SpectraLogic goes deep, man, with new storage gateway

New specs to fatten the purse of the BlackPearl

Spectra Logic now has a deeper Deep Storage Gateway for its BlackPearl object-storing archival tape library set-up.

Spectra's BlackPearl was announced in October 2013 and stores files as objects on tape with a BlackPearl caching product front end. Users' buckets (data as objects) are cached on flash and then written to tape using LTFS. BlackPearl has a RESTful, S3-based interface (called DS3) to hosts.

Spectra Black Pearl schematic

The BlackPearl Deep Storage Gateway "sits in front of deep storage tape libraries and allows users to move data anywhere within their network using simple HTTP commands". It now features:

• S3 Partial Object Restore allows user to request a piece of an object rather than the whole object, decreasing network traffic
• Tape Eject – eject support for a bucket or individual tapes, with tracking of external media at no extra charge
• Back-ups of the object database, which keeps track of the objects/files in BlackPearl, are now automatically copied to tape
• IBM TS1150 tape drive technology support
• Tape cache capacity increased from 28TB to 56TB standard, with larger capacities available – now supporting 8TB HDDs along with the current 4TB HDDs
• Throughput performance increased to 800 MB per sec using 6-8 LTO-6 tape drives attached to one BlackPearl Gateway
• Increased cache performance of 1 GB per sec

As a way of popularising BlackPearl, Spectra is making its RESTful DS3 interface and Software Development Kits (SDKs) available to everyone in an open-source community in a the Spectra Logic Developer Program. Hopefully, developers will build their own apps to move data into the Black Pearl archive.

It has released its own DS3 client, the DS3 Browser, which is free and available to the open-source community. The interface is said to be simple and intuitive, similar to an FTP client, and allows file drag and drop between BlackPearl and a local computer. DS3 browser source code can be modified by developers if they wish.

Get more info on BlackPearl here. See the Deep Storage Gateway demoed at the annual convention of The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) on April 11-16, 2015 in Las Vegas. ®