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Panzura Global Cloud Storage System Version 3.0 Released

by Mark Kidd

Panzura has just announced a major update to the Panzura Operating System (PZOS) and Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller today at Interop. PZOS and the Quicksilver controller are two critical components in Panzura’s Global Cloud Storage System, which allows clients to integrate with existing infrastructures to present the cloud as local NAS backup storage. These technologies work in tandem with Panzura’s CloudFS file system to offer a globally-distributed file system, built-in enterprise security and data protection, high speed data transfer rates to and from the cloud.


Panzura has just announced a major update to the Panzura Operating System (PZOS) and Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller today at Interop. PZOS and the Quicksilver controller are two critical components in Panzura’s Global Cloud Storage System, which allows clients to integrate with existing infrastructures to present the cloud as local NAS backup storage. These technologies work in tandem with Panzura’s CloudFS file system to offer a globally-distributed file system, built-in enterprise security and data protection, high speed data transfer rates to and from the cloud.

The Panzura architecture brings together a single namespace and global file system to manage file creation, locking, storage, security and replication across all locations in real time, making the latest versions of any file visible and available to anywhere regardless of where it was created or last edited. High-performance global file locking is managed dynamically with minimal overhead, preventing data collisions and ensuring data integrity regardless of the numbers of users, file sizes, or user locations.

Panzura Global Cloud Storage System Overview

File Sharing and Project Collaboration: Panzura offers a globally-distributed, integrated file system and unified namespace; dynamic file locking to prevent simultaneous write corruption; military-grade encryption with datacenter control over the key; and extended file system access control list (ACL) support, that allow management of collaborative data by distributed teams.

Accelerated Data Transfer Rates: Comprised of a 10GbE connector and 10GbE I/O option, Quicksilver controller now moves data to and from the cloud 10x faster than competing solutions, offering global deduplication for enhanced efficiency, data management and referencing. Improved inline local and global deduplication yields capacity reduction essential for storage and network bandwidth optimization.

Intelligent Read Caching: IRC keeps a local copy of warm data for improved performance. Once full, least-recently-used files are evicted from the cache (unless pinned) to accommodate newer data. The authoritative copy is always stored in the cloud; however, IRC minimizes response times for file access even during variations in cloud connectivity.

Data Pinning: Pinning blocks and files to a controller’s local cache ensures that pinned data can be accessed at LAN speed with guaranteed availability, even if it is older than LRU data.

User-Managed Snapshots: In addition to standard system snapshots stored in the global file system, PZOS 3.0 now provides up to 10,000 user-managed snapshots per controller. User-managed snapshots improve recovery times and productivity by enabling self-service file/version recoverability to end users without having to involve system administrators.

Disaster Recovery (DR): The Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller records the state of storage across the CloudFS file system. Should the WAN connection to any Quicksilver controller be lost, other controllers still have visibility of and access to the files owned by that controller, avoiding losing access to data at a given location. If a site is totally lost and needs to be recovered, it can be done in the cloud using a VMware VM or on-site. The newly spun-up controller reflects the state of the metadata, data, deduplication tables, and cache at the point of its last synch with the cloud.

Disk Layout: Disk layout is optimized within each Quicksilver controller, parallelizing I/O across multiple RAID groups to improve data processing, protection and performance by 3x. By moving from a 10+2 to 3*(3+1) RAID group and improving the way I/Os process and distribute data, users see performance improvement and get an extra parity drive for improved recoverability time.

Backup with Symantec or IBM: PZOS 3.0 now integrates with Symantec NetBackup and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM), two leading enterprise backup solutions, enabling customers to leverage low-cost, scalable cloud storage to back up structured data such as databases or Exchange data.

Panzura CloudFS File System

CloudFS presents the same view to all Quicksilver controllers, regardless of location, allowing seamless access to all files in the system across a global fabric without having to migrate files from their native local storage environment where they are robustly protected. Files can be browsed, opened, edited, and saved as needed, regardless of where they were created or last accessed. CloudFS prevents users from accidentally making conflicting file changes and does not require administrator intervention to maintain write order fidelity and atomic file synchronization.

Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller

Panzura’s Quicksilver controllers have received hardware upgrades, including increased memory and faster CPUs, 10GbE connectivity, optimized disk configuration, and a 50% increase in local cache capacity, with local raw storage scaling up to almost one-third petabyte (PB).

Quicksilver Controller Specs

  • Size: Virtual, 1U, 2U
  • Maximum drives: 108
  • Maximum capacity per controller: 216 TB
  • SSD acceleration: Up to 108 SSDs
  • Memory: 64 GB
  • RAID controller Hardware: 6 Gb/s with 512 MB battery-backed cache
  • RAID protection: RAID-5, RAID-6+
  • I/O protocols: CIFS, NFS
  • Network interface: 2 onboard Copper @ 1 Gb Ethernet Port
  • Optional Dual port: Optical @ 10 Gb Ethernet
  • Optional Dual port: Copper @ 10 Gb Ethernet
  • Power supply: Dual redundant 500W (1U), 750W (2U)
  • Private cloud support: NFS, rsync over SSH, Amplidata Amplistor, EMC Atmos, Scality RING Organic Storage
  • Public cloud support: Amazon S3, EMC Atmos (AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service), Google Cloud Services, HP Cloud Services, IBM, Limelight Agile Storage, Nirvanix SDN, OpenStack (Swift)

Availability

PZOS 3.0 and the updated Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controllers are available for immediate purchase, or as a subscription service. Pricing for the Panzura Global Cloud Storage System starts at $22,999 per configuration.

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