NAS devices have traditionally been implemented as general-purpose file servers — relatively simple plug-and-play appliances that move data in formatted files. SANs, meanwhile, dominated the networked storage market due to their ability to rapidly move data in unformatted blocks among multiple hosts with multiple storage systems.

Today, however, it is estimated that file-based information such as spreadsheets, presentations, text documents, and multimedia files constitute about 80 percent of enterprise data. NAS, combined with faster Ethernet speeds and the continued development of file virtualization technology, is perfectly suited to handle this growing workload.

File virtualization eases the management of large numbers of NAS appliances by making them appear as one logical file system to the server. This provides a central point through which all clients can access files, breaking the traditional one-to-one relationship between server clients and NAS file servers.

 “File virtualization enables customers to cut storage costs and improve manageability,” said Vince Conroy, CTO, FusionStorm. “Pooling NAS resources drastically increases utilization, while replicating files throughout the environment increases performance and availability. A single global name space eases management of multi-OS environments and enables tiered storage. The result is a manageable, scalable infrastructure capable of handling today’s file-intensive storage demands as well as regulatory requirements for long-term file retention.”

Virtual Stardom

Earlier this year, technology research firm TheInfoPro released a study showing that EMC Rainfinity remains the No. 1 in-use file virtualization technology. Rainfinity continues to accelerate its penetration into enterprises globally on the strength of its pioneering file virtualization capabilities for multi-vendor NAS environments. It is being used to virtualize petabytes of customer information in a wide range of industries and operating environments.

“Storage virtualization and consolidation are often tied together, and storage professionals within Fortune 1000 organizations are indicating that 20 percent to 40 percent of storage production environments are targeted to be virtualized by 2010,” said Robert Stevenson, Managing Director of Storage Research for TheInfoPro. “Our Wave 10 Storage Study shows that EMC’s Rainfinity is one of the top technologies organizations are considering to reach this goal.”

Known for its unparalleled performance and ease of operation, the EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization (GFV) solution delivers seamless file virtualization for optimization of NAS, content-addressed storage (CAS) and file server environments. Rainfinity’s non-disruptive file movement and virtualization features are valuable to enterprises because they enable IT staff to manage storage and relocate data without affecting end-user access to that data.

“Rainfinity virtualizes unstructured data environments and moves data according to policy, including active and open files, without disruption. These features are designed to help IT organizations optimize disk utilization and improve storage performance and system responsiveness, while lowering capital expenditures and reducing total cost of ownership of heterogeneous NAS, CAS and server environments,” said Conroy.

Central Casting

EMC Rainfinity File Management Appliance (FMA) serves as an entry point for a complete file virtualization solution designed to optimize all enterprise file content, including active and inactive data. It is designed to help organizations kick start their NAS virtualization initiatives with cost-effective software that resides on a standalone server. Easy-to-use wizards enable IT managers to set up automated file management policies that transparently move and place files across NAS tiers.

Rainfinity FMA offers high availability, scalability and flexibility advantages by employing a hybrid approach that can extend a Global Namespace to support file-level granularity without requiring agents or introducing a single point of failure or potential performance bottleneck. While Rainfinity FMA is a dedicated appliance, the File Management Application is also a key component of the Rainfinity GFV platform.

“EMC Rainfinity removes the complexity associated with tiered storage, enabling customers to meet key file retention requirements while driving down storage management costs,” Conroy said. “EMC has struck the ideal balance between optimizing storage utilization and providing a consolidated view across multiple servers, NAS and CAS devices.”

Given the explosive growth of file-based data, organizations need new ways to control skyrocketing storage costs and simplify storage management. EMC’s Rainfinity file virtualization solutions help maximize the value of primary NAS storage while enabling tiered storage management, file archiving and global namespace management across heterogeneous storage environments. With EMC Rainfinity, NAS can have a starring role in today’s complex storage infrastructure.