Isilon Automates Clustered Storage Management

The first-of-its-kind package enables large enterprises to maximize the efficiency of their storage resources while providing instant access to all tiers of digital content, Isilon says.

Clustered storage software maker Isilon Systems, known for helping power such Web 2.0 companies as MySpace.com, on March 5 unveiled the data storage industrys first software application that enables automated data migration between multiple tiers of clustered storage.

MigrationIQ, the latest addition to Isilons standard suite of intelligent clustered storage software applications, provides large enterprises with the ability to migrate digital content and unstructured data between high-performance, Tier 1 storage to high-capacity, Tier 2 nearline archive storage.

"A few companies do intelligent clustered storage, but nobody is automating the data flow between multiple tiers of storage as we do," Isilon co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Sujal Patel told eWEEK.

Clustered storage is the linking of multiple storage servers to form a redundant ring of storage devices. Clustered storage systems typically perform multiple read and write requests through parallel access lines to the requesting computer.

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This new software package provides users and applications with instant access to always-online digital content, Patel said.

"This is a fourth-generation technology based on four years of work in the market. Some of the larger companies in this space—NetApp, EMC, HP with PolyServe—are looking at clustered storage somewhat, but nobody else does this above the systems layer as we do," Patel said.

Read more here about how Isilon Systems helped MySpace.com deal with the pressures of expansion.

Isilons clustered storage systems are all powered by Isilons customized OneFS operating system, based on FreeBSD, Patel said. They provide enterprises with tailored, "pay as you grow" storage packages, enabling enterprises to meet requirements for both high-performance, Tier 1 storage and high-capacity, nearline, Tier 2 storage, he said.

"Multi-tiered, disk-based storage has become a required storage infrastructure component, enabling enterprises to ensure easy and instant access to rapidly growing stores of data, regardless of the datas current stage in its life cycle," said Steve Broadhead, founder and director of Broadband Testing Laboratories, which has analyzed the Isilon systems.

"In our testing of MigrationIQ, we have proven Isilons new software application to be an extremely intelligent, flexible and cost-effective package for managing tiered storage requirements of enterprises and believe that MigrationIQ will pay for itself many times over within a very short space of time and therefore has to be recommended to Isilon IQ customers."

Patel said Austin Radiological Association, E Networks, Kodak Gallery of Kodak Imaging Network, and Sony Pictures Imageworks are among the Isilon customers that have been testing MigrationIQ.

Seattle-based Isilon, founded in 2001, went public in 2006 and has about 300 customers worldwide, Patel said. Most of the customers are large enterprises in the entertainment, oil and gas exploration, Internet services, government, manufacturing, and life sciences fields.

Isilons MigrationIQ software application integrates with all of Isilons IQ line of clustered storage systems and is immediately available, Patel said. Pricing is done on an individual basis; see the company Web site for more details.

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