Storage vendor Spectra Logic has unveiled its new BlackPearl deep storage appliance.
The company has also introduced its new DS3 interface, which combines ‘Bulk Get’ and ‘Bulk Put’ processes, meaning the easier transfer and readability of large data quantities.
The data that passes through the BlackPearl and DS3 is via the REST process, and is led to deep, tape-based storage environments.
Speaking at Powering The Cloud’s 10th anniversary Frankfurt conference, Molly Rector, EVP Product Management, Spectra Logic, said, “BlackPearl enables the use of tape to easily store massive volumes of data objects and is ideal for any compute environment that needs to store data for long periods of time.
“This deep storage is completely new for the cloud, and has not been seen before. Our plan will reduce the complexity of storage costs as tape is much cheaper than disk.”
Spectra’s ‘Bulk’ processes move larger amounts of data at once, which it says is time-saving and cost-efficient.
“Tape has never been used before for this scale of storage, but with our RESTful DS3 interface, this innovation is industry-leading,” Rector said.
Spectra Logic claims the BlackPearl reduces high middleware costs, and provides more flexibility for businesses, away from proprietary hardware formats.
They also say that that tape provides the most dense and environmentally-friendly storage format, and as such will save floor space and power consumption.
In terms of security, users will have more independence, and will not be reliant on a third party to protect their information.
“In terms of data retrieval the backdoor is simply not an option with this technology. Our clients are the key holders, and if they lose control of the keys then they lose all access to the data. The obvious advantage of this is that there is no third party taking care of the data,” Rector said.
With over 2 trillion objects stored in S3, Rector is in no doubt of the innovation’s wide appeal and variety of strengths, “Nowadays most customers have code writers for S3, and it is the obvious choice for a secure link.
“It is the most common form of web storage, as it has excellent security and integrity of data transfer. Its scale is infinite; you can transfer as many objects as you like, and S3 is great for meta-data. In terms of encryption it is also first class.”
