Object Storage Device
An Object-based Storage Device (OSD) is a computer storage device, similar to disk storage but working at a higher level. Instead of providing a block-oriented interface that reads and writes fixed sized blocks of data, an OSD organizes data into flexible-sized data containers, called objects. Each object has both data (an uninterpreted sequence of bytes) and metadata (an extensible set of attributes describing the object). The command interface to the OSD includes commands to create and delete objects, write bytes and read bytes to and from individual objects, and to set and get attributes on objects. The OSD is responsible for managing the storage of objects and their metadata. The OSD implements a security mechanism that provides per-object and per-command access control.
Several research projects have explored object storage and implemented prototype systems with various semantics. The early research spawned a standardization effort that led to a standard OSD command set for SCSI.
Read more about Object Storage Device: The OSD Standard, History
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