Object storage was designed to support environments like the cloud that can have open-ended scaling requirements. Amazon developed the S3 interface to connect their object-based storage infrastructure to applications running in their own cloud. Now, enterprises can do the same, using the WOS platform from DataDirect Networks (DDN) as the back-end object storage and WOS Access S3 to create their own private clouds. This interface allows them to connect WOS to any S3-compatible application and simplifies hybrid cloud deployments.
WOS Access
WOS Access gateways are high performance, highly available (HA) interface devices providing multi-protocol connectivity to DDN’s WOS object storage platform. In addition to S3, there’s also a WOS Gateway for NFS/CIFS. These intelligent gateways create an interface layer that’s logically separated from the back-end WOS system, allowing access performance to scale independently from storage. Multiple WOS Access gateways in different physical locations can synchronize to present a single, federated namespace, enabling distributed collaboration and workflow. The system is latency-aware and pulls required data objects from the nearest WOS node.
Web Object Scaler
DDN’s WOS, which stands for “Web Object Scaler”, was one of the first object-based storage systems on the market. DDN has built a business for this product supporting some of the largest cloud infrastructures in existence today, leveraging an understanding of performance at scale that the company has developed as a leader in the HPC space. WOS’s “NoFS” architecture doesn’t use a file system as a means to organize data objects within the cluster of nodes, a feature that, according to DDN, reduces overhead in the system and improves performance and scalability without compromising data reliability.
Private Cloud
Enterprises are turning to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) IT model to provision storage, compute and networking resources to their internal customers, similar to the way public cloud providers operate. They’re also providing information-based services like data protection, file collaboration, mobile device access, etc. to end users outside of the company. By leveraging the power of the private cloud they can deliver these services to mobile employees, remote offices, partners, suppliers and customers in a cost effective manner.
Companies are also adding cloud capabilities to their existing products. Some examples are enabling remote operation for users, providing synchronization of mobile devices or enhancing the product’s ability to collect and store larger data sets.
The challenge with these private clouds is that the NAS file storage infrastructures they’re traditionally built on are often not up to the task, in scale, performance or flexibility. According to DDN, the WOS platform provides a real cloud-scale infrastructure that can keep up with the demands of an enterprise’s private cloud environment.
Hybrid Cloud
Existing WOS users can also connect the Amazon cloud (or any S3-compatible service) and create a hybrid cloud infrastructure to increase flexibility and share data between WOS and existing Amazon S3 implementations. They can also use Amazon to facilitate data transfer between remote sites where data is collected and a WOS system that supports high performance computing in the primary data center.
Some companies start out with their primary applications running in Amazon, but eventually want to move to another cloud provider, or bring those applications in house. In these situations, WOS Access S3 provides the flexibility to transfer data to a WOS system in their own data center.
StorageSwiss Take
Enterprises are finding more and more ways to leverage the cloud to improve their day-to-day operations and to enhance their products’ capabilities. But many of these organizations want to keep data in their own data centers, not run it in a public cloud. This often means running large object storage systems and then finding a way to integrate the cloud into the environment. DDN WOS gives them an integrated cloud-scale storage infrastructure that can support the largest of data sets and the connectivity to extend this object storage infrastructure into the cloud.
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Eric is an Analyst with Storage Switzerland and has over 25 years experience in high-technology industries. He’s held technical, management and marketing positions in the computer storage, instrumentation, digital imaging and test equipment fields. He has spent the past 15 years in the data storage field, with storage hardware manufacturers and as a national storage integrator, designing and implementing open systems storage solutions for companies in the Western United States. Eric earned degrees in electrical/computer engineering from the University of Colorado and marketing from California State University, Humboldt. He and his wife live in Colorado and have twins in college.
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Well, DDN has been around longer than most players in the object storage software space. Their claim that their NoFS object storage architecture provides higher performance is similar to Caringo’s claim that CAStor, now called Swarm, doesn’t use a file system. It would be intersting to see a head-to-head performance comparison between DDN WOS and Cloudian, whose HyperStore engine combined with Cassandra does use a file system.