SoftNAS®and SoftNAS Platinum

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Last updated: Apr 14, 2020
4 min read


SoftNAS® is our integrated global cloud data platform, combining a software-defined, enterprise-class NAS virtual storage appliance, backups and data movement; and data integration/replication for IT to manage and control data centrally. Customers save time and money while increasing efficiency. 

IT struggles with the ever-increasing amounts of data that businesses generate at an exponentially increasing pace from many different sources – including IoT. Through the SoftNAS Platinum product architecture, SoftNAS addresses the impracticalities that plague real world broader cloud adoption, so IT can control its data destiny.


SoftNAS® Platinum is the legacy version of the same platform, including a few different features, but providing the same services and capabilities as our current version.  This section covers legacy features now part of both Platinum and the new and improved SoftNAS product. 

Use Cases

  • Connect all your business data in the cloud, regardless of type or location
  • Integrate any global business data and processes in the cloud
  • Lift and shift application and data migrations to the cloud
  • Global bulk data transfers and replication
  • Includes all the Cloud Enterprise functionality, plus:
    • REST APIs and automation
    • High-speed bulk data transfer (UltraFast™)
    • Drag-and-drop flexible data integration (Apache NiFi)
    • Point and click data migration to the cloud. (Lift and Shift™)
    • Automated data migration and synchronization between multiple locations (FlexFiles™)

Features of SoftNAS®

  • Cloud NAS Virtual Storage Appliance
    SoftNAS®, the full-featured enterprise-class cloud NAS filer for primary data storage, is included with SoftNAS Cloud® Platinum. Supporting NFS, CIFS, iSCSI block and Apple File Protocol (AFP) storage protocols, SoftNAS also includes high-availability, deduplication, compression, replication, cloning, encryption (at rest and in transit), LDAP and Active Directory integration, thin-provisioning and scheduled snapshot policies. SoftNAS supports nearly 140 virtual machine types and six storage backends across the AWS and Azure Marketplaces or on-premises on VMware vSphere. SoftNAS offers customers the broadest range of storage options in terms of price vs. performance, backend storage selection and file protocol support, on-demand at petabyte scale.

  

  • Lift and Shift File Migration (powered by Apache NiFi) 
    The Lift and Shift feature of SoftNAS® Platinum provides a wizard to migrate on-premises file data to the public cloud. Point SoftNAS® Platinum to existing NAS storage volumes, select your public cloud storage destination, and begin moving your file data to the cloud.

    • Template is more adjustable

    • Files located on SAN, mount point, NAS, windows file server

  • SoftNAS® SmartTiers™
    SmartTiers is a SoftNAS patent-pending automated storage tiering feature that moves aging data from more expensive, high-performance block storage to less expensive object storage according to your policies, reducing public cloud storage costs by up to 67%.


Features of SoftNAS Platinum

  • High Speed Data Transfer 
    SoftNAS® UltraFast™ provides high speed data transfer, accelerating storage traffic up to 20x compared to TCP/IP network transmission speeds. Unlike WAN acceleration products, SoftNAS UltraFast™ is an intelligent, self-tuning storage acceleration technology over the WAN, based on UDP, that is designed to address latency, congestion, poor QoS and slow data replication speeds, without redesigning or changing applications, networks or storage. Bandwidth Scheduling enables throughput and bandwidth throttling schedules to regulate network traffic and prioritize bandwidth use.


Benefits of SoftNAS® and SoftNAS Platinum

  • Integrated Global Cloud Data Platform

    SoftNAS® Platinum is a global integrated cloud data platform, combining enterprise-class cloud NAS, high speed data transfer and data integration/replication functionality into a single product, eliminating the high costs and overall need of integrating third party point products

  • Enterprise-Class Cloud NAS Built In

    Create a seamless storage environment on-premises and in the cloud to create a single source of truth for data in an enterprise.

  • Code Free Data Integration
    Using a powerful FlexFiles drag-and-drop data integration platform (based on Apache NiFi), customers can integrate disparate data sources, route data and perform sophisticated data analysis without the need to write custom, brittle integration code or to use third party data integration products.

  • Live Data Migration
    Instead of using offline data transfer technologies, such as shipping servers or racks of disks, which requires freezing production data, Live Data Migration with SoftNAS® Platinum enables data migration to the cloud while running live data on your on-premises storage. No system downtime is required when migrating data with SoftNAS® Platinum.

  • Maximize Data Transfer Rates of Existing WAN Links
    Reduce costs and eliminate the need for expensive WAN link upgrades or WAN optimizers. (SoftNAS Platinum only)

  • Highly Configurable
    Deploy SoftNAS on more than 140 virtual machine types and across 6 storage backends in the public cloud for optimum balance of price vs. performance. Deploy on VMware vSphere hosts for on-premises storage on customer owned or leased hardware systems. Optimize SoftNAS UltraFast™ data transfer acceleration for your network, adjusting latency, packet loss, throughput, congestion and QoS. Choose from more than 100 Apache NiFi data integration processors, or create your own.

  • Secure
    SoftNAS® Platinum is secured through SSL, SSH, HTTPS and at rest and in-flight data encryption. SoftNAS® Platinum also includes role-based authentication and authorization.

  • Flexible
    Supports existing and legacy storage hardware and works with any storage type: object storage, SSD, SAN, VMware VSAN, AWS S3, Azure Blob and native cloud storage.

  • Centralized Data Management
    Simplify data management by managing all data centrally, even if data resides on-premises or in the public cloud, through SoftNAS 's StorageCenter console.

  • Automatable
    Full REST API and CLI support for popular automation tools, including Puppet, Chef and Ansible, as well as AWS CloudFormation templates and Azure Resource Manager templates.

  • Easy to Deploy
    SoftNAS® Platinum is designed for use by IT generalists, eliminating steep learning curves.


SoftNAS and SoftNAS Platinum Documentation