Welcome to Spectra’s webinar Q&A roundup. In this blog series we will pick relevant questions from our recent webinars and publish the responses here.
Spectra Logic recently hosted a virtual presentation showcasing the full power of Vail, Spectra’s distributed multi-cloud data management software. The demonstration reviewed three hybrid cloud use cases, highlighting how Spectra Vail is helping customers leverage the public cloud, whether they unlock access to cloud services, utilize more than one cloud or access data – no matter its location.
Question: How does Vail decide what data to tier, where and when to move it, retention time, deletion policy, etc.? Are latches like user history, data class, app group, recency, frequency and file type available?
Answer: Spectra’s goal is to be as compatible with what Amazon offers as possible. So the short answer is that anything you see on Amazon, give it a little bit of time, and you’ll see it with Vail. We’re in the process of adding features such as last-touch date and file type filters, which are a things that are being added to Amazon S3.
Question: If you were coming from another system, how would you migrate archived content over to Vail?
Answer: If an organization is already using BlackPearl S3 as your local storage, BlackPearl S3 is able to adopt all of that data directly and make it available through Vail. If transferring a file-based system into object storage, Spectra offers two tools for that. One is Spectra StorCycle software, which provides a bridge to migrate from the file into the object world. Two, in the case that the archive is written to existing LTFS tapes, BlackPearl S3 can likely be used to adopt them. Spectra will consult with you to help set up and migrate workflows.
Question: Is partial file restore on the roadmap for Vail?
Answer: Vail already supports byte-based partial object restore just like Amazon does on the S3 layer. Our tape supports it as well. And time-based partial restore (say, of a specific section of a video file) can be supported by adding another Spectra software called BlackPearl RioBroker, which is a data mover and PFR index interface that uses the Marquis engine behind the scenes. RioBroker works in tandem with Vail to provide that PFR and data mover capability. It’s a very efficient data mover that can index and move a thousand files into object storage or Amazon S3 Glacier.
Question: Can Vail be deployed in FedRAMP compliant sites?
Answer: FedRAMP tends to apply to SaaS (Software as a Service). What we have with Vail is a system, the command and control of which runs in the cloud. For federal customers with FedRAMP compliant sites, we can run Vail in that customer’s cloud account, which bypasses the whole requirement and facilitates quick deployment.
To watch the webinar recording on demand click here.
