Data storage in the cloud era

I.What is cloud storage？

cloud storage is a new concept extended and derived from the concept of Cloud computing. Cloud computing is considered as the development of distributed computing, parallel computing and Grid computing. It automatically break up the huge computing processing program into countless smaller sub-programs through the network, and then pass on the processing results to the user after    computational analysis by a large system consisting of multiple servers. With cloud computing, network service providers can process tens or even billions of information in seconds, reaching the same powerful network services as “supercomputers”.

The concept of cloud storage is similar to cloud computing, it refers to through cluster applications, grid technology or distributed file system functions, a large number of different types of storage devices in the network through the application software collection to work together to provide data storage and business access functions to the outside world, a system to ensure the security of data, and save storage space. Simply put, cloud storage is an emerging solution for putting storage resources on the cloud for human access. Users can easily access data via any connected device connected to the cloud at anytime, anywhere. If this explanation is still difficult to understand, we can borrow the structure of THE WAN and the Internet to explain cloud storage.

Due to the large number of users, the files that storage system needs to store will grow exponentially, which requires the storage system capacity expansion to keep up with the growth of data volume.to achieve unlimited expansion, At the same time, it is better to be simple and easy in the expansion process. It can’t affect the overall operation of the data center. If the expansion of capacity requires complicated operations or even downtime, it will undoubtedly greatly reduce the operational efficiency of the data center.

II.Cloud storage structure model

Storage layer

The storage layer is the most basic part of cloud storage. The storage device can be an FC Fiber Channel storage device, an IP storage device such as NAS and iSCSI, or an SCSI or DAS storage devices such as SAS. Storage devices in cloud storage tend to be large and distributed across geographic locations. Together with each other over a wide area network, Internet, or FC Fiber Channel network.

On top of the storage device is a unified storage device management system, which can realize the logical virtualization management of storage devices, multilink redundancy management, as well as the state monitoring and failure maintenance of hardware devices

Basic management

Foundation management is the core part of cloud storage and the most difficult part of cloud storage to implement. The basic management enables the collaboration of multiple storage devices in cloud storage through technologies such as clustering, distributed file systems, and grid computing, enabling multiple storage devices to provide the same service to the outside world and providing greater, stronger and better data access performance.

CDN content distribution system and data encryption technology ensure that data in cloud storage is not accessed by unauthorized users. At the same time, data backup and disaster-tolerant technologies and measures can ensure that data in cloud storage will not be lost.to ensure the security and stability of cloud storage itself.

interface layer

The application interface layer is the most flexible part of cloud storage. Different cloud storage operation can develop different application service interfaces and provide different application services depending on the actual business type. Such as video surveillance application platform, IPTV and video-on-demand application platform, network hard disk application platform, remote data backup application platform.

Access layer

Any authorized user can log on to the cloud storage system and enjoy cloud storage services through a standard public application interface. Due to different cloud storage operations, the access types and access methods it provides also different.

Cloud storage is not a storage, but services

Just like a cloud-like WAN and the Internet, cloud storage refers not to a specific device to a user, but to a collection of many storage devices and servers. Users use cloud storage, not with a single storage device, but with a data access service that comes with the entire cloud storage system. So strictly speaking, cloud storage is not a storage, but a service. The core of cloud storage is the combination of application software and storage devices, and the transformation of storage devices to storage services is achieved through application software.