They have enhanced their file service solution with scale-out cluster capability and with performance and tuning boosts, and announced the GA of their Vcinity Access object storage offering.
Steve Wallo, Vcinity’s CTO
San Jose-based infrastructure provider Vcinity has announced version R3.2.3 of their Ultimate X [ULT X] file service solution. Highlights include increased scalability through a three-node High Availability VM scale-out cluster, which provides higher and more scalable performance for hybrid on-prem [VMware ESXi] and AWS environments. File system enhancements around tuning and performance also make it easier to to experiment with new AWS cloud services while using data stored in another AWS Region, to operate on data as soon as it is created, or to augment application architectures they have already deployed on AWS. Vcinity also announced the availability of their Vcinity Access object storage offering.
Vcinity has something of a novel offering in their space of data transfer for the hybrid cloud in that they make a turnkey hybrid cloud solution that allows data to be ‘moved’ to the cloud, without its having to be physically moved. Their technology lets applications operate and execute on data that is physically distant from where the application sits.
“As far as we know, we are still distinct in taking this approach to the issue,” said Steve Wallo, Vcinity’s CTO. “There are many other companies in this space, but they all move copies of the data around.”
Wallo thinks that uniqueness leaves Vicinity in a good position even if the economy turns south, as many expect.
“I don’t see the economy affecting what we are doing because I think people will still require more of this,” he said. “The issue has been that it takes too long to get data to the cloud. We provide a quicker path to monetization from a Cloud Service Provider perspective, while we can allow customers to continue to use their existing architecture. We are in a unique spot in that we can offer both CSPs and storage providers something.”
Vcinity has begun leveraging strategic partnerships to expand their TAM. Earlier this year they signed a deal with Dell to integrate Vcinity’s hybrid cloud software with Dell servers to deliver a turnkey solution to customers through Dell’s OEM Engineered Solutions program.
“The Dell relationship is maturing more, and they have partnerships with other vendors like Intel that does things for us,” Wallo stated. “We did a lot with Intel this year, which also helps Dell. We partnered with Intel to take their off the shelf cards and put our firmware on it. It gives them differentiation from NVIDIA and AMD, especially on a Dell platform. Others, like Vertica and Teradata, are pulling the other end of that thread from the analytics side, and being very fruitful for us.”
A key element of the R3.2.3 file service solution adds hardware clustering support, allowing for scale out while providing enhanced failover and reliability. Many years ago, Vcinity started out as Bay Microsystems, where they were an actual hardware company, which transitioned to software over the years.
“You can only do so much with software alone, so we focused on creating this scale-out version of our software which lets the nodes cluster together,” Wallo said. “That’s one of the biggest things we have done here.”
The solution also receives advanced automation and API support, and file system enhancements for finer levels of tuning and performance control.
“Typically, customers have to spend a lot of time managing installation, configuration and automation,” Wallo stated. “We have hidden that piece of it. We have also improved the diagnostic pieces around reporting and logging and troubleshooting. We also are an infrastructure play – not a storage vendor. We like to give people the ability to use our solution through their own enablement tools, and this is done through APIs. Our ability to do this has matured, and we have made it easier to use.”
Vcinity also announced the general availability of its Vcinity Access object storage offering. It allows cloud native applications that use Amazon S3 or Amazon S3-compliant object storage to remotely access and instantly operate on that data across hybrid or distributed cloud environments, with local-like performance. Customers can use it to unlock new or enhance outcomes of existing workloads— such as enriching insights and actions of analytics workflows, permitting faster and more cost-effective machine learning training, or innovating on new ways to quickly derive value from edge data.
“A lot of what we have been doing was ahead of its time,” Wallo concluded. “People now realize this is out there and that it can change the information they are able to get. It’s a good position to be in.”
