The world of object storage is shifting. Many companies that relied on solutions like MinIO are facing uncertainty due to recent licensing changes. Suddenly, they are confronted with unexpected costs or restrictions that complicate long-term planning.
The search for a stable, future-proof, and, most importantly, Open Source-based object storage solution inevitably leads to Ceph RGW (Rados Gateway). Ceph offers S3 compatibility, massive scalability, and complete control, as it runs on your own hardware – the ideal answer to increasing licensing pressures.
However, Ceph is often perceived as technically complex. The migration of existing workloads, in particular, poses a hurdle. This is where CLYSO Chorus comes in: We have developed a new feature that makes the transition from MinIO to Ceph not just possible, but easy and secure.
1. The Crux of S3 Object Storage Licensing
In IT, the trend is clearly towards Open Source and flexibility to avoid "vendor lock-in." Yet, even popular open-source-adjacent solutions can become an unpredictable risk due to license changes. When the rules of the game change retroactively, IT managers face a choice: absorb high additional costs or initiate a complex, risky move.
Ceph RGW offers a clear way out. As part of the comprehensive Ceph ecosystem, it provides a high-performance, S3-compatible object storage layer that you can operate on your own commodity hardware. The result: No vendor lock-in, full cost control, and unlimited scaling without hidden fees.
2. Why Ceph is Often the "Right, but Difficult" Choice
The technical advantages of Ceph are undisputed:
- Massive Scalability: From terabytes to petabytes and beyond.
- Open Source: Transparency and a large community.
- Cost Efficiency: Utilization of standardized hardware.
The hurdle has often been the complexity of management and, in the case of a switch, migration. Existing S3 workloads, especially those with sensitive data or strict compliance requirements, must be transferred completely and without loss of their metadata.
3. The New Chorus Feature: MinIO Migration with Versioning Guarantee
The most critical point in any storage migration is data integrity. If data is overwritten or history is lost, compliance violations and operational risks loom.
This is precisely why the new migration feature of CLYSO Chorus is so valuable: it was specifically designed to seamlessly migrate MinIO workloads, including the crucial Object Versioning, to Ceph RGW.
The decisive added value: Chorus goes beyond merely copying objects. It reads the complex metadata of MinIO buckets and objects and ensures that the entire version history – essential for audits, rollbacks, and compliance – is correctly mapped in the target cluster. Your Ceph RGW cluster takes over all functionalities as if the data had been natively created there.
4. Three Paths to Fast and Secure Migration
With Chorus, you maintain control over the migration process and can optimally adapt it to your operational needs:
- Path 1: Zero-Downtime Approach (During Live Operation): For business-critical applications where availability is the highest priority. Chorus synchronizes the data in the background while operations continue.
- Path 2: Planned Maintenance Window: For very large or particularly sensitive workloads. Here, the migration is carried out within a predefined time window to avoid affecting the performance of the production system.
- Path 3: Test Migration: Start with a proof-of-concept. Migrate a small workload to a staging environment to verify correct functionality before proceeding with the production environment.
Conclusion: Reclaim Control – with Chorus
The transition from proprietary or uncertain licensing models to Ceph RGW is a strategic step for your company's future. It means full cost control, scalability, and independence.
With CLYSO Chorus's new migration feature, the often-feared hurdle of moving is eliminated. We enable a secure and version-accurate switch from MinIO to your own sovereign object storage solution.
Are you ready to reclaim control over your object storage? Contact us today to learn more about MinIO-to-Ceph migration with Chorus.
Your CLYSO Team