Enterprises expect security, performance and scalability from cloud storage

Rajesh Khurana

The Indian economy is undergoing a phase of change, and with it, there is a positive momentum in the technology environment. With the increased adoption of the fast-moving technology, more and more Indian enterprises are embracing cloud as a replacement for more traditional IT models. The upsurge of unstructured data triggered by trends like SMAC and BYOD has also created a need for efficient solutions to securely store their important data on cloud. They are making broader assessments of how cloud storage affects the organization's security, compliance and ability to meet business requirements. To cater to these needs, several cloud storage providers have risen to prominence with services for these enterprises.

Most large Indian vendors offer public and private cloud to enterprises. Private clouds are more likely to be used in the large enterprises while small to medium enterprises move to the public cloud. Although enterprises are rapidly adopting cloud, they do have certain apprehensions about this step. While private cloud has issues related to security, reliability and performance, public cloud users are concerned about the loss of data, especially when data hacking is on a rise. Therefore, it has become imperative for the cloud vendors to develop enterprise-first strategies to offer adequate cloud services.

Enterprises certainly care about security in general. An April 2014 study commissioned by EMC predicted that the total amount of digital assets in the world would grow tenfold between 2013 and 2020, going from just over 4 trillion GB to 44 trillion GB. With this surge in data volumes enterprises are looking for cloud storage solutions which would address this fundamental issue in a scalable and secure way, not compromising with the performance. They also consider specific features such as encryption and identity management, as well as how storage solutions interact with current internal systems. Many pure play cloud vendors do not provide this level of service yet.

The solution:

Enterprises are trying to get the best of both worlds from cloud storage by keeping critical data and applications on-premises while leveraging public clouds for improved scalability. In this environment, providers like Egnyte, a member of the Seagate Cloud Builder Alliance, have thrived by giving companies the flexibility to manage cloud assets across different types of infrastructure.

Moving to hybrid cloud computing is another way for the enterprises to maintain security, performance and scalability. Cloud service providers should emphasize on the need for interoperable private and public clouds allowing a seamless migration of services across cloud boundaries. Owing to the evolution of big data, driving the need for clustered storage and converged infrastructure, interoperability between public and private clouds, creating one platform for running applications, hybrid cloud will be able to satiate the need of the enterprises by providing efficient and flexible performance.

Moreover, the emergence of solutions such as SDS and enterprise file synchronization and sharing services shows that companies have many tools for efficiently storing and managing data, even as external conditions and business requirements shift. Enterprise’s reticence towards cloud vendors is not just about security, but also about the growing expectation that cloud storage would be flexible, amenable to on-premises and collocated environments and replete with mechanisms for tracking, encrypting and controlling data.

The author is country manager of India/SAARC and ASEAN, Seagate Technology