isilon

Shared storage in a 'shared nothing' environment

The computing industry is seeing dramatic growth in the use of "shared nothing" database architectures where each node functions independently of one another and is self-sufficient (Hadoop Distributed File System for example). For the sake of performance, contention among nodes for shared disk resources (SAN and NAS) is one of the things these architectures avoid by dedicating storage resources to each node, i.e. no shared disk.

While these computing architectures are best-known in the context of Web-based applications and development activities, they are no longer confined to the Web. EMC Greenplum, IBM Netezza, and ParAccel are all … Read more

Which 'big data' are you talking about?

Late last year I posted a blog item about big data and if/when it would present opportunities for storage vendors. I concluded by saying that, while it was a bit early for next-year prognostications, I expected to see the number of storage devices aimed at analytics applications blossom in 2011 with more storage vendors pursuing the opportunity.

It's now 2011 and I stand by that prediction. However, at least three definitions of big data have blossomed since that posting:

Big-data storage: systems that store really big (as in humongous) amounts of data Big-data analytics: systems that use new … Read more

Last of the storage independents

A recent frenzy of storage acquisitions--with 3PAR going to HP, Isilon to EMC, and now Compellent to Dell--brings storage full-circle. Your next enterprise storage purchase? Almost guaranteed to be from a leviathan.

One of the once-amazing changes in the computer business was the birth of independent storage vendors. For decades there've been a few odd after-market and third-party storage vendors. But they were mere pilot fish congregating around the truly big, important swimmers: systems vendors. When you bought storage, it generally came from the same company that made your computer. That was the natural order.

But in the 1990s, … Read more

EMC to gobble up Isilon for $2.25 billion

Another independent storage player is getting eaten up. EMC said today that it will buy Isilon Systems, a network-attached storage company, for $33.85 a share in cash, or $2.25 billion.

Why? EMC, like a bevy of other vendors, is chasing big data-management projects.

Isilon is known as a scale-out network-attached storage player. EMC said it will combine Isilon with its Atmos products to focus on data management for verticals like life sciences, media, and oil and gas.

EMC is paying a 29 percent premium from Isilon's closing price on Friday. Isilon, which is likely to have $200 … Read more

Isilon back from near death

Last week, Isilon, which designs and sells clustered storage systems and software for digital content, announced the integration of STEC's solid-state disk modules to its S- and X-Series or scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) platforms built on SAS and SATA disk arrays. The announcement was doubly significant.

First, its marks the appearance of SSD implemented as storage for metadata within an NAS platform as opposed to application data. In other words, the Isilon announcement is not an example of tiered storage for scalable NAS. Rather, SSD is used to store file system metadata--data that describes the application data and as … Read more