At the recent 54th IT Press Tour, Kiran Bhageshpur, Qumul’s CTO, shared how the company is simplifying enterprise data management at scale. As unstructured data continues to grow explosively, managing that data has become a formidable challenge. Legacy storage solutions create complexity and lock-in, with data silos preventing visibility and access from multiple locations. But Qumulo takes a fresh approach with its Scale Anywhere Data Platform, which enables users to store, manage and process data anywhere, from the edge to the core to the cloud.
Scale anywhere NAS
The heart of Qumul’s solution is its Scale Anywhere NAS (Network Attached Storage). As Kiran Bhageshpur, Qumulo’s CTO explains, this delivers “exabyte scale and on-demand performance” through a “software-only and hybrid-first” architecture. It supports multiple protocols including NFS, SMB, S3 and FTP.
Critically, it is “enterprise proven” with all the “‘bells and whistles’ that organizations require”. This includes key capabilities around security, integration, data protection and data mobility in on-premises and cloud environments.
Overcoming complexity and closure
Bhageshpur sees Qumulo as part of an industry shift from scaling to scaling to scaling anywhere. “The old way is complex and creates platform lock-in,” he says, with “complex manual processes” that are “time-consuming, burdensome, error-prone.”
Organizations also face “data blindness” with “no visibility into stored data or how to monetize it.” They are locked into “only one platform to choose from,” resulting in “platform lock-in, sourcing risks, slow innovation.”
In contrast, Qumulo has an “API-first approach” with “software-defined storage” that allows organizations to “choose from many platforms, on-premise or cloud.” Built-in real-time analytics provide instant visibility into data across multiple locations.
Consolidation of data across all locations
A key Qumulo differentiator is its ability to unify an organization’s data footprint across geographically dispersed locations. Bhageshpur notes several key trends driving this need:
“Workflows are distributed, teams are cross-border and cross-organizational.” At the same time, “90% of data is unstructured” and “doubles every 18-20 months.” This data is spreading from “local data centers to the edge of the enterprise” and into the “cloud and hybrid cloud”.
To address these challenges, Qumulo provides a “unified data plane” through its Global Namespace (GNS) capability. Launched in November 2023, GNS transparently connects an organization’s Qumulo instances, providing “a single view of data across all instances.”
As Bhageshpur says, “The data center shares data with wires, where each geographically distributed site receives consistent updates. GNS connects data anywhere — discovery, model training and deployment anywhere.”
Driving innovation with real-time visibility
Qumulo prides itself on providing customers with real-time insight into their data footprint to drive innovation. Its built-in analytics allow organizations to “instantly know what’s happening with your data, without having to walk through the woods.” This enables “enhanced hybrid capacity planning”.
Security and data protection are also key focuses. Qumulo provides “built-in security and encryption for all common access protocols: SMB/NFS/S3/HTTPS.” Its DR services, replication and snapshots enable organizations to “reduce downtime” with “near zero RPO”.
Cost efficiency and flexibility
For cloud deployments, Qumulo recently launched its next-generation Azure Native Qumulo (ANQ) service that provides “elastic performance and capacity, independent scaling.” Separating compute and storage allows organizations to scale each separately and pay only for the performance they consume.
The result is “TCO comparable or better than on-premises” and “75% to 90% cheaper” than other cloud options. Bhageshpur sums it up as “SaaS without compromise” — organizations get the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the cloud without giving up business functionality.
A look ahead
As Qumulo looks to the future, it remains focused on empowering organizations to take full advantage of their data wherever it is. Bhageshpur sees the Qumulo Anywhere Platform as ideal for running AI and ML use cases.
GNS enables data science teams to access data across the edge, core and cloud for “discovery, model training and deployment anywhere.” And ANQ’s “decoupled elastic performance” means “no captive resources” and the ability to cost-effectively “GPU maximize” for compute-intensive AI workloads “without data placement.”
Ultimately, Bhageshpur envisions a future of “data anywhere” and “AI/ML everywhere” powered by Qumulo’s “SW differentiated, unified, limitless” platform. For developers, engineers and architects struggling to tame the flood of unstructured data, Qumulo aims to be the key that unlocks innovation.