User:Jacobfarmer/sandbox

The file system called *FS is a virtual, global file system and is the underlying technology in commercial software application called Starfish. *FS might be pronounced as star eff ess, which sounds like STARFISH, hence the name. *FS is currently under development by Starfish Storage, Incorporated of Waltham, Massachusetts.

The mission of Starfish Storage is to manage the life cycle of scientific research data. The basic premise is that file collections used in scientific research often require different types of storage devices and that conventional file system namespaces are awkward to manage. Similarly since scientific data often is not searchable by conventional indexing technology, it is helpful to associate metadata in the form of tags or key-value pairs with files and directories. These metadata are then used for search, content classification, reporting, and rules-based management.

Starfish is described as a virtual file system because it is not mounted like a typical file system. Rather it is more akin to a content management application that has the look and feel of a hierarchical file system.

Starfish is described as a global file system because it creates a unified namespace across multiple storage devices that are optionally located in different data centers.