Sending off data to the cloud?
Think long and hard before you do that and consult with your local IT support firm.
With Amazon’s cloud services facing problems lately and four cloud storage service providers declaring their closure over the past year, relying on the cloud for storing all your data wouldn’t be such a good idea without making sure you have backup copies and some sort of comfort level with your providers.
This issue brings along with it some major questions. What will happen to your data when your cloud service provider closes down? Will you be able to retrieve the data? Basically, there is no set standard for provisioning a migration strategy of customer data from one service provider’s cloud to another yet. If your service goes down, you will have to get your data back from the service provider and find another one.
Even if you ask your cloud vendor to delete your data, it will take some months for the data to be deleted. But, there is an alternative. The Technical Work Group at the Storage Networking Industry Association is currently working on bringing out an API called Cloud Data Management Interface with the help of which providers will be able to migrate customer data from one vendor’s cloud to another. It has been predicted that over the next several years, nearly three out of four cloud storage companies that were established in the recent years will face difficult times; so this development is likely to become important in the industry.
You could also opt for hybrid options. Some popular service providers out there have been providing the service called hybrid storage cloud in which an appliance is placed at the customer’s site where backup data is stored first, and only then is the data replicated off to a cloud storage service provider. Nasuni, StorSimple and TwinStrata are some providers that offer this kind of service.
The cloud is gaining momentum, and many business owners are becoming aware of what cloud technologies can do for their business. Our role as your trusted technology advisor is to help your business make the decisions and have a technology plan that meets your business requirements. Talk to us today for a no obligation discussion about all of our services.