SGI ArcFiniti From 156TB to 1.4PB

SGI  announced the SGI ArcFiniti data archive solution, an integrated disk-based solution that targets the problem of unstructured, file-based data sprawl.

One year after SGI’s acquisition of COPAN MAID technology, the ArcFiniti introduction is the company’s second enhancement to the platform. It brings to the general IT market a solution that leverages industry-leading tools for managing and protecting some of the world’s largest data repositories.

SGI’s ArcFiniti archive solution provides high-performance network access that offers performance, accessibility and long-term data integrity advantages over tape. Leveraging SGI technology to significantly reduce power consumption and ensure data integrity, ArcFiniti configures to more than 1.4 PB of usable storage in a single rack. That volume of storage is equivalent to roughly 20 years of HD-TV video or 10 billion photos on Facebook.

Extreme density and lower power usage offer operational cost savings of more than 95 percent compared to other disk-based solutions, while providing users with immediate and network-accessible access to protected archived data. There is no archive solution available today with better utilization or a greener footprint than SGI’s ArcFiniti.

"There is a massive data deluge in the market today. Organizations are dealing with explosive amounts of data, particularly unstructured content that must be managed and protected," said Sheila Childs, research director in Gartner’s Storage Strategies and Technologies group. "Purpose-built archiving solutions that provide for simple management of aging data represent an opportunity for organizations to get control of data growth, even as they wrestle with requirements for compliance and data preservation while simultaneously trying to improve backup operations and cost."

As an integrated solution, users can access ArcFiniti via high-performance network connections for high-volume throughput into its primary disk cache. This cache is virtualized to the archive tier and managed in the background by an automated archive policy engine. All files are always available in an online state, ensuring that archive content is protected for long-term retention in the most cost-effective storage tier.

"SGI is delivering a very elegant and simple solution to what is a common but complex challenge for many of our customers," said Brent Van Scyoc, vice president Federal Solutions Group at Alliance Technology Group, LLC. "Customers need a reliable, scalable archive solution that can be dropped into an existing work environment and grow with the business. SGI ArcFiniti delivers such a solution, and we are excited to work with SGI to bring this to our customers."

ArcFiniti is designed not only to house archived data, but also to protect it for long-term retention. Employing software to proactively monitor the health of the hardware and the integrity of the data, ArcFiniti ensures that archived data remains valid and accessible many years later. If ArcFiniti detects mechanical problems, it proactively migrates data and verifies data integrity while alerting administrators to replace the faulty part. This reduces the need to take the system offline for costly RAID rebuilds due to disk errors.

"SGI has a long history of managing some of the world’s largest and most complex archives," said Bill Mannel, vice president of product marketing at SGI. "With ArcFiniti, we bring this experience to the general IT market in an easy-to-use and integrated data archive solution. ArcFiniti solves one of the major storage problems facing the industry today – unstructured, file-based data sprawl."

SGI’s expertise in managing very large archives is also available to customers via Archive Analysis Service from SGI Professional Services. It offers an analysis of data usage patterns in existing storage infrastructures, and identifies opportunities for reducing primary disk storage and backup media usage. IT managers are better equipped to understand areas where inactive data is filling up active storage silos and better plan for the future.

ArcFiniti will be available in five factory-integrated configurations, ranging in size from 156 TB to 1.4 PB of usable archive capacity before compression. Powered by Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, the solution is designed for easy ordering and deployment, and is particularly well suited for easy access to offload archive data from existing data center infrastructures.

ArcFiniti is available for preorder from SGI.