Komprise NAS migration leaves no data behind

Startup Komprise added NAS migration to its list of data management features in the new 2.7 release of its software.

Komprise Intelligent Data Management customers can now migrate from one NAS system to another NAS system, leaving no data behind on the source filer. The new feature targets customers who want to replace or decommission one NAS system in favor of a new NAS system, according to Krishna Subramanian, chief operating office at Campbell, California-based Komprise.

Subramanian said a future product release would support the migration of data from NFS- or SMB/CIFS-based file storage to on-premise or public-cloud-based object storage.

Earlier versions of the Komprise software enabled customers to move data from one NFS- or SMB/CIFS-based NAS system to another NAS system, or to Amazon S3– or Microsoft REST API-compliant object storage, for archival or disaster recovery (DR) purposes. In those scenarios, the source NAS system retained the hot data, and users set policies merely to shift the cold data to another NAS system or to on-premise of public-cloud-based object storage, Subramanian said.

She said customer demand spurred the addition of the new NAS-to-NAS migration capabilities in the 2.7 product release.

“Every three to five years, storage is becoming end of life. So companies always have some NAS migration activity happening,” Subramanian said. “They may be retiring a filer, and they have to move that data somewhere else. Or, maybe they are moving it altogether from on premise to cloud. Or, they are moving from cloud back to on premise.”

The NAS migration feature removes the need for Komprise customers to buy third-party tools, hire services or conduct a laborious manual process to move data. Subramanian said Komprise can migrate data between different vendors’ NAS, and works with any NAS array that supports supports NFS or CIFS/SMB protocols.

How Komprise NAS migration works
Komprises’ new task-based NAS migration works similarly to the long-running activities such as data archiving and data replication for DR. Customers set a policy , the Komprise software makes a copy of the data on the new NAS system, and — after confirming the copy is accurate — deletes the data from the source NAS filer. The Komprise software retries in the event the storage is unavailable or the network is down, Subramanian said.

The Komprise Intelligent Management software runs as a virtual machine, and the software automatically updates. The user interface has a new tab for migration that customers can choose to turn on or off.

Komprise’s new NAS migration capabilities are available to customers at no additional cost. The company charges for its software based on the amount of data under management. List price is $150 per TB for a perpetual license, and annual subscriptions and volume discounts are available, Subramanian said.

Also this month, the Komprise Intelligence Data Management software became certified to operate with Spectra Logic’s BlackPearl Converged Storage System. BlackPearl is an object storage gateway for long-term storage, including tape-, disk- and cloud-based options.

Subramanian said Komprise has about 65 or 70 customers spanning industries such as genomics, health care, media and entertainment, gaming, finance, and insurance.