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Merging Data Storage Silos – A Storage Switzerland Chalk Talk

Blog
September 21, 2017

At VMworld 2017, Storage Switzerland’s George Crump and Nexsan’s Founder and CTO, Gary Watson met for a “Chalk Talk” about the complexities of managing multiple storage systems and how these silos can be merged into a new, different kind of storage.

Some of the typical data storage silos include NAS, block (SAN), archive, data protection and mobility.  NAS is typically used for file sharing or NFS with VMware while block manages databases and VMDKs among other applications.  Today archive organizations are primarily using archive for regulatory and compliance, but archive is also utilized for storage optimization to lower storage costs by moving data off their expensive Tier 1 storage.  Data protection is a hot topic these days with ransomware hitting all-time highs. But it’s not just ransomware that can cause data loss as bit rot (also known as silent data corruption) is a real threat for stored data and it may not show up until years later when you really need that data.  Mobility and storage that makes the data readily available has become more relevant as employees need to work from anywhere.  One of the challenges is when employees start putting corporate data in a public cloud service so it’s easily accessible to them, but not tracked or accessible to the company any longer, putting the company at risk.

So, how do we address these five data storage silos and merge them into a single storage solution?  Nexsan’s UnityTM goes beyond just the NAS and SAN protocols that are commonly available.  Unity’s unified storage includes integrated iOS, Android, and desktop apps for built-in mobility support so users have access to files when and where they need them and with a much easier way to work remotely.  This mobility is secured with Active Directory and gives users direct access to the files versus a second copy or a second site which must be managed.  One authoritative copy can be maintained.A multi-site sync capability allows corporations to easily synchronize selected data to various offices delivering data to the users much faster than typical cloud solutions.

The secure archive client that is included with Unity gives organizations the opportunity to utilize the Unity Active Archive (UAA) to meet the archiving and data protection needs as well. Integration with UAA delivers a secure hardened archive designed to meet the most stringent government and regulatory requirements, as well as protect against all kinds of malware, including ransomware. 

So, do you give up performance when you merge these silos all into one system?  The answer is no.  If you want to use spinning disk (HDD), we have incorporated FASTierTM that utilizes SSDs and caching to accelerate the I/O and provide the high performance where it’s needed.  All-flash configurations are optimized to meet demanding applications with performance up to 500K IOPS at a very cost effective street price.

Nexsan Unity is a single system that merges five potential silos of data (NAS, SAN, archive, data protection and mobility) into one easy-to-manage solution.  Oh, and the mobility apps, secure archive client, and the multi-site sync capabilities are all included at no additional charge.

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