Data storage has always been the handicap that most organizations grapple with as with each passing day they move to more real time solutions. Magnetic tapes and floppy disks are passé now as data storage solutions have today gone beyond advanced, sophisticated hardware to more virtual storage systems that are of exceptional standards. Cloud computing is in the transition period now, with the small start-ups quickly riding on it while large enterprises are watching it.
Image credit: Agent-x.com.au
Why cloud storage?
Cloud storage is the online access to a pool of storage capacity that multiple tenants, users can access in a utility-method of service. This means the storage resources could be remotely located, similar to electricity grid systems use, with a service charge paid to the service provider. This means that there is no investment on storage devices and no critical logistics of scaling the devices for every stage of growth of the company. You simply increase your requirement for storage with the service provider.
Types of cloud storage
Private and public cloud storage is the most common types of storage that leading cloud storage, service providers presently offer. The differences are in the storage facilities being available behind the firewall of the user or outside of the firewall as in public cloud. Another difference lies in the type of online connection they use. A cloud is essentially a modular self- contained ecosystem that is accessed using different types of interfaces.
Private clouds allow organizations to increase their capacities by adding on the servers. ParaScale Inc and Caringo Inc’s CAStor
are leading service providers in this format. Other leading data storage service providers include NIrvanix Inc, which offers solutions to varied types of data storage.
Limited types of data storage
Analysts predict block-based data storage as well as tier1 and 2 are not truly cloud compatible storage. This is essentially because the cloud is subsecond sensitive and is ideal only for handling large volumes of unstructured data, data that only needs to be archived. Credit card data storage, medical records or mortgage applications make ideal data-types for clouds. The internet link and down time or the latency as it is called, will greatly affect the download and time lag is largely noticeable.
Optimized for these services
As of the present technology available, cloud storage is ideal for data backup, disaster recovery as well as archiving purposes. Ideally, one could store a historic copy of databases on the cloud instead of the SAN/NAS expensive storage facilities.
Cloud Storage is the logical option for data storage management. Every organization’s growth will mean that at each stage the data storage capacities are reworked to offer efficient and optimized resources. Presently, cloud storage offers that solution for easy storage, retrieval as well as archiving for better business solutions. Therefore, cloud storage is an additional storage space presently, but will soon grow to become the better way to data management for its core capabilities will lie in data backup, disaster recovery and archiving.
{module user9-footer}
