Building blocks of a Vail Solution:

Connection Types (Vail Nodes)

A Vail node is a software package that can be deployed on a number of options:

  • As a virtual machine or on a BlackPearl storage platform.
  • Utilize existing storage
  • Utilize cloud storage – AWS, GCP, Azure
  • Utilize Spectra storage
  • Create a local glacier* tier (tape behind BlackPearl)

Lifecycle Policies Drive Vail Solutions

A Lifecycle policy in a Vail solution consists of rules that dictate where objects are stored and the length of time they are stored in each storage location. Each lifecycle policy is created by the administrator to fit the de- sired workflow and retention periods. Users can determine the placement of objects in the bucket by specifying the number of copies the rule will keep and the specific storage pools to use. The available storage targets consist of public cloud storage tiers, and local storage under control of a Vail node that has been integrated into a Vail Sphere.

Hybrid Cloud Integrations

Vail presents both on-premises and cloud-based storage options within the lifecycle policies. Copies can be made immediately or after, in any location, to any storage target or medium, and presented to the user as one simple storage system that reacts to their immediate needs.

From storage to compute, Vail integrates with the major cloud providers and any cloud using native S3 protocols. This eliminates cloud lock-in and provides the ability to leverage the cloud and cloud services that fit the desired workflow.

Glacier Storage for Long-Term Retention

Creating a local glacier repository is possible with the help of Vail. Glacier storage delivers substantial cost savings and infinite salability. The benefits of a Vail solution cannot be overstated. The fact that long-life object storage disk and literally unlimited tape capacity can be realized, makes your own glacier storage tier an easily attainable reality. The seamless combination of affordable disk and ultra-cost-efficient tape means that any company’s growing data universe can be organized and managed in a whole new way and without any cloud lock-in limitations.

Vail Policy Engine Management

For quite some time storage vendors have provided solutions that allow for setting time-based policies that drive migration of data to lower cost storage tiers. Vail lifecycle policies add additional dimensions to this by allowing for the specification of how many copies, the geographic locations of those copies and what storage tier those copies exist at a particular time. To highlight the power of this, consider a customer that has a main data center, multiple smaller remote data centers and employees working remotely that do not have access to any of these centers. For this example, the main data centers has a large amount of disk storage along with a tape system while, all the remote data centers have a small amount of flash storage. Additionally, the customer’s bucket lifecycle bucket may consist of three distinct phases; for the first 30 days users need immediate access to the data, for the next 60 days us- ers can accept slower access to their data, but it still needs to be sub-second, and for anything older then 90 days users are willing to wait for a restoration of the data that could take multiple minutes.

Once an object has been in the system for 30 days the remote site and cloud copies of the object are deleted to make room for new objects entering the system. Users will still have immediate access to the object however that access will require a transfer of the data from the primary data center through the WAN.

This is just one example that demonstrates the power of the Vail bucket lifecycle policy engine. Each customer is different, and most customers have several applications that require different policies. Vail provides for this by allowing a customer to create unique policies on a per bucket basis.

A Lifecycle policy in a Vail solution consists of rules that dictate where objects are stored and the length of time they are stored in each storage location. Each lifecycle policy is created by the administrator to fit the desired workflow and retention periods. Users can determine the placement of objects in the bucket by specifying the number of copies the rule will keep and the specific storage pools to use. The available storage targets consist of public cloud storage tiers, and local storage under control of a Vail node that has been integrated into a Vail Sphere.
*Amazon Glacier is a registered trademark of Amazon Technologies, Inc.

This short fun animated video shows how Spectra’s Vail, a distributed multi-cloud software, unifies data to enable on-premises applications and cloud services — no matter where data is created or stored.

Watch how Vail transforms workflows

Interested in a live Vail demo?

Fill in the form and see what Vail can do for you.

Resources

"When we set out on our search to find a storage solution capable of preserving Imperial War Museums’ substantial digital archive, there were specific criteria on which we were not willing to compromise. Spectra met all of our requirements and then some, and now continues to deliver with StorCycle’s storage lifecycle management capabilities."

– Ian Crawford, Chief Information Officer, Imperial War Museums

"We appreciate the collaborative relationship and Spectra’s attentiveness to incorporating our feedback and ideas into solution enhancements. Our continuing investment into Spectra technology on behalf of our organization has proven invaluable in helping us implement the next level architectural model taking us into the future."

– Eric Grau, Manager – Media Asset Management, Joyce Meyer Ministries

"The new library has just shy of 14,000 slots for tapes. We were able to easily move all 70 petabytes of existing data into the new system and have grown to 104 petabytes in size and have plenty of room for at least a year or two before we have to start thinking about expanding."

– HPC Linux Systems Engineer, OLCF

"We have to store a lot of data for long periods of time. A single microscope can capture 10TB of data in as little as a few hours, and a published breakthrough on cancer research can take anywhere from a few years to a couple of decades. The BlackPearl and tape solution from Spectra provides a scalable and cost-effective way to store multiple data workflows with varying retention requirements."

– Jeffrey McDonald, director of IT, Hormel Institute at University of Minnesota

Contact Us

USA/CAN: 1-800-833-1132
INT: 1-303-449-6400

    X
    Spectra Logic
    Follow Us