Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 adds object storage improvements

Software-defined storage platform gets a refresh

Red Hat has revealed an updated version of the firm's software-defined storage platform based on the Ceph software project, adding enhancements for object storage, improved security and better compatibility with other platforms.

Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 is due for release later this summer, and is described as the most significant release of the platform since Red Hat acquired Ceph project developer Inktank a couple of years ago.

Ceph was designed as a distributed object store that runs on commodity servers and can scale to meet the demands of enterprises' digital transformation efforts.

This new release adds enhanced object storage capabilities for customers needing greater scale, increased security and compatibility with industry-standard APIs, Red Hat said.

The enhanced object storage capabilities take the shape of global object storage clusters that provide a single namespace and data synchronisation between clusters operating in multiple regions.

Improved security comes through better integration with commonly used authentication systems, such as Active Directory, LDAP and the Keystone OpenStack identity service.

Ceph Storage 2 has greater compatibility with APIs for the Amazon S3 cloud storage service and OpenStack's Swift object storage module, including support for AWS v4 Client Signatures, object versioning, bulk deletes and more.

Red Hat announced preview support in this release for CephFS, a Posix-compliant file system for Ceph storage clusters designed to deliver file services in addition to the existing object and block services supported by the platform.

Also in preview is an NFS-to-S3 gateway for import and export of object data, and BlueStore, a new storage media back-end that Red Hat expects to boost performance by two to three times.

"We believe our customers will find Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 to be a full-featured, technically advanced storage platform that's easy to use and helps them manage vast quantities of data at the enterprise level," said Ranga Rangachari, Red Hat's vice president and general manager for storage.

"Red Hat Ceph Storage 2, combined with Red Hat's broad services and support offerings, gives customers a strong foundation to enable their digital transformation."