Likewise Storage Services
High-Performance, Cross-Platform Storage Software
The biggest names in storage, including EMC and HP, use Likewise Storage Services as their platform of choice for building next-generation network attached storage. Likewise Storage Services provides a platform for cross-platform network access to files used in OEM storage products built on Linux- and Unix-based devices. Whether you’re building a cloud storage offering, cloud gateway, a traditional NAS device, or another application where you need to provide secure access to files across a network, Likewise Storage Services can help.
Reduce security and compliance risks while improving the end user experience when they access files from Windows, Unix, Linux, and Macs by providing consistent security policy across multiple protocols. Likewise Storage Services breaks down the data silos typical in storage today, enabling organizations to set consistent security policies across their storage infrastructure. Storage protocols can be provisioned to run in SMB/CIFS only, NFS only, or mixed-mode support. In mixed-mode, it applies Microsoft Access Control List (ACL) security descriptors to file objects uniformly across SMB/CIFS and NFS protocols thereby eliminating the need for data to exist in isolated buckets. By enforcing a consistent security model across SMB/CIFS and NFS protocols, organizations can improve the overall security of their data network. |
Why OEM Likewise Storage Services
Commercial licensing and professional support make Likewise Storage Services the preferred choice for OEMs wanting to build multi-protocol platform support into their next storage project. The modular code base includes multiple levels of publicly accessible APIs to provide the foundation for interoperability in a variety of IT products. If you are considering replacing your existing protocol support or building a new Linux- and Unix-based storage product, you will benefit from the scalable, high-performance SMB/CIFS, NFS, and HTTP/REST protocol support provided by the single, unified platform.
- Reduce time-to-market
- Reduce ongoing development efforts and costs
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Accelerate sales cycles
A comparison of Likewise Storage Services to other options for OEM storage vendors
Features |
Likewise Storage Services |
Other Options |
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Commercial Licensing |
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Professional Support |
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NFS 3.0 |
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HTTP/REST |
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SMB 2.1 |
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SMB 2.2 |
Pending | ? |
Storage Virtualization Layer for multiple protocols |
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Identity Federation |
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Global authentication |
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Consistent security policy and permissions across multiple protocols when running in mixed-mode |
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Single-Process, Multi-Threaded Architecture |
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Support for advanced analytics and governance for audit, reporting, and entitlement management |
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Enterprise ready software. Likewise builds high-performance software that is reliable, scalable, proven, and secure. Our state-of-the-art software architecture is easy to understand, extend, diagnose, and repair.
Expert development team. Likewise offers dedicated resources to quickly and efficiently work through coding challenges, bug fixes, and support issues. Save the time and high cost of hiring developers by working directly with Likewise’s dedicated support resources.
Technical Features
- Microsoft server-side protocol support for SMB/CIFS 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1
- NFS v3 remote file protocol support
- Cloud enabled with available REST API based on SNIA CDMI 1.0.1 specifications
- Multi-threaded, modular, user-space architecture
- Multi-tenant support for authenticating users in disparate Microsoft Active Directory domains
- Complete support for the full breadth of Windows access control list rights
- Maintain consistent access semantics across different network protocol clients
- Provide remote management capabilities from Windows applications
- Supports RPC compatibility with Windows applications including commonly used network transports such as TCP/IP and dynamically loadable named pipes
- Support pending for SMB 2.2, NFS 4.1, and NFS 4.1 with pNFS
Next Steps
Likewise Storage Services is a scalable high-performance solution, suitable for multiple types of workloads and working for both small and large enterprise environments. For more information or to trial Likewise Storage Services, contact oem@likewise.com or complete the contact form.
*The Likewise Data Analytics and Governance application is available as an additional add-on for OEM storage vendors seeking to further differentiate their product. OEM storage vendors can enable advanced analytics and governance of unstructured data with robust event collection, auditing, entitlement management, dashboards and reporting.
