StorageOS has released v2.4 of its software-defined storage platform for containers and Kubernetes, bringing a range of enhancements such as Encryption at Rest to protect data, and Rapid Application Recovery to cut recovery times for failovers.

StorageOS is a cloud native storage platform for providing persistent storage for containerised production applications in the cloud, on-premises and in hybrid/multi-cloud environments.

In light of this, StorageOS v2.4 features Encryption at Rest, a capability designed for organisations that have a requirement for encrypted data in Kubernetes workloads using persistent storage. This addresses users of Kubernetes as a cloud service as well as those with strict data compliance regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry standard (PCI DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

According to StorageOS, encryption and decryption keys are fully under the control and management of the user as Kubernetes Secrets. Using a native Kubernetes construct for key management this way also allows users to benefit from Kubernetes integration with key management service providers such as HashiCorp Vault.

StorageOS v2.4 also delivers Rapid Application Recovery using enhanced fencing awareness, which is claimed to deliver an improvement of up to 500 percent for failover and recovery. Under normal circumstances, a stateful application running with the Kubernetes StatefulSet controller will have to wait up to five minutes for recovery, as a failed pod has a default eviction timeout of five minutes to ensure its storage volume is no longer mounted.

With Rapid Application Recovery, StorageOS uses its background node awareness capability to intervene and where applicable, allow pods to be scheduled on different nodes with full access to their required persistent storage. This feature significantly improves recovery time to within 30-60 seconds, the firm said.

This release also provides Intelligent Thin Provisioning with the addition of Trim support, which allows the operating system to inform StorageOS that data is no longer in use and can be wiped internally. This feature is especially important for environments that frequently delete or move files, and greatly assists the overall availability of storage as a shared resource.