EMC Brings Big Data To The Cloud With Atmos 2.0

EMC is looking to push its cloud storage platform, Atmos, further into the cloud by improving efficiency, increasing capacity and enhancing ease of use. And with the release of version 2.0 of the Atmos software, EMC is claiming that the software is 500% faster than version 1.

July 8, 2011

4 Min Read
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EMC is looking to push its cloud storage platform, Atmos, further into the cloud by improving efficiency, increasing capacity and enhancing ease of use. And with the release of version 2.0 of the Atmos software, EMC is claiming that the software is 500% faster than version 1.

Efficiency and data protection is also improved by Atmos’ ability to store parts of objects--or segments--instead of whole objects across distributed Atmos boxes. EMC says this GeoParity scheme now makes Atmos 65% more efficient at storing and protecting data in a four-site deployment.

EMC also claims that Atmos is easier than ever to use, thanks to its GeoDrive software, which is an integral part of the Atmos version 2.0 platform. GeoDrive, which is installed on Windows endpoints, allows users to drag and drop files as if they were using a local drive or folder to an Atmos GeoDrive, which is physically located at an Atmos cloud storage facility. EMC says users can benefit from Atmos’ cloud storage paradigm in just a matter of minutes, thanks to a simple installation that gives instant access to cloud-based storage.

As a platform, Atmos version 2 offers several other features that tie cloud-based storage to big data and application use. The big data paradigm is supported by the inherent scalability of the Atmos platform, on which sites can be added to increase storage relatively simply. For those looking to manage cloud-based storage offerings, Atmos includes several management features and controls that allow administrators to provision cloud-based storage quickly and easily.

Atmos Cloud Delivery Platform enables:

  • Cloud service management, which provides end users with the ability to provision groups and users, control access, provision storage and view utilization;

  • Multitenant administration, including the ability to view tenant utilization through an API or portal, which offers necessary control and management capabilities for the IT manager, tenant administrator and end users;

  • Metering module, for tracking disk utilization, I/O, metadata operations, and applied policies by tenant to facilitate billing and chargebacks;

  • Cloud delivery platform portal, which provides self-service identity provisioning, delegation and utilization monitoring through a rich user interface.

    Atmos GeoDrive further enables support for big data and data resiliency. EMC Atmos GeoDrive enables a single user or application to access a storage cloud instantly from any Microsoft Windows desktop or server anywhere, without writing a single line of code. Atmos GeoDrive software installs easily and behaves like local storage by creating a virtual drive on which users can place files and folders for upload to the cloud. It enables users to store, protect and access data in two ways: It can store data copies both locally and in the cloud, or push all content to the cloud.EMC is also offering an Atmos Virtual Edition, which offers the core benefits and features of EMC Atmos in a virtualized environment. EMC is promoting the virtual edition as a way to deliver web-enabled, policy-managed, scalable cloud storage solutions for both private and public cloud use.

    Atmos Virtual Edition is tied to EMC’s storage products, such as EMC Celerra, EMC CLARiiON and EMC Symmetrix products, but will also work with any VMware-certified storage solutions. Ideally, IT managers will be able to use the virtual edition to leverage existing EMC products to build cloud-based storage solutions that can later be transitioned to pure Atmos platforms.

    According to EMC, Atmos Virtual Edition supports content-rich applications with easy-to-adopt APIs, scales elastically with non-disruptive expansions, and gives application developers and end users instant access to storage with minimal IT provisioning and process.

    Atmos Virtual Edition Provides:

  • Common APIs, which allow users to access storage resources instantly with representational state transfer (REST) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) web services APIs across EMC Atmos, Atmos Virtual Edition and Atmos-powered external clouds;

  • Policy-based information management for improving operational efficiency with easy-to-set policies for content protection, distribution and additional data services;

  • Infinite scalability, providing the ability to scale easily on demand with no provisioning required;

  • GeoProtect, with which users will gain advanced protection techniques designed specifically for distributed cloud environments;

  • Object metadata, for refining content distribution, improving searches and building custom views for cloud-based services;

  • Multitenancy, which allows organizations to achieve economies of scale by securely serving multiple applications from a single infrastructure;

  • Unified namespace for simplifying storage environments and supporting application scale, as well as managing and presenting information as a single entity; and

  • Application diversity, supporting business-critical applications including backup and archiving, collaboration and content distribution.

    EMC seems to be staking its cloud storage future on Atmos, and by offering a virtual version that leverages VMware-certified storage solutions, the company should garner new customers that are looking to try things the EMC way.

    See more on this topic by subscribing to Network Computing Pro Reports Research: Cloud Storage (subscription required).

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