Moving to the Cloud for running and storing information for your business is no longer a new idea but has become a standard practice. According to the 2017 survey on Cloud adoption by RightScale, 95% of respondents are running their applications on Cloud storage.

However, you may find diverse types of Cloud-storage solutions to choose from. So how to select the best Cloud Storage for your business? First step is to examine and list the basic storage and server requirements of your business. I have stated three most common situations that will help you identify and quantify your need.

They are:

• Distributing the Workload: The main idea behind choosing this type of Cloud Storage is not only storage but also redirecting the application running path to Cloud from hard disk storage of your computer.
• Storage-first: Basically, businesses want to choose the Cloud to fulfill their storage needs. They usually want to expand or upgrade their infrastructure, archive & back up data or have the flexibility to share the data across the organization instantly.
• Data-first: To recognize the safety of their data, this option is preferred. Stored information has far greater value and hence it’s critical to maintain it’s security from cyber threats.

The second step is to select from the top three choices for Cloud storage – public, private and hybrid. Each of these has its own features and benefits. Let’s try to answer these questions to understand what kind of cloud storage will work best for you.

• Do you always need an emergency back up or disaster recovery, in real time?
• Does your business always meet the periodic surges for extra space?
• How much data security is important to your business?
• What is your client/customer base (Global/local)?
• How does your data travel between different departments and programs?

As I mentioned above, each type of storage has its unique set of features:

1. Public Cloud: This is the most economical option than on-premises storage, especially when your business meets the periodic surges regularly. For intense activity period if you require more cloud storage, you will get it immediately. The servers are owned by another company (Cloud Service provider), who handles your data security and other security compliances. Some popular public Cloud service examples are Azure/AWS.
2. Private Cloud: It works just like public Cloud storage with one key difference that the hosting server is a physical standalone server hosted in a data centre. This allows better control over security and accessibility of data. If you need to scale up, it may be cheaper than if you had to purchase your own hardware as you can increase the Opex. On the downside, purchasing and running Cloud solution yourself, still incur the need of hardware upkeeping and upgrading.
3. Hybrid Cloud: As the name implies, the hybrid Cloud employs both public and private Cloud to host your data. It can be the most feasible solution especially for the enterprise level business. In spite of data redundancy in public and private Cloud, the hybrid Cloud is much safer solution for preserving the data during an outage. This can also be utilised with an on premise server that sits in your location.

 Takeaway:

Whatever option of Cloud deployment method you choose, you still need to understand the requirements of your business first. Call ICTechnology to do a free cost-benefit analysis of your IT Storage system so then you can move to the Cloud with a strategic understanding of your requirements. The othecxcxr benefits that ICTechnology can offer you are to reduce operating cost by increase efficiencies through technology.

You can drop your queries related to Cloud computing, data safety, Office 365 and data recovery in the comment section as well. If you like our article, please subscribe our blogs to have them hit your inbox. Stay tuned to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages to get our latest updates and offers.