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APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure is a software-defined cloud file storage service that combines the power of the OneFS distributed file system with the flexibility and scalability of cloud infrastructure. It is a fully customer-managed service that is designed to meet the needs of enterprise-scale file workloads running on Azure. The architecture of APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure is built on the OneFS distributed file system. This architecture uses multiple nodes to establish a single global namespace. Each node operates as an instance of the OneFS software, running on an Azure VM to deliver storage capacity and compute resources.
APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure uses cloud-native technologies and leverages the elasticity of cloud infrastructure, so that you can easily scale the storage infrastructure as your business requirements grow. It can dynamically scale storage capacity and performance to meet changing demands by adding additional nodes without disruption, enabling the storage infrastructure to scale in a more cost-effective and efficient manner. To guarantee the durability and resiliency of data, APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure distributes data across multiple nodes within the cluster. It also uses advanced data protection techniques, such as erasure coding, and provides features such as SyncIQ to ensure that data is replicated between sites. Even in the event of one or more node failures, the data remains accessible from the remaining cluster nodes.
Figure 1 shows the technical architecture of APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure.
Note: The network bandwidth limit at the Azure VM level is shared between the cluster's internal network and the external network.
Overall, APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure offers a powerful and flexible scale-out file storage solution that can help you improve data management, optimize costs, and achieve scalability and security in a cloud-based environment.