I have been thinking about how the performance of RBS and external storage has changed up the storage game and the exciting things that are planned with Quests new product designed to support EBS and soon to add RBS. I put together a post on nothingbutsharepoint.com expressing my thoughts.
- Key Research, Questions & Decisions for SharePoint External Storage
Microsoft Research did some digging... You know the science side of computer science, and they found that BLOBs actually do work faster outside of SQL than inside of SQL. Read the full paper "To BLOB or NOT to BLOB: Large Object Storage in a Database or in the File system."
Here’s some info on the upcoming product from Quest. Should be exciting. They are looking for beta participants to provide feedback on the rules. Already is working great.
· Rules Engine – Storage Maximizer allows a SharePoint administrator to set rules that automatically remove content to selected external repositories based on content criteria, including size, type, date and number of versions. Administrators can quickly deploy rules to reduce content database size without having to perform complicated rule calculations.
· Flexible Storage – Offload content to various content repositories within a single install. Utilize various levels of storage that range from direct attached storage, network storage to cloud-based storage. Storage Maximizer works with the following cloud storage providers, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure.
· Content Externalizing Scope – Set the scope for externalizing documents form a Site Collection to a document library.
· Reporting Dashboard – View the amount of externalized content in an easy to read graphical chart and view details of how much content is externalized to the various repositories, the status of those repositories and the events happening with content externalization.
· Integrated Management – Storage Maximizer integrates with Central Administration and looks indistinguishable from other SharePoint features. It installs no agents or services, but Storage Maximizer is a fully integrated solution that leverages existing APIs and Services.
· Encryption and Compression – Secure your external data with Storage Maximizer encryption and compression to ensure only those going through SharePoint with the proper access can view and change the data.
· Enabled Search – Storage Maximizer maintains SharePoint search capabilities to ensure you find the data you need.
· · Supports EBS – Storage Maximizer works with SharePoint External BLOB Storage (EBS) to leave a GUID behind in the content database that references the location of the external content. The end users will see the same link and can still open the item as if it were stored in the SQL content database. Support for RBS will follow 3 months after the 1.0 release.Document Re-entry – Bring your externalized content back into SharePoint easily with Storage Maximizer. Never lose your external content, when you disable the link between SharePoint and the external content, Storage Maximizer will bring that content back into the SharePoint content database.
Download the Beta
ON DEMAND Instructional Webinars
We recommend that you attend our instructional webinars surrounding the beta to learn how best to implement and use this product.
o Webinar One: Introduction to the beta and how to use Storage Maximizer with attached storage devices. January 27, 2011 at 11 a.m. EST.
o Webinar Two: How to use Storage Maximizer with the cloud. February 10, 2011 at 11 a.m. EST.
o Webinar Three: What the final release of Storage Maximizer will look like. February 24, 2011 at 11 a.m. EST.
· In order to make this a successful beta, Quest wants to hear your feedback. They’ve made the feedback process simple. Just visit their community page called SharePoint for All here and leave your feedback in the discussion threads.