Secrets of Free cloud storage: contributing redundant storage

Free cloud storage sounds unlikely, but a new enterprise, Symform, can provide users with a new type of storage service free of charge, which can be used to build a distributed storage network.

After joining the network and providing 150GB of local space, you can use 100GB storage space anywhere on the web. In simple terms, this seems like an unfair deal. But having a cloud storage point is attractive, prompting many businesses and individual users to start using cloud storage services. Morgan Stanley's survey of cloud users last year showed that all types of cloud services grew at 60% a year, while cloud storage usage increased to 67%.

By adopting Remote Storage services, organizations simplify their backup and disaster recovery processes. If you have a data backup outside of the data center, this will help you mitigate the impact of the local disaster on your business. With remote data backup, you can still be complacent, even if your storage volume has multiple failures.

Enterprise internal Configuration Storage prices have fallen faster than cloud services, Amazon has just put its S3 storage cost, last August Barracuda NX Company suddenly put its 50 dollars in the storage of a double. Symform wants to make people realize that cloud storage has become very expensive.

Margaret Dawson, vice president of marketing at Symform, said: "At first, cloud storage is not very expensive, but look at the various fees behind it, you will understand." "He refers to increased data transfer, command execution, and bandwidth costs for major cloud storage vendors."

The most recently added cost is the network Management storage controller, which is primarily responsible for performing multiple enterprise services, including snapshots, caching, encryption, and compression, when transferring enterprise data to the cloud. Vendors of this cloud service controller, including Nasuni, Nirvanix and Trend Micro,amazon, also launched their AWS Storage Gateway at the end of January, with a price of $125 a month after 60 days of free use.

Dawson says the Symform company's approach avoids these cloud storage charges, although she admits it is mainly for knowledgeable it consultants (the main group of storage networks) and small businesses.

"Most businesses run 30% to 80% of the extra storage capacity," she notes. By dedicating some excess storage to the Symform network, they can gain the advantage of offsite storage for free or at a lower cost. If users invite more friends to use symform space, they will get more free storage space, up to 200GB.

Of course, this capacity does not last long. But Symform has come up with several ways to leverage distributed storage resources to ensure data availability. For example, a storage network monitors the usage of a user's storage device, and if a user does not use the device for a long time, the system automatically transfers the data to a more reliable site.

When distributing data, Symform does not put all the data in one place, but instead divides the data block into 64 fragments and then distributes it across 96 storage nodes. Doing so creates 1.5 copies of the data. A fragment may disappear, and it may still exist in a site in Symform. Otherwise, the data owner saves a copy of the backup from which the new copy can be copied. Additional fragments can reduce the risk of data loss.

By dividing chunks of data into 64 pieces and uploading them to 96 separate storage nodes, Symform uses low-cost parallel processing to transfer data from customers as quickly as possible. Thus, the speed of any storage device at any site does not affect the replication of the Symform network. Similarly, when performing a recovery, 64 devices are activated in parallel instead of a device or a small RAID array.

Join Symform Network, users do not need storage Gateway controller, they use a lightweight symform agent, download to the site, to guide traffic. The service uses AES 256-bit encryption for data transfer and storage, so that the only data owners who can view the data are the people who hold the encryption keys.

Dawson acknowledges that Symform services are not enterprise-class cloud storage services, "and if we enter the corporate market, we will need to make some changes." For example, create two replicas instead of 1.5 replicas. ”

The existing redundant storage of the enterprise site can form the Symform-built cloud storage network is a bold move, Symform employs several factors in cloud computing: Central Intelligence commands distributed processing, parallel execution, and a division of tasks for a given task to reduce storage costs.

"We want to push this model to depress the market and reduce storage prices," Dawson said.