Object storage is great for managing unstructured data at scale, but often it’s not that easy to use with existing applications because you need to modify the applications and learn new APIs. Or, perhaps you simply want to work with file systems because that’s what you’re used to. In these cases, a storage gateway is what you need.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Storage Gateway makes Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage appear like a NAS, providing seamless, no-fuss access to the cloud for businesses with file-based workflows. There’s no need to re-architect legacy applications or to disrupt users’ access to files they’re working with.

Top 5 Features of Oracle Storage Gateway

Here are my top 5 reasons why Storage Gateway is great for your cloud data use cases.

1. Removes Data Lock-In: Data Is Accessible in Native Format

Any file that you write to a Storage Gateway file system is written as an object with the same name in its associated Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage bucket (with its file attributes stored as object metadata). This means that you don’t need the gateway to read back your data; you can access your files directly from the bucket by using Oracle APIs, SDKs, HDFS connector, third-party tools, the CLI, and the Console. A Refresh operation in Storage Gateway lets you read back, as files, any objects that were added directly to the Object Storage bucket by other applications. Your data is now available in the same format both on-premises and from within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

2. No Cost, Easy to Set Up

Storage Gateway runs as a Linux Docker instance on a local host with local disk storage used for caching, or it can run in an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute instance with attached block storage.

3. Storage Cache for High Performance to the Cloud

Configure the cache storage to be large enough to hold your largest data set or the files you want low-latency, local access to. Then, any files written into file systems that you create on your local gateway are written asynchronously and efficiently over the WAN to the cloud. When this data becomes active again, it can be brought back into the local Storage Gateway cache.

4. Keep Files You Need Fast Access to Pinned to Local Storage

Files that you know you’ll want high-speed access to can be pinned to remain in the cache while you need them, eliminating undesirable latency between your users and data in the cloud.

5. Capacity Without Limit

Adding Storage Gateway to your existing storage environment means that you can take advantage of the durability and massive scale of Object Storage. Your data sets can expand and contract without the expense of provisioning new hardware. Grow as fast and as large as you need to while paying only for the storage that you consume.
 

Store Data Where It Makes the Best Sense for Your Business

The gateway effectively expands your storage footprint to leverage the price-performance advantage of the highly durable and secure Object Storage. Moving less-frequently accessed data to the cloud frees up expensive on-premises storage and helps reduce NAS sprawl.
 

Top 5 Problems, Solved!

Here are my top 5 choices for business problems that the Storage Gateway addresses today:

1. Migrating Data to the Cloud

When you decide to move data into the cloud, often the initial data migration becomes an obstacle because of limited bandwidth uploading over your WAN or just sheer data volume. In these cases, the new Oracle Data Transfer Service makes sense.

When network speed isn’t the issue, the Storage Gateway is a great choice. Start writing the data that you need in the cloud to your storage gateway, and your data is asynchronously and efficiently written to your storage bucket in Object Storage.

After your initial data is in Object Storage, it’s easy to incrementally add new or modified files by using your on-premises storage gateway.

2. Hybrid Cloud Workloads and Data Processing

If you’re considering or already running applications and big data services in Oracle Cloud, Storage Gateway makes it easy to upload local files to one or more Object Storage buckets for them to use. For cloud-native applications and services, you can access this data directly from the bucket. For file-based applications, you launch a Compute instance in the cloud, install a storage gateway on it, and then use it to read and write your data. After running applications in the cloud, you can write the results back to local storage via the gateway.

3. Nearline Content Repositories and Data Distribution

When you end a project, you often need to keep some files available on less expensive, nearline cloud storage so that they are more readily sharable for reuse. Using Storage Gateway to migrate these assets from expensive NAS to a cooler tier of cloud storage shifts the storage costs from a capital expense to operational budget and provides always-on access to and reuse of these assets across geographies and organizations.

4. Back Up and Archive with 3-2-1 Data Protection

Many institutions are storing backups on local NAS systems or tape. Based on business policies, these full or partial backups might be kept just a few weeks or for several months or years. Being able to tier older backups to the cloud and keep just the most recent backup in local cache can offer tremendous space and cost savings and let you meet backup and recovery SLAs. Using Storage Gateway as an on-ramp to the cloud makes it easy to adhere to the 3-2-1 best practice rule for backup and recovery:

  • Have at least 3 copies of data.   

    (Move 1 or both backup copies into the cloud, keeping the original onsite.)
  • Use 2 different storage types.   

    (Cloud counts as a different storage type.)
  • Keep at least 1 copy of data offsite.   

    (Select your object storage cloud region.)

5. Tiered Storage and NAS Capacity Expansion

Storage Gateway essentially expands your on-premises storage to include Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage. The Storage Gateway cache lets you tier data by asynchronously moving colder, tier-2 data to the cloud while keeping it readily accessible. Data you might once have considered moving to tape to help free up more expensive online local storage can now be tiered off to Object Storage where it can still be accessed as needed. By adding Storage Gateway to your existing NAS environment, you can take advantage of the Object Storage durability, massive scale, and pay-as-you-grow pricing while ensuring low-latency access to recently accessed data (or pinned data).
 

A Final Thought

Storage Gateway is the evolution of the Storage Software Appliance gateway product. If you’re using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage, you’ll want to use Storage Gateway with its enhanced file-to-object transparency and other sophisticated features.

Over the coming months, we’re adding more features and explaining more use cases, so please stay tuned for more!