A new approach to data compression

Compression is as old as personal computing, but it is used today mainly for backup and second tier storage. Many attempts to address the challenges of primary storage compression have failed because of degraded performance and lack of transparency.

Compression the Storwize way
Because compression of primary storage data has been difficult to address, most efforts in recent years have been directed at compression during remote transport. This type of compression saves bandwidth but does nothing to reduce stored data volumes. Attempts to compress primary storage data interfered with user workflow and required running software on both storage and end-user devices. These solutions were based on cumbersome sequential access (decompress, update, recompress), work at file-level granularity, or both. They also wasted client resources and introduced unacceptable latencies. Storwize technology processes in real-time only the data required for a particular user or application, and fully supports every type of file access. The Storwize method offloads and centralizes compression in a powerful, dedicated appliance, eliminating performance degradation and in most cases actually improving it.

Full transparency for
  • Client
  • OS
  • Applications
  • Storage unit


    		•
    Real-time random access to compressed data
  • Read from any location in the compressed data
  • Modify any location in the compressed data

    		•
    Storage performance remains the same or improves
  • No CPU or memory penalty
  • Reduced data I/O requests

    		•
    Complementary solution
  • Storwize is complementary to other ILM/storage management/TCO reduction solutions
  • The appliance is designed to work with any storage arrray it's connected to.

    • Benefits
    Storwize believes that in order for a compression solution to be viable it must be transparent to users, applications, Data Bases and operating systems (both in workflow and in response time)

    The Storwize Technology provides a revolutionary approach to data storage by enabling existing infrastructure to store three times more data than available on average today.

    The Storwize solution, at 'wire speed', compresses or decompresses the relevant data blocks as the user requests them.

    Storwize technology is implemented by real-time data compression, which is transparent to the user and the servers. No end user operation is required and performance is improved, if affected at all.

    The impact of the high compression ratio on the IT budget and operations is significant:

  • Costly upgrades to IT storage can be postponed for years, depending on initial size and annual growth rate.
  • A Shorter Backup Window - Backing up and restoring data requires significantly less time.
  • Reduction of network traffic for remote backup operations.
  • Reduction of the number of storage units to manage.

    • Other Benefits Include:

    1. High Compression Ratio Up to 5x
    2. Storage Performance Stays the Same or Improves
    3. Real Time Random Access to Compressed Data
    4. Full Transparent Solution