Slashdot Mirror
A Different Idea For Distributed Storage
hojo writes: "A really cool idea for an anonymous, distributed storage system is actively being worked on. Talk about a way around censorship and control--check out this article at Forbes for more." The article talks about a system dubbed "OceanStore," a high-concept application of the same massively distributed and replicated data idea behind FreeNet and some other projects. The availability of massive storage cheaper and cheaper will start to change exactly what we think is worth saving and where it makes sense to store it. (Do we want a data cloud full of the digital pictures millions of people couldn't bring themselves to delete?)
More information can be found here: http://oceanstore.cs.berkeley.edu.
The cost of data storage isn't the physical capacity - its the management.
You should know that if you've heard of EMC. EMCs are practically self contained black-boxes of "poop data here and dont worry about it, ever". Some (all?) EMC systems phone home when they think there will be a problem. It is not uncommon for the first sign of disk failure in an emc to be the new disk arriving in the mail on the sysadmins desk!
Its not tricky to slap a bunch of drives together and get an assload of capacity. It is tricky to figure out how to keep 23523 18gb disks running if you just have an excel spreadsheet telling you which cabinet each disk sits in.
Ditto with IBM. The coolest thing i've ever seen are the multiple-arm tape storage libraries with the ADSM interfaces infront of them that make data archival and retreival pretty painless.
The key is managing data distribution when you've got an assload of data. This is one project that addresses that, among other things.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.