Cleversafe
Encyclopedia
Cleversafe, Inc. is a privately held company
based in the United States
which is pioneering Dispersed Storage technology and software. Dispersed storage is a technology that uses erasure codes to split data into multiple slices, each of which is then stored to an independent storage appliance via TCP/IP. Due to properties of erasure codes, the dispersed storage system can tolerate multiple failures of individual storage appliances without losing the ability to recover data.
in 2004 by S. Christopher Gladwin, the President and CEO of Cleversafe. Cleversafe received funding from venture capital firms including NEA
, OCA Ventures, Harrison Street Capital, and Alsop-Louie Partners. Since the founding of Cleversafe in 2004 it has launched its Open Source
project, expanded its partner program, and released several versions of its products.
, compression
, or adding message authentication
. Once the data is fully processed, the slices are distributed via a Cleversafe designed protocol to multiple storage locations; this TCP/IP based protocol may optionally be secured using TLS
.
Each storage location (site) typically will house a number of individual storage appliances known as Slicestors. The collection of appliances involved in processing, storing, or managing data is referred to as a dispersed storage network or dsNet in the Cleversafe nomenclature. Data stored in the dsNet is logically isolated into discrete containers called Vaults. Each Vault may have its own separate access controls, quota and data transformation and storage strategy. This technology is an alternative to traditional RAID
and replication
based storage systems.
software is released under the GNU General Public License
.
As of 2010-09-29 the source code and related forums have been removed from the web site.
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
based in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which is pioneering Dispersed Storage technology and software. Dispersed storage is a technology that uses erasure codes to split data into multiple slices, each of which is then stored to an independent storage appliance via TCP/IP. Due to properties of erasure codes, the dispersed storage system can tolerate multiple failures of individual storage appliances without losing the ability to recover data.
History
The company was founded in Chicago, IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in 2004 by S. Christopher Gladwin, the President and CEO of Cleversafe. Cleversafe received funding from venture capital firms including NEA
New Enterprise Associates
New Enterprise Associates is a global investment firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA is among the largest venture firms. The firm invests in three broad industry sectors: information technology, healthcare, and...
, OCA Ventures, Harrison Street Capital, and Alsop-Louie Partners. Since the founding of Cleversafe in 2004 it has launched its Open Source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
project, expanded its partner program, and released several versions of its products.
Technology
Cleversafe's current software release uses Cauchy-Reed-Solomon as its Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA) for encoding data into slices. Data may also be optionally processed by any number of provided codecs which can perform operations such as encryptionEncryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
, compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
, or adding message authentication
Message authentication code
In cryptography, a message authentication code is a short piece of information used to authenticate a message.A MAC algorithm, sometimes called a keyed hash function, accepts as input a secret key and an arbitrary-length message to be authenticated, and outputs a MAC...
. Once the data is fully processed, the slices are distributed via a Cleversafe designed protocol to multiple storage locations; this TCP/IP based protocol may optionally be secured using TLS
Transport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...
.
Each storage location (site) typically will house a number of individual storage appliances known as Slicestors. The collection of appliances involved in processing, storing, or managing data is referred to as a dispersed storage network or dsNet in the Cleversafe nomenclature. Data stored in the dsNet is logically isolated into discrete containers called Vaults. Each Vault may have its own separate access controls, quota and data transformation and storage strategy. This technology is an alternative to traditional RAID
RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
and replication
Replication (computer science)
Replication is the process of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility. It could be data replication if the same data is stored on multiple storage devices, or...
based storage systems.
Awards
Cleversafe has been the recipient of several awards, including:- Storage Visions 2009 Conference Professional/Prosumer System Award
- Chicago Innovation Awards 2008
- Wall Street Journal's 2008 Technology Innovation Award for Software
- 2007 City Lights Newcomer Award
- Horizon Award
Open Source
Cleversafe has been a sponsor of an open source community. Cleversafe decided that by open sourcing their software, it would enable others to develop all kinds of applications and environments related to dispersed storage. Cleversafe's open sourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software is released under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
As of 2010-09-29 the source code and related forums have been removed from the web site.