Software defined scale-out NAS extends your Data Lake from core to edge: IsilonSD Edge NAS software

When people consider enterprise data growth, they often focus on the ‘core’ IT within the corporate headquarters and datacenter. But what’s happening further away from the core – at your remote offices and branch offices?

We all know that the amount of enterprise data requiring storage is doubling every 2–3 years (according to analyst IDC’s ‘Digital Universe’ study). Managing these ever-growing quantities of (mostly unstructured) data is a constant challenge for most enterprises.

At the enterprise core, EMC Isilon is already addressing that challenge. The Isilon data lake offering helps you consolidate your data, eliminate storage silos, simplify management, increase data protection, and gain value from your data assets. Isilon’s built-in multi-protocol capabilities support a wide range of traditional and next-gen applications – including data analytics that can be used to gain better insights to accelerate your business.

But data is also growing at enterprise edge locations. A recent ESG study (“Remote Office/Branch Office Technology Trends”, May 2015) showed that 68% of organizations now have an average of more than 10 TB of data stored at each branch office – while only 23% reported this amount of edge-stored data in 2011.

If your enterprise has fast-growing data at edge locations, you may find yourself constantly struggling with the common challenges of ‘ROBO’ (Remote Office / Branch Office) IT. These edge locations typically have limited IT resources, inefficient islands of disconnected storage, under-utilized storage capacity, and inconsistent data protection and backups.

If only you could extend the advantages of the data lake, right out to the edge of your organization – including the ability to seamlessly run analytics with all your data, whether created and stored at the core or the edge.

This is one reason why we created EMC IsilonSD Edge – a new software defined solution to address your data storage challenges in remote and branch offices at the enterprise edge.

IsilonSD Edge embodies the key benefits and power of Isilon scale-out NAS – in a new Software Defined NAS Storage solution that runs in a familiar VMware environment, on the industry-standard ‘commodity’ server hardware already found at your edge locations.

The following table summarizes common features and differences between Isilon and IsilonSD Edge:

Product Comparison Isilon

IsilonSD Edge offers a cost-efficient ‘pay as you grow’ model, so you don’t pay for more capacity than you need. You can start at each edge location with a minimum cluster of 3 server nodes, to meet your near-term storage needs. Over time, you can add more capacity or performance as needed – up to a total of 6 nodes per cluster, providing up to 36 TB of raw storage capacity. Adding storage is even accompanied by automatic rebalancing of data between all nodes.

IsilonSD Edge also allows you to consolidate your data from your existing storage devices at the edge – and simultaneously extend your data lake for full data visibility out to the edge. It also increases data protection by automatically replicating edge data to the core with WAN efficiency. This has the added benefit of eliminating the need for failure-prone tape backup procedures at your remote or branch offices. You can also push content from the core to each IsilonSD Edge cluster at the edge to provide fast local access to relevant data.

IsilonSD Edge deployment

The ‘brains’ behind Isilon has always been the OneFS operating system – advanced NAS software now in its 8th generation. OneFS provides a range of powerful services and features, including data management, performance management, data protection and security. IsilonSD Edge runs the same OneFS software that runs on the Isilon appliance. A key benefit of having the same OneFS NAS software both in the datacenter core and at the edge is that it provides simplified data and storage management, making it easy for an administrator to manage large quantities of storage across the organization. You manage the edge with the same tools, policies and procedures that you have in place at the core.

Having this consistency of management at the edge and the core means that it takes fewer admins to manage more storage, thus lowering your OpEx. IsilonSD Edge will increase IT visibility at the edge, providing improved governance and efficient management.

IsilonSD Edge is available in two versions. Start with the ‘free and frictionless’ download for trial and non-production use. When you’re ready for production, it’s easy to convert your trial version to the licensed version with full EMC support.

Simplify management by taking control of growing data at your edge locations. To find out more, follow the links below – or contact your EMC sales rep or authorized reseller.

Learn more about optimizing the enterprise edge with EMC IsilonSD Edge.

Check out more Isilon solutions at the EMC store.

About the Author: Sri Seshadri

Sri Seshadri is a Product Marketing Manager for Dell EMC Isilon since 2013. Sri has over 15 years of Product Marketing experience and has a graduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Houston. When he’s not busy working, he likes to travel.