Arcitecta IP Pty Ltd., said today it’s launching a new enterprise-focused data system that converges data management, orchestration, multiprotocol access and storage within a single platform.

The idea is that enterprises can manage their entire data estates across on-premises and cloud environments through a single platform that offers globally distributed access, with high performance, scalability and big cost savings, the company says.

Its Mediaflux Universal Data System is designed to get around the inefficiencies of the clustered file systems in use by many organizations today. While these can support data storage across multiple servers to enable greater scale and easy access, they lack the sophisticated tools required to manage and orchestrate that information effectively.

Steve McDowell of NAND Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that managing data across disparate storage systems, whether on-premises or across cloud boundaries, is an ongoing challenge for enterprise information technologies. He added that the problem is exacerbated when trying to use data on those disparate systems for analytics and AI. “Arcitecta has always been focused on solving big data challenges, and this is clearly one of the biggest,” he said.

The company reckons that its Mediaflux Universal Data System can overcome these challenges. It says it can help organizations to manage every aspect of the data lifecycle from the moment the information is first acquired, including its cataloging, transformation, dissemination and storage, no matter where it is located. Moreover, it supports multiple storage protocols, including Network File System, Server Message Block, Amazon Simple Storage and SSH File Transfer Protocol, so companies are free to integrate any storage technology. Numerous storage hardware types are supported to, so customers can choose freely and mix various types of servers to meet their needs.

The cost-effectiveness of Arcitecta’s platform is due to the fact that licensing is decoupled from the volume of data stored, so companies can scale to hundreds of petabytes without worrying about the cost of doing so. The platform further eliminates costs by eliminating the need for third-party software and storage fabrics, it said.

Pricing is based on the number of concurrent users, making it more aligned with the size of an organization. It also provides an intelligent data placement feature to optimize storage efficiency, automatically tiering information based on the usage and access patterns it sees.

With these capabilities, Arcitecta said, companies will be able to set up and deploy globally distributed storage environments across a single file system that spans every location. Its system also enables compute algorithms to access information without moving data across networks.

Instead, they’re distributed to where the data resides, reducing the costs associated with data transmission. Still, the platform supports rapid file transfers through its integrated high-speed wide-area network file transfer technology, offering throughput of up to 95% of the available bandwidth. Finally, it offers metadata capabilities to facilitate enhanced data discovery and knowledge sharing and enhance collaboration.

Arcitecta founder and Chief Executive Jason Lohrey said his company’s platform gives companies a holistic view of their data, regardless of where it’s stored or located. “By merging world-class data management, orchestration, multi-protocol access, and storage into one cohesive platform, we aim to set a new industry standard that moves beyond data storage and makes data more accessible, manageable and valuable than ever before,” he said.

McDowell said that if it were any other company announcing this platform, he would be very skeptical about the claims being made because it’s so ambitious in its scope. However, he pointed out that Arcitecta has been solving storage problems for high-performance computing for more than 25 years, so there’s reason to believe it can crack the challenge.

“Arcitecta understands this space and has the experience and credibility to pull it off,” McDowell said. “There isn’t really a direct competitor on the market either. The recently released Hitachi Vantara Virtual Storage Platform One comes close, as do VAST Data and WEKA, but none of their offerings are as feature-rich. Overall, I’m very impressed with what’s being delivered.”

Image: Arcitecta