An object storage system handles data differently than a traditional file system, and with more and more companies needing to store large amounts of data, using an object storage system is becoming a popular option.
Unlike file systems, object storage is unstructured, which means files are stored alongside each other in a storage pool rather than in a hierarchy. In addition, the metadata that characterizes object storage is far more detailed than in a file system. Servers use unique identifiers to find objects, allowing them to be retrieved without knowledge of their physical location. This makes the use of an object storage system particularly beneficial to environments with large amounts of data or to those using cloud storage. Key benefits of an object storage system include greater scalability and improved manageability.
This guide was created to give users a complete understanding of object-based storage systems. It details what object storage is, how it is accessed, benefits of the technology and how it can be used to enhance cloud storage.
The basics of an object storage system
IT administrators are considering object storage systems rather than traditional SAN or network-attached storage (NAS) systems due to their flat file structure. The following articles explain how object storage systems store files and the various ways object storage technology can benefit computing environments.
While object technology has received a lot of attention lately, object storage systems might be the answer to a problem not yet discovered. Continue Reading
Learn how to use applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server with an object storage system on the back end. Continue Reading
Learn how data is stored in the newest version of OpenStack Swift, the open source object storage system. Continue Reading
Object storage tames data
IT administrators who manage large data sets are often faced with problems such as scalability and performance when using a file system. Using an object storage system can remedy many of the issues a file system presents. The material below will walk you through some of the best uses for an object storage system and explain how it can help common problems.
For large unstructured data sets, an object storage system carries several advantages over a traditional file system architecture. Learn about the scalability and data protection characteristics of object storage. Continue Reading
An object storage system can eliminate traditional file system hierarchies and put in place a flat access structure that provides a good basis for hugely scalable unstructured data access. Continue Reading
Object-based storage systems boot out hierarchical file systems in favor of a flat-file layout that brings massive file stores under control and overcomes the inadequacies of RAID. Continue Reading
An object storage system cuts down on bottlenecks when a large file such as a medical image is opened. This podcast discusses how to use the concept in health care data centers. Continue Reading
An object storage system's place in the cloud
More and more data is being moved to the cloud these days, often because of growing capacity needs. Features of object storage, such as its detailed metadata, make information easier to manage in a cloud environment than in a traditional file system. To learn more about how an object storage system can be used in the cloud, look at the links below.
In this expert podcast, Marc Staimer provides a technical drill-down into cloud object storage systems, explaining how they allow for massive scalability. Continue Reading
Scale-out NAS, object storage systems and cloud gateways are replacing file storage as IT companies face a plethora of unstructured data in their data storage environments. Continue Reading
Object-based storage has many of the features needed for cloud storage, but a lack of standardized cloud application programming interfaces means cloud gateways are often required to connect to the cloud. Continue Reading