Storage For Cloud Computing: Managers already recognize the importance of migrating their business to the cloud, but the technical part ― where and how the structure is stored ― is a big mystery.
There are several types of cloud storage, and choosing the suitable model is essential to improve business performance and reduce costs.
Cloud storage is a technological resource used to store, share and access data and files in computer systems more remotely. Several companies and managers are removing local file storage, whether digital or physical and migrating to this infrastructure.
What Are The Types Of Cloud Computing?
It is essential to remember that all clouds are not the same and that there is no “right” or “ideal” type of cloud computing for all cases. For each patient and need, there is a suitable model, and we will talk about them now.
First, it is necessary to determine the type of cloud implementation or cloud computing architecture in which your services will be implemented. Currently, there are different ways to deploy services of this nature, whether in a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud.
Public Cloud
Public clouds are part of a third-party service provider and are administered by it, offering some computing resources via the internet. Using a public cloud, all hardware, software, and other infrastructure are the full responsibility of the service provider.
All services provided by this type of cloud can be accessed by an account using a web browser.
Private Cloud
This model refers to computing resources that a single company or organization primarily uses. Private clouds can be physically located in an institution’s on-premises data center.
Some companies pay third-party service providers to host their private cloud. In short, a private cloud would have services and infrastructure embedded in a private network.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid clouds are public and private clouds connected by a technology that makes it possible to share data and applications between them. Thus allowing all applications and data to move between both versions.
Hybrid clouds provide enterprises with greater flexibility and deployment options and help optimize existing infrastructure, security, and compliance.
What Should One Consider When Choosing The Best Type Of Storage?
With the great tendency of companies to migrate their environments to the cloud, various forms of storage have been developed with different devices, technologies, connections, and protocols for use.
To make the post more practical, we will limit ourselves to explaining what is generally considered to choose the ideal storage: performance and cost per gigabyte (GB).
The selection of devices used interferes with these factors. There are two types on the market: flash memory (better known as SSD) and hard disks (HDD or spinning disks), which are usually divided between performance and volumetric.
Flash memory is considered a game changer for cloud computing. Before it appeared on the market, storage was always a performance bottleneck, and anything that involved a lot of reading and writing was extremely expensive.
It sounds like an exaggeration, but only 1 SSD can offer more performance than 50 performance disks. Its durability is also superior—the most current versions of SSD guarantee 14.6 petabytes of recording.
On the other hand, there is the cost factor, which is always considered in IT projects. Indeed, 1 SSD costs much less than 50 performance disks. However, does all the information stored need that much performance? Not even! Therefore, composing storage types is a challenge. It is necessary to meet each business specificity, saving as much as possible.
What Are The Most Common Types Of Storage In Cloud Computing?
Now that you know that each composition can mean a new type of storage, we list below the most used ones in the market, highlighting their benefits and some examples of the use of each kind.
All Flash
It is the type of storage in which the equipment is composed of 100% flash memory. As we explained, everything would be stored in flash memory in a perfect world. The read and write speed is exceptionally high, the performance (number of IOPs) is incomparable, and the durability is out of the ordinary. However, the cost per GB is three times higher than the conventional format.
As in cloud projects, the cost is a relevant factor. It is common to consider All-flash storage only for the essential part of the business, which would be: the volume of the operating system of an instance, the location of the database storage ( MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle), or other applications that use a low volume of data, however, which read and write very frequently.
Standard
Currently, Standard is the most common type of cloud storage, consisting of flash memory (SSDs) and disks. This distribution is very effective, as the technology’s intelligence allows a new recording to occur on devices with more speed, gradually transferring to disks with greater volume and lower performance.
The information is also stored on SSDs, functioning as a cache for the subsequent readings until it is considered “cold” data (little accessed). Therefore, the data is removed, keeping only the copy on the lower-speed disks.
This model works well when the company has a well-developed and distributed architecture, as it keeps the “hot” data in flash memory while the “cold” data is placed on low-performance disks. This makes you more financially accessible.
Enterprise
This type of storage is known by large companies for offering the benefits of conventional performance storage with more resilience. Before the emergence of flash memory, these were the most valued arrays on the market for having a high level of fault tolerance, easy data recovery, and Enterprise level support.
Usually, these compositions are made by performing disks (SAS), with SSDs for a slight performance supplement and proprietary Enterprise storages, such as Dell EMC.
Backup
It is common knowledge that an IT environment is only safe when backed up. After all, nothing is 100% immune to failure.
Therefore, large cloud providers offer a specific type of storage for backups. Generally, volumetric disks (SATA) are used to compose this solution because they have a cost per GB of up to 50% lower than conventional storage.
Also Read: Learn How To Manage Multiple Cloud Storage Services!