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Storage Review’s Hands-On Testing of Quantum’s Scalar Ransom Block

Archive Storage

One of the best ways to evaluate new technologies is with hands-on testing in a real-world environment rather than only reading data sheets. Getting hands-on test results from experienced real users provides even more insights.  

Along these lines, Storage Review recently completed their hands-on testing of our Scalar tape products in a lab setting. These tests we performed with Veeam as the application vendor with a focus on the Ransom Block feature, which protects against ransomware. Storage Review has performed extensive hands-on testing for many years on a wide variety of storage devices, drives and disk arrays. 

Joint Effort with Veeam, Quantum, and Storage Review

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Storage Review travelled to Englewood, Colorado along with the Veeam staff to perform a day-long test of the Scalar products to put them through their paces in the lab. Veeam is a long-time partner with Quantum, so there is a natural synergy. 

Ransomware is a key challenge to enterprise businesses, and CTOs and business leaders alike are looking for new solutions to this growing problem. Tape already offers inherent advantages with a built-in air gapping, although some customers need even more protection added into the library to protect against software hackers. This need was the impetus for Ransom Block , which is a key part of Quantum’s security framework for tape, which offers multiple features to help customers provide strong cyber resiliency. For a detailed product description of Ransom Block, refer to Eric Bassier’s blog .

During the lab testing, Storage Review wanted to create a real-world environment with Veeam software, so they setup a lab with a Scalar i6 and Veeam’s backup tools. The test created a secure copy of the data with Veeam, and then used Ransom Block to eject the tape cartridge by just a few millimeters. This small change in position prevents any software intrusion until an operator physically puts the tape back in position.

For a detailed look at the complete test, please refer to the full review .

Scalar Ransom Block Defined

IT infrastructure is subject to vulnerabilities and can’t be 100% protected, even with tape. Adding physical security and strengthening the air gap reduces vulnerability. That’s where Ransom Block fits in. Ransom Block employs a simple and unique concept to create a physical barrier between data stored on tapes and the network-connected tape library. Tapes stored in the library sit in magazines. When Ransom Block is activated on a magazine, Quantum’s patent-pending design partially ejects the magazine so that the tapes cannot be picked by the robot until an operator physically re-inserts the magazine.

Key Takeaways

The lab testing was very successful, and the full review gives many highlights. Overall, the Storage Review team found Quantum’s tape products to be very easy to work with, and the Scalar products are well integrated with the Veeam application software. Some of the key quotes from the review include: 

“Quantum Scalar Ransom Block may just be the best last line of on-prem defense you could ask for.”

“For its part, the entire Ransom Block solution is extraordinarily simple to use both on its own and with software partners like Veeam, as we saw in this case.”

“It’s refreshing to see tape not only alive and well, but also on the leading edge of data protection technologies.”

The post Storage Review’s Hands-On Testing of Quantum’s Scalar Ransom Block appeared first on Quantum Blog .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Speeding Autonomous Vehicle Research at Mississippi State University with Quantum R-Series Edge Storage

ADAS

The Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University (MSU) is uniquely positioned to define the future of autonomous vehicles. By driving test vehicles on the university’s 55-acre off-road environment, dubbed ‘the Proving Ground,’ faculty and students collect critical sensor data about the outdoor terrain. That data is then fed into MSU’s powerful high-performance computing (HPC) systems, which are used for simulating thousands of additional drives.

By sharing all this data with teams across and beyond MSU, CAVS is helping drive additional vehicle research and fueling development of navigation software. Ultimately, this work will provide the foundation for next-generation autonomous vehicles used by the military as well as agriculture, energy, construction, and forestry organizations. Read our recent announcement about the MSU / CAVS customer success story.

To reliably collect test-vehicle data in challenging off-road conditions, the CAVS team selected Quantum R-Series Edge Storage . R-Series systems are ruggedized, in-car devices designed for high-speed data capture in the field. “We needed storage that could reliably collect sensor data as vehicles traverse rough trails and other challenging terrain,” says Daniel Carruth, associate director for advanced vehicle systems. “Quantum R-Series Edge Storage is dependable even in the most demanding conditions.”

