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Back to the future: Using magnetic tapes in cloud based storage infrastructures

  • Varun S. Prakash
  • , Xi Zhao
  • , Yuanfeng Wen
  • , Weidong Shi
  • University of Houston

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Data backup and archiving is an important aspect of business processes to avoid loss due to system failures and natural calamities. As the amount of data and applications grow in number, concerns regarding cost efficient data preservation force organizations to scout for inexpensive storage options. Addressing these concerns, we present Tape Cloud, a novel, highly cost effective, unified storage solution. We leverage the notably economic nature of Magnetic Tapes and design a cloud storage infrastructure-as-a-service that provides a centralized storage platform for unstructured data generated by many diverse applications. We propose and evaluate a proficient middleware that manages data and IO requests, overcomes latencies and improves the overall response time of the storage system. We analyze traces obtained by live archiving applications to obtain workload characteristics. Based on this analysis, we synthesize archiving workloads and design suitable algorithms to evaluate the performance of the middleware and storage tiers. From the results, we see that the use of the middleware provides close to 100% improvement in task distribution efficiency within the system leading to a 70% reduction in overall response time of data retrieval from storage. Due to its easy adaptability with the state of the art storage practices, the middleware contributes in providing the much needed boost in reducing storage costs for data archiving in cloud and colocated infrastructures.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMiddleware 2013 - ACM/IFIP/USENIX 14th International Middleware Conference, Proceedings
Pages328-347
Number of pages20
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event14th ACM/IFIP/USENIX Middleware Conference, Middleware 2013 - Beijing, China
Duration: 9 Dec 201313 Dec 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8275 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference14th ACM/IFIP/USENIX Middleware Conference, Middleware 2013
Country/TerritoryChina
CityBeijing
Period9/12/1313/12/13

Keywords

  • Archiving
  • Backup
  • Cloud
  • Cost Efficiency
  • Data Centers
  • Data Storage
  • Magnetic Tapes
  • Middleware
  • Priority Queue
  • Read Probability Weight

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