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Object storage provider Caringo is doing for big data storage convergence what Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and EMC/VMware are doing for servers.
The Austin, Texas-based appliance maker on Feb. 16 launched a new data center device called Swarm 8, a storage platform that combines data protection, management, organization and a search engine and is designed for massive data sets. With it, users ostensibly won’t have to use point products for long-term preservation, delivery and analysis.
Swarm 8 installs on any mix of standard x86-based arrays and runs in random access memory (RAM), like a server. Unlike file system-based storage, it maximizes disk efficiency; Caringo claims it utilizes up to 95 percent of drive capacity for content.
In an industry in which 30 percent to 40 percent usage of storage capacities is common, this is a revolutionary claim.
The combination of such an effective use of the data store plus running the system on RAM enables Swarm 8 to deploy data analytics that result in insight fast and at scale, the company said.
Swarm is the only object storage solution to offer adaptive power conservation technology, compliance features like WORM and Legal Hold, and the ability to seamlessly shift between protection methods—all automatically enforced by policies, Caringo said.
Key functions include the following:
- Insight at massive scale: Gain robust insight and view relationships between objects through ad hoc search and query of object attributes or custom metadata. Results can be viewed via the new Swarm Portal or Caringo’s comprehensive API, or exported to JSON or XML. All searches are dynamic and can be saved as collections for reuse.
- Rapid file use case development: Object versioning and object renaming dramatically reduce the development effort of integration with file system-based applications and interfaces.
- All-inclusive, no-surprises pricing: Swarm 8 comes standard with all functionality enabled. This includes unique Swarm features, such as Darkive adaptive power conservation, all compliance features, HDFS, all multitenancy features (for public/private/hybrid cloud) and NoSQL-like search.
- Flexible deployment to meet any operational business requirements: Swarm 8 is available as software to run in its own data center, as a service in any of the Microsoft Azure globally distributed data centers, or as a fully managed service within BT’s or Telefonica’s globally distributed data centers.
Additionally, Swarm features integration into enterprise applications such as Veritas Enterprise Vault, Commvault Simpana, and compute/orchestration platforms such as OpenStack, Spark and Hadoop. Search results can be seamlessly accessed via Kibana for visual analysis and discovery.
Swarm 8 is available now. Go here for additional information.