Quantum Takes Data Management to Another Level

As the amount of data that needs to be managed continues to spiral out of control, IT organization are looking for more efficient storage architecture that allow them to not only eliminate redundant data, but also optimize the storage of that data based on its relevancy.

Quantum’s StorNext software already includes a policy engine that allows administrators to assign data to different classes of storage devices based on the importance of that data to the business, said Chris Duffy, StorNext product marketing manager. StorNext 4.0 adds deduplication at the file system level, replication that extends the data management software capabilities to remote sites, and a new XML-based management console.

A key benefit of deduplicating data at the file system level, says Duffy, is that redundant data doesn’t need to be physically stored in the first place, which serves to reduce overall storage costs.

Quantum’s StorNext software represents an implementation of information lifecycle management (ILM) using a Distributed Data Mover (DDM) capability where, rather than relying on administrators to physically assign data to a particular location, the policy engine assigns the data based on parameters defined by the administrator. If requests for certain type of data increase, DDM will then automatically move that data up to a Tier 1 storage array, said Duffy.

That data is then made accessible to all the servers on the network, as opposed to assigning subsets of data storage to specific servers. Using this approach, Duffy says Quantum has essentially created an approach to storage virtualization where the intelligence for managing access to data resides on the storage system.

Available next month, the two basic components of the StorNext system are a file system that is tightly coupled storage manager components.