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Active Archive Storage Contains the reference or golden copy of data that may be needed for current and future reference.

Cloud Storage A storage model where logical pools of data are distributed across multiple physical storage systems and possibly locations to deliver uninterrupted easy access to data.

Durability The longevity of data or the likelihood that the desired data will be successfully retrieved (see bit rot).

Erasure Coding Data protection scheme that breaks data into shards that are encoded with parity and then stored across multiple storage media and locations.

Fifteen Nines The 99.9999999999999% likelihood of an outcome. Data durability of fifteen nines implies that only 1 in 10 trillion data retrievals would fail.

Geo-Spreading The distribution of data across multiple physical storage systems located in multiple geographic locations in order to provide uninterrupted system availability.

Bit RotThe degradation of magnetic storage whereby data cannot be reliably retrieved.

Hierarchy-free The absence of a tree or other parent-child structure, such as the flat relationship between data objects in an object-based storage system, which allows extreme scale.

Objects The singular entity, similar to a file, that contains data stored within an object storage system.

Protection The safeguarding of data against loss or inability to access it when needed.

Query Analytics The ability to analyze data from a query or question.

Representational State Transfer (REST/ReST) APIs An architectural style for networked applications that require interoperability across servers, storage, etc. generally through the HTTP protocol.

Sharding The breaking up of an object into smaller shards/fragments from which the original object can be reconstructed.

Tape Consolidation The rationalization of multiple backup processes and/or copies made of data into a single copy.

Unstructured Data Any kind of data that does not have a predefined model or organizational layout such as that found within a columnar database.

Volume of Data Increasing dramatically, International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that by 2020 there will be more than 44 zettabytes (44 billion terabytes) of data generated.1

1 Source: IDC, The Digital Universe of Opportunities Study, 2014

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Web-scale An architectural approach to computing that historically assumed very large deployments such as an enterprise data center (or larger) but today tends to describe the scalability associated with large cloud service providers, if not frankly, the entire planet.

X100The integrated object storage solution from the ActiveScale™ product family that can scale up to 52PB within a single namespace.

YottabyteOne septillion bytes, an immense amount of data. IDC estimates by 2020 there will be 44 zettabytes1 of stored data generated globally, which would equate to 0.044 yottabytes.

Zeta ArchitectureA high-level enterprise architecture associated with Big Data that seeks to simplify business processes and define a scalable way to integrate data rapidly into a business environment.

JPEG Friendly A storage approach that treats pictures or other media as a single object that can be easily indexed and retrieved typically from an object store.

Key Management The care and handling of security keys that encrypt or lock data against unauthorized access within a shared data center infrastructure.

Large-scale Massive deployment typically implies data storage that is measured in tens, hundreds, or more petabytes.

MetadataData that provides information about other data.

Namespace Collection of objects held within an object storage.

Identifier AddressA globally unique address assigned to an object that enables it to be found within a distributed object store without having to know the physical location of the data.

The ABCs of Object Storage