New tools from Komprise focus on multi-cloud data movement
Komprise's new update expands data management features with Deep Analytics Actions to catalog, search and make use of siloed data across on-prem and cloud storage.
Komprise has added new Deep Analytics Actions to its unstructured data management software, giving users greater control and visibility into data silos on-prem, in the cloud and across hybrid configurations.
The feature, available as of today, is free and included for all Komprise customers.
Deep Analytics Actions are new search and index tools that can help users find data in file, object and cloud storage. Using metadata generated by the Komprise software and existing information in the data itself, users can now find, copy and move data across their networks according to user policies.
The Komprise API, now expanded with Deep Analytics Actions, can then implement these newly created data collections into other applications. Together, the API and Deep Analytics Actions can make use of existing data in new implementations and eliminate redundant data silos.
Deep Analytics Actions is storage cloud- and hardware-agnostic, according to Komprise, and can be used in conjunction with any data already visible to the vendor's software.
The Deep Analytics Action dashboard is featured in the Komprise client.
'Google' your cloud
Krishna Subramanian, president at Komprise, said the new tool should help enterprise businesses automate what's frequently a slow and labor-intensive data collation process.
"Imagine a Google search you can act on," Subramanian said. "This is helping IT and business users find specific data sets and use them in a business workflow that was manual in the past."
She noted use cases for the tool included corporate mergers -- which frequently result in redundant files as departments consolidate -- or laboratory research, which can benefit from strictly defined data silos separated from other data.
The new feature helps eliminate one more obstacle for enterprises using data for more valuable ends, said Marc Staimer, president of Dragon Slayer Consulting.
"They're minimizing the amount of data that has to be moved for processing," Staimer said. "By doing some of the analytics ahead of what the major analytical software is doing, you're shortening the time to getting value from your data."
The move continues to bring Komprise into competition with other storage products for enterprise data, such as StrongBox Data Solutions, Data Dynamics and Aparavi, and platform-specific software from storage hardware vendors including Dell EMC's ClarityNow or the open source iRODS.
University use case
One IT administrator is already mulling potential uses for Deep Analytics Actions.
I see the ability to take anyone's data, no matter where it is, and put it in the best possible storage for us.
Matt MadillStorage architect, Duquesne University
"I see the ability to take anyone's data, no matter where it is, and put it in the best possible storage for us," said Matt Madill, a storage architect at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Specifically, he said the tool would be useful for removing duplicate or expired student records, cataloging an entire department's data and moving it to an appropriate cloud, as well as making sure data remains in legally compliant regions.
"We look forward to getting users in the application where they have control of their data," he said, adding he's been using a beta version of the feature.
Madill, a 17-year IT veteran at Duquesne, said a growing challenge for enterprises are multi-cloud storage setups. As more individual university departments head into public clouds to take advantage of the storage and associated services, finding a way to search, view and move that data will be important.
"Having a product like Komprise that works with the major cloud players is going to be helpful for us," Madill said. "We're a hybrid cloud model, and there's a push to get stuff into the cloud. I foresee us moving from the cloud back [on-prem] or into another cloud. Having that ability to move data is going to be key."
Tim McCarthy is a journalist living in the North Shore of Massachusetts. He covers cloud and data storage news.
