The explosion of unstructured data and the emergence of Big Data Archiving has created use cases where organizations have almost unlimited capacity requirements but still need good retrieval performance. Traditional NAS file storage can’t scale large enough and the deep archives that relied on tape libraries or ‘capacity disk’ arrays don’t have the performance. Object-based storage systems, like Cleversafe, are providing an answer.
Cleversafe leverages a scale-out architecture of storage, management nodes and access nodes to create a storage system that scales almost without limit. (“Limitless scale” is the company’s tagline.) “Slicestor” storage nodes are available in 2U and 4U form factors, providing up to 135TB of raw capacity per node. Using a unique information dispersal algorithm it distributes data objects across nodes located in a single data center or geographically distributed. Cleversafe is also available as a software solution that runs on qualified hardware or as a virtual machine.
Using a proprietary erasure coding process and tier-one data encryption Cleversafe can create a secure, redundant infrastructure. Its ability to scale efficiently (without creating multiple copies) makes it ideal for Big Data environments or internet-based businesses with very large potential capacity requirements, such as photo storage websites. Shutterfly is a Cleversafe client with over 50PB deployed and is in the process of doubling that capacity.
Cleversafe has shipped over 170PB of storage to some very large organizations in the federal space, healthcare, media and communications and internet-related industries. Their primary market is users that may have an unlimited potential for data growth but definitely not an unlimited budget to buy storage. They need very large capacity archives that can still provide the retrieval performance of online storage, not ‘next day delivery’. For many that interact with their customers over the internet, maintaining low latency in those transactions is key to keeping those customers.
Some also need storage that’s highly reliable and secure, an option that Cleversafe can support as well. Its patented AONT technology integrates encryption keys within the dispersed data objects, assuring that if data is compromised data it’s still unreadable and eliminating the need for key management in the process.
Storage Swiss Take
Object storage is a technology that’s clearly taken off in 2012. Cleversafe is a relatively small company, compared with many in this industry, but theirs is not an installed base of beta customers or “$1 over cost” non-profits that paid little or nothing to become part of the development effort. They’ve been commercially deployed since 2008 and have over 2 dozen revenue customers, most in the multiple PB range. In the object storage space they’re an established supplier.
Eric is an Analyst with Storage Switzerland and has over 25 years experience in high-technology industries. He’s held technical, management and marketing positions in the computer storage, instrumentation, digital imaging and test equipment fields. He has spent the past 15 years in the data storage field, with storage hardware manufacturers and as a national storage integrator, designing and implementing open systems storage solutions for companies in the Western United States. Eric earned degrees in electrical/computer engineering from the University of Colorado and marketing from California State University, Humboldt. He and his wife live in Colorado and have twins in college.
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