1.2 Benefits of Cloud Integrated Storage

1.2.1 Reduce Total Cost of Ownership

The active data (hot data) or frequently accessed data is stored on fast and high quality storage. The less accessed data (cold data) is placed on a cloud storage with relatively slower access. CIS policies helps you to partition the files based on last accessed time, size, type, name, and so on. You can move the less active data (cold data) from a higher performance storage to a lower performance storage, thus reserving the expensive storage for active data (hot data).

1.2.2 Transparent File Access for End Users

Users can seamlessly access the files through CIFS protocol. The user maps to the same logical path and is not aware of the physical location of the file. This allows the administrator to manage the data without disrupting the user’s view of the files. The files that are moved to cloud are represented with crossmark (x) symbol in Windows client and indicate that the files are in a offline state.

1.2.3 Data Availability on Access

After moving the data to cloud, you still have access to the data. The access to the data available in the cloud storage is through secondary volumes called Cloud Backed Volumes (CBV). The CBV contains the metadata information of the data available in the cloud. When the data is accessed, they are brought back to the OES server.

1.2.4 Policy-Based Migration

Administrator can set policies to migrate the data from the primary volume to the cloud storage depending on the last accessed time, modified time, file type, size, and so on. To migrate the data, the policy can be run manually or automatically based on the scheduled time.