A solid-state head in the clouds

CLOUD STORAGE is type of data storage where the digital data is stored in logical groups and the physical storage spans multiple servers and typically different locations. Furthermore, the physical location is typically retained and managed by a

hosting company who are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible. Essentially, organizations either buy or rent storage capacity from the providers to store end user, organization, or application data. Services are then accessed via the cloud through co-located clou d compute services, a web API or by applications that utilize the API, such as cloud desktop storage, gateway, or other web-based content management systems.

There is also an integral piece with cloud storage as it pertains to virtualization. The next wave of technology shifts is beginning to wash over enterprises, medium-sized, and even smaller organizations in every industry and vertical market. This next great evolution in IT infrastructure is the transition from physical computing environments where applications and the data associated with them are captive to the servers and storage system upon which they run.

The virtualization of these server, storage and data assets marks a fundamental change in the way organizations select, configure, deploy, and manage their respective IT infrastructures. Since cloud storage is based on highly virtualized infrastructure and is like broader cloud computing in terms of accessible interfaces, near-instant elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy, and metered resources are a must.

Server and storage virtualizations technology adoption has continued to accelerate over the past 10 years, raging through the first stages of any technology lifecycle, when early adopters actively test emerging technologies before selectively deploying them into production. Having established and proven to deliver on its promises of massive efficiencies of scale, simplified operations and data management, and real cost savings, server and storage virtualization deployments are prepared to continue accelerating as mainstream customers and deploy these prevailing technologies. Deploying these technologies at scale is leading to combining multiple applications, and in many cases multiple tenants being deployed in a single system/cluster in a shared infrastructure.

Cloud storage is essentially made up of many distributed resources, but still acts as one - often referred to as federated storage clouds. It must be highly fault tolerant through redundancy and distribution of data as well as highly durable through the creation of versioned copies. The financial piece usually entails the companies only paying for the storage they actually utilize. This doesn’t necessarily equate to cloud storage being less expensive, but rather that it incurs operating expenses than capital expenses.

The noteworthy thing is that organizations can choose between off-premises and on-premises cloud storage options, or a mixture of the two options, depending on relevant decision factors that are complementary to initial direct cost savings potential. Additionally, storage accessibility and data protection is fundamental to object storage architecture, so depending on the application; the additional technology, effort and cost to add availability and protection can be eradicated. Storage maintenance responsibilities, such as acquiring additional storage volume, are offloaded to the accountability of a service provider.

All in all, cloud storage offers users with instantaneous access to an extensive range of resources and applications accommodated in the infrastructure of another organization via a web service interface. It can be used for replicating virtual machine images from the cloud to on-premises sites or to import a virtual machine image from an on-premises location to the cloud image library. In addition, cloud storage can be used to move virtual machine images between user accounts or between data centers.
Now, as Cloud Storage is clearly a broader term and concept, lets drill down a bit deeper and discuss a specific type of storage used in the cloud – solid-state storage. Serving the past several years on the governing board of the SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) SSSI (Solid State Storage Initiative), I’ve been privy to some exciting developments and technological advances in this space.

First off, a brief overview will explain that a solid-state drive (SSD), also called a flash drive, is a type of storage device that is revolutionizing how consumers use computers. These storage devices are transforming businesses globally. SSDs use a special kind of memory chip with erasable, writeable sections that can hold data even when powered off. Think of them as a much larger relative of the trusted memory stick. Similar to standard hard drives, an SSD uses a special area on its chips for cache memory. Cache memory can increase processing speeds by holding data that is needed repeatedly and frequently.
With the data close at hand in the cache, it does not need to be retrieved from the main storage area each time it is needed.
SSDs either use cache that is volatile, which is referred to as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), or they use non-volatile cache.

Similar to computer RAM, SDRAM needs a power source to retain data whereas non-volatile cache retains data even without power. Most flash storage systems are comprised of a memory unit, which is used to store data, and an access controller that manages and controls the storage space on the memory unit.

An SSD has many benefits and advantages over a hard disk drive. For one, since there are no electro-mechanical parts, seek time doesn’t exist, making the drive very fast. In fact, they are incredibly fast and highly reliable when properly engineered. SSDs characteristically consume about 1/5 of the power and read more than 100x faster than traditional mechanical hard disk drives.

Data center managers who are looking for ways to address the energy drain represented by hard drives are examining flash cloud storage as a way to achieve green computing objectives. Businesses with I/O-intensive applications have also found flash cloud storage to be effective and economical. As a result, enterprise storage providers, chip-makers, and server manufacturers have all entered the flash storage market to create an even more robust cloud for us all to utilize.

About the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative
The SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) fosters the growth and success of the market for solid state storage. SSSI educates markets about solid state storage, promotes and influences standards for solid state
storage, and collaborates with other industry associations for success of solid state storage. SSSI member companies represent a variety of segments in the IT industry
(www.snia.org/forums/sssi/about/members).

For more information on SNIA’s Solid State Storage activities, visit www.snia.org/forums/sssi and get involved in the conversation at http://twitter.com/SNIASolidState