Typically, direct attach or SAN attach storage is used for data stores that provide block storage for virtual machines. Swift object storage has gained popularity due to its scale-out architecture, reliability, API interface, storage spaces, erasure coding, low cost, and several other benefits. However, it has a couple of problems, that is, high latency and unacceptable performance if it has to be used as a replacement for traditional block storage. Open vStorage is a technology that provides the perfect interface to solve this latency problem and make it possible for Swift object storage to be used as the underlying storage for virtual machines.

Open vStorage sits as a middleware between the hypervisor layer and the object storage, and provides high reliability and performance. Some of the main components are the VFS router, volume driver, file driver, and storage router.

The VFS router intercepts volume data from the virtual machine and sends it to...