Storage for a Multi-cloud World

Just about every organization is evaluating or using cloud in some fashion. When you look at various enterprises, there’s a wide range of deployment options to consider, but one thing is certain: as cloud spend continues to increase, some form of multi-cloud will be part of most enterprise cloud strategies, so it’s essential to have the right storage infrastructure in place to support multi-cloud.

 

 

Henry Chu, Director of Solution Management, Cloudian

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Storage for a Multi-cloud World

Just about every organization is evaluating or using cloud in some fashion. When you look at various enterprises, there’s a wide range of deployment options to consider: on-premises private cloud, hybrid using on-premises private cloud and public cloud, colo-services, or a mix of various public clouds. But one thing is certain, that as cloud spend continues to increase, some form of multi-cloud will be part of most enterprise cloud strategies, so it’s essential to have the right storage infrastructure in place to support multi-cloud.

 

Multi-Cloud Obstacles

What are some of the obstacles of doing multi-cloud? There are quite a lot, but let’s focus on a specific area. Data storage — specifically, object storage offerings across the clouds, as it provides the vast majority of capacity needs for multi-cloud environments. If you don’t have the right object storage solution, it can present significant challenges.

Most customers and cloud applications look for S3 compatibility as it is fast becoming the de facto standard for cloud storage. However, not every provider has an S3 service, and even if a provider does have one, the S3 APIs often are not the same or do not have the same compatibility, depending on where they’re deployed. As a result, APIs and UX differences can impact an organization’s processes and applications.

For example, API and UX differences among S3-compatible storage systems might require that applications and tools in a DevOps environment be changed or rewritten. This can lead to increased development and operational costs, such as those involving code changes to apps or admins having to change their tools to make things work with these incompatible services or APIs.

Managing multi-clouds can be another challenge. Because each provider has its own APIs and tools to manage cloud resources, this raises the question of how you manage a service across multiple clouds.

Finally, there’s the cost of operating across multiple clouds. Some providers impose additional egress charges for moving data out of their cloud, which can make certain operations cost prohibitive. Also, some storage platforms’ methods of providing data replication or availability across multiple clouds can generate additional egress charges.

Cloudian’s Multi-cloud S3-compatible Storage

Going to a multi-cloud deployment provides some inherent benefits:

  • Data locality: Ability to distribute the data closer to the application, where it’s needed.
  • Data Availability: Ability to protect your enterprise data by leveraging the hyperscalers as a second location, or use one hyperscaler with another hyperscaler as a DR site.
  • Cost benefits: Path to reduce TCO by leveraging cost advantages of different clouds.

With Cloudian HyperStore, the benefits are further enhanced. HyperStore provides a cloud-agnostic S3 object storage. Same S3 service, with unified management and access across any cloud deployments. Because it’s fully S3-compatible object storage, HyperStore can also be deployed on-prem and across any/all the major hyperscalers (AWS, Google, Azure).

With Hyperstore, you can have a single namespace and same S3-compatible service across all clouds, giving you the same S3 APIs and UX. It’s worth pointing out that Hyperstore has the most compatible S3 APIs compared with AWS S3. The S3 API is part of HyperStore’s core design, resulting in the highest levels of compatibility. And because S3 is the de facto standard for cloud storage, most — if not all — cloud applications will likely be compatible with HyperStore out of the box.

With HyperStore object storage in a multi-cloud deployment, you can enable cloud services such as Backup-as-a-Service, Archive-as-a-Service and Storage-as-a-Service as well as deploy data lakehouse solutions leveraging data locality from different cloud providers. In addition, HyperStore has the industry-leading S3 Object Lock implementation for data immutability — protecting data across any/all clouds from ransomware.

Broader Benefits of Cloudian HyperStore

With HyperStore, you get a simple but flexible configuration across all clouds.

As mentioned above, HyperStore provides a single namespace across all types of clouds, from on-prem private clouds to hyperscalers, and a single common management interface.  And with Cloudian’s HyperIQ, you get single-view-monitoring and analytics.

HyperStore can be deployed in a single region or multi-region configuration, and with multi-region, there’s the option of cross-region replication.

