The Winfs File System and Modern Encryption Methods
The WinFS File System
In the last decade there has been a “combination of trends and technologies” that will change the way people work with managing their data in the future. Because computers have become faster, bandwidth continues to increase, and data storage has increased, the amount of “digitally born data” has exploded (Rizzo, 2005). The increase in digital data has propelled Microsoft to invest in building a new way to manage data. WinFS (Windows Future Storage) is being developed by Microsoft to be used as an advanced storage system that shall be implemented on top of NTFS. Because WinFS is actually operating on top of NTFS, the only way to compare the two is to highlight the features of WinFS that distinguish it from NTFS.
“WinFS is modeled on the file system of the coming SQL server (Yukon), whose FS is based entirely on a relational database”(Ibelshäuser, 2004). According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, “WinFS is not a physical file system; rather it provides rich data modeling capabilities on top of the NTFS file system. But it still uses NTFS to store its data in physical files” (p. 4). The concept of WinFS is that it will identify different data by a form of Extensible Markup Language (XML) metadata and use this metadata to set up relationships among the data. This metadata is attributes “such as type of file (e.g., document, picture, music), creator, artist” (Wikipedia, 2006). WinFS will be able to utilize the metadata to aggregate data from two or more applications and organize “using attributes to describe the data in files and the relation of that data with other data. By creating a unified datastore, it promotes sharing and reuse of data between different applications” (Wikipedia, 2006).
WinFS is comprised of five components: Core WinFS, Data Model, Schemas, Services, and APIs. Below is a diagram detailing the different components. The core WinFS building blocks (Rizzo. 2004, Figure 1)
Core WinFS helps provide the core services of a file
In the last decade there has been a “combination of trends and technologies” that will change the way people work with managing their data in the future. Because computers have become faster, bandwidth continues to increase, and data storage has increased, the amount of “digitally born data” has exploded (Rizzo, 2005). The increase in digital data has propelled Microsoft to invest in building a new way to manage data. WinFS (Windows Future Storage) is being developed by Microsoft to be used as an advanced storage system that shall be implemented on top of NTFS. Because WinFS is actually operating on top of NTFS, the only way to compare the two is to highlight the features of WinFS that distinguish it from NTFS.
“WinFS is modeled on the file system of the coming SQL server (Yukon), whose FS is based entirely on a relational database”(Ibelshäuser, 2004). According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, “WinFS is not a physical file system; rather it provides rich data modeling capabilities on top of the NTFS file system. But it still uses NTFS to store its data in physical files” (p. 4). The concept of WinFS is that it will identify different data by a form of Extensible Markup Language (XML) metadata and use this metadata to set up relationships among the data. This metadata is attributes “such as type of file (e.g., document, picture, music), creator, artist” (Wikipedia, 2006). WinFS will be able to utilize the metadata to aggregate data from two or more applications and organize “using attributes to describe the data in files and the relation of that data with other data. By creating a unified datastore, it promotes sharing and reuse of data between different applications” (Wikipedia, 2006).
WinFS is comprised of five components: Core WinFS, Data Model, Schemas, Services, and APIs. Below is a diagram detailing the different components. The core WinFS building blocks (Rizzo. 2004, Figure 1)
Core WinFS helps provide the core services of a file
References: Anderson, Matt (2006). The Evolution of NTFS: NTFS 1.1. Retrieved April 16,2006 from, http://arstechnica.com/paedia/n/ntfs/ntfs4-1.html Bright, Peter (2003) Bryson, David (2002). Using CryptoAPI. Retrieved April 12, 2006, from http://www.kerneli.org/howto/node3.php Davis, W & Rajkumar, T.M Dubrawsky, Ido (2003). Cryptographic Filesystems, Part One: Design and Implementation. Retrieved April 16, 2006, from http://www.securityfocus.com/print/infocus/1673 Grimes, Richard (2004) Ibelshäuser, Oliver (2004). The WinFS File System For Windows Longhorn: Faster & Smarter. Retrieved April 12, 2006, from http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/06/17/the_winfs_file_system_for_windows_longhorn/index.html Knorr, Eric Microsoft (2006), Encrypting File System for Windows 2000, Retrieved April 15, 2006, from http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/distrib/dsck_efs_WQPT.asp Rizzo, Thomas (2004) TCFS (2001). TCFS v.3.0.1 Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved April 16, 2006, from http://www.tcfs.it/docs/tcfslinux-faq.3.html Walsh, Norman (1998) Wikipedia Encyclopedia (2206). WinFS. Retrieved April 6, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS Wildermuth, Shawn (2004) Zadok, Erez, Ion Badulescu and Alex Shender, Cryptfs: A Stackable Vnode Level Encryption File System. Retrieved April 12, 2006, from http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/research/cryptfs/cryptfs.pdf Bibliography Linux Reviews (2006) Microsoft (2006). Windows Vista Developer Center. Retrieved April 19, 2006, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ Rodriguez, Jesus (2004) WinMagic (2006). WinMagic Hard Disk Encryption - The most secure and versatile disk encryption software. Retrieved April 19, 2006, from http://www.winmagic.com/tech_support/efs.asp