Cloud Object Storage as a Service: IBM Cloud Object Storage from Theory to Practice - For developers, IT architects and IT specialists

Cloud Object Storage as a Service: IBM Cloud Object Storage from Theory to Practice - For developers, IT architects and IT specialists

by Anil Patil, Deepak Rangarao, Harald Seipp, Maciej Lasota, Reginaldo Marcelo dos Santos, Rob Markovic, Simon Casey, Stephen Bollers, Vasfi Gucer, Andy Lin, Casey Richardson, Robert Rios, Ryan VanAlstine, Tim Medlin
Released June 2020
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738442457

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Book description

The digital enterprise has resulted in an explosion of data, and data volumes are expected to grow in zettabyte scale in the next few years. This explosive growth is largely fueled by unstructured data, such as video, social media, photos, and text. IBM® Cloud Object Storage (previously known as Cleversafe®) provides organizations the flexibility, scalability, and simplicity required to store, manage, and access today's rapidly growing unstructured data.

Cloud Object Storage (COS) provides access to your unstructured data via a self-service portal from anywhere in the world with RESTful APIs, including OpenStack Swift API and S3-compatible API, enterprise availability, and security.

IBM COS is available in the following deployment models:


  • Private on-premises object storage
  • Dedicated object storage (single-tenant)
  • Public object storage (multi-tenant)
  • Hybrid object storage (a mix of on-premises, dedicated or public offerings)

This IBM Redbooks® publication focuses on the IBM COS public offering, IBM COS Public Services, and hybrid solutions leveraging this offering.

