What is cloud storage ??

Topics covered: Cloud storage, what is cloud storage, advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage, types of cloud storage, cloud storage types, 

What is cloud storage ?? 

The cloud storage is advancement in storage technology which allows storing data online in the cloud. Cloud storage is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a  cloud computing provider who manages and operates data storage as a services. It's delivered on demand with just-in time capacity and costs, and eliminates buying and managing our own data storage infrastructure. This gives us quickness, global scale and durability, with 'anytime, anywhere' data access. Cloud storage is purchased from a third party cloud vendor who owns and operates data storage capacity and delivers it over the Internet in a pay-as-you-go model. These cloud storage vendors manage capacity, security and durability to make data accessible to your applications will around the world. 

Advantages of cloud storage; 

Highly reliable and available: Most enterprise cloud storage providers store customer data in 3 or more physical copies to ensure availability and reliability. 

Scalable in capacity and performance: Most enterprise cloud storage providers have different performance tiers for different type of data. 

Geographic scalability: Most enterprise cloud storage vendors have datacenter locations around the world and customers can easily replicate their data for faster local access and/or even higher availability. 

No hardware purchase needed from the customer: No hardware operations needed. No hardware refresh needed. Challenges related to datacenter space, cooling and power are also addressed by the service provider, and not the customer. 

Highly secure environment: Operation, security, privacy, etc. is usually compliant to various legal and industry standards. Regular third-party audits. 

Disadvantages of cloud storage: 

• Higher latency and lower bandwidth for local data access causes slower performance. 
• Down stream data transfer costs may apply. Running I/O intensive or bandwidth intensive applications locally against cloud storage can be costly. 
• High performance cloud storage tiers are usually slower than onperm high performance storage. High storage performance criteria cannot be met (or just very costly) with cloud storage. 

Types of cloud storage 

Basically, there are four different types of cloud storage. The types of cloud storage are as follows; 

1. Private Cloud Storage 

This type of cloud storage means that the infrastructure is used by a single person or company hence high level of privacy and security. When designing the infrastructure of a private cloud, the specific needs of the company as well specific administrative controls are integrated with the storage concerns so as to enable ease of data access and manipulation as well increase security level. The infrastructure could be designed at the person's premises or could be off-site in another which is accessible by the owner of the data. This is most appropriate for top confidential companies such as banks. 

2. Public Cloud Storage 

In public cloud storage, data and files of an individual are located within the premises of the company offering the cloud storage services which means that as a client, we have no control over the nature of the storage infrastructure. Also the infrastructure is shared, and so are the resources used, which means that the possibility of data hijacking and other attacks may be experienced. However, due to the high amounts of data which might be stored at a given time, public cloud storage companies usually ensure that the servers they use are of high performance hence effectiveness in the cloud storage services offered. 

3. Hybrid cloud storage 

This is an instance where by there are different categories of data which a business handles and such data will require different storage methods because of the manner in which the access to the data might be needed. Therefore in hybrid cloud storage, both private and public cloud storage infrastructures are combined and put into use with each storing different data. For instance banks could have their clients data stored in public cloud where the clients could have accounts that to enable them interact with the banking official and then their confidential account details could be stored in private cloud. 

4. Community cloud storage. 

This is a cloud infrastructure whereby data can be accessed by different departments or organizations such as different branches of a company located in different towns or in the case of government data whereby different government functionalities can access government data.