LizardFS vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library comparison

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Software Defined Storage LizardFS is a distributed, scalable, fault-tolerant and highly available file system. It allows users to combine disk space located on many servers into a single name space which is visible on Unix-like and Windows systems in the same way as other file systems. SDS LizardFS makes files secure by keeping all the data in many replicas spread over available servers. It can also be used to build space-efficient storage, because it is designed to run on commodity hardware. Disk and server failures are handled transparently without any downtime or loss of data. If storage requirements grow, it's possible to scale an existing SDS LizardFS installation just by adding new servers _ at any time, without any downtime. The system will automatically move some data to newly added servers, because it continuously takes care of balancing disk usage across all connected nodes. Removing servers is just as easy as adding a new one.

For SMB and Enterprises, who either look to get rid of backup tapes completely, or are willing to accelerate backup process and add an extra level of protection, our solution is StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL). It is an appliance that eliminates the need in physical tape and “pretends” to be a supported tape drive or autoloader, keeping all data on inexpensive, fast and high-capacity spinning disks.

Even with explosive data growth, StarWind VTL fits the backup into backup window by accelerating it, so the process does not overlap with production time. Optionally, it creates additional copy of backup data for better safety. It is also available in a software-only form, as part of StarWind VSAN functionality. 

StarWind VTL targets those, who need to replace existing tape backup infrastructure or accelerate it if regulatory requirements prohibit replacement. In case the goal is just virtualizing tape backup or creating a stretched backup infrastructure, StarWind Tape Redirector will come in handy.