Object Storage

Object storage, or object-based storage, is a flexible architecture that manages data as objects within a storage pool, rather than in file hierarchy or block storage. Object storage enables unlimited scalability, faster retrieval of information, customizable metadata and cost-effective storage as scale.

More companies today are turning to on-premise object storage solutions to enhance their storage capabilities after coming face-to-face with the limitations of the public cloud. The physical separation between the data stored in off-premise cloud storage sites and the on-premise applications and analytics platforms that need access to data create a natural barrier to data mobility, limiting the speed with which they can move back and forth and introducing unforeseen data costs. Data residency issues and compliance concerns further complicate the relationship with cloud storage providers.

By establishing a hybrid and/or multicloud storage architecture that includes on-premise object storage, organizations can ensure faster performance, greater control and lower costs for managing and extracting value from their data.

Dell ECS is an enterprise-grade object storage platform that is built to support traditional and next generation workloads. Designed to help organizations unlock insights from data faster and more affordably, ECS can be deployed as a turnkey object storage appliance, as a software defined storage solution, or as a service hosted by Dell. With ECS, organizations of any size can economically store and manage unstructured data at scale for any length of time.

Featuring a flat, scale-out architecture and strong global consistency, ECS delivers the near-infinite scale of a public cloud solution, but at a total cost of ownership as much as 59.5% lower. ECS enables a unified view of data, as it’s designed to store active, massive, multi-petabyte volumes of unstructured data in a single pool of storage. Built on a software-defined storage architecture, ECS enables organizations to leverage industry-standard or commodity hardware, significantly reducing the capital cost of storage infrastructure. Customers can even repurpose existing hardware and choose different vendors as desired, avoiding being locked into a single vendor relationship. And because its object storage architecture can mix-and-match different hardware types in the storage pool, ECS eliminates costly and disruptive data migrations.

Dell's object storage platform provides a host of benefits for organizations managing rapidly increasing data volumes. With ECS, you can:

• Modernize infrastructure with a scale-out object storage architecture that eliminates the need for disruptive cloud migration and re-platforming apps.
• Increase ROI with superior storage efficiency and tiered storage options.
• Secure data capital with future-proof data protection and compliance features.
• Improve data visibility to deliver more accurate forecasts.
• Enjoy faster time-to-insight through greater efficiency and performance.
• Accelerate development of cloud-native applications with deep multiprotocol support and S3 capability.

What is object storage? 

Object storage or object-based storage is a system for storing data which uses a flat structure and breaks files into pieces that can be spread out among storage hardware. Data is broken into discrete units, known as objects, and given a unique identifier that lets the object be found in a distributed system, along with detailed metadata that describes data. 

What is object storage vs. file storage?

File storage stores data in files and folders, much like a paper filing system. Each file has a limited set of metadata that includes the name, date of creation and date the file was last modified. File storage works well to a point, but as data volumes grow, file storage performance can suffer and create bottlenecks.

What are the benefits of object storage?

Object storage is highly cost-efficient, as organizations pay only for the amount of storage used. It can scale easily and accommodate vast quantities of data. Object storage enables faster retrieval of data, helping organizations accelerate time-to-insight. And the use of detailed metadata makes object storage perfect for storing unstructured data.

What is NVMe?

NVMe is an acronym for non-volatile memory express, a software interface that provides a more efficient and scalable streamlined protocol and command set for PCI Express solid-state drives using non-volatile memory. NVMe is designed specifically to take advantage of the internal parallelism and low latency inherent in flash-based storage devices. NVMe is expected to be the next evolutionary step in speed and latency reduction for flash media and next-generation storage class memory (SCM) media.

What are the benefits of NVMe?

NVMe offers benefits that include:

• Reduced latency in the host software stack.
• Higher I/O operations per second.
• Lower power consumption.