Cloud Storage Used For Backup More Than General Purpose Storage

A new survey by Forrester says that just 3% of companies use cloud storage. Here are the stats from the more than 1,200 IT decision makers interviewed:

• 43% said they’re not interested in cloud storage
• Another 43% were interested but have no plans to adopt
• 3% plan to implement a cloud storage platform in the next year
• 5% plan at least a year out
• 3% have already switched to cloud storage
• Only 1% are expanding an existing implementation

Some consider these stats as a bad thing for cloud computing. I see it as a non-issue. Here is why:

1. Many likely prefer to have local storage for fast access and security, even for general purpose data
2. They also would prefer to have flexibility in managing cost, with lower cost storage for least used data and higher cost put toward data that is heavily used or where performance is important
3. Using storage APIs from Amazon S3 and other service provides is similar to writing support for accessing your hard drive using low-level operating system calls – it takes considerable effort for managing something as simple as files

The survey did find that companies are more interested in using these services for backup. This makes sense, as it provides an option for offsite storage of data and often comes with higher level management of files and volumes (time differential logic, storage, and restoration).

From my research, most consumers of cloud storage are from those fully embracing the cloud architecture, namely startups. Startups are finding that it can provide elastic storage, redundancy, and can offload data transfer costs by utilizing smarter APIs to create temporary access keys to send owners directly to the data (where the cost is cheaper than costs at the server).

The conclusion? Using cloud storage services for backup is an easy decision; using it for general purpose storage is great to help reduce costs. Otherwise, local storage will still reign for some time to come.