ELS – Frequently Asked Questions
ELS is an on-prem scalable optical storage system based on the S3 Glacier interface and ranging from 100’s of TB into multiple PB per rack. ELS is also available as IaaS. The native user interface is Web based and OS agnostic, the system is compatible with other Web interfaces (i.e. MinIO) as well as S3 Browser.
ELS products utilize 12 media disk cartridges which have the physical size of LTO cartridges leading to high storage densities. The optical technology used is supporting dual side media with current BD technology as well as the advanced hi-density Folio media.
The optical technologies used are physical WORM type and impervious to EMP and EMR, data reliability is >50 years. The current technology roadmap ranges up to 10TB/medium.
Within the data management ECO-system ELS serves cold storage applications. Because of its physical immutability ELS specifically serves requirements for extended retention periods and highest levels of data protection. ELS has a S3 Glacier interface and is utilizing the storage classes Standard (direct access), Glacier (staged access) and Offline (managed physical offline storage).
ELS meets the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) requirements for long term storage and typically never requires data migration. ELS is the permanent storage class in hybrid environments.
Key customer benefits include long-term lowest TCO, impervious to data modifications (cyber resilience), lowest power consumption/TB and the industry standard S3 Glacier interface.
ELS comes with the native oRain-FileManager (GUI) for Glacier Bucket/Object management as well as an S3 Object Storage SDK for headless integrations. The ELS interface supports the Glacier classes Standard and Glacier as well as a managed offline storage class.
The Savartus Technical Response Center (TRC) is US based. Professional services are tailored to customer SLA requirements and in any case cover the complete system.
System training is provided as part of the installation. Regular tasks are Glacier compatible.
Based on the ELS system installation documentation Savartus will install the ELS and train local users and administrators.
A hands-off IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) without local installations is optional.
The ELS server is configured individually per customer system requirements. All internal- and external system interfaces are industry standard (100-240V, Ethernet, Web interfaces). System power consumption typically is <1W/TB.
The ELS system has 2 options:
- Buckets are created by local admin, all tasks inside of buckets are user tasks
- Self-service for IaaS type installation including invoicing.
License options:
- Perpetual license = authorization for indefinite use
- Pay-as-you-go (service based) price model
- Admin task: add, modify, delete user
- Admin task: add user role, data authority = add bucket access permissions
- Department management: add users to the company organization, add access permissions to the organization structure
- Achieved through bucket access permissions
- Permanent physical deletion of buckets
- Storage media are physical ‘Write Once Read Many’ (WORM) type. Files cannot be modified; file modifications result in a new file version.
- Offline storage class: optional physical export of buckets/storage drawers to an Offline Rack. Content of an offline rack is visible as storage class ‘offline’ while still being part of a bucket.
- Offline rack inventory is monitored by cartridge RFID. Offline racks have a robotic with an RFID reader. Offline racks have no optical drives.
ELS systems have a power consumption of <1W/TB for the rackmount systems. Rack format systems have a typical power consumption <0.5W/TB. Offline racks have a power consumption of 50W/system.
Long term TCO for systems >700TB is similar to tape systems and significantly below the TCO of Cloud Service Providers.