OBJECT STORAGE

OBJECT STORAGE - Why should companies use object base storage for unstructured data and how is it different from NAS or SAN?

• The biggest problem with traditional approaches is scalability. NAS lacks the ability to scale as a single system, especially in Petabyte environments. Today's SANs are already complex, when deployed with a file system layer on top. Scaling them out makes the problem a lot worse.
• Object Storage is essentially just a different way of storing, organizing and accessing data on disk. An Object Storage platform provides a storage infrastructure to store files with lots of metadata added to them - referred to as objects.
• The backend architecture of an object storage platform is designed to present all the storage nodes as one single pool.
• With Object Storage, there is no file system hierarchy. The architecture of the platform and its new data protection schemes (vs RAID, the de facto data protection scheme for SAN and NAS), allow this pool to scale to virtually an unlimited size, while keeping the system simple to manage.
• Users access object storage through applications that typically use a REST API (an internet protocol, optimized for online applications) or S3 interface. This makes object storage ideal for all online, cloud environments.
• When objects are stored, an identifier is created to locate the object in the pool. Applications can very quickly retrieve the right data for the users through the object identifier or by querying the metadata (information about the objects, like the name, when it was created, by who, etc.). This approach enables significantly faster access and much less overhead than locating a file through a traditional file system.

OBJECT STORAGE - Microsoft SharePoint / Stealth Content Store

Microsoft SharePoint (including OneDrive for Business) is increasingly being identified as an initial "use case" for large companies contemplating the adoption of object storage platforms.

• Stealth Content Store 5.0 enables a customer to offload unstructured data (typically 80% or more) from SharePoint to all major object storage platforms through a standard REST or S3 interface.
• Stealth Software can (optionally) encrypt the SharePoint data at the file level so that data is protected "in flight" to, and "at rest" on the target object storage platform.
• With Stealth Content Store 5.0 - SQL databases are reduced in size by 80% or more - greatly reducing overhead of managing time consuming backups.
• Customers can leverage the self-managing, self-healing features of object storage platforms and the available replication features to support heightened business continuity and disaster recovery with greatly reduced overhead.