Originating Author: David Floyer
Consumer Storage services for the right applications will be very appealing to department heads with tight budgets. A simple comparison of storage costs will probably show the ability to store five to ten times more data with the same budget. It is likely to be competitive even with an internal “bargain-basement” storage service with minimal controller function and high-density SATA disks.
IT will need to support users in evaluating the suitability of consumer storage services. The more that file-based data is shared among users, the wider the dispersion of users, the greater the number of devices accessing or creating the data (e.g., PCs, cell phones, in-store scanners) and the greater the autonomy of the user departments, the higher the likely value of using external storage services. Collaborative computing over long distances, email, email archiving and backup applications for users and small business are likely to be a great fit.
Equally, many applications will be unsuitable for storage services. The greater the write/read ratio, the locking rate and the number of I/O operations in a typical unit of computing (transaction, query), the lower the potential benefit. Block-based applications such as transactional database are very unlikely to fit.
Action item: IT should respond by encouraging pilot systems, analyzing the consumer storage services as they evolve, and qualifying them for usage. Critical parts of that qualification will be storage service function, performance, availability and disaster recovery. Some organizations will want to assess deletion and archiving policies, and methods of holding backup data and systems in escrow in case of events such as bankruptcy or seizure of assets. Care should be taken in excluding services because of lack of a feature; business managers will be better positioned to evaluate business importance.
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