StrongBox Data Solutions StrongLink 3.2 increases automation to simplify data management

StrongBox Data Solutions (SBDS) introduced StrongLink 3.2, delivering increased levels of automation and performance to radically simplify data management.

The combination of StrongLink’s foundational capabilities and new 3.2 software enhancements offers IT managers and channel partners a vendor-neutral solution to data and multi-vendor storage resource management with proven scalability to accommodate any sized environment. It also provides predictable pricing based on required performance, not capacity, so costs do not increase as data volumes grow.

“StrongLink’s new metadata-driven tools provide our researchers with maximum efficiency for data access and management across a large heterogeneous storage environment,” said Carsten Schmitt, storage administrator at Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum GmbH (DKRZ).

“StrongLink provides researchers with global access to their data with workflows they are accustomed to but in an open-standards-based architecture that eliminates proprietary vendor lock-in. This is a key requirement for building the Exabyte Data Archive system and minimizes the time needed to find or manage data across multiple classes of storage. The SBDS solution is helping DKRZ create a better environment to advance the state of the art of climate research.”

As data volumes grow at increasing rates, organizations are challenged to manage growing volumes of unstructured data across multiple storage silos while ensuring immediate data accessibility. StrongLink’s data-centric approach provides improved performance and administrator tools for better data management across vendor silos.

“Storage vendors are focused on keeping the data on their storage systems throughout its lifecycle. And although it appears to provide customers greater data lifecycle simplicity, it actually increases complexity and costly vendor lock-in because of storage silos,” said Marc Staimer, president at Dragon Slayer Consulting.

“StrongLink is vendor and storage system-neutral. It enables customers to implement multi-vendor storage systems and new storage technologies transparently. With its increased automation, AI-Machine Learning, and disruptive non-capacity licensing, StrongLink provides customers the ideal cost-effective and high-performance data management system.”

Automation, insights and performance for smart, cost-efficient data management

The SBDS third-generation intelligent software solution, StrongLink 3.2, gives customers unprecedented insights into their data and storage throughout the entire data lifecycle. It includes the tools to automate intelligent policy-based file actions across otherwise incompatible storage types, including flash, disk, cloud, and tape from any vendor – eliminating data silos and increasing data access. New features and capabilities include:

• StrongLink Galaxy with multi-site replication for increased data protection. Galaxy provides bi-directional multi-site replication for disaster recovery (DR), collaboration, data protection and more, ensuring customer data is secure, protected and easily accessible wherever it is located. Metadata records replicate instantly across all sites as changes occur, and all or subsets of data are replicated asynchronously to maintain up-to-the-second data copies.
• Highly scalable search engine for large enterprises and complex queries. StrongLink’s third-generation query engine enables customers to keep pace with future growth by providing expanded scale to support large enterprises and complex queries across many billions of files. It also provides increased performance for queries that span multiple metadata types.
• Enhanced reporting engine and notification capabilities. The new StrongLink reporting engine allows for multiple report categories and the creation of new reports to rapidly accommodate customer requests. StrongLink also provides an enhanced notification system that monitors an expanded set of metrics, internal processes and network behaviors to provide fast, proactive alerts for system administrators.
• New access and query options to support HPC and research environments. StrongLink CLI, a new command-line interface, accommodates high-performance computing (HPC) and other workflows that typically utilize scripted procedures. It allows for creating and annotating datasets with custom metadata tags, complex queries, workflow triggers, and more. The new CLI is in addition to the full-featured StrongLink web-based Control Panel application and the open API to give admins and users a complete selection of access utilities to better manage their data environment.
• Added support for scientific workflows. StrongLink now supports the NetCDF metadata standard for HPC and scientific workflows to provide researchers with more query options to rapidly locate files.

“The traditional data management paradigm relies on specialized storage solutions for the various stages of the data lifecycle, increasing the occurrence of data silos, vendor lock and system complexity,” said Floyd Christofferson, CEO at StrongBox Data Solutions. “StrongLink 3.2 brings an automated, data-centric approach to vendor-neutral storage resource management. It provides customers with crucial data intelligence plus the tools to operate across otherwise incompatible storage types from any vendor at scale.”

StrongLink provides IT staff unprecedented control over their entire data environment with tools to manage file copies and data placement transparently based on data intelligence. StrongLink is ideal for organizations managing growing volumes of unstructured data and is used by customers across a wide range of industries, including HPC and research, and for a variety of use cases such as business continuity/disaster recovery, active archive, automated data migration, storage tiering and non-disruptive technology refreshes.

Availability

The new version of StrongLink 3.2 software is available immediately.