Industry Verticals Tackle Unstructured Data

The Time is Now for 21st Century Leadership

By G C Network | November 10, 2013

I’ve just had the opportunity to preview my good friend Melvin Greer’s newest effort, “21st Century Leadership: Harnessing Innovation, Accelerating Business Success“. Now in pre-release, this book highlights the compelling…

Public Cloud IaaS : A Price/Performance vs. Security Analysis

By G C Network | October 25, 2013

Industry’s transition from custom made, one-of-a-kind IT infrastructures to the standardize, commodity based cloud paradigm is well on it’s way. IBM’s recent “Under Cloud Cover” study highlights the rapidly of…

Catch the Cloud with DorobekINSIDER LIVE!

By G C Network | October 17, 2013

  Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed an opportunity to participate in the DorobekINSIDER LIVE edition on cloud computing.  The conversation was both lively and informative.  Joining me on the show were:…

Cloud Shines Brightly as Future of Disaster Response IT

By G C Network | September 14, 2013

The call for help began as a rumble. Twenty miles beneath the ocean’s surface, a rupture in a massive tectonic plate ripped a 310 mile-long break in the sea floor,…

NCOIC/NGA Demonstrates Use of Cloud in Disaster Response

By G C Network | September 5, 2013

     When the world’s next major earthquake, tsunami or other disaster hits, military, government and civilian NGA project is available on the NCOIC website. responders will need to manage and…

NBC4 Puts On A Great GovCloud Show !!

By G C Network | August 25, 2013

NBC 4 in Washington, DC highlighted government cloud computing today as part of their GovInnovate show. Below is just a taste of the informative public service they provided.  Go to…

OMB’s Evidence Memo: A Call for Cloud Services Brokerage

By G C Network | August 21, 2013

by Ray Holloman and Kevin Jackson In a late July memo the Office of Management and Budget requested cloud services brokerage. Well, not in so many words. Rather, OMB requested…

Cloud Services Brokerage Lessons From Alex Rodriguez, Baseball’s Trade Deadline

By G C Network | August 8, 2013

( A guest post from Ray Holloman, NJVC Corporate Communications) Two stories sat atop baseball’s marquee in the final days of July. The first was the non-waiver trade deadline, baseball’s…

Lessons Learned: VA Cloud Email Termination

By G C Network | July 17, 2013

According to a Federal Computer Week article by Frank Konkel, The Department of Veterans Affairs terminated its five-year, $36 million cloud computing contract for email and calendaring services with HP…

Deconstructing Cloud: An Excellent Guide to the Cloud Computing World

By G C Network | July 15, 2013

On an almost daily basis, I’m approach for my views on “cloud computing technology”.  Although typically innocent in nature, I always cringe at the thought of enduring yet another hours…

 

Organizations around the world are struggling to cope with the current data explosion. A vital characteristic of this data is that it is unstructured and represents things like email, images, and videos.  Storage of this form of data is typically in an object format which differs significantly from the database norm. Databases housed data grows very slowly because most of it is structured. Object storage formats are now being used to optimize access to large amounts of non-transactional files across a growing number of vertical markets. These markets include:

 

  • Media and Entertainment – video Pre- through Post-Production which requires secure distribution and hassle-free scalability on a mix of standard hardware
  • Retail Consumers – HTTP accessible Photo and Video Sharing that offloads SQL databases to custom metadata which significantly reduces web applications complexity and latency
  • Research (images, raw datasets) – Which requires robust multi-tenancy for shared access to large datasets and integrated metadata customization.
  • Digital asset management (unstructured files) –  A global scale-out storage repository with integrations to Alfresco and other S3-based asset management solutions.

Companies in every one of these markets face many storage challenges where traditional file-based storage systems tend to fall short.

 
One more critical example lies in the healthcare industry where PACS [picture archiving and communication system] systems store images derived from MRIs. In most cases, law or by policy requires retention of this data for up to 30 years. Although the customer may be charged for the image when taken, the healthcare provider is responsible for the ongoing cost of storage.
 
Another crucial industry vertical that is feeling the data storage squeeze is law enforcement. Many agencies are now using cloud computing services for delivering mission-critical information to officers in the field. Standard applications include digital video evidence storage, management, and cataloging; crime mapping and analytics; records management; and backup for disaster recovery. Mike Donlan, Microsoft Vice president of State and Local Government Engineering Sales estimates that the average United States city or county now owns between four or five petabytes of data, with that requirement expected to double every two years. 

 

Object storage is perfect for tackling these unstructured storage business requirements because: 
  • Scalability – Object storage does not face the same file count and capacity limits of file-based NAS systems.
  • Interoperability – Object storage has better interoperability with various protocols with the flexibility needed to move data across a global namespace.
  • Data Backup – Continuous data backup protection that reduces the risk of data loss and can reduce data restoration time after a system failure.
  • Pay-as-you-grow pricing – Avoidance of substantial capital expenditures for storage acquisition through a pay-as-you-go economic model.
  • Searchability – More effective and efficient use of metadata

 

According to PC World, one of the more exciting object storage providers is Wasabi Technologies. To meet these growing industry vertical challenges, they are offering an object storage solution that offers six times the performance of Amazon’s S3 service at one-fifth the price. This startup’s service is available globally and claim that their single pool of capacity can deliver primary, secondary or archive data at a sustained-read speed of 1.3GB per second, versus 191MB per second at Amazon. To support law enforcement needs, Wasabi has deployed in fully secure and CJIS-compliant redundant data centers. Wasabi storage services were awarded the official CJIS ACE Compliance Seal by Diverse Computing, a trusted third-party law enforcement agency solution provider with deep CJIS audit and compliance expertise.  Enterprise Strategy Group analyst SteveDuplessie sees this as an ideal option for enterprises looking to use cloud storage as a much cheaper alternative than traditional storage options.

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

 

Cloud Musings

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