Upgraded NEC HYDRAstor HS8-3000 Grid Storage

NEC Corporation of America (NEC) has upgraded its HYDRAstor HS8-3000 grid storage platform to deliver encryption for data at rest, instant file copy, and shared system mode.

These features, available to existing customers via software upgrade, enhance functionality for enterprise data centers.

HYDRAstor is NEC’s scalable distributed grid storage platform, built to modernize storage infrastructure to support long-term data retention. It has been architected to maximize capacity optimization and modular scalability, without the complexity and inherent limitations of legacy storage solutions such as expensive inefficient primary storage, limited scale-up NAS, virtual or physical tape, or specialized single-purpose backup or archive appliances.

"HYDRAstor was designed to efficiently store long-term data while delivering massive linear scalability, superior performance, and high availability for enterprise environments," said Gideon Senderov, director of Advanced Storage Products at NEC Corporation of America. "The new features added in HYDRAstor’s latest release continue to provide best-of-class storage options and maximize the value and return on investment for our customers."

Encryption at Rest
Encryption at Rest feature delivers a security option for classified financial and healthcare data, which are subject to government mandated security such as FIPS 140-2. This feature allows to ensure data is encrypted with AES-128 or AES-256 prior to being committed to disk, protecting data against disk thefts. Encryption at Rest can be applied at a file system granularity, enabling intermix of encrypted and non-encrypted data on the same HYDRAstor system.

Instant File Copy
The Instant File Copy functionality extends file system cloning feature, enabling the user to create deduplicated copies of individual files at a finer granularity than entire file systems. Customers can obtain copies of large amounts of data in seconds, since HYDRAstor’s DataRedux technology eliminates the need for any actual data copy. Instant File Copy generates the copy within HYDRAstor without server data transfer, further enhancing advanced functionality and ease of management.

Shared System Mode
Shared System Mode introduces a multi-tenant capability to HYDRAstor systems, which ensures data sets are visible only to authorized clients. This feature is targeted for managed service providers and private cloud environments to enable multiple organizations to maintain secure exclusive access to data while sharing a single HYDRAstor system.

"Organizations of all sizes are dealing with an explosion in data that they need to organize, protect, secure, and reuse. The challenge is deploy storage solutions that can accommodate rapid data growth without breaking the bank or overwhelming the IT organization," said Rick Villars, VP of Information and Cloud research at IDC. "Solutions like NEC’s HYDRAstor storage platform with the new software enhancements can provide organizations with a flexible and scalable foundation for storing and managing rapidly proliferating data sets."

The HYDRAstor 3.1 release is available to all existing and new customers. The Encryption at Rest functionality can be licensed on a per Accelerator Node basis, while the remaining enhancements are available to all HYDRAstor customers under existing support contracts at no additional charge.