Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Weka Announces Cloud-native, Unified Storage Solutions for the Entire Data Lifecycle 

CAMPBELL, Calif., Oct. 27, 2020 -- WekaIO (Weka), an innovation leader in high-performance, scalable file storage for data-intensive applications, today announced a transformative cloud-native, storage solution underpinned by the world’s fastest file system, WekaFS that unifies and simplifies the data pipeline for performance-intensive workloads and accelerated DataOps. Weka has developed reference architectures (RAs) with leading object storage technology alliances, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudian, IBM, Seagate, Quantum, Scality, and others in Weka’s Technology Alliance Program, to deliver cost-efficient, cloud-native data storage solutions at any scale. And Weka’s OEM partnership with Hitachi Vantara will deliver an integrated end-to-end stack solution based on the Hitachi Content Platform. WekaFS provides the ease of managing petabytes of data in a single, unified namespace wherever in the pipeline the data is stored, while also delivering the best performance to accelerate artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), genomics research, high-performance computing (HPC), and high-performance data analytics (HPDA) workflows.

Weka’s unified storage solutions with cloud-native ecosystem partners provide the following customer benefits:

  • Faster actionable business intelligence from a single high-performance storage solution
  • Cost-efficiency with the ability to manage, scale and share project data
  • Operational agility eliminating storage silos across edge, core, and cloud
  • Enterprise robustness and secure data governance
  • Manage more petabytes of data cost-effectively and with fewer resources

Extending the WekaFS namespace from high performance flash to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) REST-enabled cloud object storage system is a simpler and more cost-efficient strategy for managing petascale datasets without compromising performance. The filesystem metadata resides on flash while seamlessly extending capacity over object storage, private or public. All the I/Os are serviced by the flash tier while leveraging the object tier for capacity scaling. WekaFS allows data portability across multiple consumption models supporting both private and public clouds with the ability to extend the namespace across both. A cloud-first model delivers the best storage efficiency and TCO across consumption models and data tiers.

Snapshots, encryption, and data versioning facilitates data protection, mobility, and DR

As data has become a strategic asset for businesses, lifecycle management is paramount. However, the datasets encountered in AI/ML, genomics, HPC, and HPDA have grown so big and agile that traditional backup and DR applications fall short, creating siloed namespaces and workflows that are lacking operational agility and data protection. Data versioning is achieved using Weka’s instant and space-efficient snapshots capability for experiment reproducibility and explainability. The snap-to-object feature captures a point-in-time copy of the entire, unified [flash and object store] file namespace that can be presented as another file namespace instance in a private or public cloud. Weka’s integrated snapshots and end-to-end encryption features ensure data is always backed up and secure throughout its lifecycle. WekaFS also provides immutability and data mobility for these datasets with instant recovery.

Weka has partnered with leading private and public cloud partners to ensure a fully validated and performant storage solution ecosystem, certified solutions include AWS S3, AWS Outposts, Cloudian HyperStore, Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), IBM Cloud Object System (IBM COS), Quantum ActiveScale, and Scality RING.

Supporting Quotes

Shailesh Manjrekar, Head of AI and Strategic Alliances, WekaIO
“Weka’s ability to deliver a unified, global namespace across public and private clouds is a huge leap in simplifying datacenter management for organizations managing petabytes of data. Unlike other parallel file systems, Weka was architected for the cloud-native age with namespace extensibility across different performance tiers. Now that Weka is certified with a broad ecosystem of technology partners to deliver a unified storage solution our customers get the best of both worlds—leveraging NVME flash for a high-performance hot tier bridged seamlessly with the capacity and economics of an object store archive tier. Combined with the added durability and replication benefits Weka delivers a single solution that securely stores and accelerates data through the entire pipeline.”

Jon Toor, CMO, Cloudian
“Cloudian HyperStore delivers a hyperscale data fabric for massive deployments. Together with WekaFS, we remove all of the complexities in managing storage while ensuring easy, seamless data management between private and public clouds. With a Cloudian system, customers can choose to employ an HDD-based platform for a low TCO or leverage all flash with the industry’s best price/performance promise.”

Alan Bivens, Director of Data Services, IBM Public Cloud
“As IBM is a cloud vendor that offers both a public cloud object storage as well as an on-premises object storage, the ability to extend the Weka File System namespace over the petabytes of data stored on IBM’s Cloud Object Storage offerings, as a single unified namespace, ensures customers immediate and fast access to their data lake to meet the most demanding application needs.”

About WekaIO

WekaIO (Weka) offers WekaFS, a modern parallel file system that is used by seven of the Fortune 50 enterprise organizations to uniquely solve the newest, biggest problems holding back innovation and discovery. Purpose-built to unlock the full capabilities of today’s accelerated and agile data center, WekaFS is optimized for NVMe-flash and the hybrid cloud. Its modern architecture handles the most demanding storage challenges in the most data-intensive technical computing environments, delivering truly epic performance at any scale, enabling organizations to maximize the full value of their high-powered accelerators—GPUs and FPGAs. Weka helps industry leaders solve big IT infrastructure problems and extract more value from their data faster. For more information, go to https://www.weka.io/parallel-file-system


Source: Weka

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