Cloud storage enables you to keep data and files in a remote place that you can access through the internet or a dedicated private network connection. Data that you provide to a third-party cloud service for storage becomes their responsibility. The service provider hosts, protects, manages, and maintains the servers and other infrastructure, as well as ensures that you have access to the data whenever you need it.
What is cloud storage, and how does it work?
Cloud storage is a more cost-effective and scalable option than on-premise hard drives or storage networks for storing content. The quantity of data that can be stored on a computer hard disk is limited. Users must move files to an external storage device when they run out of space. To archive data and files, companies have traditionally created and managed storage area networks (SANs). SANs, on the other hand, are costly to maintain because, as the amount of data stored grows, firms must invest in additional servers and infrastructure to meet the rising demand.
Cloud storage services offer flexibility, allowing you to raise capacity as your data volumes grow or reduce capacity as needed. By storing data in the cloud, your company may avoid the capital expenditures of creating and maintaining in-house storage networks by paying for storage technology and capacity as a service. You just pay for the capacity that you use. While your prices may rise over time as your data volumes grow, you don’t have to overprovision storage networks in preparation for that growth.
What is the mechanism behind it?
Cloud storage, like on-premise storage networks, employs servers to preserve data. However, the data is transmitted to servers located off-site. Virtual machines housed on a physical server make up the majority of the servers you use. The supplier builds new virtual servers to fulfill demand as your storage demands grow.
See “Virtual Computers: A Complete Guide” for further information.
You typically connect to the storage cloud through the internet or a dedicated private connection, and then use a web portal, website, or mobile app to do so. Depending on the extent of the cloud provider’s operation, the server with which you connect sends your data to a pool of computers situated in one or more data centers.
For redundancy, providers generally store the same data on many computers as part of the service. This way, you can still access your data if a server is unavailable for maintenance.
Private, public, and hybrid clouds all offer cloud storage.
- Public storage clouds: In this approach, you connect to a storage cloud managed by a cloud provider and utilized by other businesses through the internet. Providers usually make their services available on almost any platform, including smartphones and PCs, and they allow you to scale up and down as needed.
- Private cloud storage: Private cloud storage solutions are similar to public cloud storage, but they are located within your network and use a real server to generate instances of virtual servers to expand capacity. You may either manage an on-premise private cloud yourself or hire a cloud storage company to create a dedicated private cloud that you can access via a secure link. Because of the sensitive nature of the data they handle and keep, banks and retail businesses may prefer private cloud storage.
- Hybrid cloud storage: This model combines elements of private and public clouds, giving organizations a choice of which data to store in which cloud.