This white paper describes a new project exploring the design and implementation of “self- * storage systems:” self-organizing, self-configuring, self-tuning, self-healing, self-managing systems of storage bricks. Borrowing organizational ideas from corporate structure and automation technologies from AI and control systems, we hope to dramatically reduce the administrative burden currently faced by data center administrators. Further, compositions of lower cost components can be utilized, with available resources collectively used to achieve high levels of reliability, availability, and performance. 1

Abstract—We present the design of a distributed store that offers various levels of security guarantees while tolerating a limited number of nodes that are compromised by an adversary. The store uses secret sharing schemes to offer security guarantees, namely, availability, confidentiality, and integrity. However, a pure secret sharing scheme could suffer from performance problems and high access costs. We integrate secret sharing with replication for better performance and to keep access costs low. The trade offs involved between availability and access cost on one hand and confidentiality and integrity on the other are analyzed. Our system differs from traditional approaches such as state machine or quorum-based replication that have been developed to tolerate Byzantine failures. Unlike such systems, we augment replication with secret sharing and offer weaker consistency guarantees. We demonstrate that such a hybrid scheme offers additional flexibility that is not possible with replication alone.

This paper describes the design, implementation and performance of a family of protocols for survivable, decentralized data storage. These protocols exploit storage-node versioning to efficiently achieve strong consistency semantics. These protocols allow erasure-codes to be used that achieve network and storage efficiency (and optionally data confidentiality in the face of server compromise). The protocol family is general in that its parameters accommodate a wide range of fault and timing assumptions, up to asynchrony and Byzantine faults of both storage-nodes and clients, with no changes to server implementation or client-server interface. Measurements of a prototype storage system using these protocols show that the protocol performs well under various system model assumptions, numbers of failures tolerated, and degrees of reader-writer concurrency.

Protecting multimedia data from malicious computer users continues to grow in importance. Whether preventing unauthorized access to digital photographs, ensuring compliance with copyright regulations, or guaranteeing the integrity of a video teleconference, all multimedia applications require increased security in the presence of talented intruders. Specifically, as more and more files are preserved on disk the requirement to provide secure storage has become more important. This paper presents a survey of techniques for securely storing multimedia data, including theoretical approaches, prototype systems, and existing systems ready for employment. Due to the wide variety of potential solutions available, a prospective customer can easily become overwhelmed while researching an appropriate system for multimedia requirements. Since added security measures inevitably result in slower system performance, certain storage solutions provide a better fit for particular applications along a security/performance continuum. This paper provides an overview of the prominent characteristics of several systems to provide a foundation for selecting the most appropriate solution. Initially, the paper establishes a set of criteria for evaluating a storage solution based on confidentiality, integrity, availability, and performance. Then, using these criteria, the paper explains the relevant characteristics of select storage systems providing a comparison of the major differences. Finally, the paper examines specific applications of storage devices in the multimedia environment.

Protecting data from malicious computer users continues to grow in importance. Whether preventing unauthorized access to personal photographs, ensuring compliance with federal regulations, or ensuring the integrity of corporate secrets, all applications require increased security to protect data from talented intruders. Specifically, as more and more files are preserved on disk the requirement to provide secure storage has increased in importance. This paper presents a survey of techniques for securely storing data, including theoretical approaches, prototype systems, and existing systems currently available. Due to the wide variety of potential solutions available and the variety of techniques to arrive at a particular solution, it is important to review the entire field prior to selecting an implementation that satisfies particular requirements. This paper provides an overview of the prominent characteristics of several systems to provide a foundation for making an informed decision. Initially, the paper establishes a set of criteria for evaluating a storage solution based on confidentiality, integrity, availability, and performance. Then, using these criteria, the paper explains the relevant characteristics of select storage systems and provides a comparison of the major differences.

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