BoxBroker: A Policy-Driven Framework for Optimizing Storage Service Federation

Abstract

Storage services integration can be done for achieving high availability, improving data access performance and scalability while preventing vendor lock-in. However, multiple services environment management and interoperability have become a critical issue as a result of service architectures and communication interfaces heterogeneity. Storage federation model provides the integration of multiple heterogeneous and self-sufficient storage systems with a single control point and automated decision making about data distribution. In order to integrate diverse heterogeneous storage services into a single storage pool, we are proposing a storage service federation framework named BoxBroker. Moreover, an automated decision model based on a policy-driven data distribution algorithm and a service evaluation method is proposed enabling BoxBroker to make optimal decisions. Finally, a demonstration of our proposal capabilities is presented and discussed.