The Players:
Two busy Executives at Company X
Admin Assistant #1 - Ms. File
Admin Assistant #2 - Mr. Block
The Scenario:
A busy Executive at Company X has two admin assistants to help ensure everything gets done. Each of the Admins have different skill sets. Ms. File is extremely proficient at filing and has her own folder filing system that has proven to be very efficient. Mr. Block does not have skills using a folder filing system but is very fast at placing and retrieving data from where he is told. How will our Executive(s) utilize these talented resources?
The Story:
Our Executive uses both of herAdmins every day and has found that different types of information tend to be handled more efficiently by one Admin or the other. For instance unstructured data or random files seem to be handled best by Ms. File. The Executive simply hands the information to Ms. File, and away she goes. The Executive does not know Ms. File's filing system, nor does she care as long as Ms. File knows where the files are and how to get them back when needed. Ms. File is completely responsible for the storage and retrieval of the files upon request.
For information that is more structured, such as purchase orders or customer records, our Executive uses Mr. Block. Since Mr. Block is not skilled at using a folder filing system, he has to rely on the Executive to tell him where to put the data. When using Mr. Block to store information, the Executive has to keep a list (or index) of where she has told Mr. Block to place the data. As an example, To store something with Mr. Block the Executive would hand off the information and tell Mr. Block to go to the fourth filing cabinet from the right, third drawer down and fifth folder back to store this information. She then updates her list reflecting where she sent Mr. Block with the information. When the Executive needs to retrieve something that Mr. Block has stored, she must refer to the list and provide the location of the data to Mr. Block and send Mr. Block away to get it.
Sharing?
Ms. File happens to be so efficient at using her filing system that she agrees to support another Executive. Her time is now split between the two Executives. She still has only one set of filing cabinets and she is responsible for ensuring that the files do not get mixed up. Each executive simply needs to contact Ms. File and ask for a particular set of information and they leave it to her to find the information and get it into their hands. Ms. File maintains a list of the information that is currently "checked-out" by one Executive or the other. If an Executive asks for information that is currently in the hands of the other Executive, Ms. File explains that that file is currently not available for use. There (very likely) may be times where Ms. Block has more than one request and/or when one Executive must wait for her to take care of a request from the other Executive.
Mr. Block on the other hand is more limited. His goal is simply to be extremely fast and efficient at getting the information back and forth between the filing cabinets. Since our First Executive maintains the list of where information is stored in Mr. Block's filing cabinets, Mr. Block cannot be shared to a second executive. The second Executive would have no idea where the space is already used and which spots are free. With this type of dedication, Mr. Block will often outperform Ms. File.
Summary:
- File based storage is easier to share
- File based storage relies on the storage system to do the work of "filing" the information
- Block based storage relies on the server to determine where the information is placed
- File based storage uses file-locking technologies to prevent two hosts from corrupting in-use data
- Databases are considered structured data and are great candidates for block based storage
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