Front cover Cloud Object Storage as a Service IBM Cloud Object Storage from Theory to Practice 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 Redbooks International Technical Support Organization Cloud Object Storage as a Service: IBM Cloud Object Storage from Theory to Practice March 2017 SG24-8385-00 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page vii. First Edition (March 2017) This edition applies to IBM Cloud Object Storage public offering Version 1.0). © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2017. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Notices . vii Trademarks . viii Preface . ix Authors. .x Now you can become a published author, too! . xiv Comments welcome. .xv Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . .xv Part 1. IBM Cloud Object Storage concepts. 1 Chapter 1. Introduction to object storage. 3 1.1 What object storage is. 4 1.2 What storage business problems object storage can address . 6 1.3 What qualifies business problems for object storage . 6 1.4 Access methods for object storage . 7 1.4.1 Access to storage through the REST API. 7 1.4.2 Access to object storage through other methods . 8 1.5 Comparison and positioning to other storage models. 9 1.5.1 Block storage . 9 1.5.2 File storage . 10 1.6 Object storage key concepts. 11 1.6.1 Buckets . 11 1.6.2 Objects . 11 1.6.3 Metadata . 11 1.6.4 Access control lists . 11 1.6.5 Object data protection. 12 Chapter 2. Introducing IBM Cloud Object Store Public Services . 13 2.1 Overview . 14 2.2 Architecture . 15 2.3 IBM Cloud Object Storage offerings . 16 2.3.1 On-premises: Software only . 16 2.3.2 On-premises: Software and appliance . 17 2.3.3 Dedicated cloud-based . 17 2.3.4 IBM COS Public Services . 18 2.3.5 Comparison of IBM Cloud Object Storage deployment options . 18 2.4 IBM COS Public Services capabilities. 19 2.5 Programming model and interfaces . 24 2.5.1 Simple Storage Service (S3) API . 24 2.5.2 IBM COS API (future release). 24 Chapter 3. Getting started with IBM Cloud Object Storage. 25 3.1 Setting up your cloud account. 26 3.2 Credentials and endpoints . 28 3.2.1 Public endpoints . 29 3.2.2 Private endpoints . 29 3.2.3 Custom Private Addressing (CPA) endpoint. 29 3.2.4 Managing credentials . 30 © Copyright IBM Corp. 2017. All rights reserved. iii 3.3 Managing buckets and objects . 30 3.3.1 Creating and managing buckets from Bluemix Infrastructure . 30 3.3.2 Managing objects from Bluemix Infrastructure . 32 3.4 IBM COS S3 API and common functions . 32 3.4.1 S3 and IBM COS S3 API differences . 33 3.4.2 Supported API operations. 34 3.4.3 Authorization and authentication. 40 3.5 Clients, CLIs, and SDKs . 40 3.5.1 Desktop clients . 40 3.5.2 Command-line interfaces (CLIs) . 46 3.5.3 Software development kits (SDKs) . 50 3.6 Preferred practices for application design. 53 3.6.1 Object name . 53 3.6.2 Object size . 53 3.6.3 Concurrent PUT/GET . 53 3.6.4 Handling timeouts . 53 3.6.5 Handling overwrites . 53 3.6.6 Handling changes . 53 Part 2. IBM Cloud Object Storage use cases and scenarios . 55 Chapter 4. Typical applications for IBM Cloud Object Storage . 57 4.1 IBM Cloud Object Storage workloads . 58 4.2 Examples from various industries . 58 4.2.1 Example 1: Business and financial management solutions . 58 4.2.2 Example 2: Media and entertainment . 61 4.2.3 Example 3: Education and research . 63 4.2.4 Example 4: Healthcare industry and medical imaging . 65 4.2.5 Example 5: Government authority managing road and traffic. 68 4.2.6 Example 6: Telecommunications industry. 70 4.2.7 Example 7: Insurance industry; cognitive damage assessment . 72 4.3 Typical use cases . 75 4.3.1 Use case 1: Backup repository . ..