[observation] objectscale: redefining the next generation of object storage, reconstruction and innovation of Dell Technology

without doubt , With the gradual deepening of enterprise digital transformation , Today, unstructured data is also proliferating rapidly , And widely exists in thousands of lines and industries . for example , Bank bill image 、 Hospital PACS image 、 Digital files of archives 、 Manufacturing design drawings and production quality data, etc , Are typical unstructured data .

according to Gartner data display , Now the world 80% All the data is unstructured ; Again ,IDC Also predict , By the end of 2023 year , The capacity of file and object data will grow 3 times , And 90% The new enterprise application will be based on cloud native design , Obviously, this is the storage of unstructured data 、 Use and management pose new challenges .

In the process , As a global market leader in unstructured data and object storage , Dell Technology Group in the past 20 years , In the field of object storage, it has been deeply cultivated and precipitated , From the earliest Centera and Atmos, To ESC, And then to the cloud era ObjectScale, It can be said that it is constantly reconstructing and innovating , Redefined the development direction and trend of next generation object storage .

That's why , stay Gartner released 《2021 Distributed file system and object storage Magic Quadrant 》 In the report , Dell Technology Group is at the top of the list , Once again, it shows its strong technical strength and leading edge , And since 2016 year Gartner Since the report was first published , Dell Technology Group has achieved... For six consecutive years “ Hegemony ”.

that , What evolution trends are taking place in the whole object storage field ？ Dell technology recently released ObjectScale What are the technical advantages ？ Facing the future , How will Dell technology empower its users in a wide range of industries , Release the new value of massive unstructured data ？

Three new trends in the evolution of object storage

We know , Today's data has become “ New production factors ”, In the wave of digital transformation , Everything depends on data , Especially when the growth of massive unstructured data has become “ new normal ” Under the circumstances , How to get value from massive unstructured data , This is also the emergence of object storage in the past few years 、 The key reason for concern .

General manager of Dell Technology Group China R & D Group Shanghai R & D center

Chenchunxi

Chenchunxi, general manager of Shanghai R & D center of Dell Technology Group China R & D group “ empathy ”. He said ：“ Dell technology was as early as 2006 In, an object storage R & D team was established in the Shanghai R & D center , At that time, the whole company realized that object storage had a strategic position in the future , And in the past 16 years , Whether it is the entire Shanghai R & D Center , The object storage team has also achieved continuous development . Up to now , We are already close to 200 Many R & D personnel , Covering the market 、 framework 、 Research and development 、 Testing and technical support , At the same time, we also see that the entire object storage market is also experiencing a new evolution trend .”

One is , From a workload perspective , The role of object storage is changing to business primary storage , And start to carry more mission critical workloads . You can see , In the early days of object storage , It is often used by enterprises as backup 、 Data archiving or content storage , Is a “ High cost performance ” So called “ Two level storage ” platform .

But at the same time , With the growth of massive data , Especially the emergence of more and more new applications , The role of object storage is also changing , That is what enterprises need “ Bigger 、 faster 、 More province ” To meet the needs of its business and data rapid growth , And object storage just meets the market demand , Therefore, it is also storing “ role ” Change fast , And start to carry more mission critical workloads .

Two is , From the perspective of cloud native applications , Today with Kubernetes Cloud native technologies and concepts represented by are “ It's very popular ”. according to IDC Previously released reports , To 2022 year ,50% Enterprises will deploy a unified VMs、Kubernetes And multi cloud management processes and tools , To support cloud management and governance . Besides , To 2022 year ,60% The China 500 Strong enterprises will also invest in the automation of cloud native applications and platforms 、 Choreography and development lifecycle management , These trends also have a significant impact on the development of object storage .

“ Today, more and more new applications are being built on the basis of cloud nativity , At the same time, cloud Nativity has also become the core direction of the development of next-generation applications , This has also profoundly affected the development trend of object storage technology , For Dell technologies , How to better redefine Cloud Applications , Or redefine a modern data center , Let object storage better adapt to the development of cloud native applications , It is also an important direction for us to consider when designing and developing object storage .” Chenchunxi said .

The third is , From the perspective of technological innovation , Today objects are stored both in metadata 、API Even to “ edge / The core / cloud ” Direction evolution , It is also experiencing a new round of technological innovation . Take metadata as an example , Object storage because a lot of data can be marked in addition to traditional data , In other words, business tags can be defined directly through metadata , This will help users better retrieve 、 Query data , Especially in autonomous driving , And more artificial intelligence 、 Machine learning leverages metadata aspects , It can help users define specific data sets , This will greatly improve the efficiency of the overall application , This is what makes object storage unique , It is also its great advantage .

besides , Dell technology can support... In object storage S3 agreement , Most modern applications are compatible with cloud native applications S3, This gives the object store more “ place ”; On top of that , Dell technology is also carrying out more innovations in the field of object storage , Make it more adaptable “ edge / The core / cloud ” End to end coverage areas , This also enables object storage to achieve more extension in the dimension of technological innovation .

