Storage-as-a-Service: Cloud Storage Providers

Cloud Storage has been increasing in popularity recently due to many of the same reasons as Cloud Computing.

Cloud Storage delivers virtualized storage on demand, over a network based on a request for a given quality of service (QoS). There is no need to purchase storage or in some cases even provision it before storing data. You only pay for the amount of storage your data is actually consuming.

Storage-as-a-service represents a new way of delivering storage capacity to individuals, businesses and their applications. Cloud storage services generally have two defining characteris­tics:

• Capacity is offered and billed for on an on-demand basis, and
• Storage is provided by and often located at a third-party service provider.

Storage-as-a-service involves the ability for applications to invoke various common reusable functions across heterogeneous storage provided as a service to achieve functions like thin provisioning, replication, de-dupli­cation, tiered storage, virtual tape, etc. Such services are consumed via a consumption-based model, where usage is metered similar to a utility.

Cloud storage is used in many different ways. For example: local data (such as on a laptop) can be backed up to cloud storage; a virtual disk can be “synched” to the cloud and distributed to other computers; and the cloud can be used as an archive to retain (under policy) data for regulatory or other purposes.

At present, cloud storage and online backup, disaster recovery and archiving are distinct services. Over time I expect the boundaries to blur – indeed, many online backup, disaster-recovery and archiving providers are now reinventing themselves as ‘cloud storage’ providers.

Personal Cloud Storage Providers: Dropbox, Box.net and SugarSync

These firms are a new breed of personal or enterprise storage cloud vendors, where your files follow you to whichever device you happen to be working on. These companies include Dropbox, Box.net and SugarSync.

What is the use-case? Pull out your iPad, Android Phone, or iPhone and access your storage folder in the cloud.  All these firms aim is to be “the Internet’s multichannel desktop.”

How does it work? When you download the software to your computer, it creates a folder for placing files you want to access from another computer or the Web. It saves changes when the computer does and relays them–in milliseconds–to the other computers with access to that file.  Each   server is constantly watching millions of computers. Each of these services has hooks into Microsoft, Apple and Linux operating systems.

SugarSync’s services range from $5 a month for 30 GB of storage to $25 for 250 GB, about 25,000 documents, 40,000 photographs and 30,000 songs.  Dropbox members get 2 gigabytes of free storage (roughly 900 average-size photos), then pay $10 a month for up to 50 gigabytes and $20 for 100 gigabytes. Dropbox’s biggest opportunity is with businesses that currently use cumbersome systems to share big, complex files with many workers.

Enterprise Cloud Storage Providers

Cloud Storage delivers virtualized storage on demand, over a network based on a request for a given quality of service (QoS). There is no need to purchase storage or in some cases even provision it before storing data. You only pay for the amount of storage your data is actually consuming.

There are two types of cloud storage providers: (1) stand-alone cloud storage providers; (2) Platform-attached storage providers.

The goal for both is to build a scalable, available and cost efficient storage service that spans multiple data-centers, suitable for typical workloads applicable to large, SME and SMB firms.

By no means comprehensive, this list serves as a primer for some of the established and emerging startups whose offerings range from cloud security and storage to apps and infrastructure.

STAND-ALONE CLOUD STORAGE

VENDOR                         HEADQUARTERS                        PRODUCT
AT&T	Dallas, TX	Synaptic Storage
CSC	Falls Church, VA	CloudExchange
Egnyte	Mountain View, CA	Egnyte Local Cloud
Nasuni	Natick, MA	Nasuni Filer
Nirvanix	San Diego, CA	Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network
PEER 1 Hosting	Vancouver, BC	CloudOne
Swisscom	Worblaufen, Switzerland	Swisscom Cloud Services
Wipro (Infocrossing)	Bangalore, India	Cloud Storage
Zetta	Sunnyvale, CA	Zetta Virtual Volume Online

Example: Nasuni

For businesses still contemplating a move to the cloud, storage can be a double-edged sword. The cloud offers essentially limitless capacity, high redundancy and reliability. But when sensitive data resides in the ether, IT managers worry that they are ceding control over how, when and by whom sensitive information is permanently deleted.

Nasuni offers a “cloud gateway” that seeks to marry the best aspects of cloud and on-premises storage through a partnership with leading cloud-computing providers.

In March 2011, Nasumi augmented its Filer product with a feature dubbed “snapshot retention,” which enables IT managers to set policies governing how long files stored in the cloud should be retained after they are permanently deleted, a boon for compliance-oriented industries such as health care or financial services.

Small, deduped snapshots of a firm’s working filesystem are cached to local storage infrastructure, sending frequent updates to the cloud provider, offering prompt and complete restoration of past versions of files, directories and filesystems. With the snapshot retention feature, the manager can determine at what point a snapshot is irrevocably deleted.

 

PLATFORM-ATTACHED STORAGE

Platform attached storage is deployable, scalable, multi tenant, secure Cloud Storage Platform purpose built for IT Hosters, MSPs, and SaaS providers   to host, deploy and monetize
branded cloud storage solutions for end user customers and on behalf of resellers.

The best known platform attached storage solution is Amazon S3.  The characteristics that made it popular are: simple, straightforward, cheap (upto a point) and robust; support for multiple languages, multiple APIs: REST, SOAP; good developer community/tools; security, Access control.

VENDOR                                       HEADQUARTERS             PRODUCT
Amazon	Seattle, WA	Amazon S3
Arsys	La Rioja, Spain	Cloud Storage
Google	Mountain View, CA	AppEngine & Big Table
Hosted Solutions	Raleigh, NC	Stratus Cloud Storage
IBM	Armonk, NY	Smart Business Storage Cloud
iomart Group	Glasgow, UK	iomart Cloud
Joyent	Sausalito, CA	SmartMachine & SmartDataCenter
Layered Tech	Plano, TX	LT Depot
Microsoft	Redmond, WA	Azure& SSDS
NaviSite	Andover, MA	NaviCloud
NTT	Tokyo, Japan	Cloud Files
Rackspace	San Antonio, TX	CloudFiles
Salesforce.com	San Francisco, CA	Force.com
Savvis	Town& Country, MO	Project Spirit
Servepath	San Francisco, CA	GoGrid Cloud Hosting
SoftLayer Technologies	Dallas, TX	CloudLayer Storage
Terremark	Miami, FL	vCloud Express/Enterprise Cloud
Unisys	Blue Bell, PA	Unisys Secure Cloud
Verizon Business	Basking Ridge, NJ	Verizon Cloud Storage

Additional Notes

1. End-user Device Backup and Restore is a common use case.  Continuous digital data growth is making seamless backup and restore an absolute critical requirement.
2. Server backup and disaster recovery (DR) is another use case –  At present,  cloud storage and online backup, disaster recovery and archiving are distinct services. Over time, however, we expect these sectors to merge – indeed, many online backup, disaster-recovery and archiving providers are now reinventing themselves as ‘cloud storage’ providers.
3. Cloud Storage Model – where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by3rd parties, rather than being hosted on internal dedicated servers
4. Technical access to Cloud Storage is accomplished via multiple models – WebDAV, SOAP, REST-style API (built on HTTP, Stateless).  REST is short for REpresentational State Transfer. Without the overhead of many similar protocols the REST approach allows users to easily access their services. Every resource is uniquely addressed using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Based on a set of operations – create, retrieve, update and delete – resources can be managed.

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