Optimizing cloud data management with its open convergence platform: Datrium Inc

Present day organizations generate massive amount of data that is critical for business operations. This has led to the rising demand of effective network storage technologies and online access to sensitive data while reducing the total cost of ownership. In response, companies are adopting networked storage to manage the continuous streams of data and perform actions on that data. To further reduce complexity and improve the operating costs of their business solutions, they adopt converged infrastructure approaches, where all the technology components are brought together as an integrated part of a single solution. This fundamental shift in infrastructure convergence, relating to private and hybrid cloud computing, was foreseen by the founders and early architects of Data Domain and VMware, and Datrium was established.Datrium, founded in 2012, is the leader in providing effortless infrastructure for private clouds. It converges storage and compute in a radical new way called Open Convergence - modeled on public cloud IaaS versus traditional converged infrastructure orhyperconvergence. The company helps its clients to overcome the rigidity of traditional array-based converged infrastructureand the lock-ins and scaling unpredictability of hyperconvergence, which enables a simpler journey to hybrid clouds.

Simplifying private cloud infrastructure deployments

Datrium offers Data Cloud software, a suite of scalable, secure cloud data management tools, integrated with Datrium DVX Rackscale systems. Data cloud delivers protection and mobility forprivate clouds,andlays the foundation for their multi-cloud data management vision. DVX Rackscale systems provide virtualization administrators a turnkey, scalable system to speed infrastructure deployment and simplify end-to-end support. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure, DVX Rackscale systems offer automatic performance isolation, robust security, and accommodate mix-and-match of DVX Compute Nodes with third party compute nodes running DVX software. The new DVX Rackscale systems are available with end-to-end Datrium Support which provides advanced 24x7 call home and analytics capabilities.“Datrium is unique in the industry for having pioneered a new approach to convergence that fully supports the flexibility benefits of the disaggregated server-storage model.”

With Open Convergence, businesses can effortlessly deliver and maintain the workload and data management SLAs that their users expect. Datrium has eliminated management of the storage infrastructure and has introduced another level of convergence: a flash-based VM consolidation platform combined with abackup-class cloud data management system. Simple yet scalable, search-enabled snapshot catalog, policy management and elastic replication are built-in into the Datrium platformand serve as the foundation for cloud data management. Moreover, Open convergence also consolidates the wide range of applications and workloads on to server-powered flash, and isolates these within a single elastic pool of compute and capacity resources. Aprivate cloud built on Open Convergence also provides end-to-end data security, enabling cloud-based data to remain deduped, compressed and encrypted in-use, in-flight and at-rest. For the first time, customers can get powerful protection end-to-end with 512-bit keys based on FIPS-approved AES-XTS-256, without trading off economics.

Integrating data management functions to handle intensive workloads

Datrium systems now offer innovative Adaptive Pathing software that further simplifies rackscale operation and avoids switch configuration where possible. As networks move towards commoditization, reducing operator learning curves leads to less complexity and better change control. The company has made it possible for top-of-rack switches to no longer need settings for advanced multipath availability and link-aggregated bandwidth.Like its data reduction and erasure coding functions, Adaptive Pathing need no configuration settings as it’s always-on. 

Enterprises have been progressively moving towards hybrid cloud environments, which have led to the evolution of new architectures that are more capable of delivering on customer expectations for cloud flexibility, cost-effectiveness and ease of usage. Therefore, Datrium has introduced its Data Cloud Software that builds on the application-centric ease of Datrium’s Open Converged Infrastructure to further collapse the systems administration burden of legacy data management products common to SANs and traditional converged infrastructure. Datrium’s end-to-end deduplication, compression, erasure coding and Blanket Encryption provide the ideal platform for integrating these functions. Data Cloud extends the Datrium platform to integrate functions normally found in third party backup, disaster recovery, copy data management and archiving products.

“Datrium is moving Open Convergence mainstream by making infrastructure effortless for the VM administrator.” 

Knowing the CEO, Brian Biles

Brian Biles co-founded Datrium Inc. along with Hugo Patterson, Ganesh Venkitachalam, Boris Weissman, and Sazzala Reddy. Prior to Datrium, Brian was the Founder and VP of Product Mgmt. at EMC Backup Recovery Systems Division. He also was the Founder, VP of Product Mgmt. and Business Development for Data Domain, which was acquired by EMC in 2009.

At Datrium, Brian believes in revolutionizing private cloud infrastructure. Datrium’s products reflect the leadership that its founders possess. They are motivated to help their customers to deal with the shortcomings of hyperconvergence and addressingthe cost and rigidity of traditional arrays for cloud computing. Major focus is given to addressing feedback from customers, product and roadmap discussions with engineers, sales calls with prospects and celebrating with employees whenever possible. Today, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale with a distributed sales/pre-sales/customer support force across U.S., Canada and Japan.

"While the hyperconvergence landscape is now more about M&A than innovation, Datrium is rapidly evolving a vastly better, turnkey rack scale private cloud with rich, deeply integrated and scalable cloud data management."