Cleversafe Upgrades Its Dispersed Storage Network Technology

Cleversafe Inc., provider of Dispersed Storage technology, announced new data storage appliance and software upgrades for the company’s core Dispersed Storage Network (dsNet) technology. The new release provides the most dynamic, cost-effective, and energy-efficient way to store and distribute exabytes of unstructured digital data.

                  
                            Cleversafe Dispersed Storage Network

With the new release, Cleversafe has unveiled Smart Client, the foundation for next-generation Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).  Current CDNs lack the ability to dynamically switch servers or networks if they slow down during delivery, meaning the potential for end-user performance snags is high. With Cleversafe, after every 4k downloaded, each client (computer, phone, etc.) independently reassesses its access choice hundreds of times per second for delivery efficiencies and speed, all in real time.

“Cleversafe has allowed us to effectively distribute terabytes of stored digital data to tens of thousands of registered viewers around the world,” said Bruce DuMont, founder and president of Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications, a non-profit source for historic and contemporary radio and television programming. “The time and money we saved from implementing from this storage and delivery solution is everything – we couldn’t afford to operate on this scale without it.”

“Many organizations would like to find ways to distribute a diverse range of content types in real time to thousands of clients, but do so in ways that are realistic with regards to today’s economic climate,” said John Webster, principal IT advisor at Illuminata. “Cleversafe’s Smart Client technology allows these organizations to distribute rich content to both wired and wireless devices in a way that is secure and cost-effective.”

IDC predicts that digital content and replicated data will exceed 2810 exabytes by 2011. The traditional approach to storage – which relies on making copies – means increased cost and management challenges due to the overhead associated with duplicating large files of unstructured data. Cleversafe’s technology avoids the inefficiency and cost of replication by dividing and dispersing data into secure ‘slices’ to multiple storage nodes on a Dispersed Storage Network (dsNet) – the sum of which is less than maintaining multiple copies of the original data.

In addition to the release of Smart Client, Cleversafe’s latest dispersed storage server and router (the Slicestor 2000 and Accesser 2000 appliances) now require 54% less power and include 33% more raw storage capacity at a reduced cost compared to their predecessors. The new network manager appliance, the Manager 2000, offers 3x the device management capacity of previous Managers.

“The data storage and delivery demands of today’s enterprises will become more challenging as data pools expand,” said Chris Gladwin, CEO of Cleversafe. “We are constantly fine-tuning our technology to ensure that it aligns with our customers’ needs, both as they are now and however they may evolve over time. This addition of Smart Client to our already-proven solution allows our customers peace of mind in the new world of digital content storage and presentation.”