IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) is a turnkey, modular NAS solution that provides scalability, performance, availability and functionality needed for large file-based data workloads. It uses a clustered architecture to consolidate storage into a single globally accessible namespace that can scale to the petabyte level. SONAS supports centralized management of storage resources and implements automated information lifecycle management capabilities to help organizations efficiently manage large and rapidly growing datasets.

1. IBM Systems and Technology Group System Storage
Smart businesses are turning to
IBM Scale Out Network Attached
Storage from IBM

2. 2 Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM
Welcome to the Petabyte Age in a Smarter Traditional monolithic fibre channel or network attached
Planet storage (NAS) arrays were not originally designed as high-
Today’s businesses are operating in a smarter planet, where bandwidth rich media, constant bit rate, large object file serv-
business customers are demanding, creating and sharing busi- ing, infinitely clustered, dynamically load-balanced, centrally
ness and social digital content and large rich media files over a deployed, petabyte-level storage entities. As a result, they can
broadband Internet that reaches to every corner of the globe. have limitations in scalability and numbers of files and objects;
Smarter users are creating and using smarter data that is and when more capacity is required, additional separately
redefining our business and social world in real time. managed traditional arrays have to be installed. This creates
storage management complexity and labor intensity, and there
Unlike traditional IT data, this rich digital content is almost is still no ability to dynamically balance service delivery and
entirely file- or object-based, and it is growing ever larger in workloads globally across the storage environment.
size, with highly diverse and unpredictable usage patterns.
Innovative IT applications in business analytics, digital media, IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage
medical data and cloud storage are creating requirements for (SONAS)
data access rates and response times to individual files that SONAS is designed to address the new storage challenges
were previously unique to high-performance computing posed by the continuing explosion of data. Leveraging mature
environments—and all of this is driving a continuing explosion technology from IBM’s High Performance Computing experi-
of business data. ence, and based upon IBM’s flagship General Parallel File
System (GPFS™), SONAS is an easy-to-install, turnkey,
Traditional IT workloads and traditional storage will continue modular, scale out NAS solution that provides the perform-
to excel for the traditional applications for which they were ance, clustered scalability, high availability and functionality
designed. But these solutions were not intended to scale to the that are essential to meeting strategic Petabyte Age and cloud
high levels and extremely challenging workload characteristics storage requirements.
required by today’s Internet-driven, Petabyte Age applications.

3. IBM Systems and Technology Group 3
Consolidating storage to improve
efficiencies
HTTP NFS CIFS SCP Management FTP
The high-density, high-performance SONAS can help your Clients Clients Clients Clients Clients Clients
organization consolidate and manage data affordably, reduce
crowded floor space, and reduce management expense associ-
IP Network
ated with administering an excessive number of disparate
storage systems. With its advanced architecture, SONAS
virtualizes and consolidates multiple filers into a single,
enterprise-wide file system, which can translate into reduced Global Namespace
total cost of ownership, reduced capital expenditure, and
enhanced operational efficiency.
Management Multiple Horizontally scalable Multiple
Node Interface Nodes I/O Performance Interface Nodes
SONAS provides a global namespace that enables your storage
IP Management Network InfiniBand Clustered Network
infrastructure to scale to extreme amounts of data, from ter-
abytes to petabytes. Within the solution, centralized manage- Storage Storage Storage Storage
Node Node Node Node
ment, provisioning, control, and automated information
life-cycle management (ILM*) are integrated as standard
Storage Horizontally scalable Storage
features to provide the foundation for a truly cloud storage- storage capacity
enabled solution.
Storage Storage
SONAS provides extreme scale out capability, a globally Storage Pod Storage Pod
clustered NAS file system built upon IBM GPFS. The global
namespace is maintained across the entire global cluster of
multiple storage pods and multiple interface nodes. All inter-
The advanced architecture of SONAS virtualizes and consolidates your file
face nodes and all storage nodes share equally in the cluster to space into a single, enterprise-wide file system.
balance workloads dynamically and provide parallel perform-
ance to all users and storage, while also assuring high availabil- Providing infrastructure for cloud storage
ity and automated failover. IBM has designed SONAS to embrace cloud computing by
providing the dynamic scale out capability, centralized deploy-
SONAS supports a full complement of standards-based net- ment and management, security, and service elasticity neces-
work protocols, including Common Internet File System sary to meet today’s cloud storage requirements.
(CIFS), Network File System (NFS), Secure Copy Protocol*
(SCP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol* (HTTP) and File
Transfer Protocol (FTP).

