IBM Cloud Object Storage

Last updated

IBM Cloud Object Storage
IBM Cloud logo.png
OwnerIBM
Industry object storage, cloud storage
URL cloud.ibm.com/catalog/services/cloud-object-storage

IBM Cloud Object Storage is a service offered by IBM [1] for storing and accessing unstructured data. The object storage service can be deployed on-premises, as part of IBM Cloud Platform offerings, or in hybrid form. [2] The offering can store any type of object which allows for uses like data archiving and backup, web and mobile applications, and as scalable, persistent storage for analytics. [3] Interaction with Cloud Object Storage is based on Rest APIs.

Contents

Design

IBM Cloud Object Storage stores objects that are organized into buckets (as S3 does) identified within each bucket by a unique, user-assigned key. All requests are authorized using an access control list associated with each bucket and object. Bucket names and keys are chosen so that objects are addressable using HTTP URLs.

Features

IBM Cloud Object Storage offers different storage classes, identical in data protection, security, durability and resiliency. The classes differ in data pattern and availability needs. [4]

History

The offering was originally introduced by Cleversafe Inc., a company based in Chicago, Illinois. [5] Cleversafe sold an object storage system, which it calls the Dispersed Storage Network or dsNet. Cleversafe was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 2004 by S. Christopher Gladwin and was originally based in IIT's technology incubator. The company has stated that it provides "limitless data storage". The company had 116 patents issued to it in 2014. [6]

IBM announced the completion of its acquisition of Cleversafe on November 6, 2015 and has since rebranded the company's products as IBM Cloud Object Storage. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Db2</span> Relational model database server

Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON and XML. The brand name was originally styled as DB/2, then DB2 until 2017 and finally changed to its present form.

Quantum Corporation is a data storage, management, and protection company that provides technology to store, manage, archive, and protect video and unstructured data throughout the data lifecycle. Their products are used by enterprises, media and entertainment companies, government agencies, big data companies, and life science organizations. Quantum is headquartered in San Jose, California and has offices around the world, supporting customers globally in addition to working with a network of distributors, VARs, DMRs, OEMs and other suppliers.

NetApp, Inc. is an intelligent data infrastructure company that provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations (CloudOps) solutions to enterprise customers. The company is based in San Jose, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 from 2012 to 2021. Founded in 1992 with an initial public offering in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data services for management of applications and data both online and physically.

Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its e-commerce network. Amazon S3 can store any type of object, which allows uses like storage for Internet applications, backups, disaster recovery, data archives, data lakes for analytics, and hybrid cloud storage. AWS launched Amazon S3 in the United States on March 14, 2006, then in Europe in November 2007.

Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which data, said to be on "the cloud", is stored remotely in logical pools and is accessible to users over a network, typically the Internet. The physical storage spans multiple servers, and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a cloud computing provider. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment secured, protected, and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.

Nirvanix is an American-based provider of business phone systems, VoIP services, hosted PBX, SIP Trunks, and cloud storage services headquartered in San Diego, California, United States. The company offers a variety of business phone solutions for small, medium as well as enterprise businesses. It also has a strong presence in public, hybrid and private cloud storage services with usage-based pricing. Based on previous service companies founded in 1998, Nirvanix shut down in October 2013. In July 2021 Nirvanix re-entered the business with $12 million funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vertica</span> Software company

Vertica is an analytic database management software company. Vertica was founded in 2005 by the database researcher Michael Stonebraker with Andrew Palmer as the founding CEO. Ralph Breslauer and Christopher P. Lynch served as CEOs later on.

In computer storage, a global file system is a distributed file system that can be accessed from multiple locations, typically across a wide-area network, and provides concurrent access to a global namespace from all locations. In order for a file system to be considered global, it must allow for files to be created, modified, and deleted from any location. This access is typically provided by a cloud storage gateway at each edge location, which provides access using the NFS or SMB network file sharing protocols.

Google Cloud Storage is a RESTful online file storage web service for storing and accessing data on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure. The service combines the performance and scalability of Google's cloud with advanced security and sharing capabilities. It is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), comparable to Amazon S3. Contrary to Google Drive and according to different service specifications, Google Cloud Storage appears to be more suitable for enterprises.

A cloud storage gateway is a hybrid cloud storage device, implemented in hardware or software, which resides at the customer premises and translates cloud storage APIs such as SOAP or REST to block-based storage protocols such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel or file-based interfaces such as NFS or SMB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CTERA Networks</span> Multinational enterprise software company

CTERA Networks is a privately held enterprise software company headquartered in New York and Israel. The company has regional offices in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Australia. As of 2021, the company is designated as the leading vendor in distributed cloud file storage by GigaOm.

Panzura is a privately owned American software company based in San Jose, California, that provides hybrid-cloud data management software and services for the enterprise software market. Its software helps users access, manage, analyze, and store unstructured data using techniques in distributed data consolidation, artificial intelligence, and network load balancing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAP HANA</span> Database management system by SAP

SAP HANA is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed and marketed by SAP SE. Its primary function as the software running a database server is to store and retrieve data as requested by the applications. In addition, it performs advanced analytics and includes extract, transform, load (ETL) capabilities as well as an application server.

Object storage is a computer data storage approach that manages data as "blobs" or "objects", as opposed to other storage architectures like file systems which manages data as a file hierarchy, and block storage which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks. Each object is typically associated with a variable amount of metadata, and a globally unique identifier. Object storage can be implemented at multiple levels, including the device level, the system level, and the interface level. In each case, object storage seeks to enable capabilities not addressed by other storage architectures, like interfaces that are directly programmable by the application, a namespace that can span multiple instances of physical hardware, and data-management functions like data replication and data distribution at object-level granularity.

IBM Mobile is a portfolio of mobile solutions for businesses offered by the information technology company IBM that includes software, cloud services, and partnerships.

Nasuni is a privately-held hybrid cloud storage company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.

Chris Gladwin is an American inventor, computer engineer and technology entrepreneur, who has founded or co-founded a series of tech-related companies including MusicNow, Cleversafe and Ocient.

IBM FlashCore Modules (FCM) are solid state technology computer data storage modules using PCI Express attachment and the NVMe command set. They are offered as an alternative to industry-standard 2.5" NVMe SSDs in selected arrays from the IBM FlashSystem family, with raw storage capacities of 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, 19.2 TB and 38.4 TB. FlashCore modules support hardware self-encryption and real-time inline hardware data compression up to 115.2 TB address space, without performance impact.

Cleversafe Inc. was an object storage software and systems developer company. It was founded in 2004 by Chris Gladwin, an American technology entrepreneur. The company was acquired by IBM in 2015, and became an integral part of IBM Cloud Object Storage.

References

  1. "IBM Cloud".
  2. "Object storage: On-prem, in the cloud and hybrid".
  3. Alexander Gavrin; et al. (2021). "IBM Cloud Object Storage Concepts and Architecture. System Edition" (PDF). IBM. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  4. "IBM Cloud Object Storage - IBM Cloud Object Storage Class Tiers and Archives".
  5. "Chris Gladwin's Cleversafe Seeks to Lead the 100+ Petabyte Storage Market". Forbes .
  6. "NuCurrent, Cleversafe focus on filing for patents early | Crain's Chicago Business". March 27, 2015.
  7. "IBM Completes Acquisition of Cleversafe". www-03.ibm.com. November 6, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.