eWeek - February 1, 2010

Cloud-based storage done right
There is a lot to like about storage in the cloud, but getting it wrong can come
at a great cost

By Wayne Rash

It’s no surprise that interest in storage in the cloud has been rising: Storage in the cloud can be less expensive than storing data yourself, and it can be more scalable, more efficient and more secure.

Of course, that assumes you do everything right. Done wrong, cloud-based storage will gain you little. Worse, it could get you and your organization into a lot of trouble.

With a cloud storage solution, you send your data to a storage provider and let the provider manage it. It sounds simple, and, in concept, it is. On your end, cloud storage means that you determine what needs to be stored, encrypt that data, and then transmit it across the Internet (or another network) to the provider’s site, where there is a repository that’s shared among many companies. The provider keeps track of where your data is and makes it available to you when you need it.

It’s unclear exactly how many companies are offering cloud storage services because the number changes almost on a daily basis.

Adding to the complexity of pick-
ing a provider is the fact that there
are different types of providers
for different storage tasks. Some
providers, such as Iron Mountain,
focus on storing enterprise data
that would otherwise reside on an
on-site SAN. Others, such as Mozy
and Carbonite, focus on individual
desktop computers and servers for
small businesses. (With that said,
Mozy’s biggest customer is General
Electric.)

Enterprise-class storage providers such as Iron Mountain provide very high performance, significant scalability and high levels of security.

Northwestern Medical Cen-
ter in St. Albans, Vt., uses Iron
Mountain to store medical images
older than five years. The hospi-
tal is still migrating X-ray, MRI
and other images, but is already
pulling down some images from
the cloud. According to IT Team
Leader Dennis Boucher, perfor-
mance is “pretty amazing.”
Boucher said that because his
data must meet a number of com-
pliance requirements, including
HIPAA (Health Insurance Porta-
bility and Accountability Act), secu-
rity was also critically important.
“[Iron Mountain is] highly secure,
they have very secure sites, they
use encryption, and they’re using
a VPN tunnel to secure the trans-
mission,” Boucher said.
But not every enterprise works
the same way. When General Elec-
tric signed on with Mozy (a divi-
sion of EMC), the goal was to have
a reliable means of backing up
employee desktop computers.
According to Dave Robinson,
Mozy’s vice
president
of market-
ing, about
300,000 GE
employees
use Mozy,
with the
company managing the process
via a Web-based administrative
console.

Most of Mozy’s and Carbonite’s customers are small and midsize businesses, and the services are publicly available for individual use. Carbonite just announced that it’s offering a new service