Object storage

Object storage does away with the tree-like hierarchical file system of NAS and replaces it with a flat structure in which all objects have a unique identifier, with rich metadata that allows indexing, search, and analytics.

News 31 May 2023
Panasas to add S3 support to edge storage and cloud moves

Scale-out NAS maker – which specialises in large capacity for AI/ML and HPC – has come out of its on-prem shell and now plans further moves towards cloud-friendly object storage Continue Reading
News 16 May 2023
Scality pushes anti-ransomware features in Artesca object storage

Object storage specialist announces v2.0 of Artesca, with a heavy focus on functionality that can protect against ransomware such as object locking, sharding, backup to object etc Continue Reading

News 08 Oct 2018

Ctera to enhance multi-cloud after $30m funding boost

Ctera does “NAS replacement” on object storage in the cloud, but wants its customer on-premises hardware to be smarter to allow tiering of data to multiple private and public clouds Continue Reading
News 27 Sep 2018

Object storage: On-prem, in the cloud and hybrid

We take a look at the object storage market and products and find offerings made to build public and private clouds that often provide a link between the two Continue Reading
Feature 26 Sep 2018

OpenStack storage update 2018: After Rocky

Snapshots and container storage support are among recently added functionality in the open source private cloud platform, but vendor driver support for OpenStack is not universal Continue Reading
Podcast 20 Sep 2018

GDPR compliance and storage in digital transformation projects

Key considerations when transforming physical data into digital, the impacts on compliance and how to ensure access, encryption to data and safe disposal of physical assets Continue Reading
Feature 20 Sep 2018

Flash storage in the cloud from the big cloud providers

We survey the big three cloud providers – AWS, Azure and Google – and find a range of mostly block storage flash storage options with performance choices available Continue Reading
News 17 Sep 2018

Red Hat to throw its hat in with Container Storage Interface

Software maker will add Container Storage Interface support to its existing OpenShift Container Platform and GlusterFS-based scale-out file system container storage Continue Reading
Feature 14 Sep 2018

How the big five storage array makers tier data to the cloud

We look at the big five storage array makers' efforts to connect on-premise hardware with cloud storage and find automated tiering, on-ramps, and backup and archive capability Continue Reading
News 10 Sep 2018

Enterprise demand drives hike in storage sales, says IDC

Healthy jump in all-flash and SAN/NAS sales is being driven by enterprise storage modernisation, but also by component price rises. Dell EMC and NetApp top the supplier sales charts Continue Reading
News 29 Aug 2018

Cloudian’s $94m new funds to target 100PB-scale operations

CEO Michael Tso says funding in engineering efforts aims to make sure Cloudian can meet the challenge of object storage deployments growing to hundreds of petabytes Continue Reading
News 20 Aug 2018

StorageCraft launches OneXafe scale-out backup appliances

Product revamp sees firm launch OneXafe scale-out secondary and primary storage with ShadowXafe data protection software in backup appliance for physical and virtual environments Continue Reading
News 11 Jul 2018

Cloudian adds Storage Made Easy file-sync-and-share compliance

Object storage maker adds file-sync-and-share with compliance filters from Storage Made Easy to restrict movement of potentially sensitive data between endpoints and datacentres Continue Reading
02 Jul 2018

Flash vs 3D Xpoint vs storage-class memory: Which ones go where?

New media provide a range of options to speed workloads, from “old-fashioned” flash to storage class- and persistent memory. We help you exploit the storage performance hierarchy. Continue Reading
Feature 29 Jun 2018

Cloud storage: Amazon vs Azure vs Google vs IBM Softlayer

Computer Weekly looks at the biggest four cloud storage providers, how they stand in the market, the products they offer, and which offers the widest range of products and features Continue Reading
E-Zine 20 Jun 2018

CW ASEAN: Banking on buckets of data

Organizations across ASEAN are starting to turn to object storage due to the explosive growth of data from new sources such as sensors, mobile apps and social media. In this month’s edition of CW ASEAN, we look at how enterprises have benefitted from object storage, the roadblocks to wider adoption and the future of the technology in an increasingly software-defined world. Continue Reading
E-Zine 20 Jun 2018

CW ANZ: Object storage hits a sweet spot

Enterprises in Australia are only getting started on object storage, which does away with the traditional file directories, making it easier to access and move data in a heterogeneous IT environment. In this issue of CW ANZ, we look at how Australian companies are dipping their toes into object storage, the challenges they are facing and the state of the market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
19 Jun 2018

