Implementing, Serving, and Using Cloud Storage Part 1
BY MEMBERS OF THE SNIA CLOUD STORAGE INITIATIVE.
Organizations of all types are trying to control costs and satisfy increasing demands at the same time - demands created by explosive data growth and ever- changing regulations. To address these challenges, storage industry professionals are turning to cloud computing and cloud storage solutions. Part 1 of a two-part article written by members of the SNIA Cloud Storage Initiative: Greg Kleiman, former CSI Educaion Chair, NetApp; Alex McDonald, CSI Education Chair, NetApp; Marie McMinn, SNIA Business Partner and Contractor; Phil Mills, CSI member, IBM; Rob Peglar, CSI member, Xiotech and Kingman Tang, CSI Marketing Chair, NetApp.
Cloud computing is not a new technology, but rather, a new business model that encompasses a set of technologies—such as server virtualization—that reduce the cost of using information technology (IT) resources. Cloud computing takes advantage of Web-based mechanisms that allow scalable, virtualized IT resources to be provided as a service over a network. The advantages of cloud storage and other cloud services include “pay as you go” (i.e., billing only for services consumed—no fixed costs), the perception of infinite capacity (elasticity), and the simplicity of use/management.
When virtualized storage is available on demand over a network, organizations are not required to buy or provision storage capacity before storing data. As a result, organizations can save a significant amount of money on storage costs because they typically only pay for the storage that they actually use.
The Business Case for Cloud Storage Forrester research defines cloud computing as “A pool of abstracted, highly scalable, and managed compute infrastructure capable of hosting end-customer applications and billed by consumption (“Is Cloud Computing Ready for the Enterprise?” Forrester Research, Inc.).
From a computing perspective, cloud computing enables organizations with flexible IT environments to reduce capital costs by providing a ‘pay-as-you-go’ service. Pay-as-you-go means that the organizations incur costs for services that they use, not for what they require to sustain peak use.
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From a storage perspective, cloud storage meets a variety of demands. These demands have traditionally been met in one of two ways: by investing in private disk storage—directly attached disks or network connected SAN and NAS systems- or by longer-term retention media, like tape for backup and archiving. Cloud storage promises a more efficient and flexible alternative for a variety of storage use cases—from Web-based media, such as video, audio, and electronic books—to archiving, where compliance, retention, and e-discovery are simplified. New requirements are also evolving, such as storage for cloud computing and cloud-based applications.
To meet these diverse requirements, cloud storage has developed into three major implementations: public, private, and hybrid.
l A public implementation is a secure, multi-tenant environment that is externally available to all users, which increase the efficiency of offering storage capacity through a shared storage infrastructure.
l A private implementation is a secure, single-entity environment, either inside or outside an organization’s firewall. They can be located in an enterprise data center or hosted at a collocation facility that is possibly owned by a third party, like a service provider. Private clouds are designed to take advantage of the flexibility and management simplicity of the cloud model, which means that when cloud storage is implemented, users can set up and manage their own environment.
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