Starfish Storage has announced new enhancements to its file management platform to support high-performance computing (HPC) practitioners, storage administrators, and end users managing large-scale and heterogeneous storage environments. The updated platform offers improved data analytics through a redesigned graphical user interface and introduces Executive Dashboards targeted at decision-makers in data-intensive organizations.
Starfish Storage states that the redesigned interface now extends in-depth file analytics beyond administrators to all users. Features include browser-based analytics for directories, human-readable age indicators, clear visual cues, and device-specific storage inventory mapping by vendor, model, and location. Other technical capabilities include:
- In-browser file and storage analytics available for any directory or directory set, which allows users to identify and tag files and directories for archiving or deletion without separate reporting workflows.
- Device-specific storage inventory functionality, displaying mapped storage volumes with vendor, model, and location to support heterogeneous environments.
- Enhanced Starfish Storage Zones, enabling end users to access scoped data views, manage their data, and understand their storage costs independently.
- Asynchronous search capabilities across very large namespaces (billions of files) without impacting interface responsiveness.
- Recovery and history graphs for visualizing file system changes over time and easily resuming prior analyses.
The new Executive Dashboards provide business and finance leaders, IT leaders, and data management professionals with real-time visibility into cost and utilization metrics for their storage environments, enabling detailed usage pattern analysis and opportunities for ongoing optimization, according to Starfish Storage.
Starfish Storage highlights the impact of these enhancements on large, data-intensive environments, including data centers supporting HPC and research applications. These features are designed to accelerate insight, facilitate zone-level self-service for reporting and data management, control primary storage costs, and address the complexities of multi-vendor infrastructure.
Brody Lines, Manager of HPC Operations at Translational Genomics Research Institute, part of City of Hope, said, “The enhanced Starfish Storage GUI has performed exceptionally well for us,” adding, “The in-depth file analytics are now easier to access for both system administrators and end users, utilizing Starfish Zones. They can now independently track and manage their data, understand usage, and identify opportunities for improvement without needing IT’s help. It has made managing our complex storage environment significantly easier.”
Jacob Farmer, Founder of Starfish Storage, commented, “When we ask storage administrators what single feature they want most, they tell us that they want user self-service,” noting, “But then, it turns out that their users vary greatly in the tasks they need to perform, the extent to which they can safely be empowered, and the file collections that they should have permission to visualize and manage. Starfish’s latest capabilities crack the nut in enabling data owners to clean up and manage their own files.”
Starfish Storage describes its platform as incorporating an Unstructured Data Catalog for indexing and extracting metadata from multi-vendor, multi-petabyte storage environments, alongside an automation engine for managing data flows and Starfish Zones for end-user data access and management. These features are positioned for organizations seeking to optimize storage costs and improve data management practices in complex, high-scale environments.
Source: Starfish Storage
