EMC has added archiving capabilities to its Rainfinity file virtualization and management solution, adding support for its Centera content addressed storage (CAS) platform.
With the change, version 7.0 of the Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution “now offers customers a single platform to manage both active and inactive files throughout a file’s lifecycle across heterogeneous environments,” the company claims.
Jack Norris, EMC’s director of virtualization marketing, notes that a research survey released last month by TheInfoPro identified file virtualization as the hottest technology among Fortune 1000 companies. A Taneja Group survey in June found that 62% of respondents said file management was either the top priority or one of the top priorities requiring immediate attention in the data center.
By changing the location of data without affecting end users, file and NAS virtualization “changes how you manage storage,” says Norris. “It’s a dramatic change in how you manage your unstructured data.”
“IT organizations clearly want better ways to manage growing file system resources, not only to manage infrastructure capacity and performance, but also to gain a higher degree of control over the lifecycle of file-level data,” says Brad O’Neill, senior analyst and consultant at the Taneja Group. The addition of Centera support adds “the critical area of archiving” to Rainfinity’s capabilities, O’Neill notes.
Rainfinity includes applications that optimize capacity management, performance management, storage consolidation, tiered storage management, data protection, synchronous replication and global namespace management, all from a single interface.
The latest version includes a new File Management application that automatically identifies and archives static files based on customizable policies to lower total cost of ownership, streamline backup and recovery and address governance and compliance requirements through Centera.
Rainfinity Global File Virtualization version 7.0 starts at $93,000 for all hardware and software.
In another sign of interest in the file virtualization space, Attune Systems will announce on Tuesday that it has received $14 million in a new funding round led by RWI Ventures. Also participationg in the round were GF Private Equity Group and existing investors Alloy Ventures, QTV Capital, Rock Creek Capital and Shea Ventures. The funds will be used for sales, marketing, R&D and support efforts.