Cloud storage is defined as a data deposit model in which digital information such as documents, photos, videos and other forms of media are stored on virtual or cloud servers hosted by third parties. It allows you to transfer data on an offsite storage system and access them whenever needed. This article delves into the basics of cloud storage.
What Is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage is a data deposit model in which digital information such as documents, photos, videos and other forms of media are stored on virtual or cloud servers hosted by third parties. It allows you to transfer data on an offsite storage system and access them whenever needed.
How Cloud Storage Works
Cloud storage works as a virtual data center. It offers end users and applications virtual storage infrastructure that can be scaled to the application’s requirements. It generally operates via a web-based API implemented remotely through its interaction with in-house cloud storage infrastructure.
Cloud storage includes at least one data server to which a user can connect via the internet. The user sends files to the data server, which forwards the message to multiple servers, manually or in an automated manner, over the internet. The stored data can then be accessed via a web-based interface.
To ensure the constant availability of data, cloud storage systems involve large numbers of data servers. Therefore, if a server requires maintenance or fails, the user can be assured that the data has been moved elsewhere to ensure availability.
Types of Cloud Storage
Cloud services have made it possible for anyone to store digital data and access it from anywhere. This means that cloud storage is essentially a virtual hard drive. From saving important data such as word document, and video files, to accessing the cloud to process complex data and run applications – cloud storage is a versatile system. To decide which is the best cloud storage, the user needs to determine their use case/s first. Let’s look at the different types of cloud storage solutions:
1. Private cloud storage
Private cloud storage is also known as enterprise or internal cloud storage. Data is stored on the company or organization’s intranet in this case. This data is protected by the company’s own firewall. Private cloud storage is a great option for companies with expensive data centers and can manage data privacy in-house. A major advantage of saving data on a private cloud is that it offers complete control to the user. On the other hand, one of the major drawbacks of private cloud storage is the cost and effort of maintenance and updates. The responsibility of managing private cloud storage lies with the host company.
2. Public cloud storage
Public cloud storage requires few administrative controls and can be accessed online by the user and anyone else who the user authorizes. With public cloud storage, the user/company doesn’t need to maintain the system. Public cloud storage is hosted by different solution providers, so there’s very little opportunity for customizing the security fields, as they are common for all users, Amazon Web Services IBM Cloud, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are a few popular public cloud storage solution providers. Public cloud storage is easily scalable, affordable, reliable and offers seamless monitoring and zero maintenance.
3. Hybrid cloud storage
Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of private and public cloud storage. As the name suggests, hybrid cloud storage offers the best of both worlds to the user – the security of a private cloud and the personalization of a public cloud. In a hybrid cloud, data can be stored on the private cloud, and information processing tasks can be assigned to the public cloud as well, with the help of cloud computing services. Hybrid cloud storage is affordable and offers easy customization and greater user control.
4. Community cloud storage
Community cloud storage is a variation of the private cloud storage model, which offers cloud solutions for specific businesses or communities. In this model, cloud storage providers offer their cloud architecture, software and other development tools to meet the community’s requirements. Any data is stored on the community-owned private cloud storage to manage the community’s security and compliance needs. Community cloud storage is a great option for health, financial or legal companies with strict compliance policies.
Benefits and Challenges of Cloud Storage Adoption
The cloud is rapidly becoming the storage environment of choice for enterprises. 30% Opens a new window of all corporate data was stored on the cloud in 2015, which increased to 50% in 2020. The cloud storage market has also grown in tandem and is expected to be worth $137.3 billion by 2025, as per Markets and Markets. This is because the cloud offers several benefits over traditional on-premise storage systems.
Benefits of cloud storage
- Flexibility and ease of access: Cloud storage means that your data is not tied down to any one location. Various stakeholders can access assets stored on the cloud from a location and device of their choice without any download or installation hassles.
- Remote management support: Cloud storage also paves the way for remote management either by internal IT teams or by managed service providers. They can troubleshoot without being present on-site, speeding up issue resolution.
- Fast scalability: A major benefit of cloud storage is that you can provision new resources with only a few clicks without the need for any additional infrastructure. When faced with an unprecedented increase in data volumes, this feature aids business continuity.
- Redundancy for backup: Data redundancy (i.e., replicating the same data in multiple locations) is essential for an effective backup mechanism. The cloud ensures your data is kept secure in a remote location in case of a natural disaster, accident, or cyberattack.
- Long-term cost savings: In the long-term, cloud storage can save you significantly in the costs of hardware equipment storage facilities, power supply, and personnel, which are sure to multiply as your organization grows.
Challenges of cloud storage
While there are undeniable advantages of adopting cloud storage, there are a few cons to remember as well. By navigating these cons or challenges, you can arrive at a pragmatic cloud storage strategy that maximizes its benefits.
- Risk of vendor lock-in: If all your data is stored in a single public cloud platform, there’s a risk of vendor lock-in and potential inflexibilities. Address this with a hybrid or multi-cloud blueprint where there is sufficient interoperability between environments.
- Security issues around multi-tenancy: Public cloud environments are shared by multiple tenants, which can multiply your security vulnerabilities. You can prevent this through cloud data protection and by leveraging the private cloud for sensitive data.
- Fragmentation of IT landscape: Unplanned cloud storage adoption can cause your IT landscape to become fragmented over time. That’s why you need a detailed strategic blueprint outlining your short, mid, and long-term cloud roadmap.
- Outage and downtime risk: Cloud platforms managed by external providers could suffer from an outage, rendering the data and applications stored in these environments inaccessible. Service level agreements should specify downtime metrics, and you need additional redundancy for your most critical data.
- Short-term budget overruns: Cloud cost worries are extremely common, where data storage and storage processes occupy more space than estimated. A cloud resource management tool can help address this, giving you visibility and control.
Selecting the right cloud storage provider
Let’s look at the most critical aspects businesses need to consider when selecting a cloud storage provider.
- Storage space: The amount of data a business processes determines the requirement for storage space. A small organization (around 250 employees) could opt for public cloud storage services, which offer employees storage space of over 15 GB each. It is recommended to compare various public cloud storage pricing plans before signing the deal.
- Maintenance & uptime: Cloud servers need to be maintained to make sure the data stored is secure. However, downtimes and network failure can occur anytime. Therefore, understanding the maintenance and uptime needed by cloud service providers is essential. Organizations should ask their chosen cloud service providers to demonstrate their downtime plans and run checks before buying any cloud solution.
- Security: If data is compromised, then cloud storage comes in handy as a useful backup. There is no guarantee, however, that cloud storage providers are safe from security threats.. Understanding the security measures in place at the cloud storage provider is important. Two main factors need to be considered for security: the physical security of the cloud solution provider’s servers and the level of encryption applied to the data stored.
Cloud storage is a cloud computing model that allows users to save important data or media files on remote, third-party servers. Users can access these servers at any time over the internet. Also known as utility storage, cloud storage is maintained and operated by a cloud-based service provider.
From greater accessibility to data backup, cloud storage offers a host of benefits. The most notable being large storage capacity and minimal costs. Cloud storage delivers on-demand and eliminates the need to purchase and manage your own data storage infrastructure. With “anytime, anywhere” data access, this gives you agility, global scale and durability.