M+E Daily

Caringo Lists Benefits of Migrating Data to Object Storage

There are various benefits involved in an organization migrating its data to object storage from network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) systems, as well as tapes, according to Caringo.

As examples, SAN and tape (block storage) and NAS (file storage) systems are just too constrained and aren’t cloud-enabled, the company pointed out Sept. 25 during the webinar “Migrating Data from SAN, NAS or Tape to Object Storage.”

The company provided behind-the-scenes insight on the webinar into how to migrate data from SAN, NAS or tape to more cost-effective, “hassle-free” object-based storage. Caringo representatives shared their experiences from hundreds of successful object storage implementations, and also explained the ins and outs of the data migration process, sharing best practices to help organizations move from a limited traditional storage approach to the new, cost-effective, limitless storage paradigm of object storage.

Referring to a slide showing, from left to right, object, file and block storage, Eric Dey, Caringo director of product management, told listeners: “What we have here is really a reverse evolution of storage.”

Block storage is “very constrained” in terms of what data you can share, he said, noting it basically consists of local storage attached to a local computer, providing “pretty much private, one-to-one access” to data.

With file storage, more clients can access the same set of content within an organization’s system, but there’s still limited sharing capabilities, even if it’s “not quite as siloed as block” storage, he said.

With object storage, “you distribute out everything – so your clients are distributed as well as your storage” and “you’re no longer talking about one-disc drive” containing all the data, he said.
So, with the move to object storage, “basically you’re trying to migrate away from what I’ve heard called ‘the tyranny of the file system,’” John Bell, Caringo senior consultant said.

“That’s right,” Dey responded, explaining: “One of the things object storage gives you is” what he described as “every IT administrator’s challenge and nightmare, which is what happens when you fill your” NAS or SAN. At that point, he said: “You have to orchestrate some kind of upgrade. That typically involves figuring out everybody who, over the years, happened to be talking to a particular file share and figuring out how you are going to – with as minimal down time as possible … move them to a newer unit that has more capability – more storage space.”

But “that whole sort of exercise goes away once you get to object” storage, he pointed out, adding it becomes easy to replace the hardware that’s being used to store all the data, with minimal downtime.
There’s a growing realization among Caringo customers of the benefits of object storage and cloud-enabled access allowing them to scale up and scale down when they need to, Bell went on to say.

In addition, with object storage, “the performance is good enough,” Bell said, adding: “You don’t have to spend a large amount of money to eke out that last 20 percent of performance … especially in a world of unstructured data, which is the vast majority of data that you’re managing in your organization. Object storage is the ideal way to store and manage it.” Also, “it’s very easy to enable cloud-enabled object storage,” he noted.

Dey was quick to point out that he also “wouldn’t necessarily call object storage slow any longer,” adding: “It actually is an appropriate speed for most applications.”