Nirvanix brings storage from the moon to the cloud

July 3, 2009 – I’ve read a few interesting case studies about cloud storage (and a lot more non-interesting ones) but, for your July 4th reading pleasure, this one from Nirvanix gets my vote as the most interesting application of cloud storage. And you gotta love Nirvanix president and CEO Jim Zierick’s quote.

Here’s the press release:

NIRVANIX BRINGS STORAGE FROM THE MOON TO THE CLOUD WITH SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER

Comprehensive imagery data from onboard cameras providing deeper understanding of the moon and its environment to be copied to CloudNAS-based solution

SAN DIEGO – June 29, 2009 – An Atlas V 401 rocket carrying two lunar satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5:32 p.m. EDT on June 18th in what is being described as America’s first step to the lasting return to the moon. One of the satellites, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), will begin to provide high-definition imagery of the moon once in orbit with a copy of all data stored on the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network™ via CloudNAS®, a software based gateway to secure enterprise cloud storage.

After a four-day trip, the LRO will begin orbiting the moon, spending at least a year in a low polar orbit collecting detailed information about the lunar environment that will help in future robotic and human missions to the moon. Images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera will be transmitted from the satellite to a project team at Arizona State University for systematic processing, replicated to secondary high-performance storage in a separate building at ASU and then replicated to the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network (SDN™). Nirvanix provides a method for storing a tertiary copy of the data offsite by installing CloudNAS and writing a copy directly from the data-receiving servers. ASU and NASA have already transferred multiple TBs of original Apollo mission imagery to the Nirvanix CloudNAS-based solution.

“While this project may be one small step for NASA’s program to extend human presence in the solar system, it definitely represents a giant leap in cloud storage’s ability to provide a reliable, scalable and accessible alternative to tape for long-term retention of enterprise-class data,” said Jim Zierick, President and CEO of Nirvanix. “The tertiary copy of images from the LRO Camera stored on the Nirvanix CloudNAS is online and accessible within seconds and the project managers at ASU do not need to worry about managing offsite storage, allowing them to focus on the more important mission at hand. We are pleased to be part of such a historic project and value our contribution to finding a deeper understanding of the moon and its environment.”

Nirvanix CloudNAS is a fast, secure and easy way to gain access to the benefits of Cloud Storage. As the world's first software-only NAS solution accessible via CIFS or NFS, CloudNAS offers enhanced secure data transfers to any of Nirvanix's globally distributed storage nodes using integrated AES 256-bit encryption and SSL options. Through the Nirvanix CloudNAS, organizations have access to unlimited storage via the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network with the ability to turn any server on their network into a gateway to the cloud accessible by many existing applications and processes.

For more news and in-depth features on cloud-based storage, see InfoStor’s cloud storage Topic Center.

Top storage technologies for 2009

It’s time to ring in the New Year with the obligatory Top Storage Technologies for 2009. I’ve culled through dozens of picks from the vendor community, and the one that comes closest to my own predictions is from HP. So, according to me and HP, here are the hottest storage trends for this year, in no particular order:

Cloud-based storage is changing how companies commoditize and store the exponential amounts of data from video sharing, digital media and social networking sites. The need to store massive amounts of data with real-time access capabilities will change the storage industry in 2009 as we see a greater uptake in cloud-based storage solutions that address the challenges of data growth, but at a fraction of the cost of traditional storage infrastructures.

Data de-duplication. By drastically increasing disk utilization (some vendors claim data de-dupe ratios of 50:1 or more, although your mileage will vary), data de-duplication reduces storage costs and improves capabilities such as disaster recovery.

Solid-state disk (SSD) drives: In a recent InfoStor QuickVote reader poll, only 6% of the respondents were currently using SSDs; another 6% planned to purchase SSDs within the next six months; 14% within the next six to 12 months; and 74% had no plans to use SSDs. However, according to HP: “Once the industry addresses the cost premium and capacity challenges of SSDs, we will be one step closer to IDC’s predicted 70% compound growth rate for SSDs by 2012.”

Virtualized storage: IT organizations are looking to virtualize their storage environments to achieve the same benefits they’ve seen from server virtualization. This is leading to “shared data” architectures that ease storage management burdens.

Secure storage: Industry and government compliance requirements, as well as the need to protect sensitive data, will put storage-level security at the forefront in 2009. More and more users will opt for encryption, including drive-level encryption, to protect data.

Energy-efficient storage: Technologies such as data de-duplication and SSDs eliminate the need for unnecessary hardware to improve performance while reducing power consumption.

The hottest technologies at SNW

In my last blog I promised to reveal The Hottest Technology at last week's Storage Networking World (SNW) show but first, the runners up.

5. Solid-state disk (SSD) drives. There was a lot of talk about SSDs at SNW (mostly in the context of the raging SSD-vs.-HDD debate), but there weren't many product introductions at the show, although Intel did announce production shipments of its new line of enterprise-class flash drives, which will eventually spur further price erosion in this yet-to-get-hot market.

4. Cloud-based storage. Again, a lot of talk, but few vendors. The only cloud storage vendor I met with was Nirvanix, although this services category is expected to grow rapidly over the next couple quarters. For more on this subject, see "What is cloud-based storage?"

3. Storage efficiency technologies, most notably data de-duplication and thin provisioning. Data de-duplication for secondary storage is becoming widespread, but there was a lot of talk at the show about data de-dupe for primary storage from vendors such as NetApp, Storwize, Ocarina Networks, and there will be much more to come.

2. Server virtualization. This is clearly the dominant IT trend, but there are so many storage technologies focused on optimizing virtual servers that it didn't quite make the top of my list.

And the winner is . . .

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). This is admittedly an odd choice because, in terms of end-user adoption, FCoE may be years away, but

For one, FCoE was the topic of the only major press conference at the show (hosted by QLogic, Cisco, NetApp and VMware).

Two, a number of vendors made FCoE product -- or at least product certification -- announcements at the show (albeit prototypes in most cases), including EMC, NetApp, Brocade, Emulex and QLogic.

And three, FCoE will provide controversy (as in 10Gbps iSCSI over Ethernet vs. Fibre Channel over Ethernet) for years to come.

I'll address the controversial side of FCoE in my next blog.