Permabit
Encyclopedia
Permabit Technology Corporation, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, is a technology company that designs, builds and sells OEM-embedded data optimization software solutions and network-attached storage
appliances targeted at enterprise archiving
applications. The company offers a Data deduplication
Software Development Kit along with a family of grid-based storage devices designed for customers and cloud storage
providers with terabyte
s to petabyte
s of information.
Permabit claims significant advantages in scalability
, cost
, reliability
and availability
over similar network storage technologies.
Wikibon
uses a CORE (Capacity Optimization Ratio Effectiveness) methodology to measure the overall effectiveness of data reduction technologies. Based on this methodology, Wikibon has assigned Albireo a CORE score of 254, the highest in the industry.
, deduplication
and compression
, are common across both products.
For data storage and access, the products support the standard NFS and
CIFS interfaces.
The Enterprise Archive and Cloud Storage products are based on a grid
architecture, with self-contained, distinct nodes working collaboratively to maintain the stored data. Individual nodes may be serviced or replaced without system interruption. To applications, the system is indistinguishable from a monolithic storage device.
and traditional data compression
. These technologies identify data in common within a single file and across multiple files in the system, allowing the system to store the redundant sections only once. The SHA-2
family of hash functions are used to assist in identifying duplicate data.
, which protects data across multiple drives in a single chassis, the Permabit products use a custom developed technology named RAIN-EC, based on erasure code
s that operate across chunks of data stored on different drives in different nodes. This allows for higher levels of reliability than available with RAID, as well as the ability to seamlessly add and remove storage in an active system.
Network-attached storage
Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
appliances targeted at enterprise archiving
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
applications. The company offers a Data deduplication
Data deduplication
In computing, data deduplication is a specialized data compression technique for eliminating coarse-grained redundant data. The technique is used to improve storage utilization and can also be applied to network data transfers to reduce the number of bytes that must be sent across a link...
Software Development Kit along with a family of grid-based storage devices designed for customers and cloud storage
Cloud storage
Cloud storage is a model of networked online storage where data is stored on virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties. Hosting companies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for...
providers with terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s to petabyte
Petabyte
A petabyte is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes, or 1000 terabytes. The unit symbol for the petabyte is PB...
s of information.
Permabit claims significant advantages in scalability
Scalability
In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...
, cost
Cost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this...
, reliability
Reliability (computer networking)
In computer networking, a reliable protocol is one that provides reliability properties with respect to the delivery of data to the intended recipient, as opposed to an unreliable protocol, which does not provide notifications to the sender as to the delivery of transmitted data.A reliable...
and availability
Availability
In telecommunications and reliability theory, the term availability has the following meanings:* The degree to which a system, subsystem, or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at an unknown, i.e., a random, time...
over similar network storage technologies.
Albireo
Permabit Albireo is a software library for data deduplication that is designed to be integrated as a component by computer storage and application software vendors. Albireo utilizes patented indexing technology with a low memory footprint that can function in single servers and multi-node grid systems, enabling it to scale duplications to petabytes of data. A 2010 test, validated by the Enterprise Strategy Group, demonstrated that Albireo is able to sustain speeds of over 77 GiB/s in a 16 node grid configuration. Albireo works at a level below file or object storage and need not interfere at all with common enterprise storage features such as snapshots, replication or thin provisioning. Albireo functions as a deduplication advisory service and therefore does not capture its own data and become a single point of failure or compromise data integrity.Wikibon
Wikibon
Wikibon is a community of practitioners and consultants dedicated to improving the adoption of technology and business systems through an open source sharing of free advisory knowledge. The company was launched in 2007 by David Vellante, David Floyer and Peter Burris and is headquartered in...
uses a CORE (Capacity Optimization Ratio Effectiveness) methodology to measure the overall effectiveness of data reduction technologies. Based on this methodology, Wikibon has assigned Albireo a CORE score of 254, the highest in the industry.
