l Accessibility – Is the data available from multiple locations? l Security and privacy – Is the data secured from tampering or third-party access? Does the legal jurisdiction where the service is provided meet privacy requirements?
l Refresh – Since technology rarely lasts a century, can the data be easily retrieved and moved to another storage medium in the future?
Cloud storage can offer many advantages, not only lower costs, but also reduced chargebacks to business units. l A public cloud can help turn capital expenses into operating expenses. Organizations can shift the burden of meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and compliance to a service provider.
l A hybrid cloud solution allows managing backups to local, public, and/or private clouds to meet the varying requirements of cost, availability, latency, and security. It allows different models for different regions of the world or business units to comply with regulatory, compliance, or legal requirements.
l A private cloud has the potential to significantly reduce data and backup management costs.
l With cloud storage, users avoid overbuying capacity to lessen their risk of running out of capacity, which provides a “quick fix” but at a higher price.
l Cloud solutions can provide superior geographic latency, data protection, and recovery levels for certain distributed applications.
Other Applications for Cloud Storage The examples above show some common themes when
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evaluating a cloud solution, but there are also many other applications for cloud storage. When assessing the viability of a cloud solution, consider the following business uses that also apply: l Utility model – Does the cloud provider recognize the key role of storage in cloud provisioning?
l Non-intrusive/non-disruptive change – Is it easy and cost effective to change existing infrastructures to cloud storage, and does the cloud provider offer vendor-neutral support for various platforms?
l Rapid, flexible provisioning – Can the cloud solution quickly and non-disruptively expand, shrink, provision, and de provision storage on demand?
l Universal access – Can the cloud solution store any type of application data and provide access through any standard network access protocols?
l Autonomic – Does the cloud solution provide always-on operation, zero- to low-touch administration, fully automated management, and data mobility?
l Secure and protected data – Does the cloud solution provide controlled access to data with adequate privacy and security? Is the data protection policy widely enforced?
l Self-service – Does the cloud solution provide on-demand provisioning of capacity with pre-assigned service levels and application- and OS-consistent restores?
l Measured service – Can the cloud solution meter SLAs and provide capacity reports? Is chargeback and billing available and in understandable units for managing user costs?
In summary, cloud storage will prove its worth if it supports business as usual, but better.
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