Caringo launches new version of Swarm object storage software

Caringo has introduced major enhancements in its latest version of Swarm object storage software. The new 7.5 version offers architectural and management features to address issues found in big data storage, web content delivery and active archive environments.

Caringo Swarm turns standard hardware into a reliable pool of shared resources to deliver scalability, performance, data security, and support for all major cloud, file and storage protocols. Swarm is adaptable to the most demanding enterprise workloads and use cases, even those with complicated compliance, capacity and availability requirements. Highlights of the new capabilities include:

Retire and refresh hardware more efficiently
The latest version of Swarm includes leading-edge processes to limit the impact of capacity balancing during hardware maintenance and refreshes—all without compromising data integrity. This eliminates potential performance slowdowns and saves time when upgrading to new hardware, adding capacity, or retiring failed drives. In addition, a single-step synchronous process now makes data swaps more predictable and efficient. Users can limit operations to specific nodes, providing greater control during hardware maintenance operations.

For customers who routinely erase large amounts of data, such as cloud-based digital video recording (DVR) solutions, this enhancement also ensures capacity is reclaimed and rapidly available. Customers performing large data transfers, such as moving old hardware out of a cluster, will also benefit from smarter load balancing.

Handling error conditions
Swarm 7.5 adds sophisticated intelligence in monitoring disk health to give administrators increased insight and displays memory conditions for faster issue resolution. Swarm has always proactively managed drive errors, but the latest version handles read errors differently than it handles write errors. If the disk can no longer write but can still read, it is kept online to ensure optimal use of resources during the recovery process.

Future-proofing storage
To help future-proof cloud storage solutions, this new version of Swarm adds multipath support to take advantage of dual SATA connections and newer, denser storage arrays for high availability, high performance and seamless migration to web-scale capacities.

“These enhancements to Swarm have come from feedback and real-world use cases that address some of the most challenging conditions our customers experience as they run their data-driven businesses. This is the first of many innovative enhancements and products we have coming out in the second half of 2015. We look forward to continuing to solve our customers’ most pressing data storage, access and insight requirements,” said Tony Barbagallo, Caringo’s VP of Product.