In terms of scale, HyperStore users can start small with just 3 nodes and scale up to an exabyte without interruption

S3 endpoint is flexible in that it can go to a single region, multi-region or even down to a specific data center (DC). Cloudian can also distribute S3 requests to a specific DC or across different regions with its HyperBalance load balancer.

The regions can be comprised of on-prem, AWS, Google, Azure, or any combination.

Cloudian has a wide range of storage policies that are configurable on a per S3 bucket basis. Storage policies define the protection for a bucket, using replication factor or erasure coding. The objects can then be distributed to different DCs or be kept at a single DC.

Additionally, the way HyperStore handles distribution of data across DCs defined by storage policies minimizes egress when writing object data into a HyperStore cluster. HyperStore distributes the PUT requests among each individual node that resides on each public cloud.  This provides a more efficient way to replicate data across multiple clouds by using more ingress and minimizing egress. In contrast, a store-and-forward method to replicate data across multiple clouds would use not only ingress but egress for the data that is being replicated, incurring additional egress charges.

As mentioned above, in a multi-region configuration, Cloudian can replicate across the regions with cross-region replication. This means remote sites can be used for DR or data backup and restore at any point in time.

Finally, HyperStore can tier to remote public clouds like AWS, GCP, or Azure even if the remote site does not have HyperStore, providing the option to move metadata and data to public clouds and have bimodal access.

In summary, for any enterprises that are adopting any form of multi-cloud — whether it be on-prem private cloud, hybrid, or any mix of public clouds — Cloudian HyperStore provides the common S3 service in a single namespace across all clouds. With the highest S3 API compatibility, it helps ensure application compatibility with S3 is maintained.

We will be diving further into HyperStore compatibility and other multi-cloud topics in future blogs. In the meantime, see our multi-cloud demos to learn more about the benefits of deploying Cloudian for these environments.

Meeting Hybrid Cloud Demands: Microsoft AzureStack HCI and Cloudian HyperStore

Microsoft and Cloudian enable organizations to leverage the benefits of public cloud while keeping some infrastructure, applications and data on-premises, behind the firewall and fully under the organization’s control.

 

Steve Connors, Senior Alliances Manager, Cloudian

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Meeting Hybrid Cloud Demands: Microsoft AzureStack HCI and Cloudian HyperStore

Over the last two years, hybrid cloud has become the dominant IT deployment model, with 82% of IT leaders saying they’ve adopted it in a Cisco report earlier this year.[1] It enables organizations to leverage the benefits of public cloud while keeping some infrastructure, applications and data on-premises, behind the firewall and fully under the organization’s control. Reflecting the increasing adoption of hybrid cloud, global hyperscalers have introduced new services to meet the demand and ensure a seamless experience across public and private clouds. Here we take a look at the Microsoft AzureStack HCI service and how Cloudian’s HyperStore object storage works with the service.

According to Microsoft, “AzureStack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure host platform integrated with Azure. Run Windows and Linux virtual machines on-premises with existing IT skills and familiar tools. Delivered as an Azure subscription service, Azure Stack HCI is always up-to-date and can be installed on your choice of server hardware.”

Cloudian HyperStore, a leading scale-out storage system, has been validated to work with Azure Stack HCI, enabling customers to store and protect large amounts of unstructured data on prem and use the Azure public cloud for real-time, on-demand computing power, which is more cost effective than buying additional hardware.

HyperStore employs policy-based tools to replicate or tier data to Azure for offsite disaster recovery, capacity expansion or data analysis in the cloud. HyperStore offers limitless scalability, multi-tenancy and military-grade security. This includes the ability to isolate storage pools using local and remote authentication methods such as Password, AD, LDAP, IAM and certificate-based authentication.

Deploying Cloudian HyperStore on Azure Stack HCI provides the following key benefits:

  • Turnkey HCI solution – network, compute, storage and virtualization
  • Hybrid cloud readiness – seamless movement of data across on-prem and public cloud environments
  • Unified view of data – a single namespace across multiple locations
  • Reduced operational costs – savings on data egress and bandwidth charges

To learn more about the Cloudian HyperStore-Azure Stack HCI hybrid cloud solution, go to cloudian.com/microsoft/#azure.

