Scale-Out Storage Solutions

Scale-Out Storage solutions are a type of NAS (network-attached storage) architecture that allows organizations to add on device arrays as their total amount of data grows. That is, when capacity is reached in a scale-out system, new storage arrays can be added in order to expand the amount of storage available in the system.

Scale-out solutions enable organizations to purchase only as much storage space as they initially need, rather than trying to predict how much storage they may need in the future and then scale-out if necessary. Scale-out solutions are just one kind of NAS architecture. More traditional scale-up solutions exist as well. With scale-up solutions, users must purchase a new set of storage drives.

The addition of these new storage drives affects the network negatively in two ways. First, adding storage in a scale-up system disrupts the network because it must be shut down in order to add memory. And, secondly, it harms the performance of the network because the processing capacity of the system does not increase with the increase of storage.

Scale-out storage solutions solve both of these problems since IT administrators can add in storage arrays without shutting down and thus disrupting the network. And with scale-out storage, the addition of storage arrays also increases their processing capacity, avoiding negative effects on their performance. Scale-out storage gives a network the ability to scale without hardly any limitations.

What are Scale-Out Storage Solutions

Scale-Out Storage solutions are a type of NAS (network-attached storage) architecture that allows organizations to add on device arrays as their total amount of data grows. That is, when capacity is reached in a scale-out system, new storage arrays can be added in order to expand the amount of storage available in the system.

Scale-out solutions enable organizations to purchase only as much storage space as they initially need, rather than trying to predict how much storage they may need in the future and then scale-out if necessary. Scale-out solutions are just one kind of NAS architecture. More traditional scale-up solutions exist as well. With scale-up solutions, users must purchase a new set of storage drives.

The addition of these new storage drives affects the network negatively in two ways. First, adding storage in a scale-up system disrupts the network because it must be shut down in order to add memory. And, secondly, it harms the performance of the network because the processing capacity of the system does not increase with the increase of storage.

Scale-out storage solutions solve both of these problems since IT administrators can add in storage arrays without shutting down and thus disrupting the network. And with scale-out storage, the addition of storage arrays also increases their processing capacity, avoiding negative effects on their performance. Scale-out storage gives a network the ability to scale without hardly any limitations.

Scale-Out Storage Solutions Features

Most scale-out storage solutions offer the following features:

• Data Storage

• Data Security

• Data Migration

• Data Consolidation

• Data Insights

Scale-Out Storage Solutions Comparison

In order to choose the right Scale-Out Storage solution, prospective buyers should consider what kind of data they would be storing. A product may be better suited for blob storage like images or videos while others may be better suited for more structured file storage.

Another consideration prospective buyers should have is how much IT resources their organization has. Scale-Out Storage solutions vary with respect to their technical customer support options and how easy the system is to implement and maintain.

Pricing Information

Data storage needs differ significantly from organization to organization. Therefore, vendors offering scale-out storage solutions do not generally give “out of the box” pricing options.

For pricing, prospective buyers will need to contact vendors directly in order to get a quote based on their specific needs.