SiliconFS™

The BlueArc File System Technology

SiliconFS Benefits:

SiliconFS is what ultimately directs and manages performance and scalability. It offers functionality that accelerates storage efficiency by delivering:
  • A common point of integration for all elements of a storage solution
  • The central engine that manages data movement
  • Simultaneous access to native CIFS, NFS and iSCSI
  • A comprehensive virtualization tool set simplifies administration of file system
  • The ability to span physical nodes, server clusters, virtual servers and external storage devices

BlueArc’s proprietary SiliconFS File System is central to the Titan and Mercury network’s functionality and comprises all of the key areas including storage servers, information services and the storage ecosystem. When deployed in a cohesive manner, these integrated components result in a storage system designed to help organizations looking to scale bigger, store smarter and accelerate business.

With the SiliconFS architecture, BlueArc enables:

  • Metadata scalability for high-performance computing (HPC) environments
  • Single-server IOPS performance
  • High storage throughput using open, standardized network file system protocols
  • An architecture for unified storage management that encompasses scalable and predictable performance, scalability and sophisticated data management functions in a single platform

But it is the combination of the patented hardware-accelerated architecture and the SiliconFS file system that provides tangible business benefits and value to BlueArc customers by helping organizations:

Accelerate throughput and manage efficiencies

  • Hardware-accelerated architecture leverages parallel processing to remove traditional performance bottlenecks
  • Throughput increases by aggregating the performance of multiple drives
  • Dynamic storage balancing ensures that as new capacity is added, data is re-striped to immediately benefit from the additional drives

Scale Bigger – consolidate and unify

  • Maximum file system and volume size of 256TB reduces the need to manage multiple file systems
  • Global namespace capacity of 16PB and 4 million objects per directory provides room for consolidation and future growth

Store Smarter through simplified management

  • Single point of administration for multiple file systems within a single node or across multiple nodes in a cluster
  • Alter and migrate file systems, virtual servers and virtual volumes without user disruption
  • Maps storage assets to work flow, virtual clients or data life cycle

In one unified solution, SiliconFS provides the performance and scalability benefits of a SAN with the ease of management and client neutrality of NAS. Although BlueArc hardware architecture is proprietary, SiliconFS uses standard disk architectures, standard network protocols, standard management protocols, and standard backup protocols.