The advice for choosing the best cloud storage for consumers does not apply if you are a large SMB with sensitive information or a business. Why not? Because cloud storage is complex, there are many factors to consider when choosing the best option for your business.
Of course, some consumers are even considering free Managed Storage Services. This is clearly not an option for a company with a heavy load on the storage platform.
Companies should consider factors such as:
- Compliance
- Security
- Management
- Cost
- Performance
- Scalability
- SLAs
Additionally, the interactions between each of these factors play an important role in business cloud storage decisions. Let's take a look at ten key factors that will help you make the right choice for your growing online storage.
1. Investigate supplier safety
Customers often assume that because the cloud provider has a well-established name and a strong market presence, their data is highly protected. Of course, companies like AWS, Azure, and IBM spend huge resources on data protection, just like any cloud provider with a long work to do.
Because ISPs spend a significant amount of money on qualified personnel and security measures, they are often even more secure than many of their customers' data centers.
However, don't assume. Ask about cyber and physical security measures - is your data center certified for both? Do you operate redundant data centers in distant regions? How about encrypting data using customer keys?
2. Know the availability and reliability policy of your provider.
Cloud providers typically report an uptime of 99.9% or more. Clouds are created using redundant architectures to ensure good data reliability. However, what is acceptable for cold storage may not be acceptable for mission-critical live data. The options you choose for your mission-critical e-commerce platform on AWS will be more expensive and more efficient than paying Azure for your cold blob storage. Know why you are paying and why.
Also keep in mind that even the best cloud companies can manipulate their numbers to prove their point. Google, for example, said it had the best uptime in 2016 compared to AWS and Azure. Microsoft, in turn, said that because it has many more regions than Google, the actual number will not be the total uptime, but the average uptime for each region.
3. Check your bandwidth.
How fast can you transfer your data? Cloud service providers are investing heavily in high-performance computing platforms and, to a lesser extent, cold or cold storage. But they have little or no control over customer bandwidth, so customers must decide whether their WAN can achieve levels of performance and security for data in flight.
Depending on the types of workloads you are moving, your software may or may not contain built-in WAN acceleration. Backup software generally provides software-based acceleration, but software can only do this in low-bandwidth environments. Match your bandwidth to your SLAs and if you need to buy more bandwidth.
4. Explore management tools.
Different customers need different levels of self-service. Self-management is not necessarily the best or cheapest option, but it may be necessary to meet corporate governance requirements.
Most vendors offer management software and support third-party software. Check out the options available for management and support tools. Also remember how much additional training or staff you may need to use self-management tools effectively.
5. Consider a multiple cloud
Some cloud computing customers start with one provider and continue adding services with that provider, effectively keeping all of their data in a single cloud repository. This is rarely a strategic choice; simply the ease of subscribing to additional services from a well-known provider.
However, its only real advantage is familiarity. No cloud provider can optimize all types of workloads. This is why many companies are already investing in multi-cloud portfolios that combine workloads and business needs with vendor experiences.
A common strategy is to launch a hybrid cloud to extend and protect a private cloud, one or two megaclaks, and another cloud for file sharing or data protection / failover services. Managing multiple clouds requires a little more attention, but can provide better service at a lower cost for different applications and data.
No comments:
Post a Comment