
Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2014. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by Joe Arnold, CEO of SwiftStack
Cloud storage technologies become even more open in 2014
Open storage technologies are not new. Odds are the cloud storage that you and those
you know are using today is open source software on standard hardware. To say
more business data will go to the cloud is not so much a prediction as it is a certainty. I predict we will see new options feeding the
certain growth of cloud storage in businesses, especially around open cloud
storage.
Adoption
of Swift API for object storage
No
lock-in is what users want from cloud storage - they want the flexibility to
choose between different products and services and to have their choices work
together. OpenStack Swift is the engine that runs the world's largest storage
clouds, so it makes sense that vendors building cloud storage products have
adopted its API. For the ecosystem of products that use cloud storage, like
backup applications and cloud gateways, the only practical way they can serve
any cloud is to have a set of standard interfaces they can develop to and
support. EMC, Oracle, and Red Hat are a few of the largest vendors who
announced support for Swift API in 2013.
I expect the trend of vendors adopting the Swift API to continue.
Abstraction
with storage policies
Abstracting
hardware has always provided breakthrough efficiencies, which open up new use
cases and prompt increased adoption. Server virtualization was initially driven
by lowered hardware costs, but the biggest benefits in adopting the
architecture has been flexibility, improved service levels, and higher
availability. In cloud storage, hardware abstraction will be provided by
storage policies for new private cloud use cases. This abstraction will deliver
breakthrough value beyond lowering cost. Mixing erasure coded and replica data
in the same storage cluster will allow for efficient optimization of storage to
the needs of applications. The same ability to define policies enables flexibility
for higher performance storage with SSDs where they are the best fit, and
larger HDDs for higher capacity storage with value drives or even new
technology like Seagate Kinetic drives.
Mainstream
storage with standard server hardware
The
big cloud operators have been using open software on standard hardware for some
time, proving the combination to be the best fit for cloud storage. Customers
looking to build their own private or hybrid storage clouds can use the same
approach, but they no doubt will wonder, what about the existing storage they
have today? Standard servers with hard drives at market cost have a much lower
acquisition cost than mainstream storage. If already paid for in past budgets
though, that existing mainstream storage can offer capacity as part of priming
a new private storage cloud. In 2014 we will see open storage systems take
advantage of existing mainstream storage hardware as part of a transition to
lower cost standard hardware.
Naturally 2014 will be the
biggest year ever in open source storage technology. The exciting part will be
the contribution and support of new companies and well-known storage vendors to
open standards and architectures
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About the Author
Joe founded SwiftStack to deploy high-scale,
open-source cloud storage systems using OpenStack. He managed the first public
OpenStack launch of Swift independent of Rackspace, and has subsequently
deployed multiple large-scale cloud storage systems. He is currently building
tools to deploy and manage OpenStack Swift with his firm, SwiftStack.