• Distributed File System

    • Managing data growth with a distributed file system

    • Storage solutions based on a distributed file system are growing faster than ever, in both number of implementations and capacity of deployments. The reason: steep and continuous growth in unstructured data in enterprise data centers. With volumes of unstructured data doubling each year, organizations are turning to distributed file systems to manage data volumes with greater performance, enhanced operational ease and lower costs. 

      To reap the benefits of this flood of valuable data rather than drowning in it, CIOs need scalable, flexible, automated storage solutions that are capable of leveraging hybrid cloud workflow. The right distributed file system should not only satisfy these criteria but help to deliver the power that performance-hungry analytics platforms require to extract insight and intelligence from data capital.

      Isilon provides a distributed file system that has been recognized by Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for three years in a row as a leader in Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute within the Distributed File and Object Storage category. 

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    • The challenge for distributed file systems

    • In a marketplace where the ability to maximize the value of data is critical to business success, organizations need data storage solutions that can improve access to and analysis of data capital. In the past, organizations only expected their distributed file system to be able to scale – it had to be big enough to manage the data today and accommodate data growth tomorrow. High-performance was not necessarily a priority, as most companies assumed that the bulk of file data would be “cold” and wouldn’t need the superfast speeds and minimal latency of “hot” data storage.

      Modern workloads have changed that equation though, and today no company wants to be left behind by a distributed file system that can’t keep pace with the requirements of a digital business. Big is no longer enough – today’s storage solutions must be big, fast and efficient. Additionally, a superior distributed file system must offer:

      • Lower costs through reduced power consumption and reduced operational expense.
      • Improved resource utilization, enabling organizations to get higher ROI from their storage investments.
      • Lower total cost of ownership.
      • Improved SLAs to meet the strict demands of business needs and compliance requirements.

    • PowerScale: a distributed file system that’s transforming enterprise storage.

    • PowerScale is the industry’s #1 family of scale-out network-attached storage systems. Easy to manage and simple to scale, PowerScale provides a powerful solution for managing and extracting value from unstructured data using built-in analytics support. Isilon solutions are efficient and flexible, with simple-to-use features that stay simple no matter how large your storage capacity grows or how much performance is required.

      The PowerScale family of distributed file systems include:

      • PowerScale All-Flash, delivering extreme performance and efficiency for the most demanding unstructured data applications and workloads while reducing cost and complexity.
      • PowerScale Hybrid, providing a highly versatile yet simple scale-out storage architecture to accelerate access to massive amounts of data while providing support for a broad range of enterprise file workloads.
      • PowerScale Archive, providing an ideal active archive storage solution that combines near-primary accessibility, value and ease-of-use, along with options for a deep archive storage that safeguards data efficiently for long-term retention.

      With Dell’s distributed file system, organizations can consolidate file workloads and cut costs with 80% utilization, automated tiering and data reduction options.


    • A distributed file system for advanced analytics

    • Dell’s network storage solution delivers the performance and extreme concurrency at scale required to support the most data-hungry analytics platforms. As more organizations turn to artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) to gain more insight and intelligence from their data, data storage systems are challenged to provide the massive parallel file I/O required to serve a growing number of analytics jobs.

      PowerScale helps eliminate I/O bottlenecks and accelerate cycles of learning while conforming to regulatory and enterprise policy requirements. With an ideal infrastructure for AI and DL, Isilon provides:

      • Massive parallelism, with hundreds of concurrent data connections with consistent responses.
      • Easier management, with features that simplify compliance, protection, security and data management.
      • Effortless scaling, growing from terabytes to petabytes with up to 80% storage utilization and 75% data center space reduction.

    • Future-proofing a distributed file system investment

    • Customers with technology and programs that enable storage solutions to provide value for the entire lifetime of their applications. 

      • A Satisfaction Guarantee ensures that products will perform as stated in product specifications.
      • Investment Protection enables companies to trade-in existing or competitive systems for credit towards next generation Dell Technologies offerings.
      • Clear and transparent support pricing enables companies to plan more easily for operational expense.
      • Never-worry data migrations include seamless upgrades and built-in data migration tools.
      • Data protection deduplication guarantees enables organizations to achieve up to 2:1 data reduction when using Dell Technologies best practices.
      • Guarantees for significant reductions in data storage.

    • FAQs: What is a distributed file system?

    • What is a distributed file system?

      A distributed file system is a solution for storing and accessing data based on a client/server architecture. Data is stored on a central storage device but is accessed and processed as if it was stored on a local client machine. With a distributed file system, users on the same network and easily share information in files in a controlled and authorized way.

      What are the benefits of a distributed file system?

      A distributed file system for storage provides:

      • Improved file availability, access time and network efficiency.
      • Enhanced scalability and interoperability.
      • Data access transparency and location independence.
      • A unified view of shared folders and data resources.
      • More efficient load-balancing.

      What is distributed file system vs. object storage?

      A distributed file system stores data as single pieces of information in folders and organizes it in a hierarchical structure, in much the way that paper files are stored. Object storage, on the other hand, designates each piece of data as an object, bundles it with associated metadata and a unique identifier, and keeps it in separate storehouses, forming a storage pool. In addition to distributed file storage, Dell provides an object storage solution in Dell ECS, which can be deployed as a turnkey appliance, a software defined storage solution or a service operated by Dell.

    • Unity XT All-Flash Unified Storage Solutions

      Unity XT midrange storage is built new from the ground up to deliver unified storage speed and efficiency in a multicloud world.

    • Object Storage Solutions for Next-Gen Workloads

      Deployable in a software-defined model or as a turnkey appliance, ECS is the leading object-storage platform from Dell

    • PowerScale Scale-out Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

      PowerScale unstructured data storage with massive scalability is the industry’s #1 family of scale-out network-attached storage systems.