AWS re 13 Storage Products For AWS Clouds

Storage On Full Display

Storage is a key building block of public and private clouds, and that makes storage a key part of this week's AWS re:Invent.

Several vendors used the conference to show a variety of storage hardware and software taking advantage of Amazon Web Services for data migration, data protection, disaster recovery and other purposes.

Intrigued by the possibilities? Then turn the page and go with CRN to visit AWS re:Invent and some of the storage technologies shown there.

Avere Systems: NAS To The Cloud

Avere Systems, the Pittsburgh-based developer of technology for using NAS in the cloud, used AWS re:Invent to introduce a virtual NAS solution with the ability to deploy and scale compute in the cloud with both on-premises and cloud-based storage resources.

Version 4.5 of Avere’s flagship operating system delivers the company's Virtual FXT Edge Filers for use within the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). The software-only version of Avere’s FXT Edge Filer series helps businesses connect their compute cloud, storage cloud and on-premises storage with a scalable and affordable solution.

CloudBerry Lab: Compress, Encrypt Data Before Sending To Cloud

The new CloudBerry Backup solution from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based CloudBerry Lab compresses and encrypts data using customer keys before transferring that data to the cloud. Data can be restored with just a few clicks.

CloudBerry Backup works with all major cloud storage providers. To set it up, partners just connect a customer's cloud storage account with CloudBerry software and then configure a backup job with a step-by-step Backup Wizard.

CommVault: Automating Data Protection For AWS Workloads

CommVault, Oceanport, N.J., has added data management and protection support for AWS that includes robust cloud reporting and self-service virtual machine provisioning, recovery and resource management with snapshot-based data protection.

In addition to existing support for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Glacier, CommVault has introduced automated virtual machine provisioning and life-cycle management for workloads running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

CommVault also has been designated by Amazon Web Services as an Advanced Technology Partner and a Storage Competency Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN).

CTERA: Designated As Storage Partner

CTERA, a New York-based developer of cloud storage acceleration technologies for remote and branch offices, said it has been designated by Amazon Web Services as a storage competency partner via the AWS Partner Network Competency Program.

CTERA's Cloud Storage Services Platform for AWS combines Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) with on-premises cloud storage gateway appliances, managed end-point software agents, and mobile apps to deliver storage, data protection and collaboration in a single solution.

DataDirect Networks: Object Storage Platform For Amazon S3

DataDirect Networks (DDN), Santa Clara, Calif., said at AWS re:Invent that its WOS S3, an Amazon S3-compatible interface for DDN's WOS object storage platform, is now generally available.

WOS is targeted at helping data-centric organizations build out private or hybrid cloud infrastructures. With WOS S3, customers get plug-and-play support for third-party ISV applications and technology partners that use the S3 API. DDN also built out its WOS Connect Partner Program to help end users and partners integrate with WOS to deliver technology solutions supported by joint sales and marketing programs.

NetApp: Showing Off Cloud ONTAP And Its New SteelStore

NetApp used AWS re:Invent to unveil Nov. 13 as the day its Cloud ONTAP will be available in the AWS Marketplace as two Amazon Machine Image (AMI) options, including Cloud ONTAP Explore and Cloud ONTAP Standard. Cloud ONTAP also is available as a six-month subscription option from NetApp.

NetApp also showed off its latest toy, the NetApp SteelStore cloud-integrated backup and archiving appliance it acquired this month from Riverbed, which lets customers securely back up and recover business data on AWS. The NetApp SteelStore appliance also will support StorageGRID Webscale, NetApp’s scalable, software-defined object storage solution.

OneCloud Software: Automating DR In AWS

Boston-based OneCloud Software used AWS re:Invent to introduce its OneCloud Recovery software for integrating existing data centers with Amazon Web Services. OneCloud Recovery provides automation, scalability and efficiency to help customers take a hybrid cloud approach to disaster recovery and business continuity.

OneCloud Recovery automates the creation of a virtual data center in AWS that can be used in place of a physical secondary data center. It integrates into existing VMware environments as a virtual appliance, and auto-discovers a company’s primary infrastructure. The software also automatically creates a virtual data center replica in AWS.

RackWare: Automating Disaster Recovery And Workload Migration

The new RackWare Management Module for AWS, scheduled to be available Nov. 24, uses AWS as an extension of a business' internal infrastructures for disaster recovery, data migrations and hybrid scaling. It automatically decouples and moves complete workloads to AWS from any source infrastructure, including physical, cloud and virtual infrastructures.

RMM for AWS also offers hybrid scaling by automatically instantiating applications in AWS when demand spikes, and dropping them back into the internal site as demand ends. It also allows customers to failover mission-critical workloads into any AWS geographical location, and failback when the primary application is up again.

Snowflake Computing: SQL-as-a-Service

The Snowflake Elastic Data Warehouse from San Mateo, Calif.-based Snowflake Computing is a new SQL data warehouse built from the ground up as a cloud service. It decouples data storage from compute to help it take better advantage of cloud elasticity, scalability and flexibility. As a native relational database with full support for standard SQL, Snowflake provides self-service access to data and lets organizations take advantage of existing tools and skills.

The Snowflake Elastic Data Warehouse is slated to ship early next year.

SoftNAS: Integration With Docker

Houston-based SoftNAS used AWS re:Invent to introduce SoftNAS Cloud 3.2, an enterprise-grade NAS filer for private, public and hybrid clouds running on such cloud platforms as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and VMware vSphere. It provides persistent shared storage to Docker containers for high-availability and scale-out clustering. SoftNAS' built-in snapshot and cloning capabilities work with Docker’s stored container output to streamline continuous deployment build/test/validate release cycles.

SoftNAS also introduced the SoftNAS Cloud Express Edition, which is priced starting at $119 per month or $0.18 per hour.

Symantec: Automated Disaster Recovery To AWS

Symantec unveiled general availability of its Disaster Recovery Orchestrator 6.1.1 at AWS re:Invent. With this release, Symantec Disaster Recovery Orchestrator adds support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a failover target. It previously supported Microsoft Azure.

Symantec Disaster Recovery Orchestrator automates and manages the takeover and failback of Microsoft Windows-based applications residing on either physical or virtual machines to the AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud. It provides for one-click, end-to-end application-based recovery for stringent recovery time objectives (RTOs) and allows for comprehensive nondisruptive disaster-recovery testing.

Zadara Storage: New High-Availability Options For Cloud DR

Irvine, Calif.-based Storage-as-a-Service technology developer Zadara Storage expanded the high-availability and data-protection options for its Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA) service. The new Multi-Zone HA capability provides the ability to protect both file-based and block-based data against disasters.

With Multi-Zone HA, Zadara gives customers a high-availability storage solution with zero RPO (recovery point objective) and zero RTO (recovery time objective), with application servers distributed across different AWS Availability Zones and storage distributed across different buildings within the same region. In addition, Zadara customers can asynchronously replicate to any of Zadara's 36 public storage clouds. Availability is scheduled for this quarter.

Zerto: DR Support Via AWS

Boston-based Zerto has extended enterprise-class disaster recovery to public clouds with its new AWS support. Scheduled to ship early next year, its software supports application-consistent, continuous replication from VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V to AWS.

Zerto Virtual Replication customers will be able to leverage AWS to either recover virtual machines in AWS or to handle long-term retention of VMware virtual machines using AWS simply as a target for offsite backup. The software features storage-agnostic and hypervisor-agnostic replication, and allows the use of consistency groups to help ensure applications with multiple virtual machines can be recovered with write-order fidelity.