What is cloud storage?

What is cloud storage?

Cloud storage allows you to store data and files in an off-site location that you can access either over the public internet or through a dedicated connection to a private network. The third-party cloud provider becomes responsible for the data you transfer off-site. The provider hosts, provides, manages and maintains the servers and associated infrastructure, ensuring you can access your data whenever you need it.

Cloud storage provides a cost-effective and scalable alternative to storing files on local hard drives or storage networks. Computer hard drives can only store finite amounts of data. When users run out of storage space, they must transfer files to an external storage device. Traditionally, organizations have built and maintained storage area networks (SANs) to archive data and files. Maintaining SANs is costly because as data storage grows, companies must invest in adding servers and infrastructure to meet the increased demand.

Cloud storage services provide elasticity, meaning you can increase capacity as your data volumes increase or dial-up capacity as needed. By storing data in the cloud, your organization saves money by paying for storage technology and capacity as a service, rather than investing in the capital costs of building and maintaining internal storage networks. You only pay for the exact capacity you use. While your costs may increase over time to account for higher data volumes, you don't need to overprovision storage networks in anticipation of increased data volumes.

How does it work?

Like local storage networks, cloud storage uses servers to store data; however, the data is sent to servers in off-site locations. Most of the servers you use are virtual machines hosted on a physical server. As your storage needs increase, the provider creates new virtual servers to meet the demand.

Typically, you connect to cloud storage either over the internet or through a dedicated private connection, using a web portal, web or mobile app. The server you connect to forwards your data to a pool of servers located in one or more data centers, depending on the size of the cloud provider's operation.

Within a service, providers typically store the same data on multiple computers for redundancy. That way, if your server goes down for maintenance or experiences an outage, you will still have access to your data.

Cloud storage is available in private, public and hybrid clouds.

• Public storage clouds: in this model, you connect over the internet to a storage cloud that is maintained by the cloud provider and used by other companies. Providers typically make services available from almost any device, including smartphones and desktops, and allow you to scale up and down as needed.
• Private cloud storage: private cloud storage setups typically replicate the cloud model, but reside on your network and use a physical server to create virtual server instances to increase capacity. You can choose to take full control of your on-premises private cloud or engage your cloud storage provider to build a dedicated private cloud that you can access using a private connection. Organizations that may prefer private cloud storage include banks or retail companies because of the private nature of the data they process and store.
• Hybrid cloud storage: this model combines elements of private and public clouds, giving organisations a choice of which data to store in which cloud. For example, highly regulated data subject to strict archiving and replication requirements is usually better suited to a private cloud environment, while less sensitive data (such as email that does not contain trade secrets) can be stored in a public cloud. Some organisations use hybrid clouds to complement their internal storage networks with public cloud storage.

Advantages and disadvantages

As with any other cloud technology, cloud storage offers some distinct advantages. But it also raises some concerns for companies, primarily due to security and administrative controls.

Benefits

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The benefits of cloud storage include:

• Off-site management: your cloud provider takes responsibility for the maintenance and protection of your stored data. This relieves your staff of storage-related tasks such as acquisition, installation, management and maintenance. This allows your employees to focus on other priorities.
• Fast implementation: using a cloud service speeds up the process of setting up and adding your storage capabilities. With cloud storage, you can get your service up and running in a matter of hours or days, depending on how much capacity is involved.
• Cost-effective: as mentioned, you pay for the capacity you use. This allows your organisation to treat the cost of cloud storage as an ongoing operating expense rather than a capital expenditure with associated upfront investment and tax implications.
• Scalability: growth constraints are one of the most serious limitations of local storage. With cloud storage, you can scale as much as you need. Capacity is virtually unlimited.
• Business continuity: off-site data storage supports business continuity if a natural disaster or terrorist attack cuts off access to your premises.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages of cloud storage include the following:

• Security: security issues are common with cloud services. Cloud storage providers try to secure their infrastructure using the latest technologies and practices, but occasionally breaches have occurred, causing problems for users.
• Administrative control: the ability to view, access and move data at will is another common problem with cloud resources. Offloading maintenance and administration to a third party offers benefits, but can also limit your control over your data.
• Latency: delays in transferring data to the cloud can occur due to congestion, especially when using a shared public internet connection. However, companies can minimize latency by increasing the bandwidth of the connection.
• Compliance: some industries, such as healthcare and finance, must comply with strict privacy and archiving regulations that may prevent companies from using cloud storage for certain types of files, such as medical and investment records. If you can, choose a cloud storage provider that supports compliance with any industry regulations affecting your business.

Cloud storage for business

A variety of cloud storage services are available for almost every type of business - anything from sole proprietorships to large enterprises.

If you run a small business, cloud storage might make sense, especially if you don't have the resources or skills to manage the storage yourself. Cloud storage can also help with budget planning by making storage costs predictable and giving you the ability to scale as the business grows.

If you work in a larger enterprise (such as a manufacturing company, financial services, or a retail chain with dozens of locations), you may need to regularly transfer hundreds of gigabytes of data for storage. In these cases, you should work with an established cloud storage provider that can handle your volumes. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate your own agreements with providers to get the best value.

Security

Cloud storage security is a serious concern, especially if your organisation handles sensitive data such as credit card information and medical records. You want to make sure your data is protected from cyber threats using the most up-to-date methods available. You'll want layered security solutions that include endpoint protection, content and email filtering, and threat analytics, as well as best practices that include regular updates and patches. And you need well-defined access and authentication policies.

Most cloud storage providers offer basic security measures that include access control, user authentication and data encryption. Ensuring that these measures are in place is particularly important when confidential business files, personal records and intellectual property are involved. Data that is subject to compliance may require enhanced protection, so you need to check that your chosen provider is compliant with all relevant regulations.

Whenever data travels, it is vulnerable to security risks. You share responsibility for the security of data going to cloud storage. Companies can minimize risks by encrypting data in motion and using a dedicated private connection (instead of the public internet) to connect to the cloud storage provider.

Backup

Backing up your data is just as important as security. Businesses need to back up their data so they can access copies of files and applications - and prevent business interruption - if data is lost due to a cyber-attack, natural disaster or human error.

Cloud backup and recovery services have been popular since the early days of cloud solutions. Like the cloud storage itself, you access the service over a public internet or private connection. Cloud backup and recovery services free up organizations from the tasks associated with regularly replicating important business data so that it is readily available if you ever need it due to data loss caused by a natural disaster, cyber attack, or unintentional user error.

Cloud backup offers businesses the same benefits as storage - cost efficiency, scalability and ease of access. One of the most attractive features of cloud backup is automation. Asking users to continually back up their own data yields mixed results, as some users always put it off or forget about it. This creates a situation where data loss is inevitable. With automatic backups, you can decide how often to back up your data, whether it's daily, hourly, or whenever new data is introduced to your network.

Offsite data backup in the cloud offers another advantage: remoteness. A building hit by a natural disaster, terrorist attack or other calamities could lose local backup systems, making it impossible to recover lost data. Off-premise backup provides insurance against such an event.

Servers

Cloud storage servers are virtual servers - software-defined servers that emulate physical servers. A physical server can host multiple virtual servers, making it easier to provide cloud storage solutions to multiple customers. The use of virtual servers increases efficiency because physical servers otherwise typically operate at a lower capacity, meaning that some of their computing power is wasted.

This approach allows cloud storage providers to offer pay-as-you-go cloud storage and charge only for the storage capacity you consume. When your cloud storage servers reach capacity, the cloud provider will spin up another server and increase capacity - or let you spin up another virtual machine yourself.