Object storage is inching into Australian enterprises

Even as Aussie firms such as Bauer Media and Redbubble are lapping up object storage, others are facing visibility and analytics issues with the technology. Continue Reading
19 Jun 2018

ASEAN seeks to tame data deluge with object storage

Led by Singapore and Thailand, the object storage market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow at a double-digit rate in the next few years. Continue Reading
News 14 Jun 2018

StorageCraft to unveil unified storage, backup and cloud appliances

StorageCraft arose as a backup software maker but now plans converged storage, backup and analytics play in a move to unify offering built on core and acquired products Continue Reading
News 14 Jun 2018

Case study: Mercedes F1 team makes gains with Pure Storage all-flash

Two years ago, the Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team deployed Pure Storage all-flash arrays in its datacentre and in mobile racks out on the circuit. It’s a bet that has paid off for the racing team Continue Reading
News 05 Jun 2018

Nexsan adds Assureon Cloud Transfer for hybrid cloud archiving

Nexsan archiving appliances add hybrid cloud capability to AWS and Azure cloud for unstructured data, targeting users that want to retain files on-site with cloud access Continue Reading
News 05 Jun 2018

Scality boosts Ring with easy deployment and lower node count

Object storage maker Scality upgrades software-defined storage to give unified deployment, provisioning and management while cutting minimum nodes required to three Continue Reading
Feature 04 Jun 2018

Cloud NAS offers file access across on-site and in-cloud

We run the rule over cloud NAS products that allow customers to build single-namespace file systems, including between in-house datacentres and public cloud storage Continue Reading
Feature 18 May 2018

Flash vs 3D Xpoint vs storage-class memory: Which ones go where?

New media provide a range of options to speed workloads, from “old-fashioned” flash to storage class- and persistent memory. We help you exploit the storage performance hierarchy Continue Reading
Feature 10 May 2018

Software-defined storage: Startups bring innovation to SDS

We survey the startup suppliers pioneering new approaches to software-defined storage, including block, file and object, and VM and container-oriented approaches Continue Reading
Feature 10 May 2018

Object storage is inching into Australian enterprises

Even as Aussie firms such as Bauer Media and Redbubble are lapping up object storage, others are facing visibility and analytics issues with the technology Continue Reading
News 07 May 2018

ASEAN seeks to tame data deluge with object storage

Led by Singapore and Thailand, the object storage market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow at a double-digit rate in the next few years Continue Reading
Blog Post 25 Apr 2018

Scality gets $60m but keeps quiet about what it’ll spend it on

French object storage specialist Scality recently raised $60m of funding, but what will that money go towards? The company – most well-known for its RING object storage product – is in the middle ... Continue Reading
Feature 05 Apr 2018

Who needs hybrid cloud object storage?

Hybrid cloud object storage products are an emerging category. But what use cases are driving their emergence? And which suppliers lead the way? Continue Reading
News 29 Mar 2018

Western Digital adds StorReduce deduplication to object storage

US hardware giant Western Digital links up with StorReduce to provide data deduplication for object storage that combines WD ActiveScale scale-out appliances with the startup’s dedupe software Continue Reading
News 27 Mar 2018

Pivot3 Cloud Edition adds backup from hyper-converged to AWS

Hyper-converged infrastructure node maker dips its toes into hybrid cloud operations with Pivot3 Cloud Edition on Amazon Web Services to add cloud backup to HCI Continue Reading
News 21 Mar 2018

Nodeum adds clouds to boost tape-to-hybrid-cloud platform

Belgian startup’s Linux-based storage environment now stretches from on-premise disk, LTFS tape and NAS to hybrid cloud working via AWS and Azure public clouds, with more planned Continue Reading
Feature 13 Mar 2018

Hybrid cloud file and object pushes the frontiers of storage

A single environment across on-premise and cloud environments is possible with a new class of product that builds file systems and object stores with hybrid cloud Continue Reading
News 02 Mar 2018

Scality Zenko 'multi-cloud controller' offers hybrid cloud boost

S3-based software control layer will support Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds to bring hybrid cloud operations, with object storage across private and public clouds Continue Reading
News 01 Mar 2018

It’s the year of the cloud, says backup giant Veeam

Veeam roadmap adds cloud to virtual and physical backup with acquisitions that bring cloud and hybrid functionality. Object archives, CDP and NAS backup are also planned Continue Reading
News 20 Feb 2018

