72 lines
3.2 KiB
XML
72 lines
3.2 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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version="5.0"
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xml:id="arch-guide-intro-storage-focus">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>Cloud storage is a model of data storage where digital data
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is stored in logical pools and physical storage that spans
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across multiple servers and locations. Cloud storage commonly
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refers to a hosted object storage service, however the term
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has extended to include other types of data storage that are
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available as a service, for example block storage.</para>
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<para>Cloud storage is based on virtualized infrastructure and
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resembles broader cloud computing in terms of accessible
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interfaces, elasticity, scalability, multi-tenancy, and
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metered resources. Cloud storage services can be utilized from
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an off-premises service or deployed on-premises.</para>
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<para>Cloud storage is made up of many distributed, yet still
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synonymous resources, and is often referred to as integrated
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storage clouds. Cloud storage is highly fault tolerant through
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redundancy and the distribution of data. It is highly durable
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through the creation of versioned copies, and can be
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consistent with regard to data replicas.</para>
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<para>At a certain scale, management of data operations can become
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a resource intensive process to an organization. Hierarchical
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storage management (HSM) systems and data grids can help
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annotate and report a baseline data valuation to make
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intelligent decisions and automate data decisions. HSM allows
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for automating tiering and movement, as well as orchestration
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of data operations. A data grid is an architecture, or set of
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services evolving technology, that brings together sets of
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services allowing users to manage large data sets.</para>
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<para>Examples of applications that can be deployed with cloud
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storage characteristics are:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Active archive, backups and hierarchical storage
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management.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>General content storage and synchronization. An
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example of this is private dropbox.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Data analytics with parallel file systems.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Unstructured data store for services. For example,
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social media back-end storage.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Persistent block storage.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Operating system and application image store.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Media streaming.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Databases.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Content distribution.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Cloud storage peering.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</section>
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