Content-Aware Storage Optimization

Being Content-Aware
Almost all digital content in the modern data center is generated by a set of common applications and stored in the well-understood file formats of those applications. Applications developers are focused on providing functionality to end users – they think about the way data is consumed, not how it is stored. As a consequence, many applications store data inefficiently.

The opportunity exists to create a solution that bridges the gap between applications and naive storage platforms that can optimize the way data is stored. We call this content-aware storage optimization.

Ocarina's methodology starts with an understanding of how a given file is structured and selects from a portfolio of over 100 algorithms the one that is most effective for the targeted data set. Even if the file is new to Ocarina, and there is no content-specific compressor, Ocarina will infer information about the structure and nature of the contents to select the most effective data-reduction algorithm.

Don't Put a Round Peg in a Square Hole
By understanding the layout of specific application files – like an email program or a digital image – you can make intelligent decisions about how to dedupe and compress that data for optimal storage. This is the fundamental basis for how Ocarina optimizes complex, pre-compressed, or compound data types such as:

• Microsoft Office files (Powerpoint, Word, Excel, etc)
• Images and Video (JPEG, MPEG, tiff, GIF, PNG, etc)
• Compound Documents (email, html, web pages, PDF’s, ZIP, RAR, TAR, etc)

The central components of Ocarina's ECOsystem data-processing system includes two types of content-aware algorithms, and a neural net framework for testing and selecting different compressors for best run-time efficiency. The two types of content aware algorithms used by Ocarina include delayering algorithms, that dissect files to identify the contiguous sub-objects, and algorithms for shrinking data, which include dedupe and compression.

Complete our online registration form and download our complimentary white paper: The Ocarina ECOsystem - Content-Aware dedupe and compression .