Content Addressable Storage

Full Title or Meme

A Content Addressable Storage (CAS) allows stored information to be retrieved based on its content, not on its location.

Context

• Not to be confused with Complex Adaptive System (CAS).

Problems

• Fixed content files or documents need to be accessed by the content that they hold, even when the searcher cannot be expected to know exactly where the content is stored.
• While this could be solved by modern search engines, the location of the content may move or be utterly irrelevant.
• As a general rule the content is not expect to change often, or perhaps never change at all, so that the content is a good basis for finding it.

Solutions

• A large number of solutions are found on the wiki page Content-addressable storage.
• The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), is a content-addressable, peer-to-peer hypermedia distribution protocol that is often used in Identity Management.