Learn more about how Quantum storage helps the CAVS team collect critical data, streamline data workflows, and share data across and beyond the university. Read the case study .

The post Speeding Autonomous Vehicle Research at Mississippi State University with Quantum R-Series Edge Storage appeared first on Quantum Blog .

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AWS Outposts Meets ActiveScale Object Storage

ActiveScale

Today is another great day for ActiveScale Object Storage . We are pleased to announce that ActiveScale is now AWS Outposts Ready .  This designation, part of the AWS Service Ready program, validates ActiveScale object storage systems in AWS Outposts deployments to provide Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) compliant services for AWS services running within an AWS Outposts environment. 

WHAT AND WHY AWS OUTPOSTS? 

AWS Outposts is a service offering first introduced in 2019 that offers AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools within your own datacenter. In effect, the AWS cloud comes to you,- through a fully configured, rack-based system environment deployed in your own data center, co-location facility, or hosted IT environment. Consistent with AWS services in the AWS cloud, and as trending in the industry today across multiple platform vendors, AWS Outposts is sold and managed by AWS as a fully managed service.  

AWS Outposts provides a hybrid cloud solution that is fully compatible and integrates with your IT resources deployed in the AWS cloud. As an on-premises solution, AWS Outposts is particularly well suited for workloads that require: 

  • low latency access to on-premises systems,  
  • local data processing due to dependencies on in-house resources or constraints, or 
  • data residency in a specific geography or security domain. 

WHY ACTIVESCALE AND QUANTUM OBJECT STORAGE SERVICES 

ActiveScale is an ideal solution for AWS Outposts as it provides industry-leading scalability, data durability, and total cost of ownership (TCO), enabled by its unique ability to cost-effectively manage both active and cold data. ActiveScale Dynamic Data Placement (DDP) incorporates advanced erasure coding and real-time algorithms to optimally place data securely across the entire ActiveScale system. DDP not only guards against data loss, component, and site failures, but also optimizes system performance. 

THE EMERGENCE OF THE AGILE DATA CENTER 

The increasing adoption of AWS Outposts, and recent designation of ActiveScale as an AWS Outposts Ready solution, reflect growing interest by enterprises and cloud services providers alike to adopt hybrid cloud and as-a-Service data center strategies as they evolve their infrastructures into the future. Large organizations are choosing as-a-Service solutions for their financial flexibility, agility, and simple consumption models. As another data point, note that analyst firm, IDC, predicts that Data-Center-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (DCIaaS) revenues will grow from $138M in 2020 to a whopping $14B in 2025 at a growth rate of 151.8% annually.1  Service offerings from major IT system suppliers, such as HPE Greenlake and Dell Technologies Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service, also reflect this trend.  

The growing demand for on-premises data center services is consistent with Quantum’s own aggressive development of Quantum-as-a-Service solutions, for example, with our recent introduction of Quantum Object Storage Services  (QOSS). Based on ActiveScale platforms, Quantum Object Storage Services provide affordable, scalable on-prem private cloud storage services for both active and archived data sets. In this deployment scenario, Quantum owns, installs, manages, maintains, and monitors your private ActiveScale infrastructure, delivered as-a-Service, backed by Quantum expertise, service delivery tools, and AIOps-driven analytics and monitoring. Scalable from petabytes to exabytes, QOSS meets the growing demands of large enterprises, government agencies, cloud service providers and research organizations for more dynamic and flexible IT consumption models. 

The post AWS Outposts Meets ActiveScale Object Storage appeared first on Quantum Blog .

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Meet Me in St. Louis – For an HPC, AI, and Analytics Extravaganza

ActiveScale

Here at Quantum, we are excited to finally be on the road again. Next stop – St. Louis! Next week, SC21 , the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, is being held at America’s Center in downtown St Louis.

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A HISTORY OF INNOVATION

This event has a rich history of showcasing technical innovation in high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and applications from across a broad spectrum of universities, supercomputing centers, national labs, and industrial research centers.

