SLIM: network decongestion for storage systems

We introduce SLIM, a hybrid storage system that uses disks within data center racks to implement persistent caches for storage area networks (SANs). SLIM leverages compression and block overwrites to reduce traffic on data center oversubscribed network links and to improve performance for low-cost SANs. We evaluate SLIM using various micro-benchmarks and industry standard benchmarks. Our results show that SLIM reduces network storage traffic by 40%- 90% and significantly increases application performance in bandwidth-constrained environments.