Virtustream Storage Cloud: Enterprise-Class Hyper-Scale Cloud Storage for the Enterprise

At EMC World, Virtustream announced Virtustream Storage Cloud, a hyper scale object storage platform.  While this offering may be new, the cloud itself has grown organically over the past four years.  What started as a small proof-of-concept has blossomed into an enterprise-class object storage service boasting 1.78 Exabyte total capacity, supporting a Terabit per second of network ingest globally, and containing 130 billion objects.

Our announcement includes EMC storage products enabled to support Virtustream Storage Cloud, such as EMC VMAX, XtremIO, UNITY, Isilon, and Data Domain, as well as the EMC Data Protection Suite. EMC customers have a choice of a variety of cloud storage providers. With Virtustream Storage Cloud, our mutual customers receive a seamless, single-source EMC billing and support experience. Customers can extend their infrastructure investments into the cloud for longer life and greater agility.

On May 10, Virtustream Storage Cloud will be available in the US and in Europe, though clients may connect from anywhere in the world. There are four primary offerings: Standard, Standard Infrequently Accessed, Premium, and Premium Infrequently Accessed. The Standard services offer local storage protection with high durability, but for more critical data or workloads, the Premium service provides an unparalleled 13 9s durability and can withstand the loss of an entire data center, whether temporarily or permanently.  Customers may also choose Infrequent Access for archive data workloads to save on monthly data storage costs.

When customers select a Virtustream Storage Cloud offering, they should consider these general recommendations in conjunction with the advice of their experts. Traditional storage array extensions into the cloud, as from VMAX, XtremIO, and UNITY, should generally be paired with the Premium (normal) service. Data Protection Suite related data represents a strong candidate to benefit from the lower cost of the Infrequent Access storage services. Analytics workloads from Isilon would be effective on any of the services. When considering this choice, I recommend asking two questions:

  • Do I consider this my only copy of the data?”
    • Yes – Then choose the Premium service with its extreme level of data protection
    • No – The standard offering is probably sufficient
  • Am I likely to read this data?”
    • Yes – Then choose the normal services
    • No – You can reduce your storage costs with the Infrequent Access services

Fortunately, the Virtustream Storage Cloud is flexible, so your choices need not be perfect.

For enterprise developers looking to leverage the Virtustream Storage Cloud, the service follows the common S3 APIs. It is compatible with most open source libraries that facilitate using cloud storage. This service also works with open source tools such as Cyber Duck for browsing and manually controlling object content.

Customers trust their data, their most precious asset, to EMC and its storage products. Now they can seamlessly extend that trust into the Virtustream Storage Cloud. With a Virtustream connected product, EMC customers receive a unified support experience and avoid three-party calls as EMC and Virtustream collaborate behind the scenes to resolve any cloud storage challenges.

About the Author: Drew Gonczi