<span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Calibri">EMC’s Isilon is on the verge of its latest release of OneFS 6.5 code named “Mavericks”. With all of the buzz at EMC World this week there are bound to be some questions about what Mavericks means to Scale-Out-NAS users, so below is a breakdown of the new supported options and features including some info on what OneFS is to all the people that are new to Isilon. With the latest greatest features I think we are going to see a huge surge in NAS users seeking out Isilon not only because of what it offers from a feature standpoint but more importantly what it offers from an infrastructure standpoint…. Being able to scale storage at ease without taking a performance hit is an amazing thing!</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small"> </span>
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	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>What is OneFS: </strong>OneFS is Isilon's sixth-generation operating system that provides the intelligence behind all Isilon scale-out NAS systems. It combines the three layers of traditional storage architectures—file system, volume manager, and RAID—into one unified software layer, creating a single intelligent file system that spans all nodes within a cluster. With OneFS 6.5, Isilon delivers significant performance enhancements for Windows clients, integrated support for solid state drives (SSDs) within SmartPools automated storage tiering, faster local and remote data replication, write once read many (WORM) data protection, and increased functionality and ease of management in heterogeneous environments.  What this means to you? SIMPLE and EFFICIENT! No more wasted time carving out RAID groups or wondering if your data is balanced, let OneFS do the work for you! OneFS 6.5 is a major new software release that significantly increases Isilon’s capabilities and interoperability in the enterprise, delivering an outstanding set of features This release dramatically enhances Isilon’s DR and business continuity story with the much-anticipated introduction of SyncIQ 3.0. OneFS 6.5 will break down the few remaining barriers to mainstream Isilon adoption in the enterprise.</span></li>
	<li><strong><span style="font-size: small">What are the new Features? </span></strong></li>
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	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>Global Namespace Acceleration: </strong>Isilon’s SmartPools feature allows customers to combine pools of different system types in the same cluster, all in a single file system, and to automatically migrate data among nodes with different performance and capacity characteristics so that data is always stored appropriately based on its value and how it needs to be accessed. In OneFS 6.5, Global Namespace Acceleration adds support in SmartPools for solid state drives. With Global Namespace Acceleration, a SmartPools environment can be configured to keep metadata or data on SSDs, and even to use SSDs in one part of the cluster to store metadata for systems that have no SSDs on board. The result is that critical SSD resources can be maximized to cost-effectively improve performance across a wide range of workflows</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>Enhancements to Authentication, Identity Management, and Authorization: </strong>With OneFS 6.5, Isilon has made many enhancements to the configuration and management of Authentication, identity management, and authorization functions. OneFS 6.5 makes it much easier to configure and manage individuals’ access to and rights within multiple systems thanks to improvements such as support for multiple NIS/LDAP domains, user ID/system ID mapping, and Windows security descriptors.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>New SmartLock Delivers WORM Data Protection:</strong> SmartLock, Isilon’s latest feature, delivers write once read many (WORM) data protection against accidental, malicious, or premature alteration or deletion of data. The current implementation is an “Enterprise” feature, which is appropriate for data protection over time, is integrated with OneFS 6.5 features like SyncIQ 3.0 replication, and works with third-party backup, but is not certified as a compliance solution. This is a feature that I see that is common in healthcare, and more often than not I get more requests wanting to know if we can do this with Isilon than most anything else.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>SyncIQ 3.0: </strong>SyncIQ 3.0 adds integrated snapshots, a new performance enhancement that quickly identifies and replicates data, dramatically reducing time needed to protect the same amount of data. Integrated snapshots remove the need for time-consuming treewalks every time data is synchronized. Most workflows will see a significant improvement in the time it takes for their hourly, daily, weekly, or other syncs to complete, which means better overall system performance as well as improvements in recovery point objectives (RPOs) for disaster recovery applications.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small"><strong>New Networking Performance Enhancements and Options: </strong>A new implementation of both Isilon’s NFS and SMB (CIFS) stacks brings performance and management benefits today and provide a strong foundation for additional improvements in future releases.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small">NFS: Support for NFS v2, 3, and 4</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small">Kerberized session support for NFSv3 and 4</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small">SMB: Support for SMB1 (CIFS) and SMB2 with significant performance boosts</span></li>
	<li><span style="font-size: small">There are also several new front-end networking options available in OneFS 6.5. In addition to continuing support for Cisco Fast EtherChannel (FEC), OneFS 6.5 adds new support for Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP-IEEE 802.3ad), failover, round robin, and load balance.</span><span style="font-size: small">  </span></li>
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