BlueArc has launched its Mercury series network storage platform in a bid to address the storage challenges faced by many midsize companies.
Michael Gustafson, president and CEO of BlueArc, said that as the volume of unstructured, file-based data continues to explode, and retention and archiving demands increase, companies of all sizes are struggling to keep pace.
He said that while traditional network storage solutions have offered some relief, they have resulted in the unintended creation of storage silos, filer sprawl, poor utilization rates and lagging performance.
BlueArc Mercury has been designed to address these storage inefficiencies with a powerful file system and hardware platform that allows companies to consolidate users, applications and storage systems in order to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their storage infrastructure, all without giving up performance.
"Many midsize companies face enterprise-sized storage challenges and until now, traditional solutions have created unintended downstream challenges and costs," said Gustafson.
"The Mercury Series brings the power of five generations of proven BlueArc technology to the customer who’s unwilling to compromise on price, scalability or performance."
The Mercury platform is the first to deliver the company’s advanced file system performance and crucial data management functionality at a midmarket price point.
Mercury’s performance and scalability support greater utilization of storage infrastructure to increase storage efficiency and promote consolidation.
At the heart of Mercury is SiliconFS, BlueArc’s field-proven and award-winning file system. SiliconFS is the central engine that manages all data movement within Mercury, delivering sustained, predictable performance across the storage infrastructure.
It includes a comprehensive virtualization tool set which simplifies administration of the file system, as well as enabling BlueArc Intelligent Tiered Storage.
Intelligent Tiered Storage comprises BlueArc Data Migration and Dynamic Read Caching capabilities, which are supported by policy-based management functionality.
These advanced features allow administrators to set policies based on common file attributes or access patterns to ensure that data is automatically and transparently migrated to the appropriate tier of storage—optimizing cost and performance.
Bridget Warwick, vice president of marketing at BlueArc, said more and more, customers have created tiers of storage within their infrastructures in order to match the value of the content being stored to the right-value storage tier.
"However, what they have found is that it is tremendously difficult, if not impossible, to actually move the data from one tier and system to another," she said.
"With BlueArc’s built-in intelligent tiering, customers can employ policies to quickly and transparently move data from one tier to another without affecting system performance or requiring administrative time."
When delivered through the BlueArc Mercury platform, SiliconFS helps customers consolidate their unwieldy legacy storage environments, improve their storage utilization ratios, and simplify the administration of their infrastructure, all of which result in cost savings and reduced complexity.
