Bycast StorageGRID 8

Bycast Inc., the leading provider of storage virtualization software for large-scale digital archives, today announced the general availability of StorageGRID 8. This latest release sets a new standard for large-scale long-term digital archives by delivering an open platform that virtualizes information retention and access over a spectrum of storage devices ranging from high-performance disk to archival media, distributed over multiple sites.

  StorageGRID Two-Site Configuration

In addition to providing a flexible, general purpose archive platform, StorageGRID 8 delivers the performance, scalability and reliability required by the most data-intensive applications.

Key New Features in StorageGRID 8 include:

• Distributed File System Gateway: StorageGRID 8 features the new Distributed File System Gateway (DFSG), a high performance clustered file system front-end to complement StorageGRID’s distributed multi-tier object store. By delivering the high performance and throughput of the DFSG clustered file system, together with the reliability and scalability of the StorageGRID distributed archive, StorageGRID 8 allows customers to easily scale their environments in support of a variety of applications. With this advancement, StorageGRID 8 provides a unified storage solution that integrates storage assets ranging from ultra-high performance disk to deep archive devices in a single system that is accessed by applications through a standard file system interface.
• Multi-Tenancy: StorageGRID 8 includes innovative multi-tenancy functionality specifically aimed at enabling service providers, as well as internal IT departments running their operations as a service, to address the rapidly emerging storage service provider market using the StorageGRID platform. Discrete security partitions ensure that multiple customers or departments leveraging the same storage service have their own independent secure archives.
• Enhanced Audit and Reporting: StorageGRID 8’s enhanced audit and reporting capabilities provide improved usage tracking, enabling storage service providers and departments to implement per-transaction, per-byte, or per-asset chargeback models.
• VMware ESX Support: Customers can now run a number of StorageGRID components inside VMware, providing them with more implementation options to further reduce their data center server footprint and operational expenses.

Together with the launch of StorageGRID 8, Bycast is also announcing the availability of StorageGRID 8 Express Bundles for small and medium sized businesses. StorageGRID 8 Express Bundles are simplified configurations of StorageGRID which offer smaller enterprises the same robust platform used to protect some of the largest life-critical digital archives in the world, and are available for storage hardware systems from leading manufacturers.

“Our research indicates organizations are going to archive over 80,000 petabytes of file content over the next three years to meet regulatory, legal and business reference requirements,” commented Terri McClure, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. “We have seen an explosion in file data creation and retention as a result of the healthcare, pharmaceutical, media and entertainment and energy industries use of scale-out, file-based applications in the past few years, and we expect more markets to follow suit. This makes the introduction of StorageGRID 8 extremely timely as customers need a more efficient, cost-effective way to manage and retain their file-based information.”

“With the ongoing transformation to digital, customers need to retain large and growing volumes of data for long periods of time,” said Moe Kermani, Bycast’s CEO and President. “StorageGRID is an established platform for large-scale digital archives and this release continues to raise the bar on scalability and performance. New capabilities enable customers to utilize StorageGRID across a broader set of data intensive applications, including the delivery of digital archiving as a service.”