Cloud Computing: IBM Unfurls Global Project Elastic Storage Initiative

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge. Author: Michael Vizard.

In theory at least, cloud computing is pretty much defined by elasticity. The whole idea of building a cloud after all is to make IT infrastructure resources available on demand. IBM announced today that it is applying that concept to storage on a global scale regardless of the format in which it is stored or the devices used to house it.

Later this year, IBM will deliver a truly elastic data storage capability, code named Project Elastic Storage, on top of the IBM SoftLayer cloud computing platform. Built on top of the IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) technology that IBM has been using in high performance computing (HPC) environments for decades, Project Elastic Storage turns GPFS into a cloud service capable of supporting file, block and object-based storage services…

Bernie Spang, IBM vice president of strategy for software-defined environments, says that besides providing a single global name space for both IBM and third-party storage devices, the OpenStack compatible Project Elastic Storage initiative will also provide distributed caching services, encryption, and the ability to remotely delete files in the event that a device goes missing. In addition to OpenStack Cinder and Swift support, Elastic Storage will also support other open APIs such as POSIX and Hadoop…

Read more from the source @ http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/it-unmasked/ibm-unfurls-global-project-elastic-storage-initiative.html

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