Hydra: a platform for survivable and secure data storage systems

Abstract

This paper introduces Hydra, a platform that we are developing for highly survivable and secure data storage systems that distribute information over networks and adapt timely to environment changes, enabling users to store and access critical data in a continuously available and highly trustable fashion. The Hydra platform uses MDS array codes that can be encoded and decoded efficiently for distributing and recovering user data. Novel uses of MDS array codes in Hydra are discussed, as well as Hydra's design goals, general structures and a set of basic operations on user data. We also explore Hydra's applications in survivable and secure data storage systems.