IBM announces massive NAS array for the cloud

IBM has released an enterprise-class network attached storage (NAS) array capable of scaling to 14 petabytes under a single name space.

The array, called Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS), is targeted at mid-size and large-size enterprises. The rack-sized array is built in part on hardware and software developed for IBM's supercomputing systems.

The system can offer enterprises access to billions of files in support of cloud computing architectures. "IBM SONAS addresses one of the key promises of cloud computing, which is to provide access to information anywhere at any time," the company says.

"SONAS will allow an organisation to snap-in resources seamlessly as information requirements increase, but it also provides the capability to scan up to a billion files of data in a matter a matter of minutes," the company says.

Terri McClure, an analyst with market research firm Enterprise Strategy Group, says there has been continued interest in commodity-based scale-out platforms in the datacentre that is driven by the long-term aftershocks of the economic slowdown .

McClure compared SONAS with Hewlett Packard's X9720 clustered file system , as well as clustered NAS systems from Isilon Systems and Panasas.

"Scale-out architectures bring a lot of operational efficiency to the table," he says. "With 2009 spending slowing to a near stop, scale-out interest mostly stayed just that: interest. In 2010, ESG expects that interest to translate into actual spending, aided by increased visibility from big-name vendors like EMC , HDS, HP , IBM, and NetApp as they continue to invest in scale-out offerings and validate commodity-based scale-out architectures for enterprise applications."

Clustered storage systems provide massive throughput because of an increased port count that comes from cobbling many storage servers together into a single pool of disks and processors, all working on a similar task and all able to share the same data through a single global name space.

Last week, Dell said it had placed a bid to purchase clustered NAS vendor Exanet.

David Hill, an analyst with industry research firm the Mesabi Group, says in a research note that "IBM saw the need for a higher-end solution".

"In IBM's view, classical NAS is general purpose file storage that only allows capacity expansion behind one or two node clusters, making it most appropriate for the small to midrange market. Scalable NAS is the next step up," Hill says. "While it uses a single namespace to view all files, scalable NAS may well support limited node clustering for performance and capacity expansion, though its scaling is not necessarily linear or independent."

IBM says its SONAS array offers automated data tiering, meaning data can migrate between different disk drive types for higher or lower levels of performance based on preset policies.

"Every day, the equivalent of eight-times the information that exists in all US libraries combined is created," says Doug Balog, vice president of disk systems for IBM. "Companies not only need to cost-effectively store that data, but they need to rapidly locate it and provide ubiquitous access to it instantly."

Big Blue says its policy-driven automation software for storage management can achieve increased utilisation rates in file management systems. This allows a company to predefine where data is placed, when it is created, where and when it moves to in the storage hierarchy, where it's copied for disaster recovery and when it will be eventually deleted.

The company also says SONAS should reduce operational costs by consolidating hardware to reduce capital costs. "It also minimises ongoing administration and headcount costs and decreases operational expenditures by streamlining and simplifying the administration, backup, application and access to data," the company says.