More commonly known as “The Cloud”, cloud storage is a model of computer data storage where the digital data is stored in logical pools managed by specific hosting companies that provide physical storage is in multiple servers. These providers’ main responsibility is to keep the data available and accessible to you as the owner of the uploaded data to the cloud at all times and make sure that the physical environment housing your important data is secured and protected.
The Cloud may be accessed through a co-located cloud computing service, a web service application programming interface (API), or by applications that use the API, such as cloud desktop storage, a cloud storage gateway, or Web-based content management systems.
The Cloud is often used because it is easily accessible for larger companies with a wider presence all over the world, teams can collaborate, share, store and keep company data in a place where anyone from all parts of the world can easily have access to.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF USING CLOUD STORAGE?
- You will only pay for the storage that you actually use, typically an average of consumption during a month, quarter, or year. This does not make cloud storage less expensive, it simply incurs operating expenses rather than capital expenses.
- Using cloud storage cut energy consumption by up to 70% hence making your business a green business.
- You have the option of opting for off or on-premises cloud storage options, or a mixture of the two options, depending on which complements the initial direct cost savings potential; like the continuity of operations, disaster recovery, security, and records retention laws, regulations, and policies for example.
- The additional technology, effort, and cost to add data protection and availability can be eliminated.
- You can offload the responsibility of storage maintenance tasks, like purchasing additional storage capacity to a service provider.
- You will be provided with immediate access to a broad range of resources and applications hosted in the infrastructure of another organization via a web service interface.
- Cloud storage can be used for copying virtual machine images from the cloud to on-premises locations or to import a virtual machine image from an on-premises location to the cloud image library. In addition, cloud storage can be used to move virtual machine images between user accounts or between data centers.
- Cloud storage can be used as a natural disaster-proof backup, as normally there are 2 or 3 different backup servers located in different places around the globe.
- Cloud storage can be mapped as a local drive with the WebDAV protocol. It can function as a central file server for organizations with multiple office locations.
ARE THERE RISKS TO USING CLOUD STORAGE?
Data Security
Outsourcing data storage can increase the occurrences of attack surface area.
Longevity
Companies are not permanent and the services and products they provide can change. Outsourcing data storage to another company needs careful investigation and nothing is ever certain. Contracts set in stone can be worthless when a company ceases to exist or its circumstances change.
Accessibility
Reliability and availability depend on wide area network availability and on the level of precautions taken by the service provider. Reliability should be based on hardware as well as various algorithms used.
Other Concerns
- Security of stored data and data in transit may be a concern when storing sensitive data at a cloud storage provider
- Users with specific record-keeping requirements, such as public agencies that must retain electronic records according to statute, may encounter complications with using cloud computing and storage. For instance, the U.S. Department of Defense designated the Defense Information Systems Agency to maintain a list of records management products that meet all of the records retention, personally identifiable information, and security requirements
- Cloud storage is a rich resource for both hackers and national security agencies. Because the cloud holds data from many different users and organizations, hackers see it as a very valuable target.
- Piracy and copyright infringement may be enabled by sites that permit filesharing. For example, the CodexCloud ebook storage site has faced litigation from the owners of the intellectual property uploaded and shared there, as have the GrooveShark and YouTube sites it has been compared to.
- The legal aspect, from a regulatory compliance standpoint, is of concern when storing files domestically and especially internationally.
- The resources used to produce large data centers, especially those needed to power them, are causing nations to drastically increase their energy production. This leads to further climate-damaging implications.
OTHER OPTIONS
There are several options available to avoid such issues. One option is to use a private cloud instead of a public cloud (there are as well providers that offer private cloud storage). Another option is to ingest data in an encrypted format where the key is held within your on-premise infrastructure. Access is often by use of cloud storage gateways that are on-premise. Such gateways have options not only to encrypt and compress the data prior to transfer but as well mirror the storage across multiple cloud storage providers and remove the risk of a single provider’s shutdown. Gateways offer as well the option to cache data on a most recently used algorithm on-premise. Along with data analytics data is cached and fetched on a most valuable form instead of a recently used only form.