Syndicate

A Scalable Data Storage and Delivery Platform

Syndicate is a general-purpose data delivery platform that harnesses a collection of existing storage components to provide a global, scalable, and secure storage service. These include public and private cloud storage (for data durability), network caches and content distribution networks (for scalable read bandwidth), and local disks (for local read/write performance). Syndicate’s goal is to allow applications to access data independent of where it is stored, while both minimizing the operational overhead imposed on users and maximizing the use of commodity infrastructure.

There are multiple ways to use and contribute to Syndicate. This guide describes three:

• Users: Mount and access existing Syndicate volumes.
• Administrators: Create and manage Syndicate volumes.
• Developers: Contribute drivers that connect Syndicate to external stores.

These three roles are sometimes conflated (e.g., users can administer their own volumes), but they represent three different stakeholders, and so this guide is organized on that basis.

Note that there is also a fourth role/stakeholder: Operators can download the software, and then deploy and operate the Syndicate service on behalf of some community. This guide is not yet organized to call out operators as a distinct role.