Vista: a microstorage architecture that implements file systems and object databases

Vista is a system for storing, retrieving and manipulating data that supports a new generation of applications that provide more powerful features for end users. Vista does not directly implement these end user features, but it provides technology that allows applications to easily implement them. To understand the design of Vista, it is important to first understand these end user features. Although most of these features can be implemented in a file system, they are not simply extensions to files. They also apply to other storage models, and some fit more closely with other, more powerful, storage models. Vista and the microstorage architecture extends the popular idea of separating policy from mechanism to storage architectures by separating the storage model from the underlying storage mechanism. Until now, file systems, databases, and object stores were viewed as separate systems with their own semantics and implementation. Data in one system could not be used in another, and applications were designed to work with only one system. Vista unifies these system, by implementing them on a common substrate so they share data seamlessly. In Vista, different applications or different parts of the same application may use different storage models to manipulate the same data