BlueArc, a provider of unified network storage, has introduced SiliconFS 7.0, a new version of hardware-accelerated file system software which provides performance and scalability.
The new SiliconFS 7.0 features advanced metadata management for cost and disk efficiency, file system enhancements which allows scaling up to 16 usable petabytes (PB) on a single node or cluster, BlueArc said.
The company said that the metadata handling option in SiliconFS 7.0 automatically separates the metadata from the user data, and places the metadata on the fastest tier of storage being used (SAS or Solid State Disk), and places the rest of the user data on the slower, less expensive tier.
Thus, metadata operations improve overall system performance, while reducing the amount of high-performance storage required. SiliconFS 7.0 also comes with new enhancements which increases the storage capacity of the BlueArc platforms.
While BlueArc Mercury systems now support up to 8PB of usable storage, the company’s Titan family now supports up to 16 usable PB on a single node or cluster. Additionally, the BlueArc capacities reflect usable space net of any RAID or management overhead.
BlueArc senior director of Solutions and Product Marketing Ravi Chalaka said that SiliconFS 7.0 offers customers value by including optimised metadata management at no additional cost.
"While it is a small percentage of the total file system, the number of ‘metadata’ operations is significantly greater than the ‘regular’ data operations and contributes to a larger share of the I/O overhead," Chalaka said.
"Since SiliconFS 7.0 can automatically store metadata in high performance spindles or solid state drives while storing user data in low cost storage tiers, it greatly improves system response time and enables cost efficiency with high performance.
"When combined with BlueArc Data Migrator and policy-based intelligent tiering, customers gain the ultimate combination of flexibility, performance and cost-efficiency," said Ravi Chalaka."
