infrastructure, these offerings have been unable to keep up with the greater performance and scalability demands generated by increasingly larger data files and higher content resolutions. Xcellis overcomes these limitations and delivers a comprehensive solution that automates and simplifies data management, providing a unique combination of converged architecture, continuous scalability and unified access in a single system.

Converged architecture

At the heart of the new solution is the new Xcellis Workflow Director, a converged compute, network and file system controller that tightly integrates and streamlines the functionality of a StorNext environment. The Workflow Director:

·        Consolidates multiple components into a single system, simplifying the overall storage architecture, operation, management and access for third-party applications.

·        Controls file system metadata and client access for SAN, Distributed LAN Client (DLC) and NAS connectivity (DLC is a connectivity option developed by Quantum).

·        Supports hosted applications that benefit from direct file access.

·        Enables users to take advantage of automated storage tiering.

Continuous scalability

Xcellis delivers significant enhancements in capacity and scalability for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness:

·        It nearly doubles the number of files that StorNext can handle — to 10 billion files total, with 1.4 billion files under management.

·        Users can start with a small system and smoothly scale to the largest possible system without having to replace original hardware or take the system down, thereby protecting past investments.

·        Utilising Quantum’s QXS disk storage arrays, Xcellis provides higher capacity and bandwidth that can scale independently.

In short, unlike scale-out NAS offerings, Xcellis enables organisations to scale their storage continuously with consistent, deterministic performance as more users access data, pay only for whatever capacity or performance they require and avoid the need for extra compute power.

Unified access

Xcellis provides built-in unified access to data, including:

·        High-performing Fibre Channel SAN connectivity.

·        DLC connectivity for “better-than-Ethernet” performance over Ethernet.

·        Direct NAS connectivity.

Xcellis supports every phase of the workflow with the most appropriate connection to match the performance requirements of users. While more performance-focused clients will benefit from the high-speed SAN connectivity, less data-intensive operations can be completed via NAS connections over Ethernet. Xcellis ties all of these elements together and simplifies shared access through a single namespace, regardless of the number of file systems, allowing each user to access the needed files at a level of performance appropriate to the job. In addition, because DLC and NAS connectivity are separately licensable options, users pay only for the base unit and the type of connectivity they want.