Software-Defined Storage

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Solve Software-Defined Storage Challenges with Aberdeen

Software-defined storage (SDS) has emerged as a promising solution to help organizations cope with skyrocketing data storage requirements. Yet IT departments are discovering that implementing software-defined storage introduces a new set of challenges: the proprietary systems that offer the greatest performance often come with significant costs, while the cost-savings of off-the-shelf solutions are mitigated by complex and time-consuming management tasks.

As a leading manufacturer of servers and storage solutions, Aberdeen solves the challenge of software-defined storage solutions with SDS Plus™, a family of products that delivers the performance of proprietary systems using low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware.

The Challenge of Software-Defined Storage

Software-defined storage unbundles the software required to manage storage from the hardware on which data is stored, creating a pool of storage resources that are managed through a single layer of software. By separating these two critical technologies, organizations can avoid vendor lock-in and dependence on proprietary hardware. With software-defined storage, organizations can build storage solutions with affordable, commodity server hardware, enjoying significant cost-savings over traditional proprietary systems.

However, the flexibility and cost-savings of software-defined storage can be quickly mitigated by the complexity and time required to manage a diverse collection of hardware devices and platforms. A number of software-defined storage vendors have created proprietary SDS storage solutions that deliver comprehensive capabilities and superior performance, but also have a high price tag and some difficulty interfacing with legacy and existing storage infrastructure. These obstacles have caused many IT departments to deploy off-the-shelf solutions and a do-it-yourself approach to building software-defined storage. But many IT teams adopting this solution have found themselves in over their heads and unable to efficiently build, manage and tune a software-defined storage system on their own.

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Aberdeen SDS Plus™ Delivers the Best of Both Worlds

Aberdeen SDS Plus solutions are a family of powerful, next-generation, off-the-shelf enterprise storage solutions that deliver the kind performance that, until now, has only been available in considerably higher priced proprietary systems. SDS Plus includes the AberSAN ZXP4 series of storage appliances and Aberdeen’s Petarack™.

AberSAN ZXP4 storage appliances offer:

High availability with the most flexible growth SAN
RAID-Z advanced storage technology
Expandable SAS2 storage beyond 1PB
Shared pools of storage from any combination of storage hardware
Unlimited snapshots and clones
Unlimited file size
Block and file-based replication
End-to-end data integrity
Integrated search
In-line deduplication
Multiuser write (file-level or block-level access)
Inherent virtualization enabling
Thin provisioning
I/O pooling

The Aberdeen Petarack provides:

Host capacity that can scale to 8.6 PB of continuous, uninterrupted storage in a single rack
An intuitive web-based GUI management for configuring arrays and controlling enterprise-level software features
Block-level replication
Unlimited snapshots and clones
File-level replication
Virtualization features that enable thin provisioning while improving performance via I/O pooling
A high-availability cluster that allows two SAN instances to be configured as an active/active pair
An optional Target FC Plugin that assists in using SAN as a block-level target

Benefits of Aberdeen Software-Defined Storage Solutions

The Aberdeen AberSAN ZXP4 Series and Petarack enable organizations to take full advantage of software-defined storage technology, simplifying storage services like deduplication and replication without getting locked into overpriced, proprietary hardware. Benefits include:

An optimal solution. Aberdeen's software-defined storage technology abides secure, easily managed, highly available, reliable and scalable storage in an optimized software defined fashion.
Big data support. Aberdeen solutions enable organizations to take advantage of big data with flexible architecture for large data stores, allowing critical data to be transformed into valuable business intelligence with lightning speed.
Lower cost. By consolidating elements of the shared storage environment into a single high-density server, Aberdeen reduces the consumption of physical storage resources and delivers a cost-efficient solution for scalable storage.

Why Choose Aberdeen for Software-Defined Storage?

Aberdeen has been delivering exceptional performance, unparalleled reliability, and outstanding value since our founding in 1991. Our award-winning products are deployed every day by many of the world’s largest organizations, and our custom-created server and storage devices are at the forefront of disk-to-disk storage technologies. When you choose Aberdeen for software-defined storage solutions, you can count on:

Reliability. Our five-year warranty is the product of our complete confidence in the unparalleled quality and reliability we deliver with every storage device.
Transparency. Our website features complete specifications and itemized pricing for even our most complex products. You won’t need to fill out a lengthy questionnaire or endure a frustrating site visit to get a solution price quote.
Customization. We meet the needs of our customers with custom storage solutions that are precisely designed to their exact specifications.
30-day trials. The Aberdeen Custom Assembled Rackmount Evaluation Service (CARES) program provides a completely configured server and/or storage solution free for a 30-day trial assessment for qualified customers.

FAQs: What is Software-Defined Storage?

What is Software-Defined Storage?

Software-defined storage is a type of data storage architecture where the software that manages storage is separated or decoupled from the hardware on which data is stored. Unlike traditional network-attached storage systems, software-defined storage solutions are designed to work with any industry-standard hardware, enabling organizations to use commodity server hardware rather than expensive proprietary hardware systems.

What are the Benefits of Software-Defined Storage?

By decoupling storage software from storage hardware, software-defined storage enables greater flexibility, efficiency, and scalability. Organizations can avoid being locked into proprietary systems, expanding storage and upgrading or downgrading hardware as needed. Software-defined storage offers significant cost benefits too, as it enables organizations to use lower-cost commodity hardware.

What are the Challenges of Software-Defined Storage?

While software-defined storage enables organizations to use a wide variety of different storage types on different hardware platforms, this diversity presents a variety of management challenges from updating firmware and installing security patches to troubleshooting performance issues.

Get started today.

Aberdeen offers an evaluation program to ISV's and OEM's looking to test a product for functionality and compatibility. We will build a test unit to your specifications and offer it for a period of 30 days.