text: **11.3 Transparent Cloud Tiering**
  
  Introduced in V7.8, Transparent Cloud Tiering is a function of IBM Spectrum Virtualize that 
  uses IBM FlashCopy mechanisms to produce a*point-in-time*snapshot of the data. 
  Transparent Cloud Tiering helps to increase the flexibility to protect and transport data to 
  public or private cloud infrastructure. This technology is built on top of IBM Spectrum 
  Virtualize software capabilities. Transparent Cloud Tiering uses the cloud to store snapshot 
  targets and provides alternatives to restore snapshots from the private and public cloud of an 
  entire volume or set of volumes. 
  
  Transparent Cloud Tiering can help to solve business needs that require duplication of data of 
  your source volume. Volumes can remain online and active while you create snapshot copies 
  of the data sets. Transparent Cloud Tiering operates below the host operating system and its 
  cache. Therefore, the copy is not apparent to the host. 
  
  IBM Spectrum Virtualize has built-in software algorithms that allow the Transparent Cloud 
  Tiering function to securely interact, for example with Information Dispersal Algorithms (IDA), 
  which is essentially the interface to IBM Cloud Object Storage. 
  
  *Object storage*refers to the entity in which IBM Cloud Object Storage organizes, manages, 
  and stores units of data. To transform these snapshots of traditional data into object storage, 
  the storage nodes and the IDA import the data and transform it into a number of metadata 
  and slices. The object can be read by using a subset of those slices. 