SwiftStack, the leader in a new breed of object storage, today announced SwiftStack 4.0, the latest version of its object storage software with new customer-driven capabilities that deliver scale and metadata search as well as plans for file native access and cloud synchronization. These new features are designed to further simplify and accelerate customer journeys from traditional file systems to more flexible, scalable cloud infrastructures.

The new SwiftStack 4.0 software features dramatically increase operations at scale and provide analytics-ready search integration, fulfilling object storage's full potential. With its modern scale-out architecture, SwiftStack in 2016 will introduce universal access to scale-out object storage as well as synchronization with any Amazon S3-based public cloud, making it easier for applications, users and their customers to access data regardless of where it is created.

"The world's business models require the benefits of cloud infrastructure of some kind for every industry and sector - from life sciences and digital media to government and enterprise environments," said Joe Arnold, chief product officer and co-founder of SwiftStack. "Organizations continue to demand storage that is easier to consume and to pay for storage as they grow. SwiftStack was founded to help customers on this journey from the infrastructure they've had to the architecture they need. Our product enhancements in 2016 give them storage for today's applications and sets them on the path to scale their applications of tomorrow."

"After years of being dismissed as an archival storage platform, object-based storage is re-emerging as the technology of choice for massive cloud storage platforms and media delivery systems as well as for enterprises that are finally becoming aware of the power and flexibility that a metadata-rich storage environment can provide. Object storage such as SwiftStack's latest platform is proving to be the multi-tool of the modern storage industry, offering the ability to deliver file and object-based front end capabilities while providing exceptional data protection, analytics and policy management in the background," said Steven Hill, 451 Research senior storage analyst.

"Our customers are attracted to the ease of use and simplicity around our offerings with SwiftStack, and we're seeing a lot of excitement," said Gary Hutchins Director of Architecture for VeriStor. "As data grows at a furious pace, most customers find it difficult and expensive to increase storage agility and efficiency while keeping cost down, at or below other offerings. With SwiftStack we can do that, and the added features in the 4.0 launch will help our customers get even more benefit from using object storage."

Enterprise private cloud storage with public cloud consumption and simplicity

By taking advantage of greater scale and policy-based data movement, SwiftStack customers are transforming their private IT infrastructure with the greater access and cost effectiveness of public cloud.

"Going into our project, we wanted a partner we could continue working with after the deployment happened. SwiftStack is a leader in object storage, and when we met them for our project, we left the room feeling it wasn't a typical vendor meeting. SwiftStack has really taken care of us, and they know what they are building," said Suchisubhra Sinha, Infrastructure Architect at Autodesk.

New SwiftStack 4.0 innovations introduced today include:

• Integrated load balancing reduces the need for expensive dedicated network hardware and minimizes latency and bandwidth costs while scaling to larger numbers of nodes
• Metadata search increases business value by integrating with third-party indexing and search services to make stored object data analytics-ready
• SwiftStack Drive is an optional desktop client that enables access to cluster data directly from desktops or laptops
• Enhanced management with new IPv6 support, capacity planning and advanced data migration tools

As the use of cloud storage grows, ongoing software releases from SwiftStack will provide constant access to unstructured data regardless of how the files are created and as applications evolve. SwiftStack is currently leading open-source community development efforts to integrate scale-out file services alongside S3 and Swift-based object APIs, without the need for additional gateways. The company will also introduce centralized policies that replicate object data stored on-premises with any AWS S3-compatible cloud, allowing enterprises to access and protect data in private and public clouds using the same methods.