A generational shift happened ever since Cloud applications/storage/compute emerged on the IT road map. Cloud storage has 3 traits. To begin with the storage service must be over a network. Next the storage pool must allow for easy scalability without downtime. Last and not least the storage pool must be easy to manage especially when scaled.
Cloud storage is a normal extension of Software-as-a-Service and online applications like SalesForce and Cloud computing have received huge popularity due to initiatives of Google, Amazon and VMware. The Wikipedia has defined the the cloud computing architecture as follows:
“The architecture behind cloud computing is a massive network of “cloud servers” interconnected as if in a grid running in parallel, sometimes using the technique of virtualization to maximize the utilization of the computing power available per server.”
With the advent of Amazon S3, the concept of Cloud migrated to a storage function. In a cloud storage scenario numerous commodity hardware devices are coupled together by software to build a pool of storage.
So cloud storage is not just a storage rental available online. It’s more about architecture, performance, and scaling where you add standard hardware from your preferred commodity storage vendor, and get shared access through a standard network.
Cloud storage is loosely coupled and the nodes do not need to communicate with each other to facilitate supercomputers writing in parallel to the same file spread across multiple nodes. Being loosely-coupled allows fine performance for multiple copies of a single file across multiple nodes or multiple files and offers huge scalability.
Are you wondering which good instances are for cloud solutions to fill in? Well, some of the good examples of Cloud Storage include File Archiving, Digital content distribution & serving, streaming media or backup, video surveillance, and archival storage.
The Cloud Storage is here to stay and certainly holds great promise in times of recessionary economy where corporations can buy storage gigabyte at a time in contrast to complete systems and yet get all the benefits of latest technology.
Munesh Jadoun