Parsing the near-line storage in the cloud: Service levels and document collaboration

In this blog series, the founder and consulting analyst at Taneja Group, Massachusetts, Arun Taneja and searchcloudstorage.com Assistant website editor Rachel Kossman talked about the main or near-line storage in the cloud. Taneja explains why cloud storage is primarily used for applications such as disaster recovery and backup, and clarifies why cloud computing gateway solutions are essential to cloud computing's near-line storage.

Kossman and Taneja discussed the arrangements for near-line data in cloud computing, starting with discussion of document collaboration, and talking about file sharing, and different cloud computing solutions that include built-in functionality for document collaboration. Taneja then explains the level of service levels that the audience can realistically expect when the primary data store is deployed in cloud computing, including the tier-one and level two application types that are viable candidates.

Searchcloudstorage.com: A typical example of near-line storage in cloud computing is document collaboration or file sharing. Arun, can you explain to our listeners why cloud computing is a good choice for file and document sharing?

Taneja: Of course you can. There is no doubt that document collaboration is a good use case for cloud computing, but I'd like to say that some of the technologies used in cloud computing allow collaborative sharing, while others do not support the application. While cloud computing, which does not support the application, can still be used for collaborative purposes, the technology must be built on a gateway basis. Here, I'll give you two examples.

For example, Nirvanix they have eight cloud computing instances around the world, like naming a cloud computing instance, they build their cloud computing in this way. So if you put a file in the cloud in California and customers sign up for their data to be stored on the East Coast Cloud, the files in the New York cloud will be updated automatically when the file is updated in California. These two files are effectively consistent, and if someone accesses the file from the New York cloud and the file is being updated on the California side, the New York visitors will have to wait until two files are synchronized. So, in this case, the most difficult work has been done by the cloud computing provider Nirvanix. This is the classic collaboration: No matter where the user is in the world, they can ask for access to the file, and they know they can get the latest version of the file. They can update their work in any of the one by one cloud computing they interact with and complete the synchronization of the files in all other locations. This is the technology that is done in cloud computing.

In the first part of this blog series, Arun Taneja discusses why IT pros often believe that cloud storage is just a disaster recovery (DR), archive, and backup solution; Technology development for important data storage in cloud computing And why it is critical to deploy the gateway in near-line data in cloud computing.

When you don't have that ability--and that's the way most cloud computing is in the industry--you have to use gateways, like Panzura. Panzura has created a global file system that can efficiently solve the naming problem I have described. They have a heavy workload and need to make sure that the data visible in California are the same as those visible in New York, Tokyo and elsewhere.

Customers must be careful not because you have a cloud computing and a collaborative document collaboration, all work will be done automatically. You must grasp the bottom details to make sure you have the right solution.

Searchcloudstorage.com: So, from our previous discussion of Cloud Gateway mitigation latency, we can draw a conclusion, but what service levels should people expect when major or near-line storage is deployed in cloud computing?

Taneja: A very important consideration is what I said earlier-you can't automatically use cloud computing for primary storage purposes; You have to have a gateway, just as Storsimple provides. It is worth noting in particular that there are other examples in the industry where gateways can implement primary storage, but their numbers are small and rare. You have to be careful that these gateways have a wide variety of storage applications, otherwise it doesn't feel, look, and act like the main memory the customer uses in their datacenter.

Now, what kind of service level can you expect to get from it? If it is built in a similar storsimple way, you can expect the same service level because of its built-in caching, data replication, compression, and snapshot functions, i.e. you should be able to replace All level two applications and level two storage. It is important to know whether you have a level-one application and a tier-one storage, whether it is EMC's Vmax, Hitachi's VSP, IBM's DS8000 series, or Dell's top product line. In those cases, cloud computing is not considered the purpose of primary storage.

However, for two-tier types of applications and storage, the EMC company's VNX series, Hitachi's Scalable Modular Storage (AMS) product line, or other level two storage offerings, cloud computing will become your primary storage repository for you to align your service levels from local storage and from cloud computing.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)