Network Attached Storage (NAS) is better with Visual One

Apr 16, 2020

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Improve NAS efficiency with Visual One Intelligence™®

IBM NAS storage Visual One managesNetwork Attached Storage (NAS) is an exceptional solution for customers who wish to quickly and extensively share files within their network. The reasonable cost of NAS devices has led to expanding usage by organizations, and has led to the development of clustered NAS solutions by IBM and other storage hardware suppliers.

Regardless of the storage technology used, the need for storage continues to expand exponentially. Storage demand is primarily driven by unstructured data, which is defined as data that is not part of a relational database. NAS solutions are specifically designed for storing this type of unstructured data. The increase in required storage creates a critical need to effectively manage NAS and other storage solutions to maximize their efficiency and to plan for future storage needs. In response to this need Clear Technologies offers Visual One Intelligence™ ® (Visual One). Visual One provides storage analytics on demand and provides customers with infinite storage visibility without the need for additional tools, equipment, or data gathering.

Visual One is a Software-as-a-Solution product that allows customers to realize their current storage capacity, determine how much file duplication exists, efficiently reallocate storage, and plan for the future. For NAS solutions, Visual One quickly provides a snap shot of current storage usage across all drives and clusters identifying load issues, allowing for reallocation and identifying potential future needs. Key benefits of Visual One for NAS solutions are:

1. Determining the cost and storage savings that could be achieved by implementing deduplication features.
2. Identifying how much storage requirements could be reduced by utilizing compression technology.

 

Visual One reports are delivered via a series of visual graphics highlighting storage utilization. These reports largely eliminate the need for developing complicated, and often inaccurate, tracking spreadsheets. Visual One is available for a wide array of NAS and other storage systems including the full range of IBM solutions.

Many customers utilize NAS solutions because of their faster data access, easier administration, and simple configuration. Adding Visual One to this equation provides even better efficiency and utilization without the need for any additional hardware. Visual One 4.0 was launched on April 12, 2016 and provides several additional benefits:

1. Expanded business unit reporting with drill down
2. Improved user experience
3. Additional flexibility

 

A NAS solution from IBM and other manufacturers combined with Visual One will let customers make better storage decisions, reduce storage costs, lower complexity, and improve storage performance and utilization.