In our increasingly digital world, businesses are grappling with the monumental task of managing and safeguarding a sea of data. Old-school storage solutions often don't cut it, leaving companies exposed to the risk of data loss and ransomware attacks. This is where Arcserve OneXafe Immutable Storage steps in - an innovative solution crafted to tackle these issues and redefine the concept of data storage.
Let's get to know OneXafe
Arcserve OneXafe isn't your typical storage solution. It harnesses the might of immutable storage. At its heart, OneXafe employs an immutable object store, where each object is written just once and never altered. This implies that any modifications to the file system lead to the birth of new objects, offering a sturdy shield against ransomware and other potential threats.
Why OneXafe stands out
OneXafe brings a plethora of advantages to the table that distinguishes it from conventional storage solutions. Its scale-out architecture facilitates the smooth addition of a single drive or multiple nodes in a cluster at a time, making it a perfect fit for managing large-scale unstructured data and backup targets.
OneXafe also delivers continuous data protection, capturing low-overhead snapshots every 90 seconds. These snapshots, rooted in the immutable object store, are immune to changes or modifications from an external source. This empowers businesses to restore entire file systems in a matter of minutes, offering a degree of data resilience that's unparalleled in the industry.
OneXafe in the real world
OneXafe isn't just a concept - it has real-world applications that can transform the way businesses deal with their data. For example, it can be utilized for file server consolidation, offering a highly scalable, easily managed network-attached storage solution that simplifies the handling of unstructured data.
OneXafe is also perfect for data archiving, particularly in data-heavy sectors like healthcare and video surveillance. Its capacity to scale granularly makes it a breeze to manage explosive data growth in a cost-effective manner.
As a disk-based backup target, OneXafe's scale-out architecture offers a highly scalable solution for virtualized and physical server environments. Its potent storage reduction technologies, such as inline and variable-length deduplication and compression, ensure a cost-effective storage-capacity footprint.
What the users say
Don't just take our word for it - hear it from the users themselves. One user shared, "I’ve been using OneXafe since 2015, starting with a few hundred terabytes, and now I have more than 1.2PB deployed. It’s been a relief being able to easily manage this amount of storage and rely on its immutable snapshots to safeguard our mission-critical data from ransomware and deletions."
Technical Architecture: How Immutability Works Under the Hood
OneXafe's immutable object store is built on a copy-on-write file system. When a file is first written to the appliance, it is stored as an immutable object with a unique hash. Any subsequent modification — whether from a legitimate user edit or a ransomware encryption attempt — does not alter the original object. Instead, the system creates a new object representing the modified state, while the original remains untouched and independently addressable.
This architecture means that even if ransomware encrypts every file visible to the network share, the original unencrypted versions still exist as immutable objects within the storage layer. An administrator can roll back to any 90-second snapshot to recover the pre-attack state of the entire file system. The recovery process does not require restoring from a separate backup appliance — the clean data is already on the OneXafe itself.
Snapshot Retention and Storage Efficiency
OneXafe captures snapshots every 90 seconds by default, but these snapshots are space-efficient because they only record the metadata describing which objects comprise the file system at that point in time. The actual data blocks are deduplicated inline using variable-length deduplication, which analyses data patterns to find duplicate segments regardless of where they appear in the data stream. Combined with inline compression, typical storage reduction ratios range from 2:1 to 5:1 depending on the data type.
Snapshot retention policies can be configured to keep frequent snapshots (every 90 seconds) for recent data, transitioning to hourly and then daily snapshots for older data. This tiered retention approach balances granular recovery for recent events with long-term archival without consuming excessive storage capacity.
OneXafe Hardware Models
Arcserve offers several OneXafe hardware configurations to suit different deployment sizes:
- OneXafe 4412 — Entry-level model with 12 drive bays, suitable for small to mid-sized backup targets and file server consolidation.
- OneXafe 4417 — Mid-range model with NVMe caching for higher-throughput workloads like video surveillance and medical imaging.
- OneXafe 4424 — High-density 24-bay model for organisations with petabyte-scale storage requirements.
Each model supports clustering, so organisations can start with a single node and add capacity by simply connecting additional OneXafe appliances to the same cluster. The cluster rebalances data automatically across nodes, and losing a single node does not result in data loss thanks to built-in redundancy.
Pairing OneXafe with Arcserve UDP
While OneXafe functions as a standalone NAS and file server, it delivers the most value when paired with Arcserve UDP (Unified Data Protection) as a backup target. Arcserve UDP handles the backup orchestration — scheduling jobs, managing retention policies, and performing application-aware backups of Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Active Directory. The backup data lands on OneXafe, where it immediately benefits from immutable snapshots, deduplication, and compression.
This pairing is particularly relevant for Australian organisations subject to the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988, which requires organisations to notify affected individuals and the OAIC when a data breach is likely to result in serious harm. Having immutable backups ensures that even after a ransomware incident, the organisation can recover its data and resume operations without paying a ransom — a position that is much easier to defend to regulators and affected parties.
Wrapping up
Arcserve OneXafe Immutable Storage addresses a real gap in how organisations protect and manage their data. With its immutable object store, 90-second snapshots, and scale-out clustering, it offers a practical, cost-effective solution for backup targets, file server consolidation, and long-term archival.
Cloud Ready Solutions distributes Arcserve products in Australia, providing local presales support, deployment guidance, and ongoing technical assistance. To discover more about how OneXafe fits into your data protection strategy, head over to the Arcserve website or contact Cloud Ready Solutions to request a demo today.