Data Storage

Data Storage

                                                                                   By:  Jayant Sharma

                                                                                    

Data storage is a general process for archiving data in electromagnetic or other forms for use by a computer or device.

Cloud storage is a cloud computing model in which data is stored on remote servers that are accessed from the internet, or "cloud". It is maintained and managed by a cloud storage service provider on storage servers that are built on virtualization techniques. It provides end users and applications a virtual storage architecture that is scalable according to application requirements. When delivered through a public service provider, cloud storage is known as utility storage. Private cloud storage provides the same scalability, flexibility and storage mechanism but with restricted or non-public access.

Nowadays cloud computing implementation has become very popular in IT companies. Cloud technologies simplify IT management and allow their users to store data or run applications. In modern world it is widely spread to use clouds as data storage.

Advantages of Cloud Storage

·       Usability: All cloud storage services have compatibility to desktop folders for Mac’s and PC’s. This allows users to drag and drop files between the cloud storage and their local storage.

·       Bandwidth: You can avoid emailing files to individuals and instead send a link to recipients through your email.

·       Accessibility: Stored files can be accessed from anywhere via Internet connection.

·       Disaster Recovery:  It is highly recommended that businesses have an emergency backup plan ready in the case of an emergency. Cloud storage can be used as a back‐up plan by businesses by providing a second copy of important files.

·       Cost Savings: Businesses and organizations can often reduce annual operating costs by using cloud storage.

Object Storage

Object storage, also called object-based storage, is an approach to addressing and manipulating data storage as discrete units, called objects. It provides a way in which we organize and work with units of storage, called objects. Object storage is considered a good fit for the cloud because it is elastic, flexible and it can more easily scale into multiple petabytes to support unlimited data growth. Object storage, along with the metadata, can be accessed directly via application program interfaces (APIs), HTTP and HTTPS. Instead of breaking files down into blocks to store it on disk using a file system, we deal with whole objects stored over the network. These objects could be an image file, logs, HTML files, or any self-contained blob of bytes. They are unstructured because there is no specific schema or format they need to follow. An object identifier is an address tied to the object, which enables the object to be found over a distributed system.

Every object contains three things:

·        The data itself. The data can be anything you want to store like image file, logs, HTML files, or any self-contained blob of bytes.

·        An expandable amount of metadata. The metadata is defined data about data; it contains contextual information about what the data is, what it should be used for, its confidentiality, or anything else that is relevant to the way in which the data is used.

·        A globally unique identifier. The identifier is an address given to the object in order for the object to be found over a distributed system.

Block Storage

Block storage is data storage where data is stored in volumes, also referred to as blocks. Each block is assigned an arbitrary identifier by which it can be stored and retrieved, but no metadata providing further context. The blocks act as an individual hard drive and are configured by the storage administrator. These blocks are controlled by the server-based operating system. The blocks are of evenly sized. Because the volumes are treated as individual hard disks, block storage works well for storing a variety of applications. Block storage services are relatively simple and familiar.

There are some advantages associated with block storage. As blocks can act as individual hard disks, block storage functions well for storing a wide range of applications such as ones related to databases and file systems. Another point about block storage is that it can offer booting of systems which are connected to them. In fact, block-level storage transportation is more reliable, more efficient, more flexible, and more versatile and provides better performance than file storage.

However, there are a few drawbacks associated with block storage. Block storage devices are generally more expensive and complex than file storage. As no additional storage-side metadata is provided with a given block in block storage, performance degrades in geographically distributed systems.

Object Storage V/S Block Storage

As compared to block storage, object storage is much newer and a fresh concept for cloud storage. With object storage, data is bundled with customizable metadata tags and a unique identifier to form objects. Objects are stored in a flat address space and there is no limit to the number of objects stored, making it much easier to scale out. The metadata tags are a key advantage with object storage – they allow for much better identification and classification of data. Search capabilities and unlimited scale make object storage ideal for unstructured data.

	Object Storage	Block Storage
PERFORMANCE	Performs best for big content and high stream throughput	Strong performance with database and transnational data
GEOGRAPHY	Data can be stored across multiple regions	The further the distance between storage and application, the higher the latency
SCALABILITY	Can scale infinitely to petabytes and beyond	Addressing requirements limit scalability
ANALYTICS	Customizable metadata allows data to be easily organized and retrieved	No metadata