Load Dynamix is now WorkloadWisdom and adds more NAS support

Virtual Instruments enhances NAS testing and monitoring capabilities with SMB and 25GbE support in WorkloadWisdom but hybrid cloud monitoring will remain off limits for now Continue Reading
News 19 Feb 2018

Rackspace upgrade to save $12m with Scality object storage

Cloud services giant Rackspace brings in Scality object storage in a move that slashes 4,000 boxes from its server count as it separates compute and storage Continue Reading
News 14 Feb 2018

Cohesity adds file and object to hyper-converged hybrid cloud

Cohesity broadens out from hyper-converged backup and restore to offer file and object storage on its physical and virtual hyper-converged appliances and in the cloud Continue Reading
E-Zine 08 Feb 2018

CW Benelux: Dutch IT expert on a mission to expose vulnerabilities

Dutch ethical hacker Victor Gevers took full-time leave from his IT job last year and used the time to hunt for vulnerabilities. Read about his mission to find vulnerabilities, report them responsibly and then, hopefully, get them fixed by the vulnerable parties involved. Also in this issue, read how Proximus, Belgium’s largest telecommunications operator, is leaning on Cloudify to support its adoption of network functions virtualisation, and how journalists showed that the email addresses of Dutch politicians are easy to spoof. Continue Reading
News 25 Jan 2018

Cloudian upgrade brings hybrid cloud file and object storage

Move to Cloudian Hyperstore 7 enables data storage operations across on-premise and Amazon, Google and Microsoft cloud environments with object and file access Continue Reading
News 23 Jan 2018

ITV goes on air with SpectraLogic LTFS tape backup and archive

2PB of SpectraLogic tape front-ended by Black Pearl LTFS object storage access creates integrated archive that lets broadcaster optimise use of existing Isilon clustered NAS Continue Reading
News 09 Jan 2018

Cloud firm scales Cloudian object storage to 2.5PB for GDPR

Calligo expands Cloudian Hyperstore from three nodes to 30 at worldwide datacentres, with object storage deployed for file-level and metadata capabilities suited to GDPR Continue Reading
News 18 Dec 2017

Top 10 storage and backup stories of 2017

In Computer Weekly’s top 10 storage stories of 2017, we tracked key trends such as the continued rise of hyper-converged infrastructure, the emergence of NVMe flash and object storage Continue Reading
Feature 13 Dec 2017

Storage briefing: The evolution of software-defined storage

The evolution of software-defined storage, from simple software products to those that offer scale-out, hyper-converged, NVMe, public cloud and container functionality Continue Reading
News 10 Dec 2017

Australian genome researchers solving big data problems

Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation have developed a cloud-based tool to look for the needle in a haystack in what they have described as the "datafication of everything" Continue Reading
News 08 Nov 2017

Panasas upgrades scale-out NAS to ASD-100 and ASH-100 nodes

New Panasas appliances upgrade CPU and RAM to double throughput while changing hardware architecture. Clustered NAS specialist says all-flash and tiers of flash are on the roadmap Continue Reading
News 08 Nov 2017

Red Hat Ceph Storage 3 brings file, iSCSI and container storage

Latest version of open source OpenStack-targeted software-defined storage adds CephFS, ISCSI and storage that can be deployed in containers to save hardware Continue Reading
News 11 Jul 2017

Scality Zenko.io brings hybrid cloud storage virtualisation

Zenko.io is a control layer that allows customers to manage data in on-site Scality ring object storage and multiple public clouds but falls short of full data portability for now Continue Reading
News 06 Jul 2017

Tape here to stay, says Spectra Logic with LTO-8 2x capacity gain

LTO-8 tape to boost capacity by leveraging HDD head read technology TMR. Spectra gets in early with offer to customers, “buy LTO-7, get LTO-8 when it ships” Continue Reading
News 09 May 2017

Nexsan Unity goes all-flash but leaves NVMe on the back-burner

Nexsan Unity arrays already have SAN, NAS and file sync and share, and now add all-flash and policy-based archiving, but there’s no NVMe on the roadmap for now Continue Reading
News 19 Apr 2017

Quantum upgrades to StorNext 6 with replication and app QoS

Quantum StorNext scale-out file system adds to cloud capability with granular replication that can operate one-to-one, one-to-many, plus provide storage QoS per application Continue Reading
News 27 Mar 2017

Red Hat adds Gluster metadata cache and container deployment

Scale out NAS parallel file system speeds operations with client-side caching, and allows container deployment and faster self-healing volumes Continue Reading
Feature 01 Mar 2017

