Data Is The Main And Most Important Asset Of Businesses. The Value Of Data In The Continuation Of Business Activities, On The One Hand, And Their Exponential And Increasing Growth, On The Other Hand, have caused The Methods Of Information Storage To Undergo Changes And New Solutions To Emerge Due To The Changes In The World Of Technology And Developments In The Digital World. 

One of the new methods in the field of data storage, invented to respond to the storage of a vast amount of data, is the object-oriented storage architecture (Object Storage).

A robust storage mechanism that can be used by companies implementing on-premises private clouds. Also, providers of cloud-based storage solutions use this powerful storage mechanism.

Additionally, block-level storage architecture is another option that provides users with the highest level of flexibility.

Storage networks

Before we explore the two most widely used architectures in the world of local area networks and storage, let’s briefly explain the storage area network (SAN). A storage network is a communication network that provides data storage and access.

SANs connect each logical block to other networked systems, like a storage device. For example, servers can be connected to a SAN using standard communication channels, such as fiber optic, small computer system Internet interface (iSCSI), or Infiniband. Also, it is possible to configure multiple storage arrays in a SAN to connect servers. SAN networks are built based on different layers as follows:

The first layer: is the host layer, which hosts the server or servers and is controlled by an operating system under the network. These servers are connected to the data network through the HBA card called Host Bus Adapter and are connected to the storage network through a cable.

The second layer: is responsible for connecting the host layer to the fabric layer.

A layer in which devices such as sensor switches, routers, protocol bridges, border gateway devices, and cables are deployed.

Fabric layer: This layer is related to the storage layer, which consists of physical storage devices such as solid-state memories, hard disks, magnetic tapes, or optical media.

In the background of all these layers, some architectures are responsible for correctly storing information on the media. These architectures show devices and software how to store information optimally so that the available space is used correctly.

More importantly, the reading and writing process is done with the slightest delay. Today, various architectures such as file-oriented storage and similar examples are used, but block-oriented and object-oriented storage are of interest to network experts.

What is Block Storage?

As mentioned, data is the most valuable information any organization has. These data are obtained from various sources. Therefore, data storage is one of the essential tasks that companies and network experts do. The delicate point in this field is the way of storing information. One of the secure methods for data storage is the block-based storage architecture used in SAN storage networks and cloud computing infrastructures.

Object-oriented storage, sometimes called block-level storage, is a secure architecture for storing data files in storage area networks (SANs) or cloud-based storage environments. Most large companies use block-based storage architecture to store, process, and transfer data quickly and achieve high performance.

A block-based storage mechanism divides data into multiple blocks and assigns a unique identifier to each block. The architecture in SAN networks works by storing data blocks in different locations. More precisely, keeping data blocks in other systems is possible.

Each block is configured and partitioned to work with different operating systems.

In addition, block-based storage architecture creates different paths for data by distributing data in multiple storage environments and allowing users to access the information they need quickly. When a user or an application requests data from a system based on block-oriented architecture, the process of retrieving and aggregating data blocks stored in different scenarios is performed, and the data is provided to the user or application in the original format in a unified manner.

One of the potential benefits of a block-based storage architecture is that it provides a way to build raw storage so that server operating systems can connect to it. This natural space can be considered separate hard disks, allowing it to be used for any application, including files, databases, virtual machine file systems (VMFS), and private cloud deployments.

For example, imagine a company considering having multiple virtual machines. Based on the block-based storage architecture, this company can create a storage volume to store the VMFS file, format it, and install its virtual machines. The high flexibility of the above architecture makes it a suitable option for working with containers. You can quickly define and deploy containers based on the block storage architecture.

Read arrays in block-based storage architecture.

Typically, block-based storage lacks redundancy, so you have to store data in different places to achieve redundancy. Network experts use read architecture to solve this problem in interaction with block-oriented storage architecture. RAID architecture refers to an array of storage disks placed next to each other to protect data based on a specific arrangement. Depending on the architecture used, if one or two disks fail, the data on the other disks can take over the responsibilities of the failed disk without the user noticing so that network performance is not disrupted.

Block-based cloud services

Enterprises looking for cloud-based storage mechanisms can use block-, file-, or object-level storage to store their data. Block-level storage as a service (BSSaaS) is available in the cloud, and enterprise storage as a service (Esaias). In most cases, when working with ESaaS, users must choose one of the IaaS or PaaS solutions and deploy their applications and servers directly in the cloud.

When considering cloud-based solutions, response time to user requests to access data stored in the cloud is an important metric that should not be overlooked. Block-level storage is independent of computing resources. Hence, if the volume of business activities expands, you must build additional books in the ESaaS provider. For this reason, it is necessary to use the appropriate architecture and scale according to the needs.

Organizations whose working principles are based on the hybrid cloud, to achieve the focus of scalability, have to buy additional hard disks to implement RAID 5 or RAID 6; In a situation where cloud services that use block-level architecture provide organizations with a secure and stable infrastructure for information storage that provides the highest level of scalability.

What advantages does block-based storage offer?

