The explosion of digital content is forcing an evolution, making the traditional data center model of a single standardized Network Attached Storage (NAS) system a thing of the past. Today, data centers are forced to use multiple NAS types to meet the variety of data storage challenges they face. For most organizations this means data migration, as they continually add new NAS systems to accommodate exploding growth of unstructured data.
If the storage systems can’t be unified then IT at least needs the “view” of storage to be unified, across platforms and locations, in order to effectively manage data as it moves through its lifecycle. They also need to ensure that data is protected and available to users across the organization. StorageX by Data Dynamics is a single software platform that can address these demands and make migration between NAS systems less painful.
StorageX 7.5
StorageX is an out-of-band software-based storage management solution that’s designed for ‘file-lifecycle management’, providing data mobility between storage silos, across the enterprise and into the cloud. It’s the ‘glue’ that binds these environments together, allowing for seamless migration to new NAS systems as they are acquired. In addition, it supports activities like DFS management, replication for data protection and disaster recovery, NAS consolidation, data life cycle management and data movement between physical locations.
The StorageX 7.5 system is comprised of StorageX Server, Console and Database modules, plus StorageX Replication agents, which do the data movement. All modules run on Windows physical servers or VMs and the Replication modules also run on Linux. Projects are managed from the StorageX Console, which provides a wizard-driven experience for creating and maintaining migration policies and jobs, plus creating volumes, shares and exports across protocols and platforms. StorageX supports NAS devices from EMC VNX and Isilon OneFS, NetApp Data ONTAP, Windows and Linux. It can also support stand-alone CIFS and NFS file stores.
Simplified Data Migration
Storage system upgrades can make life difficult for IT. Complex migration projects, often including hundreds of manual steps, are typically required to move data from legacy storage to new systems or to support a platform refresh. Often, the scope of these migrations can even postpone the project itself. According to the company, StorageX can provide the data mobility needed to simplify the entire migration process, reducing the number of manual tasks, the time consumed and the risks.
Folder-Level Information Lifecycle Management
StorageX can also help keep files on the right storage systems, without disrupting the users’ access to those files, potentially eliminating the migration process altogether. With it, users can archive a folder to a teir-2 or tier-3 NAS without having to update metadata for each user, ensuring that users would still be able to access these files seamlessly. This means that a company could easily add a new NAS to their infrastructure and the StorageX solution would handle the management and placement of files automatically. It can also optimize storage resources, moving the most active data to the new, higher performing NAS and archive older, less active files on the legacy platforms.
StorageSwiss Take
Unstructured data is out of control and many organizations don’t have the luxury of starting with a clean slate. They have to incrementally add NAS systems as they have the time to implement and the budget to afford that investment. This incremental upgrade can lead to a storage management nightmare. StorageX allows these disparate NAS solutions to be managed from a single global file system view that enables seamless data migration, folder level lifecycle management and improved data protection.
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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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