GigaOm Solution Profile: Ionir

An Exploration Based on Key Criteria for Evaluating Data Storage for Kubernetes

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Key Criteria Analysis
  3. Evaluation Metrics Analysis
  4. Bottom Line

1. Summary

Ionir is a container-native, software-defined storage solution for Kubernetes with full container storage interface (CSI) compatibility and advanced data service capabilities. Its main differentiating feature is data teleportation, an innovative remote replication feature that enables users to move applications and data across public cloud and on-premises infrastructures seamlessly and with no service disruption. Ease of use, performance, and agility are other key characteristics of the product, making it attractive for deployments of all kinds.

The solution consists of an elastic and scalable distributed microservices architecture that implements a CSI plugin to support volume provisioning and snapshot management for block and file storage. To ensure the best performance and limit the risk of bottlenecks, Ionir uses NVMe over TCP, as well as the Intel SPDK framework, to provide an efficient I/O path with minimal impact on the CPU and no need for specialized hardware.

Looking at Ionir’s back-end architecture, metadata management is based on a proprietary, patented database that records metadata on each write operation, along with a name associated with the data content and the time of the write. The timestamped record allows retrieval of the state of a volume from any previous point in time at the granularity of one second, which in effect translates to continuous data protection and is leveraged to implement advanced data services such as replication, migration, and disaster recovery features. The solution allows persistent volumes to be copied or moved across clusters or even globally across clouds in 40 seconds or less, making it ideal for data migration or replication in time-sensitive environments that require minimal service disruption.

In general, Ionir is a solid option organizations have to build hybrid cloud infrastructures for any type of environment including public cloud, on-premises, and edge deployments.

How to Read this Report

This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:

Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.

GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.

Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.

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