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Object storage

Introduction

Cloud Avenue provides an object storage account by default in the offering.

This type of storage is available for each customer organization (the tenant).

The objects are accessible from the Internet and from a dedicated internal network of the organization.

Cloud Avenue’s object storage solution is based on Scality technology that is natively compatible with the S3 API. It is designed to facilitate the management of large amounts of data.

Among the features of Cloud Avenue’s object storage, this type of storage offers:

  • hyper-resiliency of data (with a durability rate of 11×9 = 99.999999999%, which translates into a probability of losing 1 object every 100,000 years per million objects)
  • an almost unlimited scalability (several Peta bytes / client)
  • secure data access (https + internal network)

Overview

The object storage service allows the storage of objects composed of data and metadata.

  • The data is the content of the object (e.g.: image in JPEG format, document in PDF format…)
  • The metadata are the information related to the object defined by the system or by the usage of the service (modification date, size, author, version…), and information called tags, coded into the form of (key, value) pairs, which are optionally defined by the user.

The objects are stored in a bucket. Each object is identified by a key (name) and a version ID (identifier). The buckets are identified in the same way as objects and they also have metadata.

The manipulation of objects and buckets is done via the object storage menu of the VCD console (menu exposed by the OSE plugin, VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension) or via the S3 API defined by Amazon Web Services (Amazon Simple Storage Service API Reference).

Management of users, groups and access control to the object storage is done through the Amazon Web Services IAM API (Identify Access Manager API Reference).

How the service works

All Cloud Avenue customers have access to the object storage option by default. To enable this option, simply click on the ‘More’ menu and then on the ‘object storage’ submenu in the organization’s vCloud Director (VCD) console.

This action will create an object storage account which is identified with the same name as the one of the organization name in VCD. Then, it will be possible to create buckets to store your data, and share them if needed between your different vDCs. To manage your organization’s objects and buckets, go to the VCD Plus/Object Storage menu or use the S3 API or a tool like the AWS CLI. The security of the accesses to the objects and buckets are secured by an IAM service.

This object storage service is also natively integrated with other services provided by VCD, such as virtual machine image import, private image backup, or snapshot storage. As soon as the object storage option is activated, these services will by default store the data necessary for their operation on the object storage rather than on the datastore.

Data Storage

Cloud Avenue’s object storage is available from anywhere via an internet connection or from your organization’s local area network.

This data is stored on a Scality(c) Ring located in the same physical datacenter as your virtual machines, owned by Orange and located in France.

Cloud Avenue’s object storage service and its providers comply with RGPD standards.

Quality of service (SLA)

In addition to a highly reliable object storage service, the SLA of the service is guaranteed up to 99.9%, and various recovery guarantee options ensure a high level of responsiveness.

For more information on contacting our service support, see our frequently asked questions.

Ordering and billing

To order Cloud Avenue’s object storage service, you need to sign a Cloud Avenue contract and activate the option in the VCD console (More/Object Storage menu).

  • Billing is done on a monthly basis (Pay As You Go) according to the average volume in GiB stored per hour.
  • A maximum monthly volume of outgoing data to the Internet is included per account. This is set at 7% of the average volume saved. Beyond this limit, outgoing data is billed at €0.01013/GB transferred.

For example: 10 TB stored (monthly average) x 7% = 10,000 GB x 7% = 700 GB of data transferred to the Internet during the month. Beyond 700 GB, each outgoing GB is charged at €0.01013.

  • The monthly quantity of read and write API requests is limited to 50 / average volume stored in GiB. Beyond these thresholds, an invoicing will be applicable (please contact us to know the price).

Back to the Services catalogue

Object Storage Features and Constraints Update

The following features are under consideration and will be available soon:

  • Access to object storage via BVPN (business VPN) => S1 2024
  • Internal encryption via S3 API => S2 2024

The following features are not supported:

  • Use of HSM/KMS equipment for encryption
  • Multi-AZ object storage
  • Bucket/compartment features:
    • Bucket tagging
    • Bucket notification
    • Bucket logging
  • STS API: only the “AssumeRole” action

This formulation in English is concise and impersonal, presenting the features under consideration and those that are not supported. It is neutral and professional, adapted to a technical context. The use of bullet points and indentation improves readability and clarity.

The object storage platform supports RING9:

RING9 is the result of major investments by Scality and enables IT teams to:

  • take full advantage of dynamic and prioritised data protection policies
  • access to a modern monitoring and alerting platform, thanks in particular to the native integration of Prometheus and its APIs
  • simplify integration with partner ecosystems such as Veeam 12 and VMware Cloud Director (VCD) via native APIs

Accessing S3 keys (security identification information)

The security identification information for the object storage service is available on the console in the ‘Identification information’ :