- Isilon Systems
Infobox_Company | company_name = Isilon Systems, Inc.
company_
company_type =Public company NASDAQ: ISLN
company_slogan = How breakthroughs begin
foundation = 2001
location =Seattle , WA
key_people = Sujal Patel,President andCEO
industry = Data storage devices /Computer Storage
homepage = [http://www.isilon.com www.isilon.com]Isilon Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISLN) is a global company headquartered in
Seattle, Washington , USA, that designs and sells clustered storage systems and software for digital content and other unstructured data, which includes but is not limited to video, audio, digital images, computer models, PDF files, scanned information, and test and simulation data.Isilon’s products are used to store and manage data filesets across various industries including Media & Entertainment, Government, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Internet/Web 2.0, and Content Delivery/Telco providers. [Isilon Systems, Inc. [http://www.isilon.com/industries Industry Overview] .] In 2002, Isilon received venture capital funding from
Sequoia Capital . [cite web|url=http://www.sequoiacap.com/company/isilon-systems/|title=Sequoia Capital funds Isilon] Isilon’s customers include NBC Universal [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN1640308120070416 “Isilon serves up digital storage for NBC Universal”] , Reuters, (2007-04-16)] , Cedars-Sinai, Kelman Technologies, and Kodak, among others. [Isilon Systems, Inc. [http://www.isilon.com/float/?page=resources Customer Case Studies] .] Isilon’s current tagline is “How Breakthroughs Begin.” [Isilon Systems, Inc. [http://www.isilon.com/ How Breakthroughs Begin] ]Business Overview
Isilon designed and developed its clustered storage systems specifically to address the needs of storing, managing and accessing digital content and other unstructured data. [ [http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/20/203064/2006_10K.pdf Isilon Systems, Inc. Form 10-K.] (2007-03-15)] An Isilon clustered storage system is composed of three or more nodes. Each node is a self-contained, rack-mountable device that contains industry standard hardware, including disk drives, CPU, memory chips and network interfaces, and is integrated with proprietary operating system software called OneFS (based on
FreeBSD [ [http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/press/2007Dec-newsletter.shtml#Isilon] FreeBSD Foundation Newsletter, December 17, 2007] ), which unifies a cluster of nodes into a single shared resource. [Apicella, Mario. [http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/12/42OPstorinside_1.html “Clustered storage winks at the enterprise”] , InfoWorld, (2006-10-12)]Isilon sells its products indirectly through a channel partner program that includes over 100 resellers and distributors, and directly through a field sales force. [ [http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/20/203064/2006_10K.pdf Isilon Systems, Inc. Form 10-K.] (2007-03-15)]
Financial Troubles and Executive Changes
Sujal Patel, who founded Isilon in 2001 and served as its chief technology officer, returned to the company as CEO in the Fall of 2007. This followed the resignation of Chief Executive Steve Goldman and Chief Financial Officer Stu Fuhlendorf. In the spring of 2008 Isilon reported questionable revenue recognition events to the SEC under the previous regime [Raffo, Dave [http://storage.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/04/03/isilon-%E2%80%98fesses-up/ “Isilon 'fesses up”] SearchStorage. (2008-4-03)] . A number of earning reports submitted to the SEC from 2006 and 2007 were revised. Isilon introduced a new revenue recognition policy in order to remedy the previous issues [Raffo, Dave. [http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1308342,00.html “Isilon reveals turnaround plan”] SearchStorage (2008-4-04)] .
Technology and Architecture
Isilon clustered storage system architecture consists of independent nodes that are all integrated with the OneFS operating system software. The systems can be installed in standard data center environments and are accessible to users and applications running Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac operating systems using industry standard file sharing protocols over standard Gigabit Ethernet. [ [http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/20/203064/2006_10K.pdf Isilon Systems, Inc. Form 10-K.] (2007-03-15)]
Nodes within the clustered storage system communicate with each other over a dedicated back-end network which is either Infiniband or standard Gigabit Ethernet. [ [http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/20/203064/2006_10K.pdf Isilon Systems, Inc. Form 10-K.] (2007-03-15)] The architecture is designed so that each node has full visibility and write/read access to or from a single expandable file system.
The core technology of the Isilon clustered storage consists of
OneFS , which provides a single unified operating system and delivers up to 10 GB/s of throughput. [Asaro, Tony. [http://www.isilon.com/pdfs/analyst/ESG_Brief_Isilon_45_Oct_2006.pdf “Isilon Raising the Bar (again)”] , Enterprise Strategy Group, (2006-10)] TheOneFS operating system software is designed with file-striping functionality across each node in a cluster, a fully distributed lock manager, caching, fully-distributed meta-data, and a remote block manager to maintain global coherency and synchronization across the cluster. [Isilon Systems, Inc. [http://www.isilon.com/pdfs/white_papers/Clustered_Storage_Revolution.pdf “Clustered Storage Revolution”] , White Paper. (2006-09)]Isilon recently announced the release of the IQ 9000 and EX 9000 clustered storage products, claiming scalability of up to 1.6 petabytes of capacity in a single file system and single volume. [Isilon Systems, Inc. [http://www.isilon.com/news/?sub=press&page=press&release=139 “Isilon Releases New Clustered Storage Systems, Delivering Unprecedented Scale, Performance And Value”] . Press Release. (2007-7-23)]
References
External links
* [http://www.isilon.com Isilon Systems, Inc.]
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