Updated Isilon NAS OS

 At EMC World 2013, EMC Corp. is preparing the next version of its Isilon OneFS scale-out NAS OS.

Building on the late-2012 launch of OneFS 7.0 (Mavericks), the next version of the OS will extend customers’ ability to harness the transformational power of big data.

The new version will include data deduplication capabilities, audit and security features, as well as enhancements for object-oriented storage, Hadoop HDFS 2.0 and Syncplicity enterprise file sharing.

These capabilities will enable enterprises to extend the scalability and efficiency of Isilon’s solutions to meet an broadening range of next-generation cloud-based, big data analytics and mobile workflows and applications.

The enterprise storage landscape is rapidly transforming as traditional IT requirements for data protection, security and performance combine with the challenges of managing large, rapidly growing file-based and unstructured big data environments. Isilon’s scale-out NAS solutions, for massively scalable, highly efficient storage that is simple to manage, will incorporate the type of efficiency, compliance and security features that enterprises need to leverage the transformative power of big data while meeting large-scale corporate IT requirements.

Enterprise Customer Benefits in OneFS

• 
  Improved storage efficiency – To support more demanding applications and workloads across the enterprise, the next version of OneFS will enable storage administrators to configure a set-and-forget block-level deduplication policy ranging from individual directories up through the complete storage pool. By providing an automated way to drive yet greater levels of storage efficiency across datasets, organizations can further reduce operating costs while enhancing Isilon’s utilization levels.
• Enhanced security and compliance – The release of OneFS will bring enterprise enhancements for regulatory compliance. OneFS integrated support for the EMC Common Event Enabler (CEE) will provide access to audit software applications to allow the recording of all file access over SMB/CIFS protocols and to facilitate report creation and chain of custody tracking to meet regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.

Isilon is also announcing enhancements to its OS intended to support its customers in their transformation to next-generation workflows and applications focused on cloud-based data access, big data analytics, and mobility.

As customers build these next generation applications, they are looking for new web-scale interfaces to compliment traditional file interfaces. Based on this, and in an effort to provide its customers with the broadest range of options regarding object-oriented storage access, Isilon announced:

• Integration with ViPR software-defined storage through which Isilon will extend the scalability and efficiency of its scale-out architecture to object storage. This integration opens up new options for access to object storage APIs from Amazon S3, EMC Atmos and others.
• OneFS now incorporates a REST Object Access to Namespace interface which provides access to data and is part of the Platform API which enables automation, orchestration and management of storage.
• For customers that are deploying the OpenStack ecosystem and want to leverage this integration with storage, Isilon will be supporting OpenStack Swift and Cinder integration, delivering an enterprise storage solution, increasing reliability, security, efficiency and enterprise interoperability.

As a storage solution to offer a native Hadoop integration with HDFS for big data analytics, Isilon continues is adding a native Hadoop HDFS 2.0 integration. With simultaneous support of HDFS 1.0 and 2.0, it allows customers to try new distributions before converting to 2.0, and allows the export of the same data in multiple ways. This new integration supports Pivotal HD (formerly Greenplum HD) for SQL queries on the Hadoop data store.

Isilon’s recent integration with Syncplicity online file sharing improves business productivity by offering a flexible, cloud-based solution with the IT management visibility required for enterprise control over data and storage resources. It also reduces risk by providing a secure, encrypted, on-premise file storage solution to meet IT governance and protection requirements while providing users a ‘frictionless’ environment where they can easily sync, access, and share files at any time, from anywhere, and from any device.

The next version of OneFS is expected to be delivered by later this year. The REST Object Access to Namespace, HDFS 2.0 and Syncplicity on Isilon are available and will also be supported on the next version of OneFS.

Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, said: "The newest version of EMC Isilon OneFS is well aligned to help their customers meet the new challenges facing today’s enterprise IT environments – driving mobility, analytics and cloud initiatives and doing so in a secure and efficient manner. EMC’s customers will welcome the addition of deduplication, audit and security features that can help ensure compliance across industries. This evolution of OneFS demonstrates EMC’s commitment to tailoring scale-out NAS for today and tomorrow’s enterprise market."

David Floyer, co-founder and CTO, Wikibon, said: "Storage executives in the Wikibon community are increasingly looking to scale-out architectures that provide a broadening set of solutions. The EMC Isilon platform expands the options for enterprise scale-out storage with the inclusion of integrated Hadoop HDFS big data support, object storage interfaces (including Amazon S3, Atmos and OpenStack), de-duplication and converged infrastructure support of VCE’s Vblock."

Bill Richter, president, Isilon storage division, EMC, said: "EMC Isilon’s OneFS OS is the gold standard for scale-out NAS – and now it’s even more efficient and secure while enabling compliance with critical industry regulations. Additionally, the integration of OneFS with EMC ViPR, Hadoop HDFS 2.0 and Syncplicity illustrates how open and flexible EMC’s Isilon scale-out NAS offering is – and the ability to support big data, mobile and cloud-based workflows makes this a critical solution for enterprises today."