A Crash Course on Object-based Storage: Massive Scalability, Cloud Stores, Deduplication, and Even Tape

The hype surrounding cloud computing has spilled over into the storage industry, inspiring tremendous innovation in the fields of object storage and large scale file management. Conventional storage technologies (enterprise SAN and NAS systems) cannot scale limitlessly, not to mention that they are too rigid to expand and contract with the ebb and flow of the cloud. The cloud demands a whole new class of file systems and storage management approaches. As luck would have it, the problems being tackled in the name of cloud storage are applicable to large scale storage management in private facilities. In other words, so-called "cloud technologies" are relevant regardless of whether one ever plans to store data in a third party cloud.

Object-based storage does not describe any one technology or type of solution. Rather, is a generic term that describes an approach to addressing and manipulating discrete units of storage. Object-based storage is essential for deduplication, self-healing, massive scalability, geographic distribution, caching, tiering, etc. This session explains the key principles of object-based storage and provides examples and technologies based on those principles.

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