I have been blogging my way through a set of cloud inter-networking tools that enable a seamless strategy for moving workloads and data across cloud boundaries. These posts have included descriptions of:
- CloudLink as a foundational security technology.
- CloudBoost as a file-system interface to bridge between clouds.
- CloudArray as a block interface to bridge between clouds.
The last two technologies (CloudBoost and CloudArray) can be thought of as gateway technologies that can be integrated with other products to form different solutions that span cloud boundaries.
In this post I would like to discuss the trend (as highlighted by ZDNET) of pre-built integrations that natively contain gateway technologies within storage systems.
In particular I’d like to discuss the recent announcement of Isilon’s CloudPools technology as a deployment that participates significantly in the movement of data across cloud boundaries. A single Isilon system can now leverage cloud storage capacity to expand itself to contain over 8 trillion files. As a way of highlighting the flexibility of cloud choice provided by CloudPools, consider the diagrams below:
The diagram above depicts an Isilon system that has been configured to tier its cold data to a public cloud provider such as Azure or AWS. There are any number of reasons why a business may choose this solution. Chad Sakac has a great discussion of the cost metrics that come into play when configuring CloudPools to tier to solutions like Azure and AWS.
In his post, Chad also mentioned the option of building a private cloud storage offering using a product such as ECS. The diagram below highlights an Isilon system that has been configured to tier to an ECS object store that is owned and operated by the same company.
And finally, consider a third option where the Isilon owner wishes to tier files to an off-site service provider that is a natural fit for mission critical applications (e.g. Virtustream).
The diagrams above highlight a technology that is flexible enough to cross a variety of cloud boundaries. In fact, it is in theory possible to configure CloudPools to tier three different file systems to three different cloud providers (as indicated above).
The CloudPools technology is the 4th technology to be placed in the toolbox of cloud inter-networking technologies (depicted below).
In future posts I will discuss in more detail how one or more of these technologies can be combined together as part of a seamless management and orchestration layer.
Steve
Twitter: @SteveTodd
EMC Fellow