Aurora DataCloud
Modern software-defined storage system
Cost-effective storage solution
Aurora DataCloud from Origo is a pioneering, cost-effective storage solution for data that needs to be stored in large quantities for a long time. It was designed for the media industry, to serve as an archiving solution for video and audio but has already proven its value to other types of user, including commercial airlines and museums.
Highly automated and versatile system
Aurora DataCloud was built using an innovative combination of IBM servers, storage and tape systems to create a highly automated, versatile system that users can choose to interact with in a number of ways. It offers customers a low cost, reliable, secure and environmentally friendly solution to the problem of storing large quantities of data for long periods, while keeping the data easily accessible at any time for the users.
IBM and Lenovo components hosted in two Tier III data centers
Origo's Aurora DataCloud consists of IBM and Lenovo components hosted in two Tier III data centers, utilizing synchronous replication between the two sites with geo redundancy. IBM Spectrum Scale protocol nodes serve as GPFS Clients running on Lenovo SR650 Servers, and IBM ESS GL2c serves as GPFS Native Raid data storage on IBM POWER8 servers. IBM Spectrum Archive is integrated with Spectrum Scale and GPFS with IBM TS4500 backend tape libraries and IBM LTO8 tape drives.
Uses less electricity and is cheaper to replace
The system offers several advantages over traditional data storage solutions. The innovative mix of disks and LTO tape requires much less electricity than hard drives alone; it is cheaper to replace and integrating new tape technology as it evolves is simple and relatively low cost; and it enables very large files to be stored – up to 12TB on a cartridge the size of two iPhones. The high level of built-in automation also helps to keep labor costs to a minimum.
Data is always secure and protected
To mitigate the risk of tape corrosion and data redundancy loss, Aurora DataCloud runs automated checks and replaces any tapes that show the slightest hint of deterioration. Aurora DataCloud keeps two synchronous copies of data in two tier III data centers in separate geo-redundant locations, so the data is secure and protected from natural disasters. This means the data can be stored effectively forever.
Renewable energy reduces carbon footprint
Iceland’s exclusive use of geothermal and hydroelectric power means all the energy required to run Aurora DataCloud is renewable – a factor that is particularly appealing to European customers looking to offset their carbon footprint.
Integration with IBM ESS and TS4500
Aurora DataCloud is among the first instances of IBM’s Spectrum Scale and Spectrum Archive software components being integrated with the IBM ESS server and TS4500 tape library.
Reduce cost for large volumes of data
For customers with large volumes of data that they want to store for the long term, Origo’s Aurora DataCloud offers a groundbreaking solution that helps keep cost down without sacrificing accessibility, availability or security.
Technical description
Geo-redundant setup
The underlying infrastructure of the Data Cloud consist of IBM Elastic Storage Servers (compute & storage), IBM TS4500 Tape Library (Archives) and IBM Spectrum Scale & Spectrum Archive (Software). The solution is in a geo-redundant setup with active-active synchronous replication between Origo´s primary datacenter and our secondary site in Reykjavík. Origo´s DataCloud services are operational ready to receive vast amounts of data (PetaBytes).
Effective cost control
The solution is delivered as a file-share accessed with SMB/NFS and as object storage with a Swift/OpenStack interface that is S3 Compatible. Data in Origo’s DataCloud is stored online with different seek time, depending on the policies set and data location within the storage cloud. Customers can easily control the cost by using policies to keep active data on disk and inactive data in the archive. The solution can be extended to include on-site high-performance storage managed by Origo’s cloud platform and billed by the month. Once a file or object is uploaded to the storage cloud it is instantly available in 2 datacenters regardless of what tier it is in.
IBM Spectrum Scale
IBM Spectrum Scale includes integrated management tools and an intuitive graphical user interface to help manage data at scale. IBM Spectrum Scale can span multiple storage environments and data centers to eliminate data silos and “filer sprawl.” The system can cognitively spread data across multiple storage devices, optimizing available storage utilization, reducing administration and delivering highperformance where needed. IBM Spectrum Scale has multiple deployment options and configurations to incorporate current NFS filers, block storage and storage-rich servers into a global namespace with universal access. IBM Spectrum Scale file system can be used for file (POSIX, NFS, SMB), object (S3, SWIFT) or Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) for in-place analytics.
Core infrastructure
IBM Elastic Storage Server
IBM Elastic Storage Server is a modern implementation of software-defined storage, combining IBM Spectrum Scale software with IBM POWER8® processor-based I/O-intensive servers and dual-ported storage enclosures. IBM Spectrum Scale is the parallel file system at the heart of IBM ESS. IBM Spectrum Scale scales system throughput as it grows while still providing a single namespace. This eliminates data silos, simplifies storage management and delivers high performance. By consolidating storage requirements across your organization onto IBM ESS, you can reduce inefficiency, lower acquisition costs and support demanding workloads.
IBM TS4500 Tape Library
IBM® TS4500 Tape Library is a next-generation storage solution designed to help midsized and large enterprises respond to cloud storage challenges. These challenges include high data volume growth in cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures, increasing cost of storage footprints, the difficulty of migrating data across vendor platforms, and the increased complexity of IT training and management as staff resources shrink.
With Aurora DataCloud Enterprises and organizations are creating, analyzing and keeping more data than ever before. Those that can deliver insights faster while managing rapid infrastructure growth are the leaders in their industry. In delivering those insights, an organization’s underlying storage must support new-era big data and artificial intelligence workloads along with traditional applications while ensuring security, reliability and high performance. IBM Spectrum Scale™ meets these challenges as a high-performance solution for managing data at scale with the distinctive ability to perform archive and analytics in place.
IBM Spectrum Scale
IBM Spectrum Scale enables the unification of virtualization, analytics, file and object use cases into a single scale-out storage solution. IBM Spectrum Scale can provide a single namespace for all this data, offering a single point of management with an intuitive graphical user interface. Using storage policies transparent to end users, data can be compressed or tiered to the tape or cloud to help cut costs; data can also be tired to high performance media, including server cache, based on heat map of data to lower latency and improve performance. Intelligent caching of data at remote sites ensures that data is available with local read/write performance across geographically distributed sites using Active File Management (AFM).
IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition gives organizations an easy way to use cost-effective IBM tape drives and libraries within a tiered storage infrastructure. By using tape libraries instead of disks for Tier 2 and Tier 3 data storage—data that is stored for long-term retention—organizations can improve efficiency and reduce costs related to storing growing amounts of data. IBM Spectrum Archive EE seamlessly integrates with the scalability, manageability and performance of IBM Spectrum Scale, an IBM enterprise file management platform that enables organizations to move beyond simply adding storage—to optimizing data management.
