lateFs
lateFs is a proposed distributed file system designed to reduce latency in cloud-scale storage by employing late binding of data placement and metadata. The central idea is that the system buffers writes and defers the final association of data blocks with a file namespace until the blocks are actually accessed, enabling low-latency acknowledgement of writes in bursty workloads.
Architecture and data model: lateFs separates metadata from data and uses a scalable metadata service to track
Operation: On write, lateFs appends to the log and returns success; actual data placement is decided later.
Features and use cases: lateFs supports versioning and simple snapshots, sparse files, and strong durability through
Status: lateFs exists primarily as a conceptual design and in early-stage prototypes described in research discussions.