Storage caching

Our Technology Update this week takes a look at a storage technology being pushed by a number of vendors – including Tacit Networks (who also penned this article shreyas@tacitnetworks.com), Novell, DiskSites and Web Office. We’re talking about the notion of cached or distributed storage.

The idea is similar to that of networked content caches in that oft-requested content be stored locally eliminating the need for large hunks of data to constantly travel across bandwidth-challenged, more expensive WAN links.

In the cashed storage realm, LAN-attached caching appliances running proprietary software are placed at the remote site and in the data center.  According to our author, when a remote user attempts to access a file, the request travels over the WAN to fetch the file from the cache server. Streaming techniques improve access times even on the first file fetch. Subsequent file requests at the cache can be served locally at LAN speeds. Modified files are efficiently synchronized with existing files on the cache servers using intelligent software. Then when any other remote site requests a copy of the file, the cache server delivers the most recent update available, our author says.

Still, the market for caching and content delivery products has been tumultuous in the past year. Many familiar names in the market have changed focus (such as CacheFlow’s transformation into the security company BlueCoat) or have been bought out (such as Yahoo’s purchase of Inktomi).  Others, such as  Cisco, F5 Networks, Nortel and Radware now offer content delivery packages which include caching devices, Web switches, and appliances for directing and scheduling content distribution throughout a corporation.

For more on this topic see: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2003/0505techupdate.html