STORAGE
Start-up manages storage with grids
By Phil Hochmuth, Network World -- Mix of servers, disks and WAN technology replicates data to remote sites. Start-up ExaGrid is looking to change the way businesses handle data backup and recovery with a grid-computing system for storage. The company, which launched last month, has designed what it calls a Grid Protected Storage architecture: a mix of standards-based servers, disks, Ethernet switching and WAN technology fashioned into an end-to-end system for replicating data to remote sites. ExaGrid says its system is faster and more reliable than disk-to-tape or disk-to-disk back-up technologies. 
The company's concept involves two basic hardware components. One is the GRIDfiler, a 1T-byte Windows-based Dell server running as a network-attached storage appliance. These stackable servers connect via Gigabit Ethernet in a rack, which is managed virtually as a larger disk array. Gigabit Ethernet also connects the GRIDfiler racks to a LAN and to the other ExaGrid component, the GRIDdisk, which is a larger array of Linux-based servers. GRIDdisks are the archive repositories in the system, and can be managed and configured virtually through ExaGrid's software. Local network storage would be configured on the GRIDfilers - such as shared drives on a LAN - and back-up jobs would be scheduled incrementally to the GRIDdisk arrays. The company says its hardware also can be controlled through other storage and back-up management software from vendors such as Legato Systems, Oracle and Veritas Software. Off-site back-up jobs also can be configured among GRIDdisk arrays at remote sites over a company's existing WAN connection. By backing up only data that changes among remote GRIDdisk arrays, bandwidth is conserved, according to ExaGrid CTO Dave Therrien. Because backups are written to disk drives, recovery of data is 80% more accurate and up to 1,000 times faster than data recovery using tape drives, he says. A patent pending data checksum technique is used to ensure that no corrupt data is archived, Therrien says. Founded in 2002, ExaGrid is backed by venture capital funding and says it has several early customers using its product, including the medical imaging department at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and The First Years, a Massachusetts-based manufacture of baby products. Grid Protected Storage will be delivered as a whole system - racks of GRIDfilers and GRIDdisks, with network hardware included - or users will be able to buy their own hardware and integrate the ExaGrid software. The company plans to start general product shipping next year. Pricing has not yet been determined.
The company's concept involves two basic hardware components. One is the GRIDfiler, a 1T-byte Windows-based Dell server running as a network-attached storage appliance. These stackable servers connect via Gigabit Ethernet in a rack, which is managed virtually as a larger disk array. Gigabit Ethernet also connects the GRIDfiler racks to a LAN and to the other ExaGrid component, the GRIDdisk, which is a larger array of Linux-based servers. GRIDdisks are the archive repositories in the system, and can be managed and configured virtually through ExaGrid's software. Local network storage would be configured on the GRIDfilers - such as shared drives on a LAN - and back-up jobs would be scheduled incrementally to the GRIDdisk arrays. The company says its hardware also can be controlled through other storage and back-up management software from vendors such as Legato Systems, Oracle and Veritas Software. Off-site back-up jobs also can be configured among GRIDdisk arrays at remote sites over a company's existing WAN connection. By backing up only data that changes among remote GRIDdisk arrays, bandwidth is conserved, according to ExaGrid CTO Dave Therrien. Because backups are written to disk drives, recovery of data is 80% more accurate and up to 1,000 times faster than data recovery using tape drives, he says. A patent pending data checksum technique is used to ensure that no corrupt data is archived, Therrien says. Founded in 2002, ExaGrid is backed by venture capital funding and says it has several early customers using its product, including the medical imaging department at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and The First Years, a Massachusetts-based manufacture of baby products. Grid Protected Storage will be delivered as a whole system - racks of GRIDfilers and GRIDdisks, with network hardware included - or users will be able to buy their own hardware and integrate the ExaGrid software. The company plans to start general product shipping next year. Pricing has not yet been determined.