The next generation of storage

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This proposal addresses the tension between the rapid evolution of computing infrastructure and the very slow evolution of storage systems by investigating what I believe is the future of storage systems. We must begin to understand how to construct and deploy storage systems that actually meet the needs of users, e.g., availability, convenience, flexibility, and security, as well as the needs of system administrators, e.g., correctness, efficiency, manageability, and virtualization-awareness. The architecture that I propose works at the file abstraction level (in contrast to many systems, including a few of my previous ones) that work at the lower-level block abstraction level), separates the storage of files from the naming systems that we use to identify them, and provides a rich abstraction for manipulating namespaces to help address the complexities of finding, organizing, and managing the files that populate our storage systems. Files are stored as immutable objects in a single instance store and may be replicated into the Cloud. When files are edited a new version of the file will be created. Objects in the single instance store will be replicated to provide increased availability, and will be versioned automatically to provide recovery from user mistakes or malware. Above of the single instance store we provide flexible namespace composition using a namespace database. Namespaces are named via a URL, can be shared, and in addition to encompassing standard volumes or file systems, can be synthetic, that is, defined as queries over all files, such as "All Excel files from the accounting team'', or "All Excel, Word, and Powerpoint files that contain references to the 2011 Proposed Budget''. Synthetic files can also be used to aggregate data across individual virtual machines, such as, "all virus-scan log files'' or "all browser configuration files'', thereby providing system administrators powerful tools to ensure that organizational policies on security and privacy are being followed.