Cloud Data Storage
There’s no going back now the cloud is here – there’ll be no more huge data storage centres keeping our information secure. It’s a real step forward for us, but many of us will still face a few niggles to start with. Here’s how to deal with them.
Be ready for anything
A lot of problems stem from not thinking about potential problems – what security and encryption measures you need, for example, or how to forecast and manage costs. Just spend some time doing your homework and be ready to come up with workarounds if necessary.
Work out what your storage needs are
There are several different cloud storage options available so you need to make sure that what you’re paying for is actually what you need. Do you store a lot of videos and images, or is it mainly data? Do you need storage with cloud backup, disaster recovery and so on or are you more interested in syncing and sharing files?
Look out for hidden expenses
Watch out for hidden costs like paying a fee to access your data or having to pay a severance fee for leaving the service early. Also, think about how much physical or on-premise storage of information and files will cost over the years – as long as your cloud service plus any less-obvious fees costs less, then you’re onto a winner.
Don’t migrate back and forth too much
You need to make sure that the data you send to the cloud is the right data as it costs money to shift information to-and-fro. If you find you have to do this regularly because you’ve sent the wrong files, then you’re going to pay more than you need to.
Don’t fear the leap
The cloud isn’t going away – more and more applications will become cloud-enabled or cloud-only in the next few years and so if you don’t keep up you’ll be left behind.
Be ready to go both ways
Most cloud storage providers make it easy to add data, but some make it a bit trickier to retrieve, remove or transmit it. Before committing to a provider or a service package, you should look at how easy it is to move workloads and files between your on-premises storage and various clouds.
Make sure your management tools are consistent
When you have some data in the cloud and some on-site, you need to make sure the tools you use to move it are the same regardless of platforms. This keeps things easy and much less cumbersome.
Look at your upload options
If you’re not in a superfast broadband area, then uploading large amounts of information can take a while, which can tie up your regular workday processing power. Many cloud storage providers offer several ways to take in data – you can do it offline, for example, or use direct peering.
Start off with baby-steps
Start off with a smaller, well-known workload – you know exactly what it is and what it involves – and it’ll work well on a public cloud. See how it works to upload and migrate it, and try this out with a few service providers before you commit.
