CentreStack transforms traditional file servers into cloud file servers

The BASIC layer, on one hand, refers to the basic end user needs when it comes to cloud storage. The BASIC layer, on the other hand, refers to the sum of B ackup, A ccess, S ync/ S hare, I dentity and C ontrolled C ollaboration. End user won’t use OpenStack Swift storage directly because the interface is too primitive (such as read/write/delete objects). With a BASIC layer stacked on top of the OpenStack Swift, the basic needs are met and now it is ready for end user to use. It means the BASIC layer helps to sell OpenStack Swift Object Storage. So What is in a BASIC Layer?

When it comes to cloud storage use case, everyone agrees that it needs to have web browser based access and mobile access, plus Desktop clients so the data can flow from desktop to web browser and to mobile devices. Google Drive seems to have everything, it has a web browser based access the same as we knew as Google Docs web interface. It has mobile app. It has Desktop client that has a local Google Drive folder that does two-way sync with the Google Drive Storage. A recent use case we saw is quite interesting. It shows that Google Drive needs a drive letter and direct random access to work well.

If you have an HP Cloud account, you may be familiar with the following screen, which is the HP web based storage browser for HP Cloud Object Storage . You can upload, download and browse the files and folders in your HP Cloud Object Storage. Besides the HP Cloud Storage Web Browser access, you may also want to access the cloud storage from PC, from Mac, from mobile devices or from file servers. This is when Gladinet Cloud can help.   This article documents how you can access HP Cloud Storage from your Mac.

Gladinet has been working on the Mac client project since the iPhone/iPad client release. It is a natural development extension to the iPhone/iPad project since they both require a Mac to develop and share a lot of the same Apple design patterns.  It also shares a lot with the Gladinet Cloud Desktop PC client. Now the Gladinet Cloud Mac Client was released. It adds a virtual drive to your Mac Finder under the DEVICES section. You can drag and drop files and folders to and from the virtual drive. You can also use local application to save and load files from the cloud directly. Log in to your Gladinet Cloud Premium or Team Edition account, under the “Desktop Client” section, you will see the Gladinet Cloud Desktop (Mac OS X) entry. You can click to download the installer package. The installer is a .dmg file. Double click on the file will show you the installer screen.

As quoted from Wiki, Middleware is computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. We have seen the evolution of cloud computing and cloud storage. In terms of cloud storage service, Amazon S3 pretty much defines what cloud storage is. All the cloud storage services now are very similar to Amazon S3, whether it is Windows Azure Blob, EMC Atmos , Google Cloud Storage or OpenStack Swift Object Storage. These services have several things in common. First they are file (object) based. Second, they provide a set of very primitive API over HTTP, such as read file, write file, delete file and that is pretty much it. In a strict sense, cloud storage services referred to these services that provide the most primitive read/write functionality and  solved the most important problem of redundancy and scalability. It is the platform layer.

Gladinet has been supporting OpenStack since there was OpenStack. You can connect to an OpenStack swift (Object Storage) instance from Gladinet Cloud Desktop, Gladinet Cloud Server and also Gladinet Cloud Team Edition. OpenStack KeyStone is an identity service (or user login service). The benefit is that it can tie different OpenStack services together by providing a service catalog after user signs into OpenStack KeyStone. Within the service catalog, there will be end points and connection information for OpenStack Swift Object Storage. With the latest Gladinet release, you can find support for OpenStack KeyStone 2.0.

Earlier this week, HP announced the public beta of its cloud services. Since then, we published a series of demo video about how to leverage HP Cloud Storage for different use case. For example, use HP Cloud Storage as a network drive for access and backup; use HP Cloud Storage from file server as a file server replacement; use HP Cloud Storage from web browser for share and collaboration. This video adds one more use case – access HP Cloud Storage files and folders from mobile device, an iPad. Related Posts Gladinet Supports HP Cloud Services