One of the more niggling issues associated with hybrid cloud computing is that most of the storage deployed on-premises today involves file systems, while cloud service providers (CSPs) almost universally rely on object-based systems. To make use of those object-based systems, IT organizations wind up relying on any number of cloud gateways.
Qumulo this week announced that its global QF2 file system in the form of Qumulo File Fabric software can now be deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in addition to on-premises environments. Qumulo CTO Peter Godman says that approach eliminates the need for a cloud gateway to access storage residing on a public cloud.
“There’s no need for a gateway in between,” says Godman.
Godman notes that most legacy applications were built around a file-system construct. Lifting legacy applications into a hybrid cloud becomes much simpler when there’s a common file system deployed on-premises using, for example, an appliance from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and in a public cloud versus employing a file system from AWS that is only available on that public cloud, says Godman.
QF2, says Godman, was originally developed as a global file system that could scale. The Qumulo File Fabric now extends that capability to include public clouds, which Godman says is a capability that is unique to Qumulo.
Given the relative cost of storing data on a public cloud versus on-premises, there’s no doubt there are scenarios where a hybrid cloud capability makes a lot of sense. The real challenge is getting all the things that tend to complicate achieving that goal out of the way.
