Caringo says its platform creates a scalable, flat address space for use in storing digital content and file-based data while virtualizing storage across standard servers. The supplier says CAStor creates a low-cost cluster via USB drives plugged into the servers. CAStor clusters scale from 1 Tbyte to multiple Pbytes in a single tier of storage, according to the vendor.
For DICE's Marciano, other additions besides the clustering have clinched his use of CAStor. "Im especially interested in a new feature called Wide Area Replication in CAStor 2.2, he said. Essentially, we can grow our own cluster much like we are now, and we can replicate from one cluster to another." Marciano's team is already replicating data across their three-node cluster in San Diego, but they will use the CAStor feature to extend the HASS Grid across ten campuses in the statewide university system.
"WAN replication fits right into a university environment where shared content is paramount," Marciano noted. "Basically, it gives us the opportunity to grow locally while still building distributed capacity across the entire network.
This kind of flexibility will be critical to the project's future:
With well over a petabyte of data, the archiving project is growing exponentially. And although CAS storage is just one part of the groups entire storage strategy, Caringos CAStor 2.2 has provided a number of advantages that it may want to pursue in other projects.
CAStor 2.2 allows us to go beyond virtualizing storage across a cluster to scaling across clusters and replicating content in a wide area network, choosing what collections are replicated and how, based on sets of rules a user can set up, Marciano said. These features really interest us in moving forward.