File Virtualisation
File virtualisation establishes a transparent file mobility infrastructure within the data center network, to dynamically manage growing windows file environments.
- Is file management a challenge for you? Are you adding headcount to manage file growth?
- Is managing server and storage assets consuming too much time? Working weekends?
- Are you adding, moving, or consolidating data centers because of changing business conditions?
- Are you migrating file data and consolidating filers/file servers and storage arrays?
- Do you have technology refreshes, lease expirations, or infrastructure changes involving NAS (filers or file servers) and storage arrays?
- Do you need to improve server and storage utilization?
- Are you implementing or using a tiered storage architecture?
- Do you need to improve data visibility, classification, and reporting for security and auditing?
File virtualisation allows you to optimise your file-based storage devices to dramatically reduce storage and management costs and complexity. With file Virtualisation you can automate storage management tasks, improve device utilisation, and eliminate business disruptions.
- File Virtualisation technologies allows you to virtualise your unstructured data environment allowing you to move data, including active, open files—without disruption.
- File Virtualisation can Simplify management of your NAS infrastructure and lower TCO as part of your data management strategy.
- By virtualising file-based storage infrastructure complexity and storage costs are reduced.
File virtualisation offers a level of intelligence at the network layer that removes the rigid mapping which usually binds client systems to file servers.
This technology separates the logical access of the file data from their physical location. Files are now released and free to change between storage appliances, without user disruption.
File Virtualisation makes managing data simpler by providing automated, policy-based management across diverse storage systems. The final result is reduced expenditure on storage and management with increased business workflow.
For further information on this solution please contact us using the Contact Form or Call Free on 0800 112 3282.
How is file virtualisation implemented?
When you virtualise your file based storage you start by creating a Global Namespace, which is the logical representation of file content from all physical file servers. Clients then access the Global Namespace instead of the physical Server.
This simplifies file access, since the client is now mapped to the Global Namespace rather than to multiple network drives. Changes to storage devices and the movement of file data is hidden from client systems, freeing IT from the need to constantly remap clients when files are moved or new storage provisioned.
Once the file storage environment is virtualised, policy-based automation capabilities can be introduced to automate the movement and placement of files for data migration, storage tiering, storage load balancing and data replication.
Most offering come in the form of an appliance that run high performance, highly available intelligent file Virtualisation systems. They do not introduce a new file system into the network; instead, they act as proxies to the file systems that already exist. use industry-standard file access protocols, including CIFS for Windows networks and NFS for UNIX or Linux networks. And utilise Global Namespace and offer a rich set of automated data management policies for data migration, storage tiering, storage load balancing and data replication.
Why file Virtualisation?
- Reduced CapEx by tiering storage.
- Moves non-critical business data off of high-end storage to lower cost alternatives can reduce spend on disk by 50-80%.
- Radically lowers back-up windows and associated costs.
- Simplified storage management lightens the load on IT Automating data management tasks and simplifying client-to-resource mappings eliminates business disruptions, eases the storage administration burden, and reduces operational costs.
- Improved file storage utilization and business workflow.
- Consolidating capacity from multiple devices into a unified storage pool and dynamically distributing demand eliminates bottlenecks before they happen and improves application performance and business workflow.
Key Points
- Manage explosive file growth with a management tool that gives you a unified view across all of your file storage.
- Consolidate and migrate file storage without disrupting your users and without traditional planning, administrative, and management overhead.
- Reduce your total cost of ownership by creating tiered storage to store files based on usage.
- Secure your peace of mind through a cost-effective business continuity plan that can provide location-independent, uninterrupted user access.
File Virtualisation Products
EMC Rainfinity
EMC Rainfinity File Virtualization Family includes the Rainfinity File Management Appliance which helps streamline backup, recovery, and archiving, Rainfinity Global File Virtualization which transparently moves data—including active, open files and the
Rainfinity Global Namespace Appliance that simplifies EMC Celerra infrastructure management through a single mount point for network file shares.
NetApp VFM (Virtual File Manager)
NetApp VFM comes in two editions: Enterprise Edition (EE) and Migration Edition (ME). With VFM – EE, your administrators can manage distributed file storage without affecting users, including consolidate storage on to NetApp NAS or your existing file storage to create a single, unified view across your enterprise.
Brocade StorageX
Brocade StorageX Integrated suite of applications that logically aggregates distributed file data across heterogeneous storage environments and across CIFS- and NFS-based file systems while providing policies to automate data management functions
F5 ARX
F5 ARX devices are high-performance, highly available intelligent file virtualization systems. They do not introduce a new file system into the network; instead, they act as proxies to the file systems that already exist. ARX solutions scale as you grow without compromising performance, and use industry-standard file access protocols, including CIFS for Windows networks and NFS for UNIX or Linux networks.
For further information and pricing on these products contact us now or call 0800 112 3282