Cloud Storage Reality
In addition to the archive use case a rapidly growing use of Cloud Storage is leveraging its geographically dispersed nature for collaboration. No longer do knowledge workers all work at the same giant corporate headquarters, the larger the organization the more locations are involved in various projects and the more collaboration is needed. True Cloud Storage systems should be able to disperse data geographically and then serve up the closest copy of that data when the user needs it. This not only further empowers the mobile workforce but can also reduce costs and increase green initiatives by further enabling the work from home or local hub concepts.
Cloud Storage is Proven
Cloud Storage should no longer be considered an experimental undertaking. Amazon's S3 and Nirvanix have had enterprise class uptime recently. Cloud Storage Software provider Bycast has had deployments since 2002 with real customers such as Banner Health and Orlando Regional Healthcare. Finally the market is being legitimized by the entrance of major storage companies into the market like EMC, and service offerings by Iron Mountain with its Digital Records Center for Medical Images and HP's Medical Archive Solution (MAS) both powered by Bycast Software.
What is Cloud Storage...Really?
The term Cloud Computing and with it Cloud Storage is used to describe many different technologies. What exactly is Cloud Storage? It is a solution made up of software and hardware technologies that when integrated together enable storage to be utilized as ubiquitously as electricity. However instead of plugging into a wall socket for power the user "plugs in" to an intranet or internet to access storage. While this data can be and likely is geographically dispersed, the user accessing this data sees only one unified store. How, where and what the data is stored on happens in the background without user intervention or concern.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Cloud Storage has been helped by the buzz and hype that surrounds it. Suppliers that bring out a Cloud focused storage solution or service seem to get immediate attention. The downside to this hype however is the assumption that the technology is new, unproven and risky. What may come as a surprise to many is that there are several Cloud Storage companies that have been in business for years and have real production customers.
Cloud Storage is Practical
With the increased pressure to contain or even reduce costs, Data Centers large and small are faced with the dilemma of dealing with the one thing that does seem to be recession proof; data growth. Cloud Storage is a practical solution to solve this problem and organizations of all sizes should examine its use. Cloud Storage's primary use case is to serve as an archive for inactive data. This data typically accounts for more than 80% of the storage that an IT department maintains. The movement of this data to a less expensive tier of storage could dramatically reduce costs.
