Global Namespace

A Global Namespace is a heterogeneous, enterprise-wide abstraction of all file information, open to dynamic customization based on user-defined parameters. This becomes of particular importance as multiple network based file systems proliferate within an organization -- the challenge becomes one of effective file management.

A Global Namespace has the unique ability to aggregate disparate and remote network based file systems, providing a consolidated view that can greatly reduce complexities of localized file management and administration. For example, prior to file system namespace consolidation, two servers exist and each represent their own independent namespaces; e.g. \\server1\share1 & \\server2\share2. Various files exist within each share respectively, however users have to access each namespace independently. This becomes an obvious challenge as the number of namespaces grows within an organization.

With a Global Namespace, an organization can access a virtualized file system namespace; e.g. files now exist under a unified structure, such as \\company.com\share1, share2 -- where the files exist in multiple physical server\share locations but appear to be part of a single namespace.

Standards

Global Namespace technology can virtualize file server protocols such as Common Internet File System protocol (CIFS) and the Network File System (NFS) protocols. These are standard protocols used by all servers, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices and client systems for handling file data.

References

• EMC Rainfinity Global Namespace Appliance[1]
• Brocade StorageX [2] - Brocade are to discontinue this and related products Autumn 2009 [3]
• NetApp VFM - rebadged version of Brocade product to suffer same fate [4]
• F5 Acopia ARX [5]
• Njini NFC [6] - Njini went in to receivership Autumn 2008 [7]

External links

Global Namespace Vendors: [8]F5 ARX File Virtualization,Njini,Brocade, EMC Rainfinity Global NameSpace Appliance There are a great many vendors offering in this field now.Prominent are EMC Rainfinity GNA, NetApp, IBM, Sun with Lustre, Hewlett-Packard with Polyserve, Exanet, Panasas, Isilon and others.

See also

• Network File Control
• File Area Networking
• Network File Management
• EMC