Originating Author: Fred Moore
Storage vendors face increasing pressure from customers to describe their future role with cloud computing. Still in the experimental stage but coming fast, the advent of cloud computing represents an alternative source of delivering computing applications over the public Web and potentially over private intranets as well. The concept of cloud storage (within cloud computing) centers on the ability to store, retrieve, share, manage, and protect information over public, and possibly private, IP-based networks for indefinite time periods. This means, for example, that data protection techniques will need to extend well beyond those used for laptop and mobile appliances today.
Nearly all storage vendors will have some role to play within cloud storage, and customers will increasingly want to know what their roles will be. Cloud systems will scale to support billions of concurrent users and are aiming for the storage and retrieval of information that must be perpetually protected anywhere and anytime.
Action Item: Cloud computing will drive existing storage and data management concepts to the next level and on a much greater scale than ever before. With cloud computing generating more visibility and interest every day, storage vendors should be prepared to clearly articulate their role(s) with cloud storage and describe what they can do to enable end-users to effectively manage this new wave of computing applications. The time to start preparing these strategies is now.
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