CSTI

This paper discusses the business drivers in the Cloud delivery mechanism and business model, what the requirements are in this space, and how standard interfaces, coordinated between different organizations can meet the emerging needs for interoperability and portability of data between clouds.

There are three major deployment models of cloud storage to be considered: public, private, and hybrid models (many users implement a combination of these). While the Storage Networking Industry Association™ (SNIA) is addressing all three, this paper discusses private and hybrid cloud storage solutions and the emerging methods available to best manage these environments.

Publicly accessible clouds offer storage capacity through the use of multi-tenancy solutions, meaning multiple customers are serviced at once from the same infrastructure. This results some common concerns when evaluating public cloud solutions, including security and privacy, as well as the possibilities of latency and compliance issues. When considering the use of public cloud options for data storage, attention should be given to the management – both now and in the future – of both the clouds and the data, as well as the integration of the Cloud service usage with internal IT.

Moving data from one system to another can be challenging. Ensuring the data arrives intact and usable is paramount.

Let’s face it: cloud storage is here to stay. When the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) formed its Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) back in 2009, the working group helped usher in the acceptance of the then-new technology.

SNIA's Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative is committed to the adoption, growth and standardization of storage in cloud infrastructures, including its data services, orchestration and management, and the promotion of portability of data in multi-cloud environments.