News

posted on 27 August 2008 14:30

Copan's got a boost. Its spun-down MAID arrays can now be included with standard drive arrays in a single virtualized pool of Quantum-run file storage.

Quantum and Copan have signed a strategic relationship showing that Quantum CEO Rick Belluzzo meant it when he said StorNext was going to get more focus. StorNext is a Quantum product set that provides a virtualising file-based interface to a multi-tiered SAN that can include fast tier 1 Fibre Channel drive arrays, slower SATA arrays, Quantum's deduping arrays and even tape.  Accessing servers run StorNext client software which captures storage I/O requests and sends them to a Meta Data Controller (MDC), a Quantum box sitting out of the main data path. It looks up the file locations in its map of the virtualized SAN it administers and sends the storage array block locations, or tape cartridge data, back to the server client software, which talks direct to the storage device to complete the I/O.

Why is this worth doing? You can have a multi-tiered disk array set up which appears to be a single file storage pool with a single name space. Multiple servers can access the pool at the same time and it can be bigger than a network-attached storage box (NAS) and include tape. Warner Brothers is renovating The Godfather film reels using HP storage under a StorNext software file regime.

The StorNext kit doesn't offer the sheer speed of an Isilon or DataDirect  set of boxes but it includes tape, and moves files across tiers as needed. Isilon and DataDirect products are high-speed clustered file or block storage whereas StorNext is fast and quasi-clustered file storage with built-in archiving.

It's as if a single storage box contained Fibre Channel disks, SATA disks and a tape library all acting as a single file store. Quantum has deduplicated storage arrays in there too with v3.0 of the StorNext SW. It calls them Storage Reduction boxes and their deduplication technology is what runs under the covers in Quantum's deduping DXi storage arrays.

Think of the MDC as roughly equivalent to a combined IBM San Volume Controller (SVC) and NAS head for a SAN. It's a nice and steady niche product which Apple users like because of some degree of Mac support.

Now Copan's ever so green MAID arrays can be included too, with the MDC knowing which files are stored on what disks and blocks in the Copan rack. These have up to 75 percent of their disks spun down to save power, lower cooling needs and pack the drives more closely together than any other supplier. A single Copan Revolution box can have up to 896TB of capacity. It can be deduplicated as well, using FalconStor dedupe SW - let's assume a 10:1 dedupe ratio and a square metre of floorspace can hold darn near 9PB of data. The Copan dedupe isn't included in the Quantum deal, however, Copan engineers are testing the feasibility of using Quantum's dedupe technology and, if it's okay, there will be a late Q4 announcement about that.

Copan, now with more than 250 customers, will sell its StorNext-capable product directly and through its channels - existing StorNext customers will be prime targets if Quantum reveals their names. It's briefing Quantum's world-wide sales force and Quantum's Integration partners (quasi OEMs) but this is not an OEM deal whereby Quantum takes in the Copan kit and rebrands it, etc. Notwithstanding that Copan reckons it's increased its total addressable market by $10 billion with this deal. Nice work.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}