Startup StorONE Inc. today released a new version of its software platform that promises to make enterprise storage environments easier to run.

New York-based StorONE is backed by $30 million in funding. Companies use its platform to manage the cloud and on-premises storage infrastructure in which they keep their data. The company says the software automates much of the manual work historically involved in the task.

Enterprises usually keep information in three formats: standard files, plus data structures called blocks and objects. Block-based storage provides the fastest performance while objects lend themselves well to holding unstructured data. The different storage varieties often have to be managed using different tools.

StorONE’s platform allows administrators to manage block, file and object repositories through a single interface. It also creates immutable snapshots, backup copies of a company’s data that can’t be deleted or modified by ransomware. A replication tool can automatically sync those copies to a disaster recovery environment. 

StorONE 3.9, the new version of the platform that debuted today, introduces a capability called TierONE. Companies often power their storage environments with a mix of flash drives and disk, which is slower but more affordable. If a file isn’t used frequently, administrators move it to disk in order to cut costs. TierONE automates the task to save time for infrastructure teams. 

Usually, configuring a storage system to send low-priority data to disk requires manually defining tiering thresholds. An administrator might, for example, specify that spreadsheets should be placed in disk drives if they’re not edited for at least two weeks. According to StorONE, TierONE removes the need for manual configuration and prevents data movement from causing downtime. 

“StorONE is delivering, for the first time, a solution for storing cold data that meets three seemingly contradictory requirements: extremely high-performance writes, long-term data storage at a low cost, and immediate availability of the data for customer use,” said Chief Executive Officer Gal Naor.

A second addition rolling out with StorONE 3.9 is a tool called SnapONE. It complements the platform’s existing snapshotting features, which can create a copy of files once a minute to minimize data loss. 

SnapONE makes it possible to restore individual files rather than entire snapshots. Reducing the amount of data that has to be recovered after an outage speeds up the disaster recovery process. As a result, business operations can resume faster. 

TierONE and SnapONE are rolling out alongside a slew of usability improvements. 

StorONE now generates snapshot summaries to help administrators quickly glean key information about backup data. If a more detailed overview is needed, the platform can generate technical reports and package them into a PDF. As part of the upgrade, StorONE also redesigned its platform’s interface and added a simpler tool for provisioning storage capacity. 

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