Virtual chunks
A virtual dataset leaves the original files untouched in object storage and keeps a tiny manifest mapping each logical chunk to its (file, offset, length). The reader pulls the manifest, then range-GETs only the bytes it needs, instead of downloading whole files and throwing most of them away. Same idea, two very different archive formats:
Query the archive in place
NetCDF / GRIB files
A pile of NetCDF or GRIB files in object storage. A native reader downloads whole files to grab a small slice; virtual chunks range-GET just the chunks the query touches.
Open visualization →Read one region of a giant slide
Whole-slide microscopy (NDPI / TIFF)
A gigapixel pathology slide, mostly empty background. A whole-slide reader downloads the entire file to crop one tissue region; virtual chunks read only that region, one tile-row at a time, and the image fills in as it arrives.
Open visualization →