For Quantum, a couple of themes particularly resonate:

  • Managing data growth. The ongoing challenge of ingesting, analyzing, and managing massive data sets across their data lifecycle.
  • Cold data that’s not so cold. The desire to save more data from more sources, plus the need for easy and affordable access to that data now, and long into the future, for continued and periodic computational analysis and recalibration of deep learning models.

At the show, we will be highlighting our recent updates to the ActiveScale object storage platform , industry-leading security features of Scalar tape archive solutions , and StorNext NVMe, RDMA and tiered storage technologies. Most of all, we are excited to promote the success of our customers building state-of-the-art capabilities with Quantum products and solutions (for example, Genomics England ).

PLUS, SOME FUN AND GAMES

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We are also here to enjoy some fun and games. In addition to sponsoring the Petaflop , we are delighted to be co-hosting a social get together with our tech partner, Weka , to connect with our customers and the HPC community at large, and celebrate our high performance, massive scale joint storage solutions for HPC, Genomics, and AI . You don’t need to be Irish to get in ( ;o) ), but you do need to stop by the Quantum booth #918 or Weka booth #927 to claim your ticket!

We hope to see you there!

The post Meet Me in St. Louis – For an HPC, AI, and Analytics Extravaganza appeared first on Quantum Blog .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Ransomware Proof Your Data: New Ransom Block and Logical Tape Blocking Features

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In recent alarming news, we’ve learned that U.S. Federal agencies issued a joint cybersecurity advisory over the ‘BlackMatter’ ransomware group targeting critical infrastructure entities, including two U.S. food and agriculture sector organizations. What’s even more alarming is that many organizations are still not prepared to defend their most valuable asset – their data. For those who don’t know, ‘BlackMatter’ seems to have evolved from ‘DarkSide,’ a ransomware gang that shuttered operations after the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.  

A Multi-Layer Strategy 

The U.S. Government, in the wake of the Colonial and Solar Winds cyberattack, issued an executive order to bolster up U.S cybersecurity defenses to withstand such threats. There is a clear sense of urgency that a multi-layered strategy must be implemented and not just in the government, but this will go deep into the private sector as well. A multi-layered strategy in data protection is a topic I’ve been pushing for quite some time now – definite technologies (cloud, disk, tape) are needed to lay out multi-defenses to combat and defend data against ransomware.  

Introducing Scalar Ransom Block 

For the reasons mentioned above, Quantum has hardened its Scalar Tape Library  and introduced Scalar Ransom Block , an industry-first solution that creates a physical block between data tapes and the robotic tape system. It is a feature that employs a simple and unique concept to create a physical barrier between the data stored on tapes and the network robotic tape system. This feature ensures data stored on tape is completely offline and secure and provides an ultimate level of data security for cyber-resilient archives, after all the endgame is to be cyber resilient.  

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Logical Tape Blocking 

In addition, we also introduced Logical Tape Blocking (middle image), a software-based solution that enables administrators to use software commands to prevent tapes from being loaded or unloaded. This allows the risk window to be reduced from when the magazine waits to be filled to when it can be ejected. Both features are part of Quantum’s comprehensive Scalar Security Framework making Scalar Tape systems one of the most secure tape storage systems available in the market. The combination of employing Scalar Ransom Block and Logical Tape blocking as a deterrence to ransomware along with front-end defenses in your network, where software meets hardware and big data meets intelligence, make for a good strategy in creating a cyber-resilient infrastructure. 

Solutions like these bring a high-value proposition and bonus: Data is kept offline and managed automatically, yet available with a ‘push and a click’ versus long-term data that is kept 100% on always connected spinning disks, costing hundreds of thousands more or the hassle of handling tapes introducing human negligence. Quantum has a secure and reliable solution to help you keep your data secure and available when you need it – Quantum Ransom Block is only available in Scalar Tape Libraries.  

Make sure you check out the press release  to learn more about our recent announcement and stop by our new Scalar Tape Libraries  page where you will find in-depth information related to Scalar Ransom Block, Logical Tape Blocking, and our Scalar Security Framework. 

The post Ransomware Proof Your Data: New Ransom Block and Logical Tape Blocking Features appeared first on Quantum Blog .

