TMCnet News

infinite io Announces Clustering of Its Network-Based Metadata Accelerators
[November 15, 2017]

infinite io Announces Clustering of Its Network-Based Metadata Accelerators


infinite io, the developer of the award-winning Network-based Storage Controllers, today announced the clustering of its NSC-055s Network-based Metadata Accelerator for greater scale and system fault-tolerance. Metadata is data describing data. By looking at metadata, applications discover the status and state of data: things like last access time, file size, when was the last time a file was saved, or is a file open or closed. Storage systems are optimized to move data, not to respond to metadata requests, and their performance quickly degrades as metadata requests increase.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171115005180/en/

Three node cluster of metadata accelerators (Photo: Business Wire)

Three node cluster of metadata accelerators (Photo: Business Wire)

With the new clustered accelerators, enterprises will see an immediate and significant improvement in storage system performance as the NSC-055s off-loads metadata processing from installed storage. Metadata processing is put directly in the network, freeing storage systems from the performance-killing burden of serving up metadata requests. "It is a well-known fact that in the typical storage workflow, most of the requests made to storage systems are metadata requests," said Mark Cree (News - Alert), CEO of infinite io. "Once installed, we've seen the NSC-055s offload as much as ninety percent of all requests going to storage, and our customers ave seen dramatic reductions in workflow processing and response times."



Installs like a network switch and makes metadata acceleration totally transparent

Clustered NSC-055s install like a network switch. The NSC-055s does not require applications to be re-provisioned or storage to be virtualized with new file paths. Installing transparently in front of existing storage, the NSC-055s seamlessly intercepts and responds to metadata requests.


"The NSC-055s is a no brainer for simulation, design, rendering, software build, and EDA applications where it can deliver performance numbers that no storage system alone can match," said Steve Duplessie, Founding Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (News - Alert) (ESG). "infinite io's transparent approach makes this a simple plug-and-play performance enhancement."

Performance no storage system can match

A three-node cluster of the NSC-055s can serve up to 3,000,000 metadata requests per second with an average latency of 65 microseconds. For a comparison, the fastest, state-of-the-art, all-flash arrays typically respond to metadata requests with an average latency of 500 - 1,000 microseconds - over ten times slower.

"With infinite io installed we saw a significant reduction in workflow processing times," said Rhian Resnick, assistant director of Middleware and HPC, Florida Atlantic University.

Clustered accelerators contain copies of all the metadata stored in the attached storage. The copies are kept current in real-time using deep packet inspection.

Increased scale and fault-tolerance

The new clustered accelerators provide expanded connectivity and enhanced fault-tolerance. Multiple accelerators can be clustered to form a single logical unit, allowing customers to grow network connections as needed by simply adding accelerators. Clusters start with three accelerators and twenty-four 10Gbps port pairs. Clustering accelerators also provides a new level of redundancy that meets or exceeds traditional storage systems and can survive accelerator, network, and storage system failures.

Availability and upgradeability

Clustered NSC-055s are available for immediate shipment. NSC-055s clusters are software upgradeable, while in production, to Network-based Storage Controllers which provide additional features to transparently migrate inactive data off installed primary storage to a private or public cloud.

About infinite io, inc.

Our mission at infinite io is to provide our customers with the best possible product experience. Our team has a track record of developing market-defining solutions in network routing and switching, security, high-speed packet inspection, and storage networking. Designed to be remotely managed and easily upgradeable, our products proactively self-monitor and make initial configuration and ongoing support a straight-forward and hassle-free experience. Please visit our website at www.infinite.io for more information.


[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]