EMC Virtualizes, Aggregates Centera Archives

11th DEC 2009

EMC has recently announced a new technology called Centera Virtual Archive

This is a technology that ties multiple Centera content addressed storage (CAS) systems together as a single virtual archive.

The first version of the Centera Virtual Archive will be available December 10, and will support aggregation of up to four Centera systems over campus-wide distances.

Centera is EMC's IP-based platform for compliance-sensitive application data. The system uses a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Nodes (RAIN) architecture to combine off-the-shelf, commodity hardware with intelligent management software at massive capacities.

The Centera Virtual Archive primarily creates clusters of clusters by logically extending the Centera CentraStar operating software to include multiple Centera instances under a single management domain.

Centera Virtual Archive is also capable of aggregating Centeras of all shapes and sizes, regardless of capacity or which version of the CentraStar software is in use. The caveat is that at least one node in an existing Centera must be running the Virtual Archive software.

With four Centeras it can assuredly create a massive archive. However, aggregating four Centeras across a campus may not be enough to accommodate the growth of archive data in some environments.

The Centera platform currently scales to as many as 128 nodes for up to 128TB of raw capacity per Centera cabinet (more as higher capacity drives become available). Multiply that by four and a single Centera archive can now scale to multiple petabytes of capacity.

"The total customer count for Centera is around 5,500, and they run the gamut from very large managed service providers typically selling an archive service to relatively small, discrete archives. Explosive data growth is the common denominator," says Thayer.

EMC plans to increase the number of Centeras supported under the Centera Virtual Archive in the near future. The company also plans to eventually extend geographic reach of the Virtual Archive technology from campus-wide to worldwide.