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The Future of Cold Storage is Here – Introducing ActiveScale Cold Storage and Quantum Object Storage Services

ActiveScale

Over the past several years, Quantum has quietly become the leading provider of cold storage infrastructure to the world’s largest cloud providers. Through these efforts, we’ve learned a lot about building massive, scalable cloud storage infrastructure that is easy to use and easy to manage. With this experience, and with several pioneering innovations, we are pleased to offer a breakthrough solution for helping large enterprises, research organizations, and web-scale companies easily manage and master the massive data growth with which they too are challenged.

The Challenge

With the digital transformation of nearly everything , organizations are experiencing explosive data growth. This data is mostly unstructured and mostly cold – inactive data that is accessed infrequently. Yet, it contains immense value and has the potential for future enrichment, monetization, and re-use, so it must be securely protected and remain accessible, for years, decades, and often indefinitely. Solutions today are limited and expensive – either give up control of your data to a public cloud provider and be taxed each time you access your own data, or alternatively, build costly file and object storage systems in house.

With Quantum, the future of cold storage is here.

S3 Glacier Class Storage for the Data Center

With today’s announcement of ActiveScale Cold Storage, we are introducing a new class of storage that combines advanced object store software with hyperscale tape technology to provide the industry’s most affordable, durable, and accessible cold storage archiving solution.

And based on these technologies, we are also announcing Quantum Object Storage Services, the industry’s only as-a-Service solution for both active and cold data archiving, deployable wherever your data lives – whether that’s in your in-house data center, colocation facility, or hosted IT environment.

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Breakthrough Innovations

These new offerings are made possible by Quantum’s innovations – combined to form the industry’s most advanced cold storage archive with unmatched levels of performance, durability, and storage efficiency.

  1. ActiveScale Object Storage is the first and only object storage platform architected for both active and cold data, providing seamless, secure storage management and high-performance access to massive data sets.
  2. ActiveScale Cold Storage is built on Quantum’s hyperscale RAIL architecture. (That’s short for Redundant Array of Independent Libraries). A RAIL architecture, built with Quantum Scalar Tape Libraries , provides unlimited, incremental scalability, and linear performance gains, plus increased availability and serviceability. In total, RAIL enables a new level of accessibility to tape-based data.
  3. Further, ActiveScale patent-pending two-dimensional erasure coding (2D EC) software encodes data within and across tapes, tape drives, libraries, and geo-dispersed data centers, simultaneously providing industry-leading data access performance, durability, and storage efficiency.

Offered as a Fully Managed Service

Increasingly, large organizations are choosing as-a-Service solutions for their financial flexibility, agility, and simple consumption models. Quantum is enabling these Active and Cold Data solutions as fully managed, as-a-Service offerings, with a simple, competitive, two-tiered pricing model that is simple to purchase, simple to plan for, and with no data access fees. With our solution, Quantum owns, installs, manages, maintains, and monitors your private Quantum cloud storage infrastructure, delivered as-a-Service, backed by Quantum expertise, service delivery tools, and AIOps-driven analytics and monitoring.

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What Does This All Mean?

In total, these offerings provide:

  • Easy, affordable accessibility of S3 and S3 Glacier Class storage in the data center of your choice.
  • Unlimited scalability of both active and cold data sets.
  • The ability to restore objects from cold storage to active storage in minutes.
  • 100x to 1Mx greater durability, and up to 40% better storage efficiency, than two copy archive solutions.
  • Reduced cold storage costs by up to 80% compared to all-disk solutions.
  • 30+% savings relative to public cloud cold storage services.
  • Outsourced storage operations and simpler data management without access fees.

Up until now, organizations have been limited in their ability to affordably manage and store the massive amounts of data that they are collecting today (up to 98% of today’s data gets thrown away and 60% of data that is stored is cold). These offerings now provide a new level of capability not only to store these growing data sets, but also to:  

  • Securely maintain in-house control of these assets
  • Easily access this data to unlock and enrich its value
  • Be confident in its preservation and protection over the coming years and decades

To Learn More

For more information on these new breakthrough innovations and offerings, please go to these additional resources:

The post The Future of Cold Storage is Here – Introducing ActiveScale Cold Storage and Quantum Object Storage Services appeared first on Quantum Blog .

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