4. 4 Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM
It is designed to deliver cloud storage at petabyte scale, Automated, integrated tiered storage and
enabling cloud applications and services to be uncoupled from information life-cycle management
the underlying storage infrastructure, which allows the busi- When file systems grow from terabytes to petabytes and to
ness to adjust quickly to change. As a result, SONAS can eas- millions and billions of files, the task of managing and migrat-
ily integrate with your organization’s strategies to develop a ing this scale of data can become an immense challenge.
more dynamic enterprise. Backup and archive becomes complex, expensive and slow
because of the large amount of data that must be scanned to
Centrally managed, centrally deployed identify what must be backed up. SONAS is designed to solve
SONAS enables you to cluster and centrally deploy and man- these problems by providing extreme scale out capability in a
age a large scale out NAS storage environment, in order to single global namespace, with automated, integrated policy-
gain a unified centralized management capability for security, driven ILM* and hierarchical storage management built in.
provisioning and configuration.
The integrated ILM* capability allows you to manage a
petabyte-level global namespace in logical storage pools
instead of individual disks. The architecture enables easy
Classic Filers IBM Unified Scalable Storage – dynamic growth and transparent data migration, supporting
Enterprise Edition
the ability to make changes to your storage infrastructure
without having to plan weeks in advance. You can centrally
provision storage nearly instantaneously, on a quota basis, by
user, group or location. Extensive global reporting and global
access control capabilities are standard features.
SONAS provides a powerful high-performance scan engine
The clustered architecture of SONAS enables a unified management view.
that makes ILM* possible at the level of petabytes of data with
millions and billions of files. The high-performance scan
The global cluster provides intelligent load balancing,
engine enables fast searches, with ILM* data movement, back-
dynamic thin provisioning, geographical distribution, per-
ups, and restores done in parallel by all nodes in the system.
formance optimization, and advanced replication—all globally
applied and centrally managed.

5. IBM Systems and Technology Group 5
migration and recall to and from tape, is transparent to the
global namespace and to the logical user paths, directory loca-
Tiered storage Databases tions and applications.
Protocols
CIFS
NFS
HTTP Protecting data and replicating between
FTP
SCP
sites
High-end workstations SONAS offers data protection through space-efficient snap-
Management shots that protect against accidental deletion or modification
Central
Administration
of files and that enable you to restore at the file level. The
Monitoring End users solution also provides for synchronous replication as well as
File management
bandwidth-optimized asynchronous* replication.
Availability
Data migration
Application servers
Leveraging unique capabilities and
Replication
Backup modular hardware
In addition to extreme scale out capability and integrated
Automated ILM ILM*, SONAS enables your organization to utilize an array of
between pools
Virtualization and uniquely scalable, globally clustered hardware capabilities.
consolidation technology
The solution is self-tuning, with all data automatically striped
across all disks in a logical storage pool for high performance.
SONAS supports end users across the organization with a comprehensive All nodes share equally in the reading and writing of files in
suite of storage capabilities, including tiered storage and ILM*.
parallel from all disks, thus providing intelligent load balanc-
ing, eliminating of hot spots, and ensuring very high perform-
The clustered architecture means all nodes share in perform-
ance. Storage capacity is only allocated when written,
ing the high-performance scan, and all nodes can participate
providing dynamic thin provisioning.
in the transparent movement of ILM* data or backup data to
other storage pools or external removable media.
The solution is also self-healing, providing automatic failover,
failback, and fully dynamic load balancing. The modular con-
ILM* is performed at the individual file level, thus greatly
figuration of interface nodes and storage node building blocks
optimizing storage usage while enabling maximum business
can be upgraded or downgraded dynamically, giving you the
flexibility. Physical data movement between pools, or
ability to scale in real time.

