14 Sep 2018

Quantum Corp announces significant enhancements to the Xcellis scale-out storage appliance portfolio:

  • StorNext 6.2 bolsters performance for 4K and 8K video while enhancing integration with cloud-based workflows and global collaborative environments.
  • NVM storage significantly accelerates ingest and other aspects of media workflows.

These enhancements reinforce Xcellis as the solution of choice to ingest, edit, share and store rich media content for thousands of customers worldwide.

Modern file systems

Quantum’s Xcellis scale-out appliances have long been trusted to deliver high performance to increasingly demanding applications and higher resolution content. The introduction of NVMe storage to the Xcellis appliances offers ultra-fast performance: 22 GB/s single-client, uncached streaming bandwidth.

Leveraging Excelero’s NVMesh technology in combination with StorNext, all data is accessible by multiple clients in a global namespace, making it easy to access and cost-effectively share flash-based resources. As more organisations depend on broad collaboration among their staff to meet project deadlines, and workflows extend from on-premise into the cloud, being able to effectively manage and access data across complex, hybrid environments has become a requirement for modern file systems.

Greater flexibility

StorNext 6.2, Quantum now offers an S3 interface to Xcellis appliances, enabling them to serve as targets for applications designed to write

Now with the ability to provide cross protocol locking for shared access across SAN, NFS, and SMB, Xcellis is an optimal solution for organisations that need to share content across both Fibre Channel and Ethernet.

With StorNext 6.2, Quantum now offers an S3 interface to Xcellis appliances, enabling them to serve as targets for applications designed to write to RESTful interfaces. Organisations gain greater flexibility to use Xcellis as either a gateway to the cloud or as an S3 target for web-based applications. With storage environments becoming increasingly complex, users need more powerful tools to proactively manage their storage resources.

Adjust system configuration

Xcellis environments can now be managed with a new cloud monitoring tool that enables Quantum’s support team to monitor critical customer environmental factors, speed time to resolution, and ultimately increase uptime. When combined with Xcellis Web Services – a suite of services that enables users to set policies, adjust system configuration, and more – overall system management is simplified and streamlined.

Available with StorNext 6.2, enhanced FlexSync replication capabilities enable users to create local or remote replicas of multi-tier file system content and metadata. With the ability to protect data for both high-performance systems as well as massive archives, users now have more flexibility to protect a single directory or an entire file system.

Additional management tools

StorNext 6.2 enables administrators to provide defined and enforceable quotas, implement quality of service levels for specific users

Organisations that provide storage as a service to departmental users require additional management tools to support their business processes. StorNext 6.2 enables administrators to provide defined and enforceable quotas, implement quality of service levels for specific users, and allows for simplified reporting of used storage capacity. These new features make it easier for administrators to efficiently manage large-scale media archives.

The new S3 interface and NVMe storage option are both available today. Other StorNext features and capabilities described in this release will be available by December 2018.

Effective foundation

Tom Coughlin, President, The Coughlin Group commented “Across multiple industries, and especially in media and entertainment, organisations are continuing to move more workflows into the cloud, which requires storage solutions to efficiently ingest, and offload, data to and from the cloud.”

By building on the existing capabilities of StorNext, Quantum’s new release will help customers maximise the benefits of the cloud and provide a more effective foundation for the industry’s most modern workflows.”

Demanding workflows

As 4K goes mainstream and adoption rates of 8K media continue to rise, the need for future-proof, high-performance storage is greater than ever before

Lior Gal, CEO and co-founder, Excelero said “As 4K goes mainstream and adoption rates of 8K media continue to rise, the need for future-proof, high-performance storage is greater than ever before.”

Excelero and Quantum have partnered to build on the capability of StorNext, the industry’s number one choice for storage, and offer an appliance that can support the requirements of the most demanding workflows for years to come.”

High-resolution content

Molly Presley, Vice President, Product Management and Global Marketing, Quantum commented “The new economy increasingly requires the ability to manipulate and manage rapid real-time types of unstructured data.”

Whether editing multiple streams of high-resolution content in multiple formats, reams of information produced by commuters on their way to work, or the flood of data from hundreds of sensors on an autonomous vehicle, this broad Xcellis platform refresh provides the storage foundation to effectively preserve, manage, and protect this valuable data.”