Like object-oriented storage and other cloud storage mechanisms, block-oriented storage provides users with the necessary capabilities. However, businesses are turning to block-based storage solutions because of the following benefits :

• High performance: It offers high IOPS and low latency and is highly demanded by time-sensitive applications that need to handle many transactions. To be more precise, it guarantees access to information in the shortest possible time. As a result, responding to users’ requests is done in a short time. 

• Compatibility: Block-based storage can work with different operating systems and file systems. For this reason, it offers the highest level of compatibility with local networks. 

• Flexibility: Block-based storage facilitates horizontal scalability. So that network experts can add nodes to clusters to provide more storage capacity to network clients. 

• Proper performance in the case of large files: Organizations producing multimedia content must store large files such as video files. Files that need to be edited. Block-based storage allows organizations to access the desired files in the shortest possible time. 

• Email servers: Email servers can take advantage of the flexibility and scalability of block storage. It’s good to know that Microsoft Exchange needs a  block-based storage mechanism because it doesn’t support network-attached storage.

• Database: Block-oriented storage is fast, efficient, flexible, and scalable. These features allow the block storage architecture to best support databases and those that must handle large volumes of conversations with minimal latency.

What is object-oriented storage?

Object-oriented storage is a data storage architecture that aims to manage large volumes of unstructured data. Research institute IDC has estimated that unstructured data will account for over 80% of the importance of data generated worldwide by 2025. As it is clear from this model’s name, it is impossible to store this data in traditional relational databases consisting of rows and columns. In addition, maintaining and backing up this data has its challenges.

At the same time that the cost-effective storage and management of this vast amount of data were becoming one of the biggest challenges for organizations, network experts succeeded in inventing a solution to overcome this problem, which is called “object-oriented architecture”; A flexible and scalable storage architecture that successfully solves the problem of storing this volume of data.

With its innovative solutions, this data storage architecture has led large organizations to move their archiving and backup processes from traditional approaches to object-oriented architecture. The high scalability that object-oriented storage offers work so well that cloud service providers have embraced it. Of course, it is impossible to implement this data storage architecture through traditional mechanisms such as files or block-based storage because it has its file management system.

How does object-oriented architecture store data?

In this architecture, data are stored in the form of a concept called an object and are discrete data units. Each object can be considered a simple, self-contained repository containing data, metadata (descriptive information about the object), and a unique identification number that defines the nature of an object and how to access the object. Applications can easily find and access the necessary files and data using this unique identification number. In other words, unlike file-based storage architecture, there are no more nested folders and paths to access files.

In the above architecture, you can create a single repository by aggregating a wide variety of object-oriented devices, called OSDs, and define these resources based on a distributed architecture for the communication network.

As we mentioned, object-oriented storage overcomes the problems associated with folders and hierarchies of the file-oriented storage mechanism. It also allows you to store objects locally, although things are mostly kept on cloud-based or LAN-based servers instead of stored on local systems for easy access.

In object-oriented architecture, data access is done through RESTful API application programming interfaces based on the HTTP protocol.

In this case, you can access the data from your device and wherever you are, through the Internet or local network, by executing dialogs based on the metadata associated with the objects. Considering that APIs support HTTP commands, you can call authorities such as POST to upload, GET to retrieve and receive or DELETE to delete an object.

For example, by calling an application programming interface, you can easily store as many files as you want on one object. But this is not all the possibilities that the above architecture provides you. Thanks to the robust RESTful API standard, you can create, retrieve, update, or delete objects based on the above architecture. With such flexible functionality, applications can seamlessly manage objects, containers, user accounts, multi-tenancy, and security mechanisms.

What are the benefits of object-oriented storage?

We live in an age where vast amounts of unstructured information are generated daily by various web-connected platforms and systems. Traditional information storage infrastructures cannot store this amount of data coherently and accurately; In a situation where the object-oriented architecture can keep a large amount of information in the form of a single object due to its non-dependence on the file-oriented storage approach. This inherent ability to store data allows organizations to store and manage their data seamlessly. Other potential benefits of object-oriented storage include the following:

• Containers: Object-oriented storage can work with container platforms such as Kubernetes, allowing developers to securely store data in containers by providing a consistent solution. This issue has made the process of managing and transferring containers easy. 

• Ability to quickly retrieve information: Object-oriented storage can provide an additional backup solution for storing in a location close to the user and promptly retrieving information when necessary. 

• Storage and management of unstructured data: Considering that the amount of data produced in social networks, smart sensors, Internet of Things equipment, etc., is increasing daily, and almost most of these data are unstructured, object-oriented storage is a coherent mechanism for organizing this information presentation model. Gives. 

• High scalability: network experts can scale the space needed for data storage in the simplest way and according to business needs. 

• Metadata Personalization: Metadata plays a crucial role in object-oriented architecture and describes each object’s informational object’s information possible to get the required data quickly. 

• Compatibility with cloud-oriented infrastructures: Almost all major companies support cloud services with object-oriented storage architecture. Hence, object-oriented architecture answers your business need if you, as a developer or business company, are faced with a large volume of unstructured data.