The difficult points of combining cloud computing with data storage

In real life, we will store most of our savings in banks or entrust financial institutions to manage them. At the same time, there will be a certain amount of money in the wallet, has been a rainy. In fact, this is the cloud storage implementation model. In cloud storage, a common storage center, such as a data storage server on a network, is used to store enterprise data like a bank. At the same time, some of the more commonly used data will be stored locally (this is like the user's wallet) to facilitate the user's use. This is the rationale behind the combination of cloud computing and data storage. The idea is good. But the concrete realization, still has certain difficulty. The author analyzes some difficult points in this article for reference.

First, the data entrusted to the third party management, enterprises at ease?

When the bank first appeared, few people were willing to store the data in the bank. Even now, if there is any sign of trouble (such as a bank is going to fail), depositors will take the money out of the bank. That is to say, there is a certain risk that money exists in the bank. and user acceptance of the bank has a process. In fact, cloud storage also has this concern. For most enterprises, customer information, product information and other aspects of information, are the source of enterprise survival. Will they store the data on a third party? Do they worry about the risk of information leaks? If you want the enterprise to accept the cloud storage product, then the supplier should let the user dispel this concern first. Allow users to believe that the data stored in them is secure and will not be acquired by unauthorized third parties.

But let the enterprise accept this information has certain difficulty. In fact, early SaaS applications and cloud storage have a certain similarity. is to store the data on the third side. But the implementation of SaaS is not widely accepted by enterprise users. One important reason is that companies are concerned about sensitive business data being leaked by third parties. In fact, from a certain point of view, now enterprise users of private information to the leakage of abhorrence. Even government information, such as examinee information, will be traded as a commodity. Who can guarantee that the information stored on the third party will not be bought and sold? In fact, from the point of view of data security, it includes three levels. The first is the security of data transmission, the other is the security when it is saved, and the third is the security of data management. Where the security of transmission, with the current security technology should not have problems. Data storage security, through data backup technology will not be overlooked. The enterprise is more concerned about the security of data management. To put it simply, other people (such as the space provider's employees) are able to access specific business data and then sell the data. This is not only a technical problem, but also a management problem. Now private information is often sold as a commodity. This kind of event is many, the enterprise user also has the more big worry to this. This is understandable.

Under the pressure of all kinds of reality, let the enterprise user rest assured the data to the third party to manage, this has certain difficulty. This is the first trust issue that needs to be addressed when promoting cloud storage products. Cloud storage products should be from technology and management, let users rest assured that their data stored on your side.

Second, the stability of the connection between the internal network and the external networks.

The enterprise stores most of the data on the storage servers on the Internet. When you need a data, you may want to interact with the server on the Internet. This means that the internal network has a good stability with the connection to the external network. But to improve this stability is a certain degree of difficulty.

Like banks, securities and other financial institutions, they require the availability of the network to more than 99%. But to achieve this stability, a certain amount of investment is required. In the case of network components, the redundancy of the network needs to be considered. Simply put, they are connected to the head office or superior network, there are multiple paths. When the primary network path fails, it automatically switches to the secondary network. With redundant networks, the availability of the network can be greatly improved. But are most companies able to use redundant network design? I'm afraid not. Because more than one network path means that businesses need extra investment. According to the author's understanding, most enterprises are now using a single network path. When this network fails (such as optical fiber because of the construction is dug up) and other reasons, resulting in network interruption. At this point, if the enterprise needs to use a data, it can not be obtained from the cloud storage server on the Internet.

This can be avoided if the data is stored locally. Even if the internal network of the enterprise fails because of virus or other reasons, the network administrator can solve the overtime work quickly. In other words, the initiative is in the hands of the enterprise.

China's domestic internet stability compared to the United States and other countries, there is a certain gap. This is also a difficult point in the domestic promotion of cloud storage solutions. Now some manufacturers in the promotion of network-related products, in the contract will add an exemption clause: because the network failure caused by business failure of enterprises are not responsible. It can also be seen from here that the stability of network connections increases the risk of using cloud storage products. To this end, according to the author's understanding, many IT leaders would rather spend their own money to buy equipment, the data stored within the enterprise. Also unwilling to store data on the Internet. It is difficult for it leaders to ensure the stability of the network, and when the network fails, enterprise users will blame them. So the IT person is not willing to be the scapegoat.

Therefore, the author thinks that this is the second difficulty encountered in the process of popularizing cloud storage products. In the cloud storage solution, it is necessary to take into account the factors of network stability and provide some preventive measures beforehand. If a full copy of the data is also provided locally in the enterprise, and so on.

Iii. the question of costs.

The essence of cloud storage is that the server provider provides a space on the network, and then the enterprise rents their space to store the data. There is bound to be a cost in this midst. It's like doing business in a bank, you need to pay a certain fee. But now the price of bank fees, the sound has caused a lot of complaints. In this context, if the enterprise choose cloud storage products, it will consider whether the future costs will also increase the price? Wait until most enterprises begin to accept the cloud storage products, the price of the initiative will be on the supplier side? In this case, if in the long run, IT managers need to consider, their own investment and rental space, in the end which is cost-effective?

To this end, space suppliers often need to make a commitment to future costs. such as rental costs within the next 10 years. In practical work, there is uncertainty in the future. For server hardware, it is generally difficult to use 10 years. If the purchase cost of hardware in the future increases, how can this extra cost be handled? is passed on to the enterprise or their own digestion? These elements will affect the future space rental costs. Because of the uncertain factors in the future, it is difficult to make the budget of this cost better.

To this end, the author believes that the cost is also affecting whether the enterprise accept cloud storage of this product is an important factor. The cost is too high the enterprise may think that it is cost-effective to deploy. And the cost is too low, it is difficult to provide long-term, stable high-quality services.

The last thing to say is that today's cloud storage is typically used in conjunction with virtualized storage. Simply put, the cloud storage space is divided into relatively independent areas through virtualization, and then leased to enterprise users. In this way, the interference between them can be reduced. This means that the risks associated with virtualization technology also need to be considered when considering the challenges of cloud storage. Simply put, space providers are advocating how high their servers are configured. But businesses need to be aware that this server is not for your family to use. But there are a lot of users to use at the same time. It's like 3G technology. Some experts point out that 3G users, the network speed is good. But by the time the number of users is large, the performance will plummet. There are also concerns about cloud storage. When the number of users increases and the server provider does not improve the device, it means that resources are needed to share the server between multiple users. The performance of user data access is also reduced. This is also a risk factor that enterprises need to consider when choosing to use cloud storage products.