6. 6 Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM
suit your requirements. Storage pods range from 4 to 16 U in
size. Each pod can provide reliable storage from 27 to 480 ter-
abytes of data. Storage pods and interface nodes can be com-
External IP
LDAP All interface nodes and storage bined into one globally clustered scale out NAS system,
Active Directory nodes can directly access all
network storage and all files storing up to 14.4 petabytes of data. This provides extreme
flexibility in configuring, adding and subtracting interface
Global namespace
Management nodes and storage nodes in any way your workload requires.
nodes
For example, a system for archival might be configured with
CIFS SCP NFS HTTPS FTP Scalable to large
Clustered NAS services
numbers of interface 2 interface nodes and 20 storage pods, whereas a system for
nodes
Interface nodes e-mail might be configured with 20 interface nodes and
Interface nodes InfiniBand switches for node cluster, 2 storage pods.
data transfer 1 GbE switch for
management nodes IBM Scale Out
Network Attached SONAS provides extreme high density storage, and exploits
Storage
Storage nodes leading-edge technology such as InfiniBand.
Two storage
nodes per Scalable to large
numbers
Driving a dynamic infrastructure
storage pod
Logical storage pools
of storage pods Organizations in every industry can gain significant competi-
Physical disk storage tive advantages by implementing dynamic infrastructures that
Storage pod Storage pod Storage pod
enable them to improve service, reduce cost and manage risk.
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) from
IBM is designed to serve as a highly dynamic, flexible, elastic
storage element of your infrastructure, driving greater levels
SONAS provides high levels of storage performance, scalability, and
flexibility. of responsiveness through consolidation, resiliency and
scalability.
Your organization can take advantage of numerous flexible,
modular, hardware configuration possibilities. The initial ver-
sions of SONAS will support any combination of up to
30 interface nodes and 30 storage pods, flexibly configured to

7. IBM Systems and Technology Group 7
Reaping the benefits of scale out NAS
By implementing IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage
(SONAS) from IBM, your organization can gain significant
cost savings due to less wasted disk space, and less administra-
tive effort required to manage fewer file systems and
Tens of thousands of users
authorizations. The solution helps improve productivity by
providing automated ILM*, automatic storage allocation, user
management by storage quota, and universal reporting and
Global Namespace performance management. With these integrated tools,
SONAS can help improve your business processes, reducing
IBM Scale Out Network errors associated with file system management, out-of-space
Attached Storage
conditions, and performance tuning and out-of-date copies of
data. It minimizes time to access data across the WAN, and it
can increase your ability to scan all data in a single search.
High-speed
It provides the ideal infrastructure for a cloud storage
environment.
Remote office Disaster A solution for the most demanding
location recovery location
industries
High-speed IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) from
IBM can help optimize storage environments, save costs, and
improve efficiencies in a wide range of industries. IBM’s scale
out NAS solution has been developed to support:
Application cluster ● Medical imaging for active data and archive.
● Digital simulations in pharmaceutical, automotive, and aero-
space applications.
SONAS supports the most dynamic infrastructures, including remote office
● Rich content records in insurance, construction, and realty.
and disaster recovery infrastructures. ● Video capture for security, process management, and
education.
● Media and entertainment content distribution.
● Web 2.0 and social networking.
● Financial services analytics.

8. Implementing and managing a scale out
NAS system
Correctly designing and implementing a strategic scale out
NAS solution at high scalability—that is, at the level of hun-
dreds of terabytes, or even at the petabyte level—can demand
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2010
experience with high-end server environments and multiple
operating system platforms, in addition to storage design and IBM Systems and Technology Group
Route 100
management expertise. This is expertise that many organiza-
Somers, NY 10589
tions may not have in-house. U.S.A.
Produced in the United States of America
IBM offers broad expertise in these areas to help you quickly February 2010
implement SONAS, providing you with access to IBM’s broad All Rights Reserved
base of highly skilled professionals and expertise in large scale IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and System Storage are trademarks or
out NAS, digital media, high-performance computing and registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in
cloud storage. the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other
IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this
information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate
For more information U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this
To learn more about how IBM Scale Out Network Attached information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or
common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of
Storage can centralize your storage management, provide cost IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
savings and improve efficiencies in your organization, contact information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service
ibm.com/storage marks of others.
This document could include technical inaccuracies or typographical
errors. IBM may not offer the products, services or features discussed in
this document in other countries, and the product information may be
subject to change without notice. Consult your local IBM business contact
for information on the product or services available in your area. Any
statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to
change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives
only. The information contained in this document is current as of the
initial date of publication only and is subject to change without notice. All
performance information was determined in a controlled environment.
Actual results may vary. Performance information is provided “AS IS” and
no warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by IBM. Information
concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of their
products their published announcements or other publicly available
sources. Questions on the capabilities of the non-IBM products should be
addressed with the suppliers. IBM does not warrant that the information
offered herein will meet your requirements or those of your distributors
or customers. IBM provides this information “AS IS” without warranty.
IBM disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including the implied
warranties of noninfringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose or noninfringement. IBM products are warranted according to
the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are
provided.
* Designates future support
Please Recycle
TSB03016-USEN-02