Cloudian Looks To Deliver Performance of NAS at Cost of Tape With HyperFile NAS Controller

The new object-based storage solution offers 70% in cost saving vs. traditional NAS

With an eye toward filling the gap between enterprise-class network-attached storage (NAS) and tape for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, Cloudian is launching Cloudian HyperFile, an integrated NAS controller that delivers SMB/NFS file services from on-premises Cloudian HyperStore object-based storage systems. Cloudian HyperFile provides all the features essential to enterprise NAS customers, making it suitable for mission-critical, capacity-intensive applications that require file data. According to Cloudian, HyperFile will allow large-scale sports-content creators limitless scalability at a 70% lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared with traditional NAS systems.

Cloudian HyperFile integrated NAS controller provides limitless scalability to sports-content creators.

“This is truly a new storage model for capacity-intensive applications: the functionality of NAS at the cost of tape,” says Jon Toor, chief marketing officer, Cloudian. “Obviously, sports[-content creators] have the prototypical capacity-intensive applications because they’re all collecting and managing very high-density and very high-resolution footage. This gives them another alternative to store that media and then make it immediately accessible in a way that is fast, scalable, and affordable.”

Cloudian HyperFile incorporates all NAS features essential for mission-critical applications, including snapshot, WORM, non-disruptive failover, scale-out performance, POSIX compliance, and Active Directory integration. When combined with the limitless scalability of Cloudian HyperStore enterprise storage, organizations gain new on-premises options for managing the deluge of unstructured data, now growing at over 50% annually.

Big Cost Savings for Big Enterprise Operations
Pricing for complete Cloudian HyperFile storage solutions, including on-premises disk-based storage, starts at less than 0.5¢ per gigabyte per month, representing a saving of more than 70% vs. traditional enterprise NAS. According to analysts, the typical annual TCO for enterprise storage is 13¢ per gigabyte per month, of which 48% is the system cost, or approximately 6¢ per gigabyte per month.

“[HyperFile] is really well-suited for the M&E marketplace because it truly fills that gap between traditional enterprise NAS, which is fast but expensive, and tape, which is lower in cost but has very long access time and lots of maintenance costs,” says Toor. “This is less than a third of the cost of the enterprise NAS, but it’s orders of magnitude faster than tape. So you can access large files in milliseconds as opposed to waiting minutes in the tape environment. For intensive applications, this is a godsend because now you have access to all that data at a cost point similar to tape but orders of magnitude faster.”

Data Migration Engine for Seamless Implementation
To simplify implementation, Cloudian HyperFile incorporates a policy-based data-migration engine that transfers files to Cloudian from existing NAS systems or from proprietary systems, such as EMC Centera. IT managers select the attributes for files to be migrated, and the data movement proceeds as a background task with no service interruption.

“We know that a lot of [M&E organizations] are already using enterprise NAS in their workflows, such as NetApp, EMC Isilon, or Qumulo. [HyperFile] provides a feature set and functionality that will slide right into that same spot in the workflow,” Toor explains. “It provides the same capabilities in terms of the protocol access and functionality they are used to with NAS. It will talk to the same applications and provide the same management flexibility but with a third of the cost and a lot more scalability.”

Cloudian HyperFile is available as an appliance or as a virtual machine. It is deployed as a node within a Cloudian cluster and comprises active-passive nodes for rapid failover, fully redundant hardware for high availability, and integrated caching for performance.

“Business leaders and IT professionals today face a tsunami of unstructured data, in both file and object formats, all of which must be stored, managed, protected, and analyzed. The key to success is to simplify and consolidate on-premises data management,” says Cloudian CEO Michael Tso. “Cloudian HyperFile completes the picture by letting organizations combine all unstructured data types in a single, infinitely scalable pool that is standards-based and highly cost-effective.”

Pricing and Availability
Two software versions, HyperFile Basic and HyperFile Enterprise, allow customers to select the required functionality. A HyperFile Basic software license is included with Cloudian HyperStore at no additional charge and covers multi-protocol support, high-availability support, a rich management-feature set.

Cloudian HyperFile is available now from Cloudian and its reseller partners. Pricing for complete on-premises, appliance-based solutions, begins at 0.5¢ per gigabyte per month.

In addition to M&E, Cloudian HyperFile is targeted at such markets as home directory, workgroup collaboration, medical imaging, engineering files, legal documents, financial records, and video surveillance data.