Western Digital Expands ActiveScale Storage Systems Capabilities and Enhances ActiveScale OS 5.5 Cloud Object Storage System

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) announced enhancements to its ActiveScale storage system portfolio, making it a high performing and cost-effective object storage platforms for storing, managing and extracting value from the expanding universe of unstructured data.

With the introduction of OS 5.5, ActiveScale becomes a more integral part of an IT infrastructure by expanding its set of data management capabilities for streamlining workflows and reducing latency barriers for multi-site data distribution.

Enterprises are realizing that to extract timely insights from a multitude of unstructured data sources requires the right infrastructure that delivers both sustained performance and predictable costs at scale. Yet research continues to show that most data goes unstored or unanalyzed, data siloes persist, governance remains inadequate, and a disproportionate amount of time is spent simply discovering and preparing data. To solve these challenges, IT leaders are increasingly turning to ActiveScale, a cloud-scale object storage solution that provides data durability, scalability and operational simplicity with storage economics.

Scale-out performance
As a HDD-based object storage, ActiveScale leverages its scale-out architecture to provide near-linear performance growth for data-intensive applications such as AI, ML and HPC workloads. With its performance, the ActiveScale X100, coupled with OS 5.5, is projected to deliver data throughput of up to 75Gb/s in scale out configurations, making it a solution for large-scale data workflows.

Data pipeline service
The ActiveScale Data Pipeline Service offers a versatile way to stitch together distributed web-scale applications to streamline data processing. With real-time object notifications from ActiveScale, business applications can optimize task initiation for improved productivity and faster time to value. This notification feature simplifies workflow processing for a variety of use cases, including real-time analytics, IoT, mobile applications, media and entertainment, and business processes.

Asynchronous geo-spread
ActiveScale Geo-Spreading is a data protection scheme that delivers system availability by spreading data across geographically dispersed availability zones. The OS 5.5 adds asynchronous mode support, which enables low-latency data ingest for IoT applications without compromising system availability. Customers can choose between synchronous or asynchronous geo resiliency with Geo-Spread to meet their needs.

Improved storage density and economics
Known for its TCO at exabyte-scale, ActiveScale enables customers to reduce Capex and hardware footprint with improved storage economics. With the integration of 14TB Ultrastar data center-class drives, customers can take advantage of the 16% increase in storage density and improved cost/capacity, without increasing power and cooling costs.

“ActiveScale 5.5 further extends the unique value that only Western Digital can deliver in terms of performance, efficiency, scalability and superior economics for those putting data at the center of their business,” said Phil Bullinger, SVP and GM, data center systems business unit, Western Digital. “We’re extremely proud of the innovation that has gone into developing solutions that enable our customers to make data infrastructure synonymous with a successful data business strategy. The world of big data may be complex, but by listening to customers, we’re more confident than ever that our ActiveScale system meets the needs of even the most demanding data-centric environments.“

In addition to the ActiveScale cloud object storage system, the company’s data center portfolio includes the IntelliFlash family of NVMe-based all flash and hybrid flash arrays; OpenFlex NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) open composable infrastructure; Ultrastar server and storage platforms; Ultrastar memory extension drive; and its family of Ultrastar data center-class HDDs and SSDs.

Become an enterprise channel partner
The company also recently launched its enhanced Enterprise Partner Program (EPP) with streamlined benefits, discounts and programs for its IntelliFlash, ActiveScale and Ultrastar Platform brands. Solution and cloud providers are encouraged to apply for the the program to access the selection of go-to-market resources and sales incentives. With the firm’s data center portfolio, partners can create solutions and services to solve specific customer challenges while helping grow their business and maximize profitability.

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Resources:
Blog: The Key to Your Data’s Golden Copy    
Video: Developing a Successful Data Strategy, featuring Mark Peters, principal analyst, ESG Global, and Thomas Davenport, distinguished professor, IT and management, Babson College.

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