Content Addressed Storage (CAS)
Module 3.5
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS)
Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:
 Describe the features and benefits of a CAS based
storage strategy.
 List the physical and logical elements of CAS.
 Describe the storage and retrieval process for CAS data
objects.
 Describe the best suited operational environments for
CAS solutions.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 2
Lesson: CAS Description and Benefits
Upon completion of this lesson, you be able to:
 Define CAS.
 Describe the key attributes of CAS.
 List the features and benefits of CAS.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 3
What is Content Addressed Storage (CAS)?
 Object-oriented, location-independent approach to data
storage.
 Repository for the “Objects”.
 Access mechanism to interface with repository.
 Globally unique identifiers provide access to objects.
 Extensible metadata that enables automated data
management practices and applications.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 4
What Is Fixed Content?
Generate
New Revenues
Improve
Service Levels
Leverage
Historical Value
Digital Assets Retained For Active Reference And Value
Electronic Documents
• Contracts, claims, etc.
• E-mail and attachments
• Financial spread sheets
• CAD/CAM designs
• Presentations
Digital Records
• Documents
– Checks, securities trades
– Historical preservation
• Photographs
– Personal / professional
• Geophysical
– Seismic, astronomic,
geographic
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Rich Media
• Medical
– X-rays, MRIs, CTI
• Video
– News / media, movies
– Security serveillance
• Audio
– Voicemail
– Radio
Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 5
Challenges of Storing Fixed Content
 A significant amount of newly created information falls into
the category of fixed content.
 Fixed content is growing at more than 90% annually.
 Often, long-term preservation is required (years-decades).
 Simultaneous multi-user online access is preferable to offline,
or near-line storage.
 New requirements and service level agreements have
created the need for faster access to records.
 Need for location independent data, enabling technology
refresh and migration.
 New regulations require retention and data protection.
 Traditional storage methods are inadequate.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 6
Shortcomings of Traditional Archiving Solutions
 Tape is slow, and standards are always changing.
 Optical is expensive, and requires vast amounts of media
in order to store data of any size.
 Both solutions require 3rd party media management.
 Many times companies retire tape products without
warning.
 Many times recovering files from tape and optical is time
consuming.
 Data on tape and optical is subject to media degradation.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 7
Benefits of CAS
 Immutability and authentication
 Location independence
 Single instance storage
 Faster record retrieval
 Record-level retention, protection, and disposition
 Technology independence
 Online (like Disk)
 Optimized TCO
 Scalability
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 8
Lesson: Summary
Key points covered in this lesson:
 CAS Definition
 CAS Description
 Benefits
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 9
Lesson: Elements of CAS
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
 Describe the Physical Elements of CAS.
 Describe the Logical Elements of CAS.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 10
Physical Elements of CAS
 Storage devices (CAS Based)
 Servers (to which storage devices get connected)
 Client
API
Client
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Server
CAS-based
Storage
Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 11
Logical Elements of CAS
 The Logical Elements of CAS include the Object-Level
Access Protocols.
39HLTTT2H0404EU6M4A9MUR7TE4
API
Content Address
API
Metadata
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CAS
Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 12
Lesson Summary
Key points covered in this lesson:
 Physical Elements of CAS
 Logical Elements of CAS
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 13
Lesson: Data Object Storage and Retrieval
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
 Describe how data gets stored in a CAS environment.
 Describe how data is retrieved from a CAS environment.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 14
How CAS Stores a Data Object
4
CAS authenticates the
Content Address and
stores the object
2
Unique Content
Address is calculated
1
CAS
3
Client presents data
to API to be archived
Object is sent to CAS
via CAS API over IP
Application Server
Client
API
Object ID
5
6
Acknowledgement
returned to application
Object-ID is retained
and stored for future use
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 15
How CAS Retrieves a Data Object
4
1
CAS
CAS authenticates
the request and
delivers the object
Object is needed by
an application
Application Server
Client
API
3
2
Application finds
Content Address of
object to be retrieved
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Object ID
Retrieval request is
sent to the CAS via
CAS API over IP
Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 16
Lesson: Summary
Key points covered in this lesson:
 How data gets stored in a CAS environment.
 How data is retrieved from a CAS environment.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 17
CAS Healthcare example, Radiology PACS Solutions
Acquisition
Station
• Procedure room
Image Review and
Analysis on Multiple
Workstations
•
•
•
•
Viewing room
Onsite office
Surgical suite
Offsite
Images acquired and moved
Short-term Online
Image Cache
Long-term Online
Image Archive
Most recent studies
accessible in milliseconds
Entire patient history
accessible in seconds
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 18
Financial Example: CAS Solution
Check images maintained in tier 1 storage for 60 days then
migrated via HSM to “active archive”
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 19
Module Summary
Key points covered in this module:
 Benefits of CAS based storage strategy.
 Overview of physical and logical elements of CAS.
 Storing and retrieving data from CAS.
 CAS application examples.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 20
 Check Your Knowledge
 What are the key features of a CAS implementation?
 What are the benefits of a CAS Storage Strategy?
 What are 3 business applications that would benefit from
CAS technology?
 What are the logical elements of a CAS system?
 How does data get stored in a CAS environment?
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 21
Apply Your Knowledge
 After completing this topic, you should be able to describe
the features of a Centera CAS solution.
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 22
Effective Information Archive Must Address…
Business
 Cost
IT
Simple
 Backups
 Access
 Consolidation
 Availability
 Disaster recovery
 Compliance
 Ease of management
Affordable
 Compliance
 Scalability
 Focus needs to stay on
transactional information
Secure
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 23
Requirements for an Effective Information Archive
Simple
Affordable
Secure
 Provide online access and assured authenticity
 Work with any application or any platform
 Self-manage and self-heal
 Be future-proof
 Avoid archiving multiple copies of the same information
 Consolidate information silos into a unified archive
 Manage rapid growth in information without matching costs
 Provide the best overall total cost of ownership
 Protect information at an object level
 Safeguard access
 Enforce retention and disposition intrinsically in storage layer
 Address business continuity and disaster recovery
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 24
EMC Centera
The World’s Most Simple, Affordable, and Secure Repository for
Information Archiving
 Purpose-built for information archiving
Simple
 More than 1,200 customers
 400+ partners—works with any application
from virtually any platform
 More than 30 PB shipped
Centera 4-Node for
departmental use and
midsize enterprises
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Affordable
Secure
Centera
Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 25
Simple
Universal Access Makes Archiving Easy and…
CIFS
NFS
FTP
HTTP
Centera API
Emulation
Centera
Anywhere, any time, any application, from virtually any platform
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 26
Centera Nodes
Disk Drives
Cooling Tunnel
Power Supply
Processor Card
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 27
Simple
Content Mirroring
Storage nodes
Network
switch






Switch


Self-managed
private LAN

Switch

Power rails / ATS
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 28
Simple
Self-Healing
Storage nodes
Network
switch






Switch


Self-managed
private LAN

Switch

Power rails / ATS
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 29
Simple
Self-Healing
Storage nodes
Network
switch





Switch



Self-managed
private LAN
Switch





Power rails / ATS
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 30
Simple
Self-Managing and Configuring
No complex
storage-area
networking
management
No filesystem
management
No LUN / RAID
Group carving
or allocation
A “black box” configuration
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Content Addressed Storage (CAS) - 31