Flexibility a Prerequisite to Avoiding Storage Cloud Lock-in

By Jerome M. Wendt on November 30, 2009

One of the barometers that can be used to gauge the popularity of a specific topic among readers on the Internet is the frequency for which they search for it on Google. In that sense, it is noteworthy that Google searches for “cloud storage” started to take off in late 2007 according to a Google trends report and have only increased since. But as organizations in 2009 move from searching for and reading about cloud storage to actually selecting cloud storage solutions, they need to ensure it offers flexibility to avoid public storage cloud lock-in.

Cloud storage is breaking down into two distinct camps: private and public storage clouds. Private storage clouds were discussed in a previous DCIG blog in terms of the attributes that they possess and what is motivating organizations to adopt them.

Public storage clouds are a bit of a different animal. They align more closely with the common definition of “cloud storage” but are developing their own set of characteristics that should influence which public storage cloud offering an organization selects. One such feature that an organization may not initially consider in their evaluation process is how flexible the public storage cloud solution is.

Understanding a public storage cloud’s flexibility is not as intuitive as …

Click here to continue reading this article