What Do IT Pros Need To Know About Cloud Storage
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IT professionals are decidedly ambivalent about cloud
computing generally, and storage pros are downright skeptical about cloud
storage. But they needn't be afraid: Cloud storage is not as threatening as it
seems, and may even allow storage administrators a little leeway for career
advancement!
Let's start with a few definitions: It easiest to understand
what cloud storage is if you begin by understanding what is not worthy of the
name. Conventional storage systems that use access protocols like SCSI, NFS,
and SMB are not “cloud storage” any more than my basement is a video arcade
thanks to the Wii and Xbox residing there.
True cloud storage eschews these traditional “stateful”
protocols, which include inherent assumptions about location, security, and
access control, in favor of HTTP. This allows an additional layer of
abstraction, opening the door to new architectures. Most cloud storage systems
scale by adding additional nodes rather than scaling by expanding
the storage behind an existing controller.
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It has been technically challenging
to enable conventional storage systems to scale out to hundreds or thousands of
nodes in multiple locations, but cloud storage technology can do this without
even breaking a sweat.
Most definitions of cloud storage also suggest on demand
scaling and as you go pricing. This leads many to assume that all cloud
storage is like Amazon S3: Public cloud. But this is not the case. There is no reason that IT cannot build a private cloud storage
infrastructure to be shared by many departments. Similarly, there are many
options to create a hybrid public/private cloud storage environment.
Although HTTP-based protocols are essential to true cloud
storage infrastructure, there's no reason that applications must use these
protocols. Indeed, a wide variety of gateway products exist, allowing
conventional SCSI or NAS protocols to be used by clients. Many of these include
essential business friendly elements like encryption, access control, and data
replication as well.
Since cloud storage does not necessarily eliminate
conventional applications and protocols, perhaps it also does not eliminate the
need for in-house IT staff. Adoption of cloud services does indeed sometimes
include handing off infrastructure management to outsiders. They keep
everything running, responding to alerts and handling hardware and software
maintenance. The cloud service providers do not generally interact with
applications or internal business functions.
Enterprise IT desperately needs storage management of a
higher level. This is the reason that IT pros should not be afraid of the
cloud: It eliminates many of their headaches and allows them to focus on
higher-level tasks. Rather than worrying about array firmware or RAID levels,
storage managers can truly manage capacity and data usage. They can focus on
what is being done rather than how.
Posted
Tue, Dec 6 2011 6:38 AM
by
Stephen