Alex McDonald

What’s New in the CDMI 1.1 Cloud Storage Standard

November 17, 2014November 17, 2014 Alex McDonald Leave a comment

On December 2, 2014, the CSI is hosting a Developer Tutorial Webcast “Introducing CDMI 1.1” to dive into all the capabilities of CDMI 1.1.

Register now to join David Slik, Co-Chair, SNIA Cloud Storage Technical Work Group and me, Alex McDonald, as we’ll explore what’s in this major new release of the CDMI standard, with highlights on what you need to know when moving from CDMI 1.0.2 to CDMI 1.1.

The latest release – CDMI 1.1 — includes:

Enabling support for other popular industry supported cloud storage protocols such as OpenStack Swift and Amazon S3
A variety of extensions, some part of the core specification and some stand-alone, that include a CIMI standard extension, support for immediate queries , an LTFS Export extension, an OVF extension, along with multi-part MIME and versioning extensions. A full list can be found here.
100% backwards compatibility with ISO certified CDMI v. 1.0.2 to ensure continuity and backward compatibility with existing CDMI systems
And more

This event on December 2^nd will be live, so please bring your specific questions. We’ll do our best to answer them on the spot. I hope you’ll join us!

New Webcast: Object Storage – Understanding Architectural Trade-Offs

September 30, 2014September 30, 2014 Alex McDonald Leave a comment

The Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) is excited to announce a live Webcast as part of the upcoming BrightTalk Cloud Storage Summit on October 16^th – Object Storage 201: Understanding Architectural Trade-Offs. It’s a follow-up to the SNIA Ethernet Storage Forum’s Object Storage 101: Understanding the What, How and Why behind Object Storage Technologies.

Object-based storage systems are fast becoming one of the key building blocks for a cloud storage infrastructure. They address some of the shortcomings and provide an alternative to more traditional file- and block-based storage for unstructured data.

An object storage system must accommodate growth (and yes, the rumors are true – data growth is a huge and accelerating problem), be flexible in their provisioning, provide support multiple geographies and legal frameworks, and cope with the inevitable issues of resilience, performance and availability.

Object Storage Architectural Considerations
Replication and Erasure Encoding for resilience
Pros and Cons of Hash Tables and Key-Value Databases
And more…

This is a live presentation, so please bring your questions and we’ll do our very best to answer them. We hope you’ll join us on October 16^th for an unbiased, deep dive into the design considerations for object storage systems.

What the CSI is Up to at SDC

September 9, 2014September 9, 2014 Alex McDonald Leave a comment

What the Cloud Storage Initiative Is Doing At SDC

The SNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC) is less than a week away. We’re looking forward to the conference and in particular want to make note of some exciting news and events that pertain to work the CSI is doing to promote standards that will increase the adoption, interoperability and portability of data stored in the cloud.

SDC Conference session: Introducing CDMI v1.1 – Tuesday, September 16^th, 1:00 p.m. by David Silk. This session introduces the new CDMI 1.1 and provides an overview of capabilities the Technical Work Group have added to the standard, and what CDMI implementers need to know when moving from CDMI 1.0.2 to CDMI 1.1.

Cloud Interoperability Plugfest – Participants at the 12th Cloud Interoperability Plugfest will be testing the interoperability of their cloud storage interfaces based on CDMI. We always have a large showing of CDMI implementations at this event, but are also looking for implementations of Amazon S3, and OpenStack Swift, Cinder and Manila interfaces.

It’s not too late to register for this Plugfest. Find out how here.

SDC 2014 is going to be exciting and educational. It’s “one stop shopping” for IT professionals who focus on the tools, technologies and developments needed for understanding and implementing efficient data storage, management and security. The CSI hopes to see you there.

Getting Started with the CDMI Conformance Test Program

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 Alex McDonald Leave a comment

Together with our partner, TATA Consultancy Services, we recently had a great live Webcast to launch the Conformance Test Program (CTP) for the SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI). CDMI is an ISO/IEC standard that offers end users simplicity and data storage interoperability across a wide range of cloud solutions. Interoperability and portability of data stored in the cloud has become a top IT priority. The CTP tests for conformance against the specification, and provides purchasers of certified cloud storage solutions the assurance that these solutions meet CDMI interoperability standards. Our Webcast is now available on demand. It details the benefits of the CDMI CTP program and explains how any cloud storage vendor or ISV can begin the CTP process. I encourage you to check it out to learn:

Key benefits of the CDMI standard for vendors and end users
Growing adoption of the CDMI standard
The suite of conformance tests required to achieve CDMI CTP certification
How to begin the CTP process

In addition to the Webcast replay, I encourage you to check out our CDMI CTP Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Getting started is easy. Just fill out the CTP form and you’ll be on your way.