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Qumulo cloud upgrade transforms files to Amazon object format
Qumulo Shift for Amazon Web Services S3 copies data directly to Amazon Simple Storage Service, without mount points or application rewrites, to enable file sharing directly in AWS.
Qumulo Inc. has invented a mechanism to replicate primary file data in its native format to Amazon object storage, without the need for mount points or application rewrites.
Qumulo Shift for Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service takes data that resides on Qumulo clusters and transforms it to object format in Amazon S3. The Seattle-based NAS vendor said Qumulo Shift will be available to existing customers as a free software upgrade in July.
Rather than Replication between local and cloud-based instances of the Core file system, Qumulo Shift copies data directly to Amazon S3. Data centers pursuing AI and big data projects form the target market, said Molly Presley, the head of Qumulo global product marketing. She said companies can use Shift to make old files available for a DevOps team to use when writing new applications.
Qumulo customers can move data to Amazon using an API and share data directly in S3 without using a separate cloud file-sharing application.
An 'easy button' for cloud migration
File data has moved more slowly to the cloud than block and object data. The hindrance is its dependence on POSIX and other legacy file systems that require NFS or SMB mount points to access cloud services.
The Qumulo Core file system has supported data movement to Amazon cloud computing for years. Qumulo Shift copies the data directly to an S3 bucket.
Most file systems enable data to be moved from on-premises storage to the cloud, but the data usually remains under control of the array, said Scott Sinclair, a senior analyst Enterprise Storage Group.
"The novelty here is that Qumulo Shift gives you an easy button. One click and you move data from the Qumulo file system to S3. You pay Amazon for how much data you store in S3, but you're not paying Qumulo any more than you would otherwise," Sinclair said.
Qumulo storage is packaged on the vendor's branded C-Series arrays. It also has OEM deals that bundle Core file software on Hewlett Packard Enterprise Apollo servers and Dell PowerEdge servers. Qumulo competes with Dell EMC Isilon, NetApp filers, Pure Storage FlashBlade and software-defined storage vendors.
