Analysis and discussion on the types of cloud storage and the way of creation

You can say that internal cloud storage is the same as public cloud storage because they are all storage services on the network, except that the components of the internal storage cloud are located behind the firewall. But this definition is not entirely accurate. For example, a public cloud storage vendor can reserve a portion of the capacity for a customer to become a private cloud store. This article focuses on the types of cloud storage and how to create cloud storage.

The following are different types of cloud storage

Public cloud storage, like the storage services provided by the Nirvanix company of Amazon's Simplestorageservice (S3), can provide a large amount of file storage at low cost. Vendors can keep each customer's storage and application separate and private. Public cloud storage can be zoned out as a private cloud store.

Private cloud storage through private cloud storage, a company can own or control the infrastructure, as well as the deployment of the application. Private cloud storage can be deployed in an enterprise data center or a facility at the same location. Private cloud can be managed by the company's own IT department or by the service provider.

The internal cloud storage is similar to the private cloud storage, the only difference being that it is still within the enterprise firewall.

Mixed cloud storage This cloud storage combines a public cloud with a private cloud/internal cloud. Mainly used for access to customer requirements, especially when the capacity needs to be temporarily configured. To draw a portion of the capacity from a public cloud a private or internal cloud can help the company in the face of rapidly growing load fluctuations or spikes. Nonetheless, hybrid cloud storage brings complexity across public cloud and private cloud allocation applications.

Industry analysts and consultants prefer to describe their attributes, in addition to defining the definition of internal cloud storage.

For example, the emphasis is on low cost and easy scalability. Cloud storage is not only low cost, but you only need to pay for the capacity you use. Simply put, the expected cost of internal cloud storage is expected to be lower. Although the price is cheap, but the speed is relatively slow. But internal cloud storage can provide better performance at different levels.

The management of cloud storage is another factor. Private cloud storage is easier to manage, and an administrator can handle thousands of nodes and PB-level storage. However, the responsibilities of the administrator may be limited by simple tasks.

Finally, how to access a private cloud can be a key factor. HTTP is the primary access protocol. "All you need is an HTTP or HTTPS connection and a Web browser." Sentryblue chief technical Officer Kensatkunam said.

"Unlike internal cloud storage, private clouds can be accessed through an API, not a protocol or something," says Nirvanix's Foskete, "a private cloud has a program API that, like a Web site, might use rest on http." The Representational state transfer (REST) is a stateless protocol, which, contrary to fiber, includes the state of each communication. Rest uses HTTP to provide network access services. For cloud storage, rest accesses storage resources as a service.

In the recent white paper, Sun Microsystems insists on the type of programmable cloud storage. Instead of relying on physical deployment servers, storage, and network resources to support applications, developers specify configurations, connect the same virtual components, including storing virtual machine images and applying data, and retrieving from cloud storage. They specify how and when to deploy components through the API.

Storageiogroupsschulz stressed that the industry does not have standard API standards, each cloud supplier has its own standards.

Nevertheless, in late July, rackspacehosting exposed its public cloud services and cloud file APIs under the CreativeCommons3.0 specification file, which could be the start of an internal cloud storage open API.

The last feature of multiple leases defines the public cloud storage. "Multiple leases are an important part of cloud storage, even in internal cloud storage," says CommVault's Prahlad. "Multi-user leasing enables businesses to separate departments, projects, and workgroups according to demand.

So what is an internal cloud? The consensus of this definition seems to be that there is a private storage capacity, or at least controlled by the company, can access the program through HTTP connection, Low-cost, high expansion, easy to manage Parascale The company added that the internal cloud storage can be very small, small to only a few or three to five nodes, but still can achieve the economy of cloud storage, Ease of management, scalability.

Creating internal cloud storage

"Do-it-yourself creating an internal cloud storage is a big deal," said Schindler, a consultant. Creating a private cloud store is not that difficult. The following are the basic components of internal cloud storage:

Global or clustered file (network attached storage) systems (including virtualization and management capabilities)

Commercial servers and low cost storage (Sasdas,jbod,pcieraid)

Cost effective network bandwidth services.

Cloud interfaces that rely on application requirements (Nfs,smtp/pop,http,dicom,rest,soap,xml)

Meta-data management layer, including appropriate data protection and security tools.

There are many ways to design and create a private cloud store, the simplest of which may be "start with a NAS cluster, preferably with a global file system, and then put in front of a cloud." I365 Allen said.

In fact, the storage behind the internal cloud storage is various, and you may not be able to use the storage array as part of the private cloud. Nirvanix's Foskete said: "Most will use a commercial server, and then use low-cost drivers to fill the disk slots." ”

"Using local satellite disks is cheaper than SAN storage," says Satkunam of Sentryblue. ”

The key to creating an extensible cloud storage is "to use a lot of small boxes and then add more small boxes," CommVault's Prahlad said. You can use redundancy to replicate data in many nodes for data protection. In order to get good service quality, different nodes can have different service performance properties. Then you name a space with a global file system, and you may need a virtual data layer. Prahlad said.

Managing internal cloud storage should be simple. "You can refer to Amazon or Facebook for your model," says George Ocarinanetworks. For simplicity, limit your file management scenarios to create, read, update, delete, or replicate.

Internal cloud storage cannot replace the company's first-tier storage. Production data is still running on high-performance Fcsan or primary storage Iscsisan, and internal cloud storage will be used for file-based data, as well as e-mail, archiving, media, and so on. These data are very active and need to be stored and shared without impacting first-tier storage performance.

The latest cloud storage reports show that people interested in interest are about 12% to 15%. Theinfopro's storage research director says most of them do not have a cloud storage plan. It is clear that the spread of cloud storage is still a long way off.