content addressed storage (cas)

© 2006 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Content Addressed Storage (CAS)Content Addressed Storage (CAS)

Module 3.5

© 2006 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 2

Content Addressed Storage (CAS)

Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:

Describe the features and benefits of a CAS based storage strategy.

List the physical and logical elements of CAS.

Describe the storage and retrieval process for CAS data objects.

Describe the best suited operational environments for CAS solutions.


Lesson: CAS Description and Benefits

Upon completion of this lesson, you be able to:

Define CAS.

Describe the key attributes of CAS.

List the features and benefits of CAS.


What is Content Addressed Storage (CAS)? Object-oriented, location-independent approach to data

storage.

Repository for the “Objects”.

Access mechanism to interface with repository.

Globally unique identifiers provide access to objects.

Extensible metadata that enables automated data management practices and applications.


What Is Fixed Content?

Electronic Documents• Contracts, claims, etc.

• E-mail and attachments

• Financial spread sheets

• CAD/CAM designs

• Presentations

Digital Records

• Documents– Checks, securities trades– Historical preservation

• Photographs– Personal / professional

• Geophysical– Seismic, astronomic,

geographic

Digital Assets Retained For Active Reference And ValueDigital Assets Retained For Active Reference And Value

Leverage Historical Value

Improve Service Levels

Generate New Revenues

Rich Media

• Medical– X-rays, MRIs, CTI

• Video– News / media, movies– Security serveillance

• Audio– Voicemail– Radio


Challenges of Storing Fixed Content A significant amount of newly created information falls into

the category of fixed content.

Fixed content is growing at more than 90% annually.

Often, long-term preservation is required (years-decades).

Simultaneous multi-user online access is preferable to offline, or near-line storage.

New requirements and service level agreements have created the need for faster access to records.

Need for location independent data, enabling technology refresh and migration.

New regulations require retention and data protection.

Traditional storage methods are inadequate.


Shortcomings of Traditional Archiving Solutions

Tape is slow, and standards are always changing.

Optical is expensive, and requires vast amounts of media in order to store data of any size.

Both solutions require 3rd party media management.

Many times companies retire tape products without warning.

Many times recovering files from tape and optical is time consuming.

Data on tape and optical is subject to media degradation.


Benefits of CAS

Immutability and authentication

Location independence

Single instance storage

Faster record retrieval

Record-level retention, protection, and disposition

Technology independence

Online (like Disk)

Optimized TCO

Scalability


Lesson: Summary

Key points covered in this lesson:

CAS Definition

CAS Description

Benefits


Lesson: Elements of CAS

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

Describe the Physical Elements of CAS.

Describe the Logical Elements of CAS.


Storage devices (CAS Based)

Servers (to which storage devices get connected)

Client

Physical Elements of CAS

API

ServerClient CAS-basedStorage


Logical Elements of CAS The Logical Elements of CAS include the Object-Level

Access Protocols.

CAS

API

API

Metadata

39HLTTT2H0404EU6M4A9MUR7TE4

Content Address


Lesson Summary


Physical Elements of CAS

Logical Elements of CAS


Lesson: Data Object Storage and Retrieval

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

Describe how data gets stored in a CAS environment.

Describe how data is retrieved from a CAS environment.


How CAS Stores a Data Object

API

Application Server

Client

CAS

Object ID

Client presents datato API to be archived

1

Unique ContentAddress is calculated

2

Object is sent to CASvia CAS API over IP

3

CAS authenticates theContent Address and

stores the object

4

Acknowledgementreturned to application

5

Object-ID is retainedand stored for future use

6


How CAS Retrieves a Data Object

Application Server

Client

CAS

Object is needed byan application

1 CAS authenticatesthe request and

delivers the object

4

Application findsContent Address of

object to be retrieved

2 Retrieval request issent to the CAS via

CAS API over IP

3

API

Object ID


Lesson: Summary


How data gets stored in a CAS environment.

How data is retrieved from a CAS environment.


CAS Healthcare example, Radiology PACS Solutions

Acquisition Station

• Procedure room

Image Review and Analysis on Multiple Workstations

• Viewing room • Onsite office • Surgical suite • Offsite

Images acquired and moved

Short-term Online Image Cache

Most recent studies accessible in milliseconds

Long-term Online Image ArchiveEntire patient history

accessible in seconds


Financial Example: CAS Solution

Check images maintained in tier 1 storage for 60 days then migrated via HSM to “active archive”


Module Summary

Key points covered in this module:

Benefits of CAS based storage strategy.

Overview of physical and logical elements of CAS.

Storing and retrieving data from CAS.

CAS application examples.


Check Your Knowledge

What are the key features of a CAS implementation?

What are the benefits of a CAS Storage Strategy?

What are 3 business applications that would benefit from CAS technology?

What are the logical elements of a CAS system?

How does data get stored in a CAS environment?


Apply Your Knowledge

After completing this topic, you should be able to describe the features of a Centera CAS solution.


Effective Information Archive Must Address…

Business Cost

Access

Availability

Compliance

IT Backups

Consolidation

Disaster recovery

Ease of management

Compliance

Scalability

Focus needs to stay on transactional information

Secure

Simple

Affordable


Protect information at an object level Safeguard access Enforce retention and disposition intrinsically in storage layer Address business continuity and disaster recovery

Provide online access and assured authenticity Work with any application or any platform Self-manage and self-heal Be future-proof

Avoid archiving multiple copies of the same information Consolidate information silos into a unified archive Manage rapid growth in information without matching costs Provide the best overall total cost of ownership

Requirements for an Effective Information Archive

Secure

Simple

Affordable


Centera

Purpose-built for information archiving

More than 1,200 customers

400+ partners—works with any application from virtually any platform

More than 30 PB shipped

EMC Centera

Centera 4-Node for departmental use and midsize enterprises

The World’s Most Simple, Affordable, and Secure Repository forInformation Archiving

Secure

Simple

Affordable


Universal Access Makes Archiving Easy and…

Centera

Anywhere, any time, any application, from virtually any platform

Centera API

NFS

CIFS FTP

HTTP

Emulation

Simple


Centera Nodes

Disk Drives

Processor Card

Power Supply

Cooling Tunnel


Content Mirroring

Self-managedprivate LAN

Storage nodesNetworkswitch

Switch

Switch

Power rails / ATS

Simple

‘

Œ

‘

Œ


Self-Healing

Storage nodes

Œ‘

Power rails / ATS

‘

Œ


Networkswitch

Switch

Switch

Simple


Self-Healing

Storage nodes

Œ

Œ‘

Power rails / ATS

‘

Œ

‘


Networkswitch

Switch

Switch

Simple


Self-Managing and Configuring

No complexstorage-areanetworking

management

No filesystemmanagement

No LUN / RAIDGroup carvingor allocation

A “black box” configuration

Simple