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Content Delivery Networks are the natural response to the effects of Net growth, cyber-attacks and connectivity problems of any kind. Information must be delivered in time, it should circulate freely, this is the main goal of CDNs. It turns out that the so-called 'Cloud Computing', or distributed data processing and delivery can be the adequate basis for this type of service. Tech Republic tells more in Cloud storage objects critical to content delivery networks.

The story goes, for many organizations, wrapping their head around what cloud storage can be used for is a challenge.

Can cloud storage be the perfect distribution mechanism for content delivery networks (CDN)? It just may be. This is because cloud storage providers are working aggressively to make the use case for content delivery be a no-brainer. One particular example is the new object storage offering by Cleversafe.

Object storage is rather straightforward as an HTTP interface; software development kit (SDK) or an application programming interface (API) provide access to the storage resources. Accessing it via this method is in lieu of a traditional storage protocol (iSCSI, NFS, SMB, etc.). In the case of Cleversafe, the object storage offering is an extension of their dsNet offering. Other dsNet offerings include the ability to run a traditional storage protocol for direct access.

One of Cleversafe’s unique attributes is their slicing of the data across appliances and data centers. In the same fashion that a traditional RAID array will slice data across many disks, Cleversafe will slice data across storage devices that may be geographically separated through their dispersal technology. An example configuration could take a storage footprint and spread it across eight different slices, and each slice would be located on a different storage device.

The inherent protection that Cleversafe offers is that only some of the slices are required to access the data with a minimum threshold, which can be just five slices in some configurations. This allows multiple failures to be accommodated, such as bandwidth or routing issues, as well as entire site issues. The slices also build in a security feature, as each of the slices are useless without the others coupled with any encryption keys that are required for access. Additional security management options include control lists for domain access and forthcoming Active Directory-Integrated security options.

A cloud storage object is critical to CDNs as Cleversafe sees it. Concept offerings are primarily for applications that may provide movies or other digital media to consumers. During a recent conversation on the topic with Cleversafe, my ideas went wild with applications such as digital video recorder (DVR) devices for home technology — specifically options with your recordings on your DVR being kept on cloud storage.

Why worry about a hard drive in your TV when the cloud can do it? Using the API and object model allows products and services to take access of this data to an entirely new level, potentially offering ubiquitous access to your data regardless of how and where. Besides, how many of us have been heartbroken with a DVR’s worth of entertainment suddenly lost?

There are no clear answers yet. Using clouds means reliable connectivity and wide bandwidth - both are improving, yet the scale of growth and reliability may be not too quick to be acceptable. However, the basic idea may be deemed obvious: CDNs are impossible to buiuld without distributed infrastructure in mind.

This article was brought to you by the developers of IPHost Network Monitor, network and server monitoring software.