This book is for solution developers, architects, and IT specialists who are implementing Cloud Object Storage solutions.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Part 1 IBM Cloud Object Storage concepts
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction to object storage
    1. 1.1 What object storage is
    2. 1.2 What storage business problems object storage can address
    3. 1.3 What qualifies business problems for object storage
    4. 1.4 Access methods for object storage
      1. 1.4.1 Access to storage through the REST API
      2. 1.4.2 Access to object storage through other methods
    5. 1.5 Comparison and positioning to other storage models
      1. 1.5.1 Block storage
      2. 1.5.2 File storage
    6. 1.6 Object storage key concepts
      1. 1.6.1 Buckets
      2. 1.6.2 Objects
      3. 1.6.3 Metadata
      4. 1.6.4 Access control lists
      5. 1.6.5 Object data protection
  6. Chapter 2. Introducing IBM Cloud Object Store Public Services
    1. 2.1 Overview
    2. 2.2 Architecture
    3. 2.3 IBM Cloud Object Storage offerings
      1. 2.3.1 On-premises: Software only
      2. 2.3.2 On-premises: Software and appliance
      3. 2.3.3 Dedicated cloud-based
      4. 2.3.4 IBM COS Public Services
      5. 2.3.5 Comparison of IBM Cloud Object Storage deployment options
    4. 2.4 IBM COS Public Services capabilities
    5. 2.5 Programming model and interfaces
      1. 2.5.1 Simple Storage Service (S3) API
      2. 2.5.2 IBM COS API (future release)
  7. Chapter 3. Getting started with IBM Cloud Object Storage
    1. 3.1 Setting up your cloud account
    2. 3.2 Credentials and endpoints
      1. 3.2.1 Public endpoints
      2. 3.2.2 Private endpoints
      3. 3.2.3 Custom Private Addressing (CPA) endpoint
      4. 3.2.4 Managing credentials
    3. 3.3 Managing buckets and objects
      1. 3.3.1 Creating and managing buckets from Bluemix Infrastructure
      2. 3.3.2 Managing objects from Bluemix Infrastructure
    4. 3.4 IBM COS S3 API and common functions
      1. 3.4.1 S3 and IBM COS S3 API differences
      2. 3.4.2 Supported API operations
      3. 3.4.3 Authorization and authentication
    5. 3.5 Clients, CLIs, and SDKs
      1. 3.5.1 Desktop clients
      2. 3.5.2 Command-line interfaces (CLIs)
      3. 3.5.3 Software development kits (SDKs)
    6. 3.6 Preferred practices for application design
      1. 3.6.1 Object name
      2. 3.6.2 Object size
      3. 3.6.3 Concurrent PUT/GET
      4. 3.6.4 Handling timeouts
      5. 3.6.5 Handling overwrites
      6. 3.6.6 Handling changes
  8. Part 2 IBM Cloud Object Storage use cases and scenarios
  9. Chapter 4. Typical applications for IBM Cloud Object Storage
    1. 4.1 IBM Cloud Object Storage workloads
    2. 4.2 Examples from various industries
      1. 4.2.1 Example 1: Business and financial management solutions
      2. 4.2.2 Example 2: Media and entertainment
      3. 4.2.3 Example 3: Education and research
      4. 4.2.4 Example 4: Healthcare industry and medical imaging
      5. 4.2.5 Example 5: Government authority managing road and traffic
      6. 4.2.6 Example 6: Telecommunications industry
      7. 4.2.7 Example 7: Insurance industry; cognitive damage assessment
    3. 4.3 Typical use cases
      1. 4.3.1 Use case 1: Backup repository
      2. 4.3.2 Use case 2: Internet of Things (IoT)
      3. 4.3.3 Use case 3: Active archive
      4. 4.3.4 Use case 4: Enterprise file services
      5. 4.3.5 Use case 5: Analytics and cognitive systems
      6. 4.3.6 Use case 6: Content repository
      7. 4.3.7 Use case 7: Enterprise collaboration
    4. 4.4 Integration with other IBM products
      1. 4.4.1 IBM Spectrum Protect
      2. 4.4.2 IBM Spectrum Scale
      3. 4.4.3 IBM Watson IoT
      4. 4.4.4 IBM Aspera
      5. 4.4.5 IBM Watson API on Bluemix platform
  10. Chapter 5. Building a simple Web Gallery application
    1. 5.1 Scenario description
    2. 5.2 Architecture of the scenario
      1. 5.2.1 High-level architecture
    3. 5.3 Implementation of the scenario
      1. 5.3.1 Getting started
      2. 5.3.2 Ordering IBM COS on IBM Bluemix Infrastructure (SoftLayer)
      3. 5.3.3 IBM Bluemix account
      4. 5.3.4 Installing Node.js
      5. 5.3.5 Installing Git
      6. 5.3.6 Creating the Web Gallery app on IBM Bluemix
      7. 5.3.7 Creating a Bluemix toolchain
      8. 5.3.8 Setting up IBM Cloud Object Storage credentials
      9. 5.3.9 Developing a simple IBM Cloud Object Storage Web Gallery
      10. 5.3.10 Committing to Git
    4. 5.4 Verifying the scenario
    5. 5.5 Conclusion
  11. Chapter 6. Simple gateway scenario
    1. 6.1 Scenario description
    2. 6.2 Architecture of the scenario
      1. 6.2.1 Overview
      2. 6.2.2 Requirements
      3. 6.2.3 Planning
    3. 6.3 Implementation of the scenario
      1. 6.3.1 Pre-test verification
      2. 6.3.2 S3FS installation
      3. 6.3.3 S3FS configuration
    4. 6.4 Verification of the scenario
    5. 6.5 Conclusion
  12. Chapter 7. IBM Spectrum Protect integration
    1. 7.1 Scenario description
    2. 7.2 Architecture of the scenario
      1. 7.2.1 Overview
      2. 7.2.2 Requirements
      3. 7.2.3 Planning
    3. 7.3 Implementation of the scenario
      1. 7.3.1 Pre-testing setup
      2. 7.3.2 IBM Spectrum Protect configuration
    4. 7.4 Verification of the scenario
    5. 7.5 Conclusion
  13. Chapter 8. VideoRecon Video Analytics
    1. 8.1 Scenario description
      1. 8.1.1 Business case
    2. 8.2 Architecture of the scenario
    3. 8.3 Implementation of the scenario
    4. 8.4 Verification of the scenario
    5. 8.5 Conclusion
  14. Chapter 9. Cognitive Call Center
    1. 9.1 Scenario description
      1. 9.1.1 Business case
    2. 9.2 Architecture of the scenario
    3. 9.3 Implementation of the scenario
    4. 9.4 Verification of the scenario
    5. 9.5 Conclusion
  15. Appendix A. Additional material
    1. Locating the web material
    2. Using the web material
  16. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  17. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: Cloud Object Storage as a Service: IBM Cloud Object Storage from Theory to Practice - For developers, IT architects and IT specialists
  • Author(s): Anil Patil, Deepak Rangarao, Harald Seipp, Maciej Lasota, Reginaldo Marcelo dos Santos, Rob Markovic, Simon Casey, Stephen Bollers, Vasfi Gucer, Andy Lin, Casey Richardson, Robert Rios, Ryan VanAlstine, Tim Medlin
  • Release date: June 2020
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738442457