[1] Report: 82% of IT leaders are adopting the hybrid cloud, Tech Republic, May 25, 2022

How to offload your NAS and reclaim capacity, with zero disruption

Running low on NAS capacity? Over 60% of NAS data is typically cold and infrequently accessed. Common examples include old project information, engineering files, historical data, and media that rarely gets used. All of these sit there, consuming capacity and data backup resources. Cloudian and Komprise let you offload that data to on-premises Cloudian storage and immediately reclaim 60% of your Tier 1 NAS capacity.

View this on-demand webinar with Komprise and Cloudian, “How to Delay Your Next NAS Expansion,” to learn more.

 

Transparently Tier Data to Cloudian, at 70% Less Cost

Cloudian/Komprise lets you find and reclaim that costly NAS capacity without user disruption. So you can defer that next NAS purchase.

One of the key benefits of the Cloudian/Komprise solution is that users will see no change in data access. Komprise’s software transparently tiers old or dormant CIFS and NFS files from any filer or server to Cloudian. That data is stored at 70% less cost and is still immediately accessible when requested by users. There are no delays, and no access charges. To the user, nothing has changed.

 

On-Prem Control, Public Cloud Prices

Cloudian gives you on-prem storage at the cost of public cloud. With Cloudian, the storage is in your data center, under your control, at costs down to ½ cent per GB per month. And there are no cloud access charges.

Save on Backup Licenses and Capacity

Unused data costs more than just NAS capacity: you’re also paying for the backup software and data copies. These can more than double your costs. When you migrate that data to Cloudian, it’s protected with nine nines data durability without the cost of a backup license. If you need more protection, you can tier data to a public cloud (such as Amazon S3) for offsite storage. Cloudian’s built-in management tools make that transparent as well.

With Cloudian/Komprise, you save on Tier 1 NAS, save on backup, and get full data protection.

Free Storage Assessment

Contact Cloudian for your free storage assessment. We will analyze the data on your NAS and show you what data is actually being used, and what data hasn’t been touched in months. And then we will provide you a written report and analysis of your potential savings of tiering that dormant data to Cloudian.

 

Reclaim costly NAS capacity and put off that costly expansion. Contact Cloudian today to get started. It’s quick and it’s free.

View the Cloudian/Komprise solution brief for more information.

 

5 Things You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Before You Start

You’ve probably heard the term hybrid cloud, but what is it, and what can it do for you?

It’s a particularly hot topic now because public cloud storage is growing in popularity. As it should be. Public cloud is inexpensive and solves real storage problems.

But public cloud is not for everyone and not for all data types. That’s where the hybrid cloud comes in. By combining public and on-prem storage into a single management pool, hybrid has the potential to deliver the best attributes of both worlds.

This blog series will give you industry perspective, tips, and tech background, so you can decide if hybrid cloud is right for you. We’ll give you the facts with no fluff. Let’s get started.

Here are five quick facts to put hybrid cloud in perspective.

  1. Hybrid cloud storage hype is real: 

Sometimes buzz is just noise, but with hybrid cloud the growing interest reflects real activity. A recent survey found that 68% of organizations said it’s in their deployment plans for the next two years. Typical motivations included:

    • Data Governance / Security: For data governance reasons, about half of organizations reported a need to keep some data on prem.
    • Cost: If data is frequently accessed, costs can quickly add up.
    • Performance: On prem applications may perform poorly when accessing data in the public cloud.
  1. Not all data will live in the public cloud
    Hybrid gives you the ability to keep sensitive data on-premises, rather than putting everything in the public cloud. In the survey, 59% of respondents agreed, stating that an average of 51% of their data needs to remain on prem. Typical use cases for hybrid cloud include:

    • Backup: Cut RTO by hours vs. either cloud or tape; save cost vs. conventional disk
    • Home directory: Keep frequently accessed files local, automatically tier cold files to the cloud
    • Compliance: Store sensitive file types on premise, automatically migrate others to the cloud
  1. Hybrid cloud offers better scalability than public cloud alone

Since a hybrid cloud connects public and private clouds, it provides a unified infrastructure lets you choose the most efficient infrastructure for specific data and workloads. For example, you can take advantage of the cost efficiency of Amazon’s S3 Infrequent Access tier or Amazon Glacier for backup or archive data, use Amazon S3 Standard to provide data access in different regions, while keeping the bulk of active data in a private cloud on-premises.

