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15th July 2004
Computer Laboratory > Research > Systems Research Group > NetOS > Seminars > 15th July 2004

Integrating Portable and Distributed Storage

Niraj Tolia
This talk describes a technique called lookaside caching that combines the strengths of distributed file systems and portable storage devices, while negating their weaknesses. In spite of its simplicity, this technique proves to be powerful and versatile. By unifying distributed storage and portable storage into a single abstraction, lookaside caching allows users to treat devices they carry as merely performance and availability assists for distant file servers. Careless use of portable storage has no catastrophic consequences. Experimental results show that significant performance improvements are possible even in the presence of stale data on the portable device.

Bio: Niraj Tolia is a second year graduate student at Carnegie Mellon's Parallel Data Lab working under Prof. M. Satyanarayanan. His research interests lie in operating systems and distributed storage systems. In particular, his current research focuses on making distributed file systems more efficient over Wide Area Networks.