Selling Software-Defined Storage: Not All File Systems Are the Same

Data volumes are out of control, and customers need guidance. Are you ready to advise on software-defined storage?

…Samba, a freeware version of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol that allows end users to access and use files on a company’s intranet or network. Many in need of a file system have turned to this option, but providing file services through Samba, which is open source, may mean going without some features that Windows users are accustomed to.

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And, it’s not only a file system that organizations need in order to deal with unstructured data; file-related features are also necessary. These include:

Retention rules automatically create a single folder or a hierarchy of folders on file servers, to be deleted according to assigned policies.
A snapshot is a read-only copy of the contents of a file system or independent file set taken at a single point in time. When a snapshot of an independent file set is taken, all files and nested dependent file sets will be included in the snapshot.
Tiering uses a policy that enables IT to define where a certain file should go, as well as if and when a file will be migrated between file system pools. We can define both file placement and migration policies. By using a policy, you create a filter that designates a specific file type to a particular tier. Tiered storage is more efficient and boosts performance.
Quotas are a feature to help monitor the amount of storage being used. IT can set a soft-limit quota that will raise a warning when part of a file system is close to reaching its storage limit but still allow data to be saved. If you set up a hard limit quota, after the quota is reached, no new data can be saved.

Selling the Right Solution

With the ongoing exponential growth of data, customers need storage architectures that not only meet current capacity needs without breaking the bank, but that can scale easily and quickly. To manage all that unstructured data, they need a full-featured approach that is able to handle object, block and file system types of storage. Make sure that you have thoroughly vetted solutions so that you know you are offering your customers the one that will best serve them.

Stefan Bernbo is the founder and CEO of Compuverde. For 20 years, Stefan has designed and built numerous enterprise scale data storage solutions designed to be cost-effective for storing huge data sets. From 2004 to 2010 Stefan worked within this field for Storegate, the wide-reaching Internet based storage solution for consumer and business markets, with the highest possible availability and scalability requirements.