Storage Channel Pipeline » data archiving

RDX storage technology powers strong backup and archive solutions

Eric Slack — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:28:26 +0000

For VARs unfamiliar with RDX storage, it’s an innovative technology that may deserve a place on your line card. It’s essentially a removable hard disk drive that’s close to the size of an LTO cartridge. The drives are ruggedized, not from a Mil-Spec sense, but they’re made to be handled like a tape cartridge and can facilitate off-site data movement for backup and DR. Being a true random-access device, they also offer a way to extend an archive by storing cartridges on the shelf but can support much faster searching and file recovery than can linear tape. The other advantage they have in an archive use case is longevity. The dock essentially provides only power and connectivity — the disk drive is in the cartridge — so old RDX storage “media” doesn’t require users to keep older-generation docks around to replay them.

RDX was invented by ProStor, a Boulder, Colo., company that licenses the technology to a number of OEMs, including iMation, Tandberg and BDT. ProStor markets a line of NAS devices called InfiniVault, which incorporate RDX with spinning disk drives to create a tiered storage device for archiving fixed-content, digital assets. Last week ProStor sold the RDX storage technology to backup manufacturer Tandberg Data and will focus on its InfiniVault business as an OEM partner for RDX.

Tandberg won a Bronze award from Storage magazine for Products of the Year in 2010 for its AccuVault RDX. This solution is focused at the backup market, with embedded AccuGuard software, which offers backup and source-side deduplication to increase effective backup capacity and reduce LAN bandwidth requirements. With the off-site portability of RDX storage cartridges, this system is an all-in-one data protection and DR solution for SMB/SME customers.

RDX is a truly unique technology that can give you something different to show an existing customer or a way into a new account. Initially, RDX was used as a simple backup target for companies that required data be taken off-site or in archive applications that had a compliance requirement (RDX shelf life meets the retention time periods and can be used as WORM to replace optical storage). AccuVault greatly enhances the first use case as a complete backup solution in an appliance form factor, enabling users to safely carry backups off-site, as many have been doing with tapes or USB drives. InfiniVault can get you into accounts that use optical media and are looking for a way off that obsolete technology. The new Model 70 can support up to three disk drive shelves, in addition to RDX, making it a good shared-storage NAS solution, in addition to an archive.

Follow me on Twitter: EricSSwiss

RDX drives a good option for SMB data archiving

Eric Slack — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:14:04 +0000

In a recent SearchStorage.com special report on archive appliances, Carol Sliwa makes the point that dedicated archive appliances are a specialized, niche product with a somewhat limited appeal to the mainstream IT market, which instead prefers archive software that can use storage of the user’s choice. She also reports that in smaller companies, the archive appliance has more basic appeal, as an easy-to-use storage device that can provide the regulatory compliance that many organizations need. I would largely agree that archiving, like other storage activities, is best done in software for larger organizations so they can consolidate the physical data storage aspect of the operation, a point made in the Storage Switzerland article “Archiving Basics.” And, I’d certainly agree that the appliance format is appealing to smaller organizations, since it goes in easily and, in the case of archiving, includes required compliance features. There’s another technology, RDX drives, that fits well with the use case described.

What is RDX?

RDX is a removable, SATA-connected hard disk drive built into a special cartridge with the same form factor as an LTO tape. The dock that reads this disk drive cartridge is similar in size to a tape drive and can be integrated into appliances that hold multiple docks and cartridges.

The RDX cartridge consists of a 2.5-inch disk drive suspended in a shock-proof case (passing a 1-meter drop test onto a concrete floor). It inserts into the dock like a linear tape cartridge, providing sustained throughput of 45 MB per second (MBps), or more than 100 MB per hour. The RDX drive also has WORM data recording capabilities and complies with multiple industry regulations governing data retention, including authenticity, accessibility, confidentiality, etc. It’s also an approved alternative to optical disk storage.

User appeal

RDX is essentially a recording medium with the reliability and random access of a disk drive combined with the automated handling and portability of a tape cartridge — at a cost that’s comparable to tape. Being disk media, the RDX drive provides a true disk-to-disk backup capability and is compatible with most backup software applications. After backup, the cartridges can be taken off-site, like a tape cartridge, using the same carriers and processes off-site vendors provide for tape.

As an archive, RDX leverages the medium’s WORM and data compliance features for long-term retention. It also supports archive software common in the healthcare, video and document imaging industries. Some manufacturers have appliances that present themselves as a NAS file server, providing storage for backup and archive in the same device. This fits the small/medium enterprise use case described in above, where the appliance format and consolidation of storage devices is appealing. Users can have a single storage target for both applications, which generate data to be taken off-site and which tend to overlap somewhat in many organizations anyway.

VAR appeal

The RDX drive is a very interesting technology, one that may provide a solution you need to fill a hole in your line card. While the target for this technology has been mostly medium- sized and smaller enterprises and remote offices, the value proposition is very unique and should be a good topic for generating appointments in general. For VARs interested in this technology, visit the RDX Storage Alliance website. It tells more about the market segments that fit this solution and gives the names of member vendors that manufacture RDX products.

RDX drives have some other characteristics that may appeal to VARs as well. We’ll look at those in the next post.

Follow me on Twitter: EricSSwiss.

Solve inactive data glut with file virtualization and data archiving

Eric Slack — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:10:12 +0000

We’ve got an elephant in the room that needs to be discussed. It’s called old data. Old, or inactive, data is choking storage systems, networks and backup systems — even with dedupe in place (see “Dedupe: Square peg for round hole?” for a discussion of the problem dedupe doesn’t really solve). By inactive, I mean data that’s not really used but can’t be deleted; either it’s got a clear value, or IT just can’t get the data owners to take responsibility for deleting it (or they can’t be found). This results in new storage getting put in to handle immediate capacity needs, but nobody’s talking about how to “retire” it — and the cycle continues.

Old data is like old age: It happens to us all, and we need to plan for it. When primary, or active, storage systems are designed, ‘retirement” capacity for the data that lives on these systems should be included. Just buying more storage to meet an immediate need is fiscally irresponsible and leads to more costs down the road. Like the regulations in Europe that require the purchaser of a product to effectively pay for its disposal, the concept of planning for an asset’s lifecycle before its acquisition is a valid one, regardless of one’s personal philosophy about recycling.

When you think about it, many of the issues IT faces around storage are brought about by increasing the capacity of active data storage; things like backup, management, power, floor space, etc. Data retirement could help this by clearing data out of active storage and minimizing the amount of this capacity that’s needed. When selling primary storage, be sure to complete the system by discussing the technology options for retiring that data. For example:

File virtualization can enable efficient migration of data from existing active storage to retirement. Put in an appliance to virtualize file storage, and move an old NAS to the “retirement tier.”

More traditional data archiving solutions — from a number of vendors, including the primary disk suppliers — can also be implemented. The point is to include a solution for storing data as its access requirements diminish. Besides giving you the opportunity to show another product, it shows the customer you’re looking at the big picture.

Follow me on Twitter: EricSSwiss.