SNIA Europe CLOUD STORAGE INITIATIVE
www.snia-europe.org
“Before investing in cloud storage, providers and users must understand the options for cloud storage and how to create a strong business case. Some obvious and specific use cases that lend themselves to cloud storage include backup, archive, and
application data storage. ”
l A hybrid implementation is a combination of public and private clouds.
DaaS; Data Storage as a Service The terms multi-tenant or multi-tenancy are not new; both have been used to describe application architectures designed to support multiple users—the “tenants”—for many years. With the advent of cloud computing, this terminology has simply been extended to include any cloud architecture. Security in a multi-tenancy environment is essential, covers all aspects of the internal and external environment, and extends from the application through the server, network, and storage layers.
Equally important to the cloud storage provider is the allocation of costs. All types of clouds will require metering and billing—externally provided clouds that are dedicated to a single organization, multi-tenancy clouds, and even internally provided cloud storage (or at least, cross charging to internal business units).
The challenge for cloud providers is to show that cloud computing can meet a potential user’s peak demands without expanding existing facilities and at a price that is less than or equal to the non-cloud alternative.
Applications for Cloud Storage Before investing in cloud storage, providers and users must understand the options for cloud storage and how to create a strong business case. Some obvious and specific use cases that lend themselves to cloud storage include backup, archive, and application data storage.
Backup In all organizations, business-critical data must be secure,
available at short notice, and restorable to a specific time in the past. Traditionally, organizations use backup software and agents on file servers or desktops to back up their data to a mixture of specific disk systems and tape. Using cloud storage, organizations would use the same or similar backup software and agents, but instead, would back up their data to the cloud, which should have sufficient capacity and moderate latency to meet backup and recovery objectives.
Archive Organizations are increasingly being forced to retain larger volumes of data for longer periods, from decades to a century or more. The traditional approach is to back up long-term retention data to an external storage media, often tape, and keep it stored off site. Using cloud storage, backup data may be sent to a cloud archive that provides low-cost, high-capacity archive storage.
Application Data Storage
Business-critical applications and supporting applications require temporary and permanent data storage, which is normally supplied by internal local disk, external local disk, NAS, or SAN. Apart from the challenges posed by backing up user data from a wide variety of disparate sources, application data has stricter access and latency requirements. When moving to the cloud, considerations include: l Cost – Is cloud storage less expensive over time than existing alternatives?
l Capacity and duration – Can the cloud handle the required daily, weekly, and monthly capacities and provide enough capacity for the extended periods that backup data is often held?
l Latency – Is latency low enough to meet the objectives and users expectations, but not so low as to make cloud storage too expensive?
WWW.SNSEUROPE.COM FEBRUARY | 2011
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