How to choose the right cloud storage scheme for the enterprise

The increasing acceptance of cloud storage has led to a proliferation of alternative cloud storage. Beyond the variety of features and attributes, new cloud storage consumption patterns have emerged, simplifying the integration with existing information technologies. Given these advances, it is likely to be the right time for organizations to better understand the various attributes, cost points, and integration options provided by the cloud storage when considering the next data store purchase.

From the outset, the basic principles of cloud storage are already creating a model of data storage. This includes Pay-as-you-go pricing, on-demand access to unlimited capacity, multi-site reliability, and close to zero maintenance-both simplifying relatively cumbersome and administratively intensive it functions. As cloud storage evolves, different attributes and price points fill the perceptual gaps in the original product, simplifying them and enabling businesses to cloud their existing storage infrastructure.

More Flavor of cloud storage

With Amazon's announcement last week on glacier, there are many different kinds of cloud storage that businesses can use to expand their internal storage capacity, each with a tightly matched set of use cases:

(1) Standard cloud storage: This is the traditional cloud storage provided by many shipping providers, typically replicating between three or more data centers to consolidate usability. Online data access is instantaneous, with network latency based on the speed of the hard disk. Availability levels apply to master data.

(2) Reduce redundant cloud storage: the derivatives of this standard cloud storage provide lower levels of redundancy and availability. Data may be stored in 1 to 2 data centers instead of 3 or more, which lowers the overall cost. For organizations or applications that use cloud storage for secondary or third data replication, it makes sense to avoid paying extra redundancy for standard cloud storage. Backups stored locally and remotely in the cloud are typical use cases.

(3) deep-archived cloud storage: The branch of this standard cloud storage significantly reduces the accessibility of online data. While spending savings are important, there is a price to pay in the long visit, which will result in a few hours of recovery data. Amazon is the first to try to launch this capability with glacier at a price point that is below standard cloud storage. See if this compelling price point is enough to offset the much reduced, tape-like accessibility. One obvious use case for this type of cloud storage is tape replacement.

SSD cloud storage can quickly become the fourth type of cloud storage, providing performance improvements, primarily for cloud deployments of storage sites near the application. However, I overlooked the addition of this type because SSD is almost not helping to address larger network latency in the context of deploying cloud storage in a local environment.