      1. A unified infrastructure also gives you a few benefits that public or private cloud alone don’t. Hybrid cloud eliminates silos of data, lets you keep data and applications on premises if you need to (usually for compliance or performance reasons), and is easier to manage than separate environments.
  1. Hybrid cloud saves cost

It’s usually true that cloud storage is less expensive than traditional SAN or NAS systems. Public cloud storage today costs as little as 0.4 cents per GB per month. But for frequently used data, access costs can add up. Hybrid cloud lets your store frequently accessed data locally, avoiding cloud data transfer charges. That data can be automatically tiered to the public cloud when it becomes cold. This lets you easily capitalize on the super-low cost of public cloud, while meeting your security, performance, and data governance objectives.

  1. Hybrid cloud will help you survive the data tsunami

The explosive growth of unstructured data is only going to accelerate. With more connected devices and the emerging internet of things (IoT), we’ll go from less than 2 billion devices in 2010 to more than 25 billion by 2020, according to analyst estimates.

That in turn is fueling massive data growth — from 4.4 zettabytes (ZB) in 2013 to 44 ZB in 2020 — much of it generated at the edge, not in the cloud. How will we manage, analyze and store all of that data? Implementing hybrid cloud now provides an architecture that can scale as we face a data tsunami over the next three years.

Next up, we’ll look at steps to get started with hybrid cloud.

Embracing Hybrid Storage

It’s no surprise that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a dominant force when it comes to the public cloud – it’s a $10B a year business, with nearly 10% of Amazon’s Q2 net sales attributed to AWS.

AWS Q2 net sales

While AWS has been touting public cloud since its inception, only recently has it started to acknowledge the need for hybrid storage solutions. Why? Because it’s simply not realistic for many companies to move all their data to the public cloud.

Private vs. Public Cloud

 

A company may choose to stay with private, on-premises storage solutions if they have existing data centers already in place. Or they may prefer the enhanced performance and extra measure of control that comes with on-premises storage.

Nonetheless, public cloud storage has significant advantages. It’s easy to implement, scales on demand, and automates many of the data management chores.

Neither option is clearly better than the other – in fact, customers are spending more than ever on both private and public cloud solutions. IDC forecasts that total IT spending on cloud infrastructure will increase by 15.5% in 2016 to reach $37.1B.The bottom line is that companies need both on-prem and cloud solutions.

The Best of Both Worlds: Hybrid Storage

 

What’s needed is a solution that allows you to enjoy that advantages of both — the speed and control of on-prem and the on-demand scalability of cloud. And ideally, you’d get both within a single, simple management model.

That’s what Cloudian HyperStore is. It’s S3 cloud storage that physically sits in your data center. And, it looks and behaves exactly like Amazon S3 cloud storage, so your apps that work with Amazon will work with Cloudian. Best of all, you can manage the combined Cloudian + Amazon S3 storage pool as a single, limitlessly scalable storage environment.

Amazon Makes It Easy

 

Fortune summed up Amazon’s need for a hybrid compute model in their recent article, stating:

It’s become clear that AWS, which is the leader in public cloud, will have to address this issue of dealing with, if not embrace, customers’ on-premises computing.

Thankfully, in the storage world they’ve already addressed this by adding Cloudian HyperStore directly to the AWS Marketplace. We announced this last month, but it bears repeating because it’s an important step in AWS’s evolution.

The advantages in moving towards hybrid storage are numerous. Everything folds up to AWS, so even usage and billing from private cloud will be centralized in the monthly AWS invoices. More importantly, Cloudian HyperStore was built from day one to be fully S3 compatible, which ensures complete investment protection.

So if you’re debating between public and private cloud options for your company, remember that you can still get the best of both worlds. Check out Cloudian HyperStore for a better hybrid storage solution with AWS and Amazon S3.