Release 3.5 of PolyServe File Serving Utility for Linux Boosts Flexibility, Capabilities for Clustered Storage

With significant updates for today's most demanding storage environments, PolyServe, Inc. today released Version 3.5 of the PolyServe File Serving Utility for Linux clustered storage software platform. The new software enables workload-optimized solutions fully tuned to specific customer requirements, with enhancements targeting demanding environments such as online rich-media serving, video post-production and broadcast, financial services and oil & gas seismic processing. Additionally, the new software forms the foundation of a new clustered storage solution, BladeRack2 PolyServe Enterprise NAS Server, from PolyServe and leading hardware vendor Verari Systems, per the terms of an OEM agreement announced today.

Based on PolyServe's fully symmetrical cluster file system (CFS), the clustered storage solution scales performance and capacity independently, enabling on-the-fly scalability for demanding applications. The shared data architecture gives all servers visibility and simultaneous read/write access to all storage, creating a single pool of shared resources with significant price-performance advantages over competing alternatives. In the latest version, new features add robust capabilities for markets where storage growth is at its highest.

"These fast-growing storage markets want solutions that are optimized for the highest possible performance for their unique demands, yet flexible enough to scale capacity according to changing workloads," said Michael Stankey, chairman and CEO, PolyServe. "Our successes in storage-intensive markets such as online photo sharing, broadcast media, seismic processing and financial services have inspired us to craft products and partnerships that map precisely to the needs of these storage-hungry users."

Enabling workload optimization/optimized solutions

Industries such as online rich-media serving, broadcast and entertainment, financial services and oil & gas seismic processing share fast-growing requirements for high-performance storage, yet have workload requirements that vary widely. To address the needs of these explosive growth markets, the new PolyServe File Serving Utility boasts tunable file serving parameters, enabling optimized solutions ideally matched to use case and workload.

"Other traditional NAS solutions are tuned to SPEC workloads to meet yesterday's market needs, with small file sizes, small data sets and hundreds of UNIX servers as clients," noted Carter George, vice president, Storage Solutions, PolyServe. "Our file serving platform is tuned to today's storage markets, where file sizes are large, data sets are in the hundreds of terabytes and number of clients is in thousands."

The PolyServe solution now supports tiered storage, enabling multiple layers of storage within a single storage cluster. For example, customers in markets such as online photo sharing can deploy PolyServe for ultra-high performance primary storage with Fibre Channel arrays, with near-line archive storage mapped to lower-cost iSCSI arrays on the same cluster, maximizing cost-efficiency and boosting archive performance. Additionally, the new File Serving Utility extends the built-in fault tolerance of PolyServe clusters with integrated snapshot support for widely used disk arrays, offering cluster-wide, snapshots for simplified data protection.

Also enhancing optimization for demanding storage markets are features such as:

-- Increased storage capacity: clusters range from two to 16 nodes, with single file systems scalable up to 128TB, and up to 512 file systems and two petabytes of storage per cluster.
-- Centralized storage management: a new GUI provides a single "pane of glass" through which users easily manage free space, dynamic volume growth and storage allocation.
-- Tuning and performance options: native performance improvements and options for multiple block sizes for different types of workloads and arrays.
-- New operating system options: with release on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.3 and 4.4, in addition to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP 3.

"With its new File Serving Utility, PolyServe continues to distinguish itself by recognizing individual customer needs, and providing solutions that are optimized by tuning for various workloads," said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst, Taneja Group. "As IT organizations look to scale out their storage networks for optimal performance and cost efficiencies, the PolyServe approach warrants strong consideration as the optimal alternative to traditional NAS appliances.

Pricing and Availability

The PolyServe File Serving Utility for Linux will be available on November 1 and is based on an 8-cpu license pack at list price of $52,000.

About PolyServe

PolyServe, Inc. is a leading provider of software for enabling utility computing in enterprise data centers. PolyServe provides clustered storage solutions for high-performance applications and enterprise file server consolidation. In addition to its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., PolyServe has a Microsoft development center in Bellevue, Wash. It also has sales and support offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. For more information about PolyServe, visit http://www.polyserve.com , or call 877-476-5973.