EMC has announced a new version of its Rainfinity
file virtualisation
called File Migration Appliance (FMA). It's a 1U box that includes
only features related to policy-based migration of files for half
the cost of the original product.The full version of
Rainfinity, called Global File Virtualisation (GFV), also
contains global namespace functions for masking heterogeneous
production network attached storage (NAS) systems for management
and comes in a 2U, two-appliance form factor, according to an EMC
spokesperson. GFV 7.0, announced in November, also performs load
balancing and simulated "what-if" scenarios. These software
features have also been added into the new FMA.
"Customers really like the archiving functionality and have
asked us, 'can we just have that'?" an EMC spokesperson said.
It turns out some early adopters of the product, including early
user references for Rainfinity, have found the product collects
dust in their environment after data migrations are completed.
One user bought Rainfinity two years ago for one major data
migration job. "Several times after that we used it for minor jobs,
but we let the license atrophy in early 2005," said Doug East, who
asked that his company not be named.
East said he would again consider the product, as well as its
competitors, if another major migration project crops up. He added
that his company would probably purchase a product again, too, even
if for temporary purposes, because some of the data it manages is
classified, making a services engagement for data migration out of
the question. Otherwise, "we don't have a use case for day-to-day
file virtualisation in our environment," he said.
East isn't alone. Another engineer for a major financial
company, who asked not to be named because corporate policy
prohibits him from speaking to the press, said that EMC had sent
over a Rainfinity appliance as part of a larger deal, but it has
been sitting in the company's test lab ever since. "We are looking
at the new file management module," he said. Currently, his shop
has multiple tiers of storage, but data isn't migrated between
them. "We pick a tier when we start a project and leave the storage
there," he said. "NAS is on a single tier right now, but we'd like
to start archiving some of the files to our Centera."
One EMC value-added reseller (VAR), Keith Norbie, storage
division director for Nexus Information Systems, said there hasn't
been much uptake for Rainfinity so far, especially not GFV, with
its $93,000 starting price tag.
"In the past, the price and the way it's packaged for the
enterprise have been concerns for users," he said. "What gets
funded, at all but the very biggest companies, is pain and future
expansion. Right now users have bigger fish to fry than file
virtualisation and instead are focused on things like backup to
disk and data deduplication."
However, Norbie said, the repackaging with an emphasis on data
migration could help widen the appeal of the product. "Dropping the
price a bit and focusing the product into the niche where it's been
most successful should help address the market better."
Rainfinity rumored to replace Centera File Archiver
Though compatibility with Centera was first added with GFV 7.0,
the archiving aspects of FMA are being emphasised with this
announcement. And, according to some EMC insiders, that may not be
coincidence.
"Some parts of EMC are telling customers that Centera File
Archiver (CFA) … [is] being dropped as [an] ILM tool in favor of
Rainfinity," according to an email from an internal EMC source sent
to SearchStorage.com this week. "Others inside EMC disagree."
"There are discussions about that right now," confirmed another
EMC insider, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Rainfinity can
offer more features than CFA. What we would probably do is continue
to support CFA installations but not sign up any new customers for
it, making Rainfinity the next generation product for archiving."
This source also confirmed that there's still debate within the
company about the exact course of action.
EMC officials would not confirm the plans on record, at least
not in so many words. Steve Spataro, Manager of EMC Centera product
marketing, said only that "EMC offers CFA, as well as FMA, to
customers who need file system archiving. FMA, however, is a
starting point for customers who want to begin with archiving and
move on to file system virtualisation in the future. We see more
and more customers wanting that kind of flexibility."