Dell technology continues to explore and innovate in the field of object storage “ A great integrator ”—— It is the protagonist of this article “ObjectScale”, that ObjectScale In what aspects has it realized reconstruction and innovation ？

Redefining next generation object storage

according to the understanding of ,ObjectScale First appeared in 2020 Dell technology and VMware In our cooperation , At that time in VMware Container platform Tanzu Released its early preview version on , It can build a higher performance container object storage scheme relying on flash memory .2021 By the end of year ,ObjectScale Ushered in the official release , It is the largest ever Dell technology group “ soft ” A software defined storage product , It uses a microservice architecture , It also supports Kubernetes layout , It can be said that the next generation object storage platform is really redefined in the cloud native era .

Dell Technology Group China R & D Group Shanghai R & D center Senior director of software engineering Tengyu

Tengyu, senior director of software engineering of Dell Technology Group China R & D Group Shanghai R & D center, said ：“ObjectScale It can be understood as traditional ECS It is not only the first time that software definitions have been implemented , It also has Kubernetes The ability to flexibly arrange and deploy the architecture , Able to maximize the use of physical Resource（ resources ）; More importantly, it has the ability of cloud nativity , It can be implemented according to the requirements of the application or the workload AutoScale（ Automatic telescopic ） The ability of , This capability is beyond the reach of traditional software definitions , therefore ObjectScale It is a very critical step in our process from software definition to cloud nativity .” The specific term ：

First , In terms of software definition ,ObjectScale Native support Kubernetes, The operation and maintenance management is simple ; It also has intelligent workload patterns and flexible deployment options . among ,“ The blessing ” Kubernetes after ,ObjectScale I can get through Kubernetes Storage implements scheduling 、 Load balancing 、 Self repair 、 Resource optimization and other capabilities , Self service at the same time K8s API It also enables developers to integrate object storage into CI/CD In the pipeline , This provides verifiable 、 Repeatable and consistent environments . in addition , It also has the ability to isolate resources and multi tenancy , Finally, it can be achieved at a lower TCO, Enable faster application development .

and “ Flexible deployment ” refer to ,ObjectScale Support deployment on proven software and hardware , It has been supported at present, including VxRail and VMware The environment and Red Hat Of OpenShift Kubernetes Environmental Science . Besides ,ObjectScale Of “ flexibility ” It is also reflected in the brand-new product consumption mode , Such as ObjectScale Community edition Version is available for free up to 30TB The capacity of , At the same time, it can also get permanent and effective community support ; and ObjectScale VCF with Tanzu Version and ObjectScale Red Hat OpenShift Version provides subscription or enterprise license mode , It can run directly in vSAN Store or run in disk/meida Environment .

secondly , In terms of enterprise level guarantee ,ObjectScale It has strong scalability , At the same time, it serves as a storage platform covering from the edge to the core , It also has the ability to support customer building “ Global distributed data lake ” The ability of .

“ObjectScale Completely inherited ECS Features of enterprise object storage , Its biggest reconfiguration is the introduction of Kubernetes, But the data side is still ECS Enterprise level capabilities accumulated over the years , It includes a natural scale out architecture to support the expansion of object storage clusters ; New nodes can be added on demand 、 Object storage and capacity ; In terms of automatic scaling capability , Even if the customer's data from TB Level increases to EB level , It also has no restrictions on buckets or objects ; Besides ,ObjectScale The architecture itself also supports customers to build small cloud centers in the data center or even at the edge , Plus it supports and is compatible S3 The interface of , Therefore, more customers can also pass ObjectScale Build a global data Lake in a public cloud environment .” Teng Yu said .

Last , In modern applications ,ObjectScale rich S3 Compatibility and scalability make it an ideal integration platform for multiple workloads , It can meet the requirements of high performance and low cost TCO The requirements of , It can also meet the requirements of modern applications and traditional workloads . meanwhile ,ObjectScale It also includes event flow and log analysis 、 It plays a greater role in the consolidation of backup and storage and more application scenarios .

Take event flow and log analysis as an example ,ObjectScale With infinite expansion 、 Nodeless 、 Tenant or capacity constraints ; Can achieve S3 compatible 、 Built in metadata and search ; Support the selection of multiple storage media , Whether it's traditional HDD still NVMe SSD; As well as its own simple operation , Have low TCO Other characteristics , therefore , In the data acquisition pipeline 、 Search and analysis and data visualization can play a more valuable role .

It is worth mentioning that , stay 2022 Dell Technology Group Global Summit in （DTW 2022） On , Dell technology has also announced a partnership with Snowflake The cooperation of , This is a company that can provide cloud based data storage and analysis services , It allows enterprise users to use cloud based hardware and software to store and analyze data , And can support AWS、Azure and Google Cloud Access to data warehouse services of three cloud platforms , For today's enterprises, it is cloudy 、 Heterogeneous complex deployment environment has strong applicability .

Tengyu thinks ：“ For Dell technology industry customers , In the future, it can be used in the private cloud environment ECS、ObjectScale, At the same time with the help of Snowflake The collaboration provides the same interface or API, On this basis ECS and ObjectScale Copy data from to Snowflake In the cloud system , The advantage is that industry customers can make important applications and public cloud environments completely ‘ Isolation ’, At the same time, the data stored in the object can be analyzed in real time in the cloud , And the innovative cooperation mode created by this combination of strong and strong , It is the real solution that customers need in the cloud era .”

