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Permabit Technology, which specializes in highly scalable, tiered storage appliances for large enterprises, Aug. 10 introduced a new version of its software/hardware package aimed specifically at cloud storage providers.
The new Permabit Cloud Solution’s base configurations can handle up to a whopping 144TB of raw disk capacity and are “tuned” for use by cloud storage service providers with additional management features, Permabit CEO Tom Cook told eWEEK.
Cloud storage serves up data storage capacity from one or more data center locations over a grid to users on an on-demand, subscription basis. This general kind of storage cloud-for example, services provided online by Amazon S3, Google Apps and Mozy.com-is known as a public cloud because any business or individual can subscribe.
Permabit’s provisioning software automatically adapts to administrative changes as storage nodes are added, redistributing data across the storage grid in chunks as the system expands. Up to 32 grids (or about 4.6PB of total raw capacity) can be managed from a central Web-based console, Cook said.
“We’ve added a number of management layers, particularly around performance management-and we’ve also changed the processor allocation [for Internet service providers],” Cook told eWEEK.
“Permabit systems are deployed as a grid, so typically, access points have a single quad-core processor in the enterprise. But in the cloud space, we’ve found that having extra cores is extremely valuable.”
Historically, it has been challenging for service providers to be experts in both hosted services and data storage, Cook said.
“Permabit has developed storage solutions since our inception that were designed to meet the needs of service providers,” Cook said.
Built-in inline next-generation data deduplication-what Permabit calls Dedupe 2.0-and compression improve the system’s effective storage capacity, Cook said.
Other key features of the Permabit Cloud Solution include:
- Continuous availability: The grid architecture allows for seamless storage growth without ever having to take the system offline or interrupt user access, the company said.
- Security: Multitenancy capabilities provide the ability to host thousands of customers’ data securely within a single solution.
- High performance: New Model 4012 access nodes achieve faster performance by utilizing two high-performance Intel Xeon quad-core processors.
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