Abstract: An object-based data storage system implemented by a computer for storing data in a plurality of objects (16A, 16B, 25A, 25B). The data storage system comprises a storage medium (80) configured to store said plurality of objects. Each one of the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of fields including a data field (18) configured for storing said data therein and, a separate object ID attribute field (17) configured for storing identification information associated with the object. The information stored within the object ID attribute field of at least one (16A, 16B) of the plurality of objects comprises metadata other than identification information associated with the at least one object. A processor is configured to access the at least one object (16A, 16B) from amongst the plurality of objects stored within the storage medium at least to retrieve information stored within an object ID attribute field (17) hereof thereby to retrieve the metadata.

Abstract: A method of structuring data in a virtual file system, includes using the file system to apply specific handling of data that represents genomic sequence information or information that is related to genomic sequences. The method also concerns portioning the data into a collection of storage devices that have different cost and performance characteristics, wherein the splitting policy is based on a cost model. The method is executable by employing a computing device functioning under software control.

Abstract: A method of structuring data in a virtual file system, includes using the file system to apply specific handling of data that represents genomic sequence information or information that is related to genomic sequences. The method also concerns portioning the data into a collection of storage devices that have different cost and performance characteristics, wherein the splitting policy is based on a cost model. The method is executable by employing a computing device functioning under software control.