How to integrate cloud storage with the object storage system

The RESTful API is built-in access to object storage and is a very effective way to access object storage . However, sometimes it's more useful to use software items than to repair an application using the object store RESTful API, just like conversion or gateway software. In studying the appropriate alternative to RESTful APIs, there is another system classification that can be considered: Cloud Integrated Storage Systems. This article focuses on cloud integrated storage (CIS) is actually a third-party ISV conversion or gateway software variants.

In simple terms, this software category is packaged as a hardware storage system, delivery, compression gateway software. However, these products have gone way beyond cloud-based gateways and many have become as capable as traditional SAN, NAS or unified storage systems, especially for primary data or active data. These CIS systems are fundamentally similar to mixed-tier storage systems because they use an object storage tier for secondary data, old data, and snapshot data. CIS systems make object storage completely transparent to any application accessing the CIS as a NAS or SAN storage. The application does not know its data is already stored in the object store. CIS also has advantages and disadvantages. Considering CIS and object storage as a complete storage ecosystem, CIS plays a role of cache for most frequently accessed data. Object storage becomes secondary, passive or infrequently accessed data storage. There are many reasons to support your adoption of CIS. For beginners, CIS delivers built-in SAN or NAS storage capabilities. Deduplicate, compress, and encrypt data before it is transferred to the object storage tier. This reduces the amount of primary active data stored in the CIS and the amount of old, secondary, and snapshot data stored in the object store. The concept of a CIS object storage tier reduces capital and operating expenses. Another benefit of CIS is the ease and accessibility of data stored in object storage by multiple CIS systems. Requires access through the same vendor's CIS and the correct encryption key. Making it an excellent disaster recovery (DR) tool, especially when working with Li Yong's object store as a cloud service provider for its cloud storage products. All data is transferred to cloud object storage through the CIS, with the exception of server mirroring, which can be recovered from cloud service provider data centers using Cloud Array appliances and Cloud Array VMs. Avere Cloud NAS and Panzura Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller also make it their CIS selling point. Another advantage of CIS is the global domain namespace for CIS NAS systems that are geographically distributed. This facilitates content and workflow sharing. The other benefits of CIS are the ability to leverage multiple different vendor object storage systems and public cloud (object) storage systems. This is especially important if the object store or cloud storage provider goes down like Nirvanix. Being able to work with multiple objects also makes it easier to move from one provider to another. But CIS also has disadvantages. Any data transferred to the object storage system through the CIS system can only be accessed and restored through the vendor-specific CIS. If you want a different CIS, the data must be retrieved from the object store back to the original CIS, then migrated to the new CIS, and finally uploaded back to the object store. As storage data grows more and more, this thing will become more massive and time-consuming. Not all CISs perform better than the more traditional SAN, NAS, or same storage system. Some CIS systems work with limited object storage systems (or sometimes just one vendor system). It is important to ensure that any CIS system you choose can demonstrate that it works better with your chosen target storage system in a production environment. The following is the data migration to the CIS. Remember that the CIS system looks, feels, and acts like any other SAN, NAS, or unified storage system. This means that the data that exists in the currently installed storage system must be migrated to the CIS system, again an extraordinary hands-on experience. There are many vendors offering CIS systems such as vere Cloud NAS, Ctera Cloud Storage Gateway, Microsoft StorSimple, Nasuni (Storage Infrastructure as a Service), Panzura Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller, Riverbed Whitewater and TwinStars Cloud Array. CIS is the easiest way to transfer data to or from an object store. The CIS system looks, feels, and acts like the storage in the current data center, while moving data back and forth across the object store to become a low-cost storage tier. There are extraordinary advantages, there are also serious problems (such as vendor lock-in). It's important to keep in mind that it is just one of many equally effective ways to get in and out of the object store.

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