Object Storage — A Fresh Approach to Long-Term File Storage

The world is increasingly awash in digital data, not only because of the Internet and Web 2.0, but also because data that used to be collected on paper or media such as film, DVDs and CDs have moved online. Most of these data are unstructured and in diverse formats such as emails, instant messages, documents, spreadsheets, graphics, images and videos. For storage managers, the growth in unstructured data is proving to be a challenge: Companies require data to be readily accessible for business, regulatory and compliance needs, but traditional file storage management systems such as network attached storage or NAS are proving to be both costly and inadequate. With unstructured data growth expected to continue unabated — at a compound annual growth rate estimated to exceed 60 percent¹ — storage managers are looking at new ways to cope. An alternative that has emerged is object storage. This approach is designed to solve many of the traditional NAS shortcomings, and is considered more cost effective. However, it is not a “one size fits all” solution and traditional NAS will continue to have a strong role in today’s storage environment. This white paper explores object storage, compares it to traditional NAS and demonstrates that an intelligent, policy-based data management strategy is the best approach to determining when it is beneficial for organizations to use object storage or continue to use NAS.

¹ “Object storage gains steam as unstructured data grows,” Beth Pariseau, Storage Magazine, November/December 2009