Albireo VDO
Permabit Albireo Virtual Disk Optimizer (VDO) is a data optimization solution for Linux-based storage appliance vendors. Albireo VDO consists of a virtual block device that is designed to offer sub-file deduplication, compression and thin-provisioning services at the Linux block level. Since Albireo is implemented at the block-level, it is fully compatible with Linux file systems including XFS and Ext3.Permabit Network Attached Storage
Permabit offers two NAS based storage solutions: Permabit Enterprise Archive and Permabit Cloud Storage. The Enterprise Archive product provides storage from 16 TB to 6.9 PB of raw capacity and the Cloud Storage offering comes in half rack (96 TB) or full rack (216 TB) configurations that can be combined to achieve 6.9 PB of raw capacity. Both solutions offer advanced data protection schemes based on RAIN-EC technology. Other features, such as records retention, replicationReplication (computer science)
Replication is the process of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility. It could be data replication if the same data is stored on multiple storage devices, or...
, deduplication
Capacity optimization
Capacity optimization is a general term for technologies used to improve storage utilization by shrinking stored data. The primary technologies used for capacity optimization are deduplication and data compression. These solutions are delivered as software or hardware solution, integrated with...
and compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
, are common across both products.
For data storage and access, the products support the standard NFS and
CIFS interfaces.
The Enterprise Archive and Cloud Storage products are based on a grid
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
architecture, with self-contained, distinct nodes working collaboratively to maintain the stored data. Individual nodes may be serviced or replaced without system interruption. To applications, the system is indistinguishable from a monolithic storage device.
Data Optimization
Permabit's products incorporate a technology called Scalable Data Reduction, a combination of sub-file deduplicationData deduplication
In computing, data deduplication is a specialized data compression technique for eliminating coarse-grained redundant data. The technique is used to improve storage utilization and can also be applied to network data transfers to reduce the number of bytes that must be sent across a link...
and traditional data compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
. These technologies identify data in common within a single file and across multiple files in the system, allowing the system to store the redundant sections only once. The SHA-2
SHA-2
In cryptography, SHA-2 is a set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the National Security Agency and published in 2001 by the NIST as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard. SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithm. SHA-2 includes a significant number of changes from its predecessor,...
family of hash functions are used to assist in identifying duplicate data.
Data Protection
Instead of RAIDRAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
, which protects data across multiple drives in a single chassis, the Permabit products use a custom developed technology named RAIN-EC, based on erasure code
Erasure code
In information theory, an erasure code is a forward error correction code for the binary erasure channel, which transforms a message of k symbols into a longer message with n symbols such that the original message can be recovered from a subset of the n symbols...
s that operate across chunks of data stored on different drives in different nodes. This allows for higher levels of reliability than available with RAID, as well as the ability to seamlessly add and remove storage in an active system.
Awards and recognition
- 2011
- Network Products Guide 2011 Innovative IT Company of the Year
- Network Products Guide 2011 Hot Companies Finalist
- 2010
- Wikibon CTO Award Best Enterprise Infrastructure Technology Innovations for 2010 Finalist
- Network Products Guide 2010 Product Innovation Awards — Storage Category
- Network Products Guide 2010 Hot Companies Finalist
- 2009
- Network Products Guide 2009 Hot Companies Finalist
- Gartner Cool Vendor in Archiving
- 2008
- Storage Magazine and SearchStorage.com Product of the Year: Silver Medalist in Backup Hardware Category
- Network Products Guide 2008 Product Innovation Award
- Network Products Guide 2008 Most Valuable Performers: Tom Cook CEO & President
- MITX 2008 Technology Awards: Finalist, Data Management Category
- 2005
- Storage Networking World's Best Practices in Storage Award: Honorable Mention for Industry Regulation Compliance and Corporate Governance Category
- MITX 2005 Technology Awards: Finalist, Data Management Category
- InfoStor Magazine/Association of Storage Networking Professionals' (ASNP) 2005 Most Valuable Product Program: Finalist, Compliance and Retention Category
- Storage/SearchStorage.com's Products of the Year Award: Silver Award Winner, BackupBackupIn information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
& Disaster RecoveryDisaster recoveryDisaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity...
Category
- 2004
- InfoWorldInfoWorldInfoWorld is an information technology online media and events business operating under the umbrella of InfoWorld Media Group, a division of IDG...
100 - Storage Networking World's Best Practices in Storage Award: Winner for Industry Regulation Compliance and Corporate Governance Category, October 2004
- Storage Networking World's Best Practices in Storage Award: Winner for Industry Regulation Compliance and Corporate Governance Category, April 2004
- InfoWorld
Technology Partners
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