Pillar Promotes Application-Aware Storage

Pillar Data Systems has unveiled a new "application aware storage" capability for its Axiom arrays. Claiming an industry first, Pillar says the feature automatically assigns LUNs to specific applications based on values and characteristics of those apps.

Storage managers select storage capacity, I/O rate, and priority of assignment to disk via drop-down menus that specify the application's behavior -- whether it's transaction-intensive, for instance. A variety of application types are supported, including email, SQL databases, Oracle databases, business intelligence applications, and unstructured data stores.

The feature, now an integral part of Axiom's operating system, supports storage of apps from virtual, as well as physical environments, Pillar says. And all on a single platform supporting SAN and NAS, 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel, SATA and Fibre Channel drives, and, through partnerships, de-duplication.

The announcement is reminiscent of Pillar's claims nearly three years ago, in June 2005. At that time, the vendor boasted software for configuring data placement on disk, spindle striping levels, mirroring, and network bandwidth.

Back then, Pillar also claimed to have caching algorithms that let storage managers prioritize specific applications in the Axiom system. For instance, Pillar said database applications that require fast access could be stored in the outer edge of an Axiom disk, where data rates are higher, while lower-priority data could be stored in the inside tracks with lower data rates.