Cleversafe Distributes Open Source Storage

Open source storage startup Cleversafe is set to challenge the
decades-old RAID approach to distributing storage with its global
Dispersed Storage Network (DSN). With a traditional RAID array, data
is striped across a number of disks, a fixed number of which are
required to be operational for the data to be recreated. With its new
DSN release, Cleversafe is allowing users to specify how many locations
the data will be sliced across and how many active nodes a user will
need in order to recreate the data. In Cleversafe's initial release,
the software required a fixed 11 nodes in order to have a DSN setup,
with six nodes required to recreate the data. With the new release
the user has the flexibility to specify the size of the network and
the number of nodes required for recovery. So for example an enterprise
could set up a DSN with eight nodes and specify that they only need
three of them to recover the data. Cleversafe's DSN uses a mathematical
formula known as the Cauchy Reed-Solomon Information Dispersal Algorithm
(IDA) when slicing data. Each data slice on its own is unusable, so
the GPL version 2 for its DSN software in order to help grow the
ecosystem and the technology. GPL is a reciprocal license and requires
developers to add code to the DSN to contribute it back into the project.
Beyond the open source code, Cleversafe has also patented at least four
inventions related to DSN, with more to follow. There is no conflict
between GPL v2 and Cleversafe's patents, according to the company. More Information