Content Centric Storage and Current Storage Systems

Content-centric storage represents an approach for handling large amounts of data. It is one of the innovations pursued by the VISION Cloud project. The goal of the VISION Cloud project is the development of an industry grade storage system using cloud technology. The envisaged use of the VISION Cloud involves the storage and management of millions of data items, potentially several hundreds of terabytes in size. On the one hand, the technical foundations must be capable of efficiently storing such an amount of data. On the other hand, the VISION Cloud must provide adequate means of an API for allowing the efficient navigation, search, and access for the right data item in this storage. For the latter purpose, VISION Cloud provides a data access layer, which is called “Content Centric Interface.” Applications can use this data access layer for accessing the VISION Cloud storage from a content-centric point of view, abstracted from actual storage representation. The content centric interface is different from existing cloud storage interfaces and is similar, from an architectural point of view, to object relational mapping frameworks for traditional applications with relational database systems.