IBM announced that its inventors have developed new cloud storage software that provides a simple interface for clients to dynamically migrate data across multiple clouds. The method, dubbed a “cloud-of-clouds” approach, is intended to alleviate fears about data resiliency, security and service continuity, employing a new technique for storing and moving data across multiple clouds. The method invokes the resilience of separate clouds to offer stronger protection against service outages and data loss than any single cloud can deliver.
“Our cloud-of-clouds invention can help clients avoid service outages and security incidents that impact the reliability and security of individual clouds,” said IBM Fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou. “We are adding multiple levels of redundancy and reliability by making cloud migration and backup easier and faster than is currently possible.”
The product coming out of the technique is a software toolkit, to be offered through IBM's Softlayer subsidiary. The toolkit is designed to enable storage systems to access and use third-party private and/or public clouds for data migration, backup or file sharing. The toolkit uses an “object storage” interface that permits clients to drag and drop files to be backed up or shared on the clouds of their choice.
The technology addresses space efficiency, data synchronization, and metadata coordination when storing data redundantly on object storage. Once a cloud fails, IBM said, the back-up cloud immediately responds and ensures data availability. No synchronization or communication among cloud clients is needed due to the innovative approach that adds redundancy and tolerates failures.
More information is available at www.ibm.com/smartcloud.
Cloud image courtesy of Shutterstock.