Storage Fusion

IBM Storage Fusion includes Operators for deploying and managing data services such as Backup & Restore, Scale, Discover, and Data Foundation. These Operators simplify the deployment and management of these services, allowing developers to focus on building their applications rather than managing infrastructure, as described in the following points. 

IBM Storage Fusion supports three different storage classes: block, file, and object storage. The block and file storage classes are implemented using the Container Storage Interface (CSI), a standardized interface for container storage that enables vendors to build storage plugins that can be used across multiple container platforms.

The object storage class uses a unique interface called Object Bucket claim, imitating the Persistent Volume claim for object consumers, with easy isolated bucket creation. 

Object storage is a good fit for applications that need to store and retrieve large volumes of unstructured data, such as images or video. 

Block storage is ideal for applications that require high-performance storage with low latency, such as databases.  

File storage is suitable for applications that require shared access to files, such as web servers. FileSystem storage can be provided internally to the cluster or externally, using IBM Storage Scale hardware.   

Backup Driven by CSI Snapshots Allow You to Choose Your Storage Provider 

IBM Storage Fusion includes a backup solution that is based on CSI snapshots. CSI snapshots are a mechanism for taking point-in-time snapshots of a persistent volume. They provide a fast and efficient way to back up data without impacting the performance of the application. 

The self-contained backup solution is optimized for a wide variety of applications, saving configuration time and ensuring coverage of data and metadata.   

On top of that, IBM Storage Fusion provides an easy way to create backup policies, target locations, frequency, retention, etc.  

Fusion leveraging the IBM Storage Discover technology to rediscover data and gain new insights with data available anywhere. It enables out-of-the-box classifying and labeling data with custom metadata, making it easier to find and increase the value of data by imbuing it with additional semantics and meaning. 

With IBM Storage Fusion you can easily stretch a single cluster across multiple availability zones. 

Multi-cluster disaster recovery is an important part of any data management strategy. IBM Storage Fusion includes a disaster recovery (DR) solution that is integrated directly into Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (ACM). ACM is a centralized management platform that allows you to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single console. Fusion leverages the ACM’s application configuration to create disaster recovery policies, as well as the ability to trigger a failover and relocate operations, handled by Fusion itself, and help to ensure that your applications remain available and your data is protected in the event of a disaster. 

Summary