Storage 101: Object storage vs block vs file

We recap the key attributes of file and block storage access and the pros and cons of object storage, a method that offers key benefits but also drawbacks compared with SAN and NAS Continue Reading
Feature 19 Jan 2017

Hybrid cloud 101: Using the cloud as a storage tier

We look at what’s possible when it comes to hybrid cloud, what types of data and what hybrid cloud architectures can combine on-premise and cloud storage capacity Continue Reading
Feature 09 Nov 2016

Software-defined storage: The pros and cons, and what is available

Software-defined storage is a rapidly rising trend in the datacentre, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of building your own storage, and is it suitable for all organisations? Continue Reading
News 29 Sep 2016

Is it NAS? Is it object storage? It’s both. It’s Avere’s C2N

Avere launches C2N hybrid NAS/object storage box that uses touted efficiencies of erasure coding to take aim at claimed drawbacks of clustered NAS rivals like Isilon Continue Reading
Feature 04 May 2016

Amazon S3 storage 101: Object storage in the cloud

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) has emerged as a de facto standard for accessing data in the cloud. We run the rule over S3, its key attributes and what you need to know to use it with your applications Continue Reading
News 26 Apr 2016

HDS G series arrays get native NAS and cloud as a storage tier

VSP G series enterprise hybrid flash arrays see addition of native NAS functionality on a controller card plus cloud as a storage tier via Hitachi Content Platform Continue Reading
News 29 Mar 2016

OSNexus unlocks Ceph object storage in QuantaStor v4

Software-defined storage maker OSNexus adds Ceph-based object storage to its QuantaStor product, adding it to block and file storage from ZFS, Gluster and Ceph Continue Reading
Feature 12 Jan 2016

NAS vs object: Which one for large volumes of unstructured data?

Both NAS and object storage offer highly scalable file storage for large volumes of unstructured data, but which is right for your environment? Continue Reading
News 24 Dec 2015

Top 10 storage stories of 2015

The year 2015 in storage was dominated by the continued rise of flash and Dell’s purchase of EMC, but there were steady upticks in trends such as hyper-converged and software-defined storage Continue Reading
Feature 02 Nov 2015

Object storage: Cloud vs in-house

Object storage is a rising star in data storage, especially for cloud and web use. But what are the pros and cons of cloud object storage or building in-house? Continue Reading
Feature 24 Sep 2015

Flash in NAS file access storage: Does it need it – and, if so, how much?

While flash is rapidly going mainstream for primary storage with the all-flash datacentre, does NAS file access storage need flash – and, if so, how much? Continue Reading
News 10 Sep 2015

Cloudian boosts object storage HyperStore compliance features

Distributed object storage software maker Cloudian upgrades HyperStore with added granularity of data protection features that can help meet compliance requirements Continue Reading
Feature 05 Jun 2015

VMware vs OpenStack: How they handle storage

The opportunities and challenges presented by the two virtualisation environments when it comes to storage, backup and disaster recovery. Continue Reading
Feature 05 Jun 2015

OpenStack Manila: File access storage for the open source cloud

OpenStack Manila is the file level access method in development by the open source cloud platform. What is it, how does it work and when will it be ready? Continue Reading
News 17 Feb 2015

Suse launches Ceph-based cloud software-defined storage

Suse launches commercially-supported object, block and file Ceph distribution Enterprise Storage, software-defined storage Continue Reading
Feature 18 Aug 2014

Scale-out NAS product survey: The big six

We survey the big six storage array makers’ scale-out NAS product ranges Continue Reading
Feature 04 Jul 2014

Big players target object storage at cloud and archive

All but one of the big six storage vendors have object storage products that target public and private cloud environments and/or archiving use cases Continue Reading
Feature 17 Jun 2014

Backup vs replication, snapshots, CDP in data protection strategy

Best practice data protection strategy combines backup with snapshots, CDP and replication for different levels of recovery Continue Reading
Podcast 08 Apr 2013

Big data storage: Defining big data and the type of storage it needs

Big data storage: What is big data, what compute/storage system configurations are used for big data analytics, and what type of storage infrastructure does it require? Continue Reading
Feature 11 Apr 2011

Object-based storage promises scalability and flexibility for static, unstructured data needs

Object storage gets rid of traditional file system hierarchies and puts in place a flat access structure that provides a good basis for hugely scalable unstructured data access. Continue Reading