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The Data Archiving
Solution for File Protection and Accessibility
The explosion of
digital data propels the need for scalable, simplified data archiving
solutions. Data may need to be kept for 2 or 20 years, but it always needs
to be accessible and accurate. The Crossroads StrongBox® archive solution
simplifies your archive, protects business-critical data and delivers
significant cost savings for long-term archiving.
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Tech Specs
Overview:
- LTFS/ LTO
Archive
- NAS
Functionality
- NFS and CIFS
Connectivity
- 3 Flexible
Platforms
- 35 TB to 35 PB
Capacity
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StrongBox T10
- Enhanced disk cache - 5.7TB RAID 5
- Scales to 100 million files
StrongBox T20
- Scales to 800 million files
- 8 LTFS drives for enhanced performance
StrongBox T30
- Scales to 2 billion files
- Up to 600 MB/s transfer rates for rapid ingest of
large data volumes
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What is StrongBox?
StrongBox is a shared
storage solution purpose-built for data archiving and preservation. Using
Linear Tape File System (LTFS) technology and intelligent storage
architecture with standard file systems (CIFS/NFS), StrongBox empowers
online, all the time file availability with uncompromised data protection,
full data mobility, non-proprietary file storage and significant
cost-savings. StrongBox unifies your archive - past and present - while
providing seamless scalability and reliability for the future.
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Business Use-Cases
for Data Archiving
StrongBox accelerates
your business. Expanding data retention requirements drive the need for
businesses to store their mission-critical files for longer periods of
time. As a flexible active archive appliance, StrongBox delivers instant
data access and cost-savings that make it an ideal protected, long-term
archive.
Organizations faced
with the challenges of large data volume storage and management can
employ StrongBox as a scalable Tier 3 data repository. By
offloading inactive data from costly, high-performance disk into
StrongBox, users can reduce expenses and improve efficiency without heavy
dependence on IT resources to store and access archive data.
Staying connected to
your data is crucial for seamless operations. By empowering tape to look
and act like network-attached storage (NAS), StrongBox is a low
cost tape-as-NAS archive that keeps data actively available and online,
all the time.
User-set policies allow
StrongBox to be utilized as Tier2 NAS. Active projects can remain
on the disk cache for rapid access. Unlike an HSM solution, files are
always protected in the LTFS medium, eliminating the risk of data loss
during transfer between tiers.
With advanced data
protection features, StrongBox provides data preservation at the
file level while reducing the need for backups. By making multiple copies
of data on two separate pieces of tape media, long-term files are
protected, moved off primary storage and no longer need to be backed up.
To effectively manage
data across high-performance servers and StrongBox, FileStor-HSM can be
used with StrongBox to provide intelligent, policy-based data migration.
Scaling with organizational needs, FileStor-HSM works with your
storage architecture to deliver files to StrongBox, the Cloud or other
NAS.
Online, All the Time
When you need access to your data, you don’t
want to wait. Driven by business needs or regulatory compliance, StrongBox
empowers real-time data access, without heavy dependence on IT resources.
With LTFS, tape is transformed from a rigid single point of access into an
online file system supporting multiple access points with rapid,
simultaneous queries. Data is never offline and users have a persistent
view of all files in the archive, improving efficiency and maximizing the
IT investment.
Vendor Neutral
Vendor lock-in is eliminated, allowing you
to take control of your data. LTFS is non-proprietary and tapes written
with LTFS are readable by any LTFS drive. StrongBox is the only truly
vendor neutral LTFS archive, requiring no agents, software or applications
to access data.
By using LTFS and LTO media, StrongBox
guarantees the accessibility of your content for the entire data life
span, whether 3 or 30 years. Compatible with most file-based applications
and tape libraries, StrongBox integrates easily with existing datacenter
components to allow companies to deploy best-in-breed solutions for the
most efficient and effective storage infrastructure possible.
Optimized Archive
Performance – Enterprise-Class Functionality
Empower your data to move fast – just like
your business. StrongBox joins the reliability and economy of tape with
the accessibility of disk in one shared storage solution. Functioning as
standard network-attached storage (NAS) with the ability to mount CIFS/NFS
file shares, StrongBox provides a persistent view of all files in the
archive and allows simultaneous operations (read and write) for multiple
users.
