NVRAM Storage System for Cloud Data Persistence
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage systems face challenges in providing persistent storage to transient cloud computing services, particularly in ensuring data availability and reliability across multiple storage nodes and cloud environments.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a storage system that includes multiple storage array controllers, non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) devices, and a distributed architecture for data storage and management, allowing for efficient data distribution, redundancy, and recovery across multiple storage nodes and cloud services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional storage systems are used in cloud computing environments, then device complexity is reduced, but data persistence and reliability deteriorate due to transient nature of cloud services
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces NVRAM devices as an intermediary layer between volatile cloud storage and persistent external storage. This mediator layer ensures data persistence by maintaining data in non-volatile memory even when cloud services are transient or fail, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage system is segmented into multiple independent storage nodes, each with its own NVRAM devices and storage array controllers. This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliability through distribution while keeping individual node complexity manageable.
2Reliability
If multiple storage nodes are deployed for redundancy, then data reliability improves, but system complexity and coordination overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple storage nodes are merged into a unified distributed storage system with coordinated management. The patent combines redundant storage nodes into a single logical system that presents a unified interface to cloud services, reducing the perceived complexity while maintaining reliability benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where storage nodes continuously monitor and coordinate with each other to maintain data consistency and availability. This automated feedback coordination reduces the manual complexity of managing distributed redundancy.
3Productivity
If NVRAM devices are used to reduce latency, then write performance improves, but cost and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
NVRAM devices are deployed selectively at specific locations in the storage hierarchy where they provide the most benefit - at each storage node for local data persistence. This local quality approach optimizes write performance where needed while avoiding unnecessary complexity elsewhere in the system.
4Reliability
If data is distributed across multiple storage nodes, then fault tolerance improves, but data access latency may increase
Solution Approach 1:
Data is pre-replicated across multiple storage nodes before failures occur. This preliminary action ensures that when a node fails, redundant copies are already available, providing fault tolerance without the latency of real-time replication or recovery operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing persistent storage to transient cloud computing services, including: creating a cloud computing instance, wherein the cloud computing instance is created on on-premises cloud infrastructure; and storing, in non-volatile storage in a storage system that is communicatively coupled to the on-premises cloud infrastructure, data associated with the cloud computing instance.