Qumulo, the simple way to manage exabyte-scale data anywhere, recently introduced its next version of the Scale Anywhere Platform, which empowers enterprises to overcome the challenges posed by unstructured data, providing a unified and scalable solution that drives efficiency, security, and business agility.
To find out more, VMblog spoke with Ryan Farris, VP of Product and Product Marketing at Qumulo.
VMblog: Unstructured data keeps growing exponentially. How is it changing storage?
Ryan Farris: It’s true – data is doubling every 18-20 months. But it’s more than that – where data is created, managed, and used is also changing rapidly. It’s migrating from data centers to both the edge and multiple clouds.
Legacy data storage solutions were built for this “Data Anywhere” world. Legacy solutions tend to have one type of data and location in which they work best (file data at the data center, object in the cloud, etc.). But this makes managing all of this data impossibly complex.
What’s needed is a single data storage solution that works the same way anywhere (edge, core, or cloud) with any kind of data (file or object, and protocol, etc.). Of course, to make that work requires a solution that is 100% software-based, not something built on a proprietary hardware platform. Only 100% software-based solutions can truly run anywhere.
That’s the basis of Qumulo’s new Scale AnywhereTM storage platform.
VMblog: What’s holding companies back from moving file data to the cloud?
Ryan Farris: The big one is cost. Storing file data (which is the majority of an enterprise’s data) is exorbitantly expensive. But, beyond that, there are no solutions that run equally well on-premises as in the cloud. And running different solutions adds a horrible layer of complexity.
Qumulo’s new Azure Native Cloud fixes this. Costs are 80% less than the closest native file service solution on the cloud. In fact, the cost is the same (or even less) that storing file data on-premises. And it’s really straightforward to estimate, as Azure Native Qumulo does not charge for API transactions!
Management complexity. Legacy storage solutions are built on proprietary hardware appliances. Try moving that to the cloud! It’s impossible, which explains why the legacy vendors are struggling to address cloud.
Making cloud storage simple requires using the exact same software on-premises as in the cloud, and that requires a 100% software-only solution.
There is a second problem that comes with having data spread out over multiple edge and data center locations and multiple clouds. Naming. The conventions for naming are different everywhere, and that makes it very difficult for workers to find and access distributed data.
Qumulo’s Global NameSpace (Q-GNS) fixes this. It normalizes all file naming so data at the edge, core, and cloud all use identical naming conventions. Further, it allows users anywhere to access any data as if it were local – even if it is halfway around the world. We deliver an amazing customer experience by pre-fetching the data upon access, which delivers snappy performance even across a WAN link.
Control, security, and compliance. When it’s in the cloud, data locality, ownership and control must be clearly defined in contractual agreements, consistent with applicable laws, between an enterprise and the vendor. Many cloud platforms offer compliance certifications and attestations for multiple laws, standards, and frameworks, but it’s still on the enterprise to verify the security and integrity of their systems data when moving to the cloud.
VMblog: What does it mean for organizations?
Ryan Farris: Even with a few challenges, the tailwinds pushing unstructured data to the cloud are just too strong. Enterprises can’t keep stacking more racks and renting more floor space in the data center to keep pace with the explosion and spreading of data today. Organizations are embracing workloads like generative AI that rely on file data and hybrid workflows that push data to be more mobile and distributed than ever before. Also, with the on-going rise of cloud-native applications, organizations are realizing that the cloud is moving closer and closer to the center of the modern data lifecycle.
VMblog: Qumulo has talked about “scale anywhere.” What does that mean?
Ryan Farris: In a nutshell, Scale AnywhereTM means being able to manage your data regardless of where it is generated, managed, or consumed. It means using the same storage platform everywhere you touch data. And it means easy movement of data between locations, of – even better – access data as if it were local anywhere in the world, even if that data is half a world away.
All of this with tried and true hardened enterprise data services – fine grained snapshotting, quota management, data movement, simple but powerful integration to networks and active directories – all identical on-prem and in the public cloud.
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