OSNexus Corporation

OSNexus Corporation is an American file, block, and object software-defined storage (SDS) manufacturer. It enables organizations to manage their storage as composable infrastructure with its QuantaStor Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform.

Overview

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, OSNexus was founded in 2010 by Steven Umbehocker. The name OSNexus is an acronym that comes from “Open Storage Nexus”, the idea being to build a unified file, block, and object storage platform that is a nexus of storage technologies rather than using proprietary filesystems.

OSNexus offers software-defined storage (“QuantaStor”) for deployment on commodity x86 servers and virtual machines. Systems are combined into “storage grids” that may be scaled to over 64 nodes. The company's patented storage grid technology allows the ability to link and manage storage servers together as a unified grid within and across data centers.

OSNexus also offers Virtual Storage Appliances that provide an easy way to deploy dedicated NAS, SAN, and S3 Object storage appliances in public clouds like AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud. QuantaStor's built-in Storage Grid technology enables multiple instances to be combined to deliver scale-out storage clusters that can span data centers.

Distribution channel QuantaStor is deployed by both public sector and private sector organizations worldwide to address a broad set of storage use cases. QuantaStor is sold through a global channel partner network which includes distributors, MSPs, OEMs, VARs, and System Integrators, which provide turn-key QuantaStor appliance solutions.

Technology Partnerships & Integrations

Seagate

Seagate enterprise storage systems with Lyve Cloud hosted storage combined with OSNexus QuantaStor, support block, file, and object storage using scale-up and scale-out architectures for a broad spectrum of workloads. QuantaStor is also integrated with the Seagate CORVAULT systems such that they can be added to and managed within QuantaStor storage grids.

Pliops

OSNexus has certified Pliops extreme data processor for use in scale-out and scale-up QuantaStor cluster configurations. QuantaStor also makes it possible to present Pliops block devices via standard network block protocols, including iSCSI, FC, and NVMe-oF TCP. This enables organizations to make use of XDP-RAIDplus storage in a broader set of application use cases, including with VMs and containers.

Veeam

OSNexus has achieved Veeam Ready Qualification for Object Immutability, Repository, and Object on QuantaStor.

Western Digital

QuantaStor is integrated with the Western Digital Data24 based NVMeoF storage systems such that these systems may be added into a QuantaStor storage grid to be monitored and managed within the grid. QuantaStor has features to auto-configure and assign storage from Data24 units to QuantaStor systems within a storage grid so that clusters can be dynamically created and configured through scripting using the QuantaStor APIs and CLI tools.

Ceph Integration

OSNexus is a Ceph Foundation member and incorporates Ceph into the QuantaStor platform to reduce Ceph’s complexity and enable users to get the advantages of Ceph through an appliance-like experience. This gives users the ability to leverage Ceph’s advanced file, block, and object storage features and capabilities without requiring prior Ceph or Linux experience. OSNexus refers to configurations using Ceph as scale-out clusters to differentiate these from OpenZFS-based storage clusters, which are referred to as scale-up clusters. Both scale-up and scale-out cluster configurations may be deployed within a storage grid and may be deployed on the same systems.

OpenZFS Integration

OSNexus has been a sponsor of OpenZFS since 2017 and uses the filesystem in scale-up cluster configurations. QuantaStor extends the capabilities of OpenZFS in many areas, including pool-level software and hardware encryption management, KMIP integration, high-availability, cluster management, integration with AD, replication management, hot spare management, call-home/alert management, hardware enclosure view mapping and device correlation, hardware integration, and monitoring.

Cryptsoft

QuantaStor supports KMIP-based key management through KMIP client components that leverage the Cryptsoft C client libraries for compatibility with all major KMIP server products on the market today.

Patents OSNexus holds a number of patents for its QuantaStor platform, from Role Based Access Controls technology to dynamic provisioning of a virtual storage appliance.

History

In May 2023, OSNexus announced integration with Pliops XDP-RAIDplus PCIe storage controllers with the release of QuantaStor 6.1.

In April 2023, OSNexus announced the release of QuantaStor 6.1, which expands the platform's cloud integration capabilities, hardware integration, and NAS feature sets to help organizations adopt and accelerate their hybrid cloud IT initiatives.

