Working with Cloud-based Storage

Mobile Cloud Computing A model where processing is done in the cloud, data is stored in the cloud, mobiles device serves as a presentation platform or a display. Advantage of cloud apps to mobile cloud Thinner devices -> less processing, consume less power and have better battery life. Avoidance of vendor lock-in.

Securing Approach Mobile web service are those in which information is transferred between applications (browser) and services over the internet. WS-Discovery from OASIS(On-line Applicant Status and Information System) Standard WSDL (Web Service Description Language) UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

BlackBerry Push Service

Outline Measuring the digital universe Provisioning cloud storage Creating cloud storage systems Cloud backup solutions Cloud storage interoperability

Measuring the Digital Universe Facts of hunger for storage An email with a 1GB attachment to 3 people can generate an estimated 50GB of stored managed data. Only 25% of the data stored is unique, while 75% of the data stored is duplicated. 70% of the data stored in the world is user initiated. More than 50% of the data created everyday is the data that is automatically generated, especially from video cameras and surveillance photos, financial transaction event logs, performance data and so on. Much of the data produced is temporal, and deleted.

EMC’s Digital Universe Homepage

Cloud Storage Data Usage in 2020 By International Data Corporation, Digital Universe, May 2010

Provisioning Cloud Storage IaaS model Storage accessed by Web service API Cloud characteristics Network access most often through browser On-demand provisioning User control SaaS model Software package on top of cloud storage for backup, synchronization, archiving, etc.

Storage Devices Block storage device File storage device Raw storage that can create volumes Data is transferred in blocks Example, hard disk, flash drives Faster data transfers/ additional overhead on clients File storage device Expose its storage to client in a form of files Example, file server, most often in the form of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devise Slower transfers/ less overhead from clients

Cloud Storage Types Unmanaged storage Managed storage Preconfigured storage (limited level of mgt) Cannot (1) format as your like, (2) install your own file system (FAT, NTFS), and (3) change drive properties (compression, encryption) Reliable, relatively cheap, easy to work with Managed storage Provided as a raw disk Can (1) format and partition the disk, (2) attach or mount the disk, and (3) make storage assets available to applications and other users Support applications built using Web services

Dropbox – File Transfer Utility

Amazon S3 and Rackspace Cloud

Creating Cloud Storage Systems Concepts Multiple copies of data are stored on multiple servers and in multiple locations Storage virtualization software Failover - > changing the pointers to the stored object’s location Example Amazon Web Service (EC2, S3) supports “failover” / load balancing ->but you must purchase these features

ByCast’s StorageGRID

Evaluating Cloud Storage Important considerations Client self-service Strong management capabilities Scale up – more disks Scale out – additional storage systems Performance characteristics such as throughput Block-based or file-based protocol support Seamless maintenance and upgrades

Cloud Backup Solutions Cloud Storage is uniquely positioned to serve as a last line of defense in a strong backup routine. Backup types Full system or image backups Point-in-time (PIT) backups or snapshots Incremental backups

Differential and incremental backups: A differential backup is related to an incremental backup, but with some subtle differences in the way the archive bit is handled. During an incremental backup, any changed files are copied to the backup media and their archive attribute is cleared by the incremental backup. In a differential backup, all of the changed files since the last full backup are copied by the backup software, which requires that the software leave the archive bit set to ON for any differential backup, as only a full backup can clear all files' archive bit

Reverse Delta backup: A reverse delta backup creates a full backup first and then periodically synchronizes the full copy with the live version.

Continuous Data Protection (CDP) or mirroring: The goal of this type of backup system is to create a cloned copy of your current data or drive. A cloud storage system contains a certain built-in latency, so unless the original data set is quiescent, the mirror lags behind the original in concurrency.

Open file backup: Some applications such as database systems and messaging systems are mission critical and cannot be shut down before being backed up. An open file backup analyzes the transactions that are in progress, compares them to the file(s) at the start of the backup and the file(s) at the end of the backup, and creates a backup that represents a complete file as it would exist at the time the backup started after all the transactions have been processed.

Data archival: The term archiving is used to specify the migration of data that is no longer in use to secondary or tertiary long-term data storage for retention. An archive is useful for legal compliance or to provide a long-term historical record.

3-2-1 Backup rule 3 copies (1 primary and 2 backups) 2 different media 1 copy should be stored offside

Cloud Backup Features Logon authentication. High encryption of data transfers. Lossless data compression to improve throughput. Automated and scheduled backup. Fast backup (snapshots) after full online backup, with 10-30 historical versions of a file retained. Data versioning with the ability to retrieve historical versions of files from different back ups.

Cloud Backup Features (Cont.) Multiplatform support. Web-based management console with ease of use features such as drag and drop, e-mail, updates and file sharing. 24x7 technical support. Logging and reporting of operations. Multisite storage or replication, enabling data failover.

Cloud Attached Backup Hardware based solutions are available for backing up your systems to cloud based storage. CTERA sells a server named as Cloud attached Storage, which is meant for Small and Medium Business(SMB) market ,branch offices and the small office home office(SOHO) market.

Cloud Attached Backup cont CTERA cloud back up provides a solution that optimizes the back up based on bandwidth availability. It performs incremental back ups from the server, compressing and encrypting the data that is transmitted to CTERA’s Cloud storage servers where de-duplication is performed.

CTERA’s Cloudplug

CTERA’s Cloudplug Contd. This device converts turns the hard drive into a NAS server. This cloudplug performs back up and synchronization services and then performs automated or on-demand back ups and snapshots of your system.

Cloud Attached Backup

Cloud Storage Interoperability Open standards (operating-system neutral and file-system neutral) Workgroups Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) from Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) http://www.snia.org Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) from SNIA and Open Grid Forum (OGF) http://www.ogf.org

CDMI allows data in cloud storage to be managed from variety of resources