Komprise adds full file integrity to data access from any tier across on-prem and cloud

In addition to expanding their capability for the customer to access file data in object clouds, Komprise announced support for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

Krishna Subramanian, Komprise’s President and COO

LAS VEGAS – At the NetApp Insight event here, intelligent data management provider Komprise has announced the general availability of the 2.9 release of their flagship Komprise Intelligent Data Management solution. The big news in this release is the  addition of new file integrity that allows data to be accessed at file level  even on block-based storage tiers, giving new flexibility to users. In addition, Komprise also announced support for the new NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

“Komprise has always moved data and implemented lifecycle management,” said Krishna Subramanian, Komprise’s President and COO. “Customers have been telling us that they now want to move data multiple times across storage vendors, as it gets colder. So now we do multi-tier lifecycle management  across storage vendors, where we go from any first tier to any second tier to any third tier, even with different vendors.”

In addition, unlike array tiering solutions that are block-based, Komprise fully preserves file integrity so data can be accessed directly from any tier, on premise or cloud.

“That is new and is significant,” Subramanian said. “It keeps the full fidelity there at every level. Customers use us to evolve their storage architecture, including accessing data in the cloud as files or objects. Normally, these clouds store the data just as objects. Komprise now keeps all metadata in the cloud so it can recreate the file without having to go back and the customer can access the data from files or objects and from anywhere. That’s pretty unique.”

Subramanian said that this functionality lets customers get high performance when they need it in the cloud without overpaying for cold data.

“When you move data to the cloud, S3 or Glacier is pretty cheap compared to the alternatives,” she said. “However, file service in the cloud is very expensive. We do have some customers who need to do that, however. One example would be genomics companies, and it’s also important in Big Data, and in compliance-related activities. It’s something that most customers want to do, but most aren’t doing yet. Being able to look directly at files on the object store makes it much easier to find them, and much less expensive because you don’t have to move the data to find things.”

Komprise also announced support for the new NetApp CloudVolumes ONTAP, allowing customers to transparently archive cold data from CloudVolumes to S3, S3 IA and Glacier.

“CloudVolumes is more expensive than these because you have full file system performance, but it’s more efficient to do this for cold data with Komprise,” Subramanian said.

Komprise is a long-time NetApp strategic partner.

“This is our third year at NetApp Insight, and the company is four years old,” Subramanian said. “We are a NetApp Gold Partner. Komprise is growing really well, more than doubling every quarter. Last quarter, we more than tripled the data we manage, which is now over 200 PB, among over 90 enterprise customers. We are growing the team rapidly, and now have almost 70 people, including adding a Director of Alliances [Chris Lawrence] a month ago. IBM recently became a Komprise reseller, and Azure is now a co-sell partner, so that Azure partners get paid to sell us. We are doing a lot with Western Digital now, including go-to-market campaigns, where their partners also sell us.” Komprise sells entirely through partners.

Komprise Intelligent Data Management 2.9 is available now for no additional charge. They are showcasing it at NetApp Insight 2018, Booth #801.