SCIENCE

EMC Corporation has announced the world's largest single file system with the introduction of EMC Isilon's new IQ 108NL scale-out NAS hardware product. Leveraging three terabyte (TB) enterprise-class Hitachi Ultrastar drives in a 4U node, the 108NL scales to more than 15 petabytes (PB) in a single file system and single volume, providing the storage foundation for maximizing the big data opportunity. EMC also announced Isilon's new SmartLock data retention software application, delivering immutable protection for big data to ensure the integrity and continuity of big data assets from initial creation to archival. By combining Isilon's new NL-Series product with the recently announced OneFS 6.5 operating system, and S200 and X200 scale-out NAS hardware products, enterprise businesses can create a complete, end-to-end storage platform for big data workflows, simplifying management and achieving maximum IT efficiency and flexibility.

"Enterprises are dealing with large and fast growing sources of data or information, but their real challenge will be finding ways to better analyze and capitalize on all this information. Successful exploitation of 'Big Data' depends upon the deployment of a simple, scalable, and highly flexible storage foundation at the core of the data center," said Richard Villars, vice president, Storage and IT Executive Strategies at IDC. "Solutions like Isilon's new scale-out NAS products deliver the performance, scale, and simplicity required to support big data workloads and enable real-time analysis."

"Making the most of big data isn't just about capacity, or performance, or enterprise functionality, it's about combining all three elements in a flexible architecture tailored to the customers unique workflow needs," said Sam Grocott, vice president of marketing, Isilon. "With our new products Isilon continues to set the standard in scale-out NAS, delivering a storage architecture designed specifically for the unique demands of big data. Now, enterprise organizations can create a complete, end-to-end platform for big data that scales in-step with everything from the large-scale enterprise applications to the most intense vertical workflows."

Isilon's new IQ 108NL leverages Isilon's OneFS operating system and Hitachi Ultrastar 3TB drives to deliver more than 15PB in a single file system and single volume, providing optimal efficiency for big data storage to maximize return on investment. Zoic Studios, an Emmy Award-winning visual effects (VFX) studio, is currently using the IQ 108NL as part of its end-to-end Isilon storage platform powering leading-edge post-production operations.

"We've been using Isilon for some time now, with multiple Isilon performance tiers providing the platform for our leading-edge visual effects and animation workflow," said Saker Klippsten, head of engineering and IT, Zoic. "However, with our operations producing more content than ever, our need for highly efficient, massively scalable, archive storage has become increasingly more important. Isilon's new IQ 108NL has the density and scalability we need to scale-out our big data archive over the long term. Plus, with Isilon's SmartPools, we've integrated the new NL into a single, multi-tiered file system, completely eliminating manual data migrations."

"While high performance is critical in big data workflows, it is just as important, if not more so, to provide tremendous scaling of capacity to ensure storage resources can efficiently keep pace with data growth," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "As one of the first enterprise storage vendors to implement our three terabyte Ultrastar 7K3000 drives, EMC Isilon is continuing to push the innovation curve for scale-out NAS. The overall efficiency of our latest drive generation and the intelligence of Isilon's OneFS operating system create a compelling combination of capacity and cost savings to help businesses transform big data into real value."

Isilon's new SmartLock data retention software application seamlessly integrates with integrates with OneFS to deliver immutable data protection for file-based data, ensuring that once locked, a file cannot be moved or changed in any manner. With SmartLock, each protected file is given a unique, verifiable signature validating its integrity and status within the file system. When combined with Isilon's IQ 108NL, SmartLock provides the highest levels of protection for nearline big data archives.  

Availability

The Isilon IQ 108NL hardware product and SmartLock data retention software application are both available immediately. The IQ 108NL has a list price of $123,500 per node. SmartLock begins at list price of $1,950 per node.