As a truly enterprise-class archive,
StrongBox is purpose-built to handle many simultaneous operations in
data-intensive environments. The intelligent architecture with disk
enables the system to cache files and prioritize operations so that drive
resources are available when a user or application requests a file.
Flexible, user-generated policies enable a streamlined flow of data to
multiple access points while IT operations remain transparent to end
users. Essentially, StrongBox empowers tape to look and act like disk, but
with benefits of low cost, high reliability and long-term scalability.
Get the most out of your archive performance
with the Enhanced Data Performance software module. Flexible
user-generated policies simplify and streamline data flow, optimizing
performance for application and data-intensive environments.
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• File retention empowers
policy-based data management capabilities to hold data on the disk cache
for faster or repeated access.
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• Configurable data flow
management policies enable StrongBox to operate like Tier 2 NAS for
active archiving.
Data Mobility
Share data among different users, platforms
and locations with simple LTO tape export or through WAN accelerated data
replication. Enabling partnership between creators, produces and editors
of file content, StrongBox facilitates file sharing, with no agents or
special software required. Any LTFS tape can be ingested or exported from
StrongBox and made available on any network shares.
Complete Data Protection and File Integrity
Storage is fundamental, but ensuring that data can be
retrieved is key to a successful IT infrastructure. StrongBox protects
data on multiple fronts so that you can be confident that data written to
the archive is recoverable in time of need. This protected data archive
solution helps eliminate redundant backups as secure archival data does
not need to be backed up.
Reliability Assurance
with Advanced System Monitoring and Analytics
Deliver insight into archive usage and
operations of physical storage systems to optimize resource use. Detailed
metrics comparison and drill-down analyses of selected parameters provide
valuable insight into the archiving environment and resource utilization.
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• Dynamic reporting shows
live views as well as historic data sets collected from the library,
drives, and tapes to analyze and compare data points and identify
potential problem areas.
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• Export database CSV files
for an easy-to-manipulate spreadsheet of system metrics reports.
Low-touch Administration and Easy to Use
By integrating with standard file systems (NFS/CIFS),
StrongBox presents a simplified plug-and-play addition to your current
environment. Once installed the system requires minimal IT involvement
while complex operations are automated.
Traditional tape storage required manual action to retrieve
files from the archive. With StrongBox, end-users can access files stored
in on the LTFS medium straight from a workstation. It’s as simple as point
and click from a standard file system, like MAC Finder or Window’s
Explorer. StrongBox looks just like a standard drive and no manual IT
resources are needed for file access and storage.
Seamless Multi-Petabyte Scalability
Data grows exponentially – budgets don’t. StrongBox now
provides the capacity to scale as needed for the future, building a
long-term archive that expands as business grows - from 500,000 up to 2
billion files. To meet the need for long-term storage, simply add new
media, drives or disks to StrongBox. As additional devices are added,
StrongBox automatically detects and integrates them into its environment,
reducing manual processes needed in order to scale.
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Data storage is
fundamental, but data accessibility is paramount to a successful archive
infrastructure. StrongBox facilitates content retrieval in diverse
software and application-intensive environments to deliver
business-critical files when and where they are needed.
Industry-Specific
Use Cases for StrongBox
In the Media and
Entertainment industry, a company’s digital content is its greatest
asset. StrongBox empowers a holistic archive for long-term content,
providing seamless file sharing, complete data protection and simple
integration into file-based workflows. With StrongBox, M&E companies spend
more time creating and less time managing data.
Video
Surveillance and Security businesses record
monumental amounts of content on a daily basis, and traditional storage
alone can consume up to 50 percent of a surveillance project budget.
StrongBox reduces video storage cost of ownership up to 80 percent by
using cost-efficient LTO media.
Government and
Legal institutions have sensitive information
that requires stringent data protection. With policies such as multi-copy,
WAN replication and secure tape export, StrongBox provides data security
on multiple fronts, ensuring data integrity and access authentication to
meet compliance standards.
For Healthcare and
Research and Development facilities, patient or research data is
needed far into the future. StrongBox never modifies stored data,
essentially future-proofing data with reliable, non-proprietary LTFS.
Retail and
Logistics companies handle huge amounts of data
that keep operations running smoothly. StrongBox empowers a file-based
system for streamlining business record storage and delivering files
seamlessly when needed.
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