22dot6 TASS Cloud Suite: Transcendent Abstractive Storage System for Enterprise Cloud

22dot6 introduced an expanded collection of cloud specific features to enhance its universal storage software Valence, a software-defined TASS (Transcendent Abstractive Storage System) unifying physical, virtual, on-premise, and cloud storage resources locally and globally.

The Valence Cloud Suite (VCS) uses an abstractive TASS architecture to deliver features for cloud storage management solving user problems beyond what any point-specific, single software product can achieve:

• Private cloud

  • • Problem: Setting up private cloud storage can be very complex.

    • Solution: Valence provides a point-and-click transcendent capability to easily create an elastic, scale-on-demand, any storage, anywhere, private cloud architecture.

• Hybrid cloud

  • • Problem: Unifying disparate on-premise and cloud resources is difficult.

    • Solution: The TASS architecture inherently combines physical and cloud resources into one pool without being restricted by platform, protocol, or format. Providing ‘Data-In-Flight’ capability, the TASS-based hybrid cloud spans from on-prem to cloud as an unified, transparent, single system.

• Cloud migration and mobility

  • • Problem: Cloud vendor lock-in makes it difficult, and prohibitively expensive, to move data back and forth or from one service to another.

    • Solution: Easy cloud-to-cloud data transfers allow users to take advantage of lower costs and better SLAs. During a migration all new writes or file modifications are directed immediately to the new service, while historical data is being migrated from the old service to the new service. With ‘Data-In-Flight’ accessibility and a zero pointer, zero stub architecture you immediately start using the new service and eliminate traditional ‘Cut-Overs’ providing a transparent bridge between the original location, the new location, users and applications throughout the entire process.

• Reverse cloud migration/de-migration

  • • Problem: Clients/applications are mounted to the existing cloud service. During the de-migration process it is challenging to manage user and application access between the original source or the new target location.

    • Solution: The Valence cloud suite provides an integrated connectivity model replacing pointers and stub files with a metadata-mapped architecture that provides seamless access to data regardless of time in transfer or location. The TASS architecture provides a true, transparent, Set-and-Forget De-migration capability.

• Cloud-based NAS/block/S3 object/consolidation

  • • Problem: The proprietary nature of SMB, NFS, block, and S3 Object prohibits multi-protocol/multi-service and multi-vendor interoperability, and complicates security, permissions, and cross-platform, cross protocol access.

    • Solution: The Valence Cloud Suite offers transparent, multi-protocol, cross-platform support for all security and permissions with a single point-and-click. Security policies and access permissions are mapped directly between the user/client/application and data at the file level. With little to no hands-on management, the Valence ‘Follow the File’ feature set enforces a defined permissions and security model between the user/client/application and their data regardless of manufacture, type of storage or what access protocol is in place.

• Cloud data lookups, analytics and reporting

  • • Problem: Storage-Based vs Gateways vs File-Based. Systems that use pointers, links, or stubs create pointer buildup, and handcuff organizations to the physical hardware the pointers reside on. When data is moved to the cloud, it is difficult to perform metadata-level analytics and lookups, and generate data reports at high speed, local performance levels to locations globally and independently.

    • Solution: First the Valence Cloud Suite eliminates all physical pointers, symbolic links, hard links, soft links, hyperlinks, and stub files, providing a distributed, meta-mapped intelligence layer. Next, based on a bridged, distributed meta-data model. VCS gives you the ability to locate all or parts of your entire file systems information down to the metadata level independent of where the physical data resides. While your physical data my reside at 2 or 3 locations you can distribute the intelligence layer of your file system to 5, 10, 20 or more locations providing real-time lookups, analytic modeling and reporting with high speed, local-level performance, globally and independently.

• Cloud-based data protection

  • • Problem: Most services only provide marginal financial compensation when they lose your data. Permanent data loss in the cloud is real and well documented, including silent data corruption. Question, who is really responsible when data is lost forever. If your only copy of data is in the cloud, you need to protect it for permanent availability.

    • Solution: The Valence Cloud Suite ensures data recoverability. It incorporates individual, file-level data integrity audits that run transparently in the background and provide a red light/green light analysis of all data. Unlike simple checksum or snapshot models that verify data on a ‘read.’ Valence protects vs. file deletion, modification, corruption, or if the file simply disappears. Features include version control, undelete, real-time/split-write multi-cloud replication, and separately located hash tables for data integrity validation and file recoverability. And while Valence provides snapshots all of these features transcend snapshot capabilities. All Protection objectives and policies can be defined at an individual file/user/application and metadata level providing a true, scale-up/scale-out level of efficiency.

• Compliant, secure cloud

  • • Problem: Cloud storage presents an additional degree of difficulty and management to maintain geographic control over where data subject to regulation is located and usually does not offer file level data immutability. And cloud-based data security models have proven to be vulnerable to hackers.

    • Solution: Valence is a multi-location, globally architected technology that is file-aware, location-aware, and multi-copy aware with auditing, notifications and reporting to manage compliance, government, and geographic regulations to ensure data sovereignty. Based on the VCS ‘Follow the File’ model any single or group of files can be WORM-encoded for compliance regardless of location or movement. Data encryption can be managed independent of the cloud service providing for ‘Encryption in Flight’ and, providing an additional layer of protection the cloud service alone cannot provide Valence separates your systems encryption keys from the cloud service creating a wall between cloud hackers and your data, providing security and management control to you.

“Most enterprise storage managers are getting pressure from upstairs to shift to the cloud, but often times it is difficult for executives not on the front line to understand what’s actually involved in this process, and how complicated it can be,” said Diamond Lauffin, founder and CEO. “A TASS architecture is the answer, and from sunrise to sunset the Valence Cloud Suite combines the features and optimal practices required for enterprise data management in the cloud.“

An evolutionary next step beyond storage virtualization and hardware abstraction, TASS enables enterprises to access, move, manage, and protect all data assets transparently, utilizing any available storage resource, regardless of the hardware manufacture, physical, virtual or cloud location, protocol, or platform. TASS unifies physical, virtual, on-premise, and cloud storage resources locally and globally, integrating users, applications and data services. In a TASS architecture, NAS, Block, object and cloud systems are unified, eliminating platform-segregated silos and creating the look, feel and simplicity of a single storage system.

TASS software Valence creates an unified abstractive layer to transcend the limitations of conventional infrastructures, allowing administrators to manage hundreds of billions of files and exabyts of data within a scale up/scale out architecture. It supports a general compute, HPC cluster capable architecture that delivers data accessibility of 600-1200GB/s within a single global namespace. It offers all expected enterprise data services and features plus many exclusive capabilities.