Users of iXsystems’ TrueNAS SCALE can now get pubic cloud storage at a fraction of the cost of AWS, Azure, and GCP, the company claims.
iXsystems, which ships NAS software, is partnering with StorJ to offer a Globally Distributed Storage (GDS) service using StorJ’s decentralized cloud storage as a low-cost alternative to the major public clouds. This cloud has more than 13,000 active nodes storing 39 billion object pieces with 11 nines durability.
Ben Golub, Storj CEO, said: “Together with iX, we are powering better choices for enterprise-grade storage that is more performant, sustainable, and cost effective. We are excited to help unlock new value-added services for open source businesses.”
GDS is an S3-compatible Web3 decentralized storage capability where each piece of data is stored redundantly across many globally distributed storage nodes. In the event of a failure, whether an individual node or even an entire geographic region, no underlying data is lost, and access to that data is not interrupted, the vendor says. Although Web3 generally describes blockchain-based concepts, the Storj network does not use it. The GDS service, called iX-Storj, is available on TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin BETA, which has also been released.
Storj’s storage network uses a contributing node’s using underutilized hard drives and bandwidth, while maintaining SLAs that are comparable to traditional data centers. It uses erasure codes for resiliency.
TrueNAS is iXsystems’ open source ZFS-based file storage software. “Bluefin” is the second major version of TrueNAS SCALE, which is based on Linux and supports Docker Containers, Kubernetes, KVM, and Scale-out OpenZFS.
TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin includes:
- Scale-Up Performance Improvements – High Availability (HA) with over 1,000 drives per node
- Active-Active Reliability – Hardened clustering with simplified operations and Kubernetes CSI
- Linux-based Security Enhancements – FIPS 140-3 encryption compliance and improved Role-Based Access Control
GDS provides an option to TrueNAS users for a second or third geographic location for data. In addition, TrueNAS systems can now act as either the client that uses GDS, a node that participates as a provider to the GDS, or a combination of both. GDS is inherently secure with 256-bit encryption for both data at rest and data in flight.
Morgan Littlewood, iXsystems SVP of Product Management, said: “Globally Distributed Storage with Storj will offer secure control over highly-durable data for all TrueNAS editions, and we look forward to working with our community to ensure a high quality release of TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin.”
The iX-Storj service, compared to traditional cloud storage services, offers double the bandwidth at $4 per TB/month for storage, equating to more than 80 percent savings compared to AWS, the vendor claims. The first 150GB is free.
TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin is available as beta software at no cost. Read an exec summary about the Storj network here and a full white paper here.
