Industry Verticals Tackle Unstructured Data

CloudCamp Federal @ FOSE

By G C Network | February 9, 2009

Sign up now CloudCamp Federal @ FOSE, March 10,2009, 3pm – 8:30pm at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW , Washington, DC. As a follow-up…

Thank You NVTC “Cool Tech” and TechBISNOW !!

By G C Network | February 6, 2009

Thank you to Dede Haas, Chris D’Errico and the Northern Virginia Technology Council for the opportunity to speak at yesterday’s NVTC “Cool Tech” Committee meeting! The Agilex facilities were awesome…

A Significant Event in Cloud Interoperability

By G C Network | February 6, 2009

On Jan 20th, GoGrid released it’s API specification under a Creative Commons license. “The Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license, under which the GoGrid cloudcenter API now falls, allows…

Booz|Allen|Hamilton & Dataline Sponsor 2nd Government Cloud Computing Survey

By G C Network | February 4, 2009

Dataline, Booz|Allen|Hamilton and the Government Cloud Computing Community have teamed together to sponsor the 2nd Government Cloud Computing Survey. Cloud Computing has come a long way since the first survey six months…

Gartner Lays Out 7-year Plan for Cloud Computing

By G C Network | February 3, 2009

According to Gartner’s new report, cloud computing will go through three phases over seven years before it will mature as an industry; – Phase 1: 2007 to 2011 — Pioneers…

Cloud Interoperability Magazine Launches

By G C Network | February 3, 2009

My congratulations goes out today to Reuven Cohen on the launch of Cloud Interoperability Magazine. The site will focus on Cloud Computing, standardization efforts, emerging technologies, and infrastructure API’s. As the new…

Why Can’t We Eliminate the “Technology Refresh” RFP?

By G C Network | February 2, 2009

In order to maintain life cycle and technology, the Navy is upgrading server farms at fifteen (15) sites and any future sites throughout the Far East, Europe and Middle East…

Cloud & the Government Session at Cloud Computing Expo

By G C Network | January 29, 2009

Earlier this week I announced that I will be presenting at SYS-CON’s 2nd International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo in New York City this coming March 30-April 1, 2009. During…

CSC and Terremark target US Government with Cloud Computing

By G C Network | January 27, 2009

Today’s announcement by CSC reinforced the strong wave of cloud computing towards the Federal space. Ranked by Washington Technology Magazine as 9th largest (by contract dollar value) government contractor, this…

Should my agency consider using cloud computing?

By G C Network | January 26, 2009

This is clearly the question on the minds and lips of every government IT decsionmaker in town. Why should a government agency even consider cloud computing?  In reality, the decision…

 

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.)

 

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