IBM leads a joint research initiative with 15 European partners to develop a standard smart cloud storage architecture.
The research tackles storage clouds' major challenges-- cost-effectiveness, data mobility, security guarantees and computing power demands.
The consortium partners include standards bodies, media companies, telecommunications companies, healthcare companies, academic institutions and more.
An EU grant worth €15.7 million funds the project dubbed "Vision Cloud-- Virtualised Storage Services for the Future Internet".
Vision Cloud combines serveral concepts, including a rich object data model, execution of computations close to the stored content, content-centric access and full data interoperability.
Like today's object-based storage systems, the data will be searchable through a central metadata database.
IBM says that this project can lead to "digital safe" services where consumers can store photos, videos, health and financial records securely-- all within the cloud.
Go IBM and European Partners to Pioneer New Storage Cloud Architecture