Of course , With ObjectScale Release , Many customers are also very concerned about the future from ECS The transition to ObjectScale？ Tengyu emphasized this ：“ Ensuring the integrity of user data is the foundation of a company providing storage products , In this respect, we have also made commitments to our customers , That's it ECS Will operate normally and continuously , At the same time, we will also according to the needs of customers , Help customers complete the upgrade and delivery process in stages , Of course, the customer's usage scenarios have been completely ‘Ready’ When , We can also help customers from ECS Upgrade to ObjectScale, In short, this is a process of smooth upgrading and evolution .”

thus it can be seen ,ObjectScale Not only did they inherit ECS Develop enterprise level capabilities accumulated over the years , At the same time, through blessing “Kubernetes”, In software definition 、 Flexible deployment , Powerful S3 More innovations in compatibility and modern applications , It can be said that in the age of cloud primordial “ Next generation object storage ” Technological innovation and development direction of “ Made a sample ”.

Unleash the new value of unstructured data

With ObjectScale The addition of , Dell Technology Group has also completed a more powerful and complete product layout in the field of object storage , Include ECS Integrated delivery solutions , This is a proven integrated product , have NVMe High performance configuration and high-density storage capacity , Can be found in AI And analyze the scenario , And play a solid role in backup and long-term archiving scenarios .

ObjectScale Is a brand new software definition scheme , It is based on Kubernetes Build a native container based microservice architecture , Designed for next generation applications and development / Test scenario design , Support includes VMware、Red Hat as well as VxRail And other flexible deployment options ; and APEX Services On Dell ECS in “ Namely service ” For the multi Cloud Architecture , It supports AWS、 Microsoft smart cloud Azure And Google cloud , It can help users minimize the use cost of cloud environment , Let users change or restructure their workloads , Minimize low risk and cost .

More Than This , Dell technology group released as early as two years ago PowerScale, This is a distributed storage with horizontal scalability , With its extremely high storage density and very high storage utilization , It can help users achieve a good balance between large capacity and high performance . so to speak , In the field of unstructured data storage , The product and solution lineup of Dell technology group not only has “ Carrot and stick ” Characteristics , At the same time, it shows “ A hindrance ” scene .

Dell Technology Group Greater China unstructured data storage division The general manager   Liuzhihong

Regarding this , Liuzhihong, general manager of Greater China unstructured data storage division of Dell technology group, said ：“ Dell Technology Group has been 6 year ‘ Hegemony ’Gartner The magic quadrant of distributed file systems and object storage , It has confirmed our leading position in the field of unstructured data from one side , This advantage stems from our technological precipitation in this field for more than 20 years , As well as the technological innovation capability that we always adhere to in the original cloud era .”

One side , From the perspective of technical precipitation , In the object storage market , Dell Technology Group has been working in the field of object storage for more than 20 year , From the beginning Centera and Atmos, To ESC, And then to the cloud era ObjectScale, Although the name of the product has changed , But there is no change based on the long proven inheritance and innovation ; Again , In the unstructured data storage market , Derived from Isilon Of PowerScale It is also the world's first truly widely used distributed storage , It also has strong adaptability , Mature and reliable , Proven capabilities .

“ In the field of distributed storage and object storage , Our biggest advantage , It's the past 20 This precious resource accumulated over the years , This kind of wealth is rare in the industry , Because the biggest test of storage is that data cannot be lost , And we passed 20 Years of practice and verification , It proves our strong ability in maturity .” Liu Zhihong said .

On the other hand , From the perspective of technological innovation , Dell Technology Group does not lie on the ground of history “ Credit book ” On , It's a constant commitment , Persist in innovation , Thus, in the era of digital transformation or cloud native, it has really created in the unstructured data market “ Flexible 、 As simple as ” as well as “ Any data 、 Anywhere ” Our products and solutions , Whether it's ObjectScale still PowerScale All have such characteristics . From this angle, we can also see , Dell Technology Group in the field of technological innovation , Did not take any “ shortcut ”, It is “ One step at a time ” Come out .

in general , Inheritance and focus in the field of distributed storage and object storage for more than 20 years , It is where Dell technology group leads the unstructured data market ; And always adhere to the innovation and iteration of technology , And let Dell Technology Group in the cloud native Era , It provides more sufficient assurance and confidence for releasing the new value of massive unstructured data , such “ unique ” The ability of , It will certainly make the digital and intelligent transformation of more industry customers easier and more leisurely , And this is exactly what Dell Technology Group does in the field of unstructured data “ Leave the complexity to yourself , Leave simplicity to the customer ” True portrayal .

Shen Yao's scientific and technological observation , Founded by shensky, a cross-border self media person of science and technology and automobile ,19 Years of working experience in enterprise level technology media , Long term focus on enterprise digitization 、 Industrial intelligence 、ICT infrastructure 、 Observation and Reflection on the content of automobile science and Technology .