Content Addressed Storage

Content Addressed Storage (CAS) is a category of automated networked storage established to store large volumes of fixed content. Each data object gets a unique identifier, or Content Address (CA), derived from its digital content. CAS eliminates the need for applications to understand and manage the physical location of information on storage media. Referencing data based on its actual content presents an additional storage benefit. If multiple clients store the same data object on a cluster, the system needs to store only one copy; each client, however, will receive a unique identifier to retrieve it. In addition, CAS ensures that stored data cannot be changed or tampered with because the identifier is calculated from the binary content of the data. If the content of the data changes, the identifier changes also.