In April 2023, OSNexus certified the Seagate Exos CORVAULT to be used with its QuantaStor, enabling scale-up and scale-out cluster configurations deployed with two layers of erasure coding for enhanced data durability.

In February 2023, OSNexus achieved Veeam Ready Qualification for Object Immutability on QuantaStor.

In January 2023, Seagate partnered with OSNexus to sell Lyve Cloud-hosted storage (Exos Corvault) operated by QuantaStor.

In June 2022, Cryptsoft's Key Management Interoperability Client (KMIP) was licensed to OSNexus, bringing market-proven, industry-validated KMIP technology to OSNexus' QuantaStor.

In September 2021, the Ceph Foundation added OSNexus as a software vendor. OSNexus has been developing QuantaStor since 2010 and started working with and integrating Ceph into its platform in 2014.

In May 2020, OSNexus announced a new NAS to Cloud tiering feature QuantaStor that enables Media Asset Management platforms to dynamically tier media content to Microsoft Azure blob as a low-cost archive storage tier.

In January 2018, OSNexus announced Automated Storage Tiering for QuantaStor, allowing IT administrators to set automated backup policies that can move, archive, and recover data across global storage grids, which can span data centers and on-premises locations.

In March 2016, OSNexus added Ceph-based object storage capability to QuantaStor, which sits alongside file and block access in the software product.

In 2011, OSNexus closed a deal with SoftLayer to provide it with open software-defined storage on a SuperMicro platform which SoftLayer could provide to SMB users. QuantaStor is now available on all IBM mass storage servers (servers with 12-36 or more drive bays) at all IBM Cloud datacenters worldwide through the IBM server provisioning portal and is also available as a Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) virtual machine instance in the Gen-2 datacenters.

Products

QuantaStor Software-defined Storage Platform

OSNexus' QuantaStor is a unified software-defined storage platform designed to scale-up and scale-out to simplify storage management while reducing overall enterprise storage costs. It provides file, block, and object storage in a single solution with a distributed management control plane called a “storage grid” that can span QuantaStor systems across sites and data centers.[19] Common use cases for QuantaStor deployments include large-scale NAS, S3 object storage for CDN and archive, and NAS file storage for big data, cloud computing, and high-performance applications.

QuantaStor’s Unique Differentiators

File, Block & Object:

QuantaStor supports file, block, and object storage in a unified platform that scales out across sites with QuantaStor’s Storage Grid technology.

Scale-up and Scale-out:

QuantaStor is unique in that it supports both scale-up and scale-out highly available storage pool types that can be deployed on both physical and virtual storage servers. Within each Storage Grid, one may deploy over 64x systems, which can be grouped into any number of scale-up or scale-out storage clusters. Scale-up clusters typically provide greater performance with less hardware and are generally the best solution to meet SAN/NAS requirements. Scale-out clusters provide greater storage media flexibility and protocol support.

Storage Grid Technology:

QuantaStor’s Storage Grid technology significantly reduces the complexity of cluster management by combining storage appliances across public and private clouds to manage all of the components as one. It enables IT organizations to combine over 64 appliances to deliver over 100PB of storage per grid. Storage Grids can be comprised of a single scale-out storage cluster or be made up of multiple independent clusters and can span multiple data centers while still being easily accessed and managed as a federated storage solution via QuantaStor's web interface, which is accessible on every storage server within a given storage grid.

Security Features:

QuantaStor has a comprehensive set of security features to meet the needs of organizations with high-security compliance requirements. QuantaStor’s security features include encryption-at-rest, encryption-on-the-wire, KMIP integration, NIST compliance, immutability / WORM, snapshot technology, FIPS 140-2 L1 certification, and RBAC.

Multi-vendor Hardware Integration:

QuantaStor hardware management and monitoring has been integrated with and certified to run on server hardware and associated disk enclosures from multiple vendors, including Cisco Systems, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Seagate, Supermicro, and Western Digital.

QuantaStor Cloud License Server

The QuantaStor Cloud License Server (CLS) enables service providers to generate new QuantaStor licenses on demand for new deployments, which is important for fully automating data center operations. The CLS runs as a service at OSNexus in the cloud under .cls.osnexus.com to provide license management services accessible to MSPs/CSPs via APIs and CLI utilities. Use of the QuantaStor CLS is limited to organizations with large-scale QuantaStor deployments.