Thread: EMC Rainfinity

By enabling unstructured data management without disturbing end user or application access, EMC Rainfinity is the first solution to optimize IP based storage with its patented Global File Virtualization (GFV) platform. The sc,lution optimizes Network Attached Storage (NAS), eases storage management overhead, simplifies end user access and enables additional storage management functionality. One major advantage of Rainfinity Global File Virtualization is its capability to transparently move data including active, open files.

Where is it required?
Storage networks are getting more and more complex. The traditional Network Attached Storage solutions have found siblings in larger enterprises. A NAS, which was mainly used for file and print services over the network has now been supplemented CAS and CFS. CAS or content addressable storage is mainly focused on compliance issues and for securing data, whereas CFS or clustered file systems are used to spread a large amount of data across devices usually in an H PC (high performance computing) environment. Each of these storage systems have their own storage management capabilities but you need a solution that can work in the heterogeneous environment provided by them as well as manage them together. It is environments like these where global File Virtualization can be used. For example, a bank where data availability is mission critical and data consolidation, archiving and other management steps need to be executed with as less downtime as possible.



How does it work?
We all know, data migrations can be costly and time consuming as they require long planning windows and coordination with end users. However, Global File Virtualization (GFV) leverages the power of an IP network. The Rainfinity appliance is deployed on the IP network itself. Let's take an example of a data center environment where you have ten file servers. Now if you want to migrate data from server one to server 4 in order to balance capacity, end users might face performance issues like greater response times. However, with the Rainfinity appliance installed on the same network, it would take the ports associated with these servers on the virtualization network till the time the migration gets completed, hence giving the end user a lag free experience. Now scale this example up to a very large enterprise where you might have billions of files stored in different file servers and where authorizations and policy management also playa major role. Rainfinity enables transparent data migration without any disruption to the end user. In fact, files being used by the end user can also be migrated as it allows the transfer of open files. Through the global names pace management, the entire remapping and remounting can occur seamlessly due to a single interface for devices, protocols and locations.

Data migration and consolidation projects can take advantage of this solution as it eliminates the need to coordinate with end users and schedule downtimes. Such solutions can also dramatically reduce performance issues that are usually caused by overburdenea file systems while balancing storage utilization. On the lines of capacity management, administrators can adjust the availaq,le resources or take actions as and when needed in order to achieve a greater value for money from the data storage investments. And finally the solution can be used in a heterogeneous environment as it is capable of supporting network storage solutions from different sources, including EMC Celerra, NetApp, and Windows/UNIX/Linux file servers.