Is cloud storage ready for the enterprise?

IT pros worried about security, data portability, legal issues in the cloud

The “cloud” may be the future of enterprise storage, but can it lay claim to the present as well? At Storage Networking World in Phoenix, Ariz. this week, I wanted to find out if IT executives are excited about cloud storage, or more accurately, hosted data storage services accessible from a remote location over the Internet.

While services like Amazon S3 must be attracting enough customers to stay afloat, there isl definitely a lot of skepticism about the suitability of cloud storage for the enterprise. Security, legal issues and portability of data are key concerns.

“It still has some maturity issues,” one IT guy told me. “Number 1 is security. Also, the vendors have to be big enough to handle legal issues. It’s not just about technology. It’s about the whole infrastructure, and legal issues and regulations. Then the technology has to be seamlessly integrated.”

For more comments from IT pros, read my article “Storage pros worry about putting data in the cloud.” I’d also recommend Computerworld reporter Lucas Mearian’s piece “How data security can vaporize in the cloud,” which offers some interesting perspectives from experts on the dramatic security challenges and legal implications posed by cloud computing in general.

A vendor group called the Storage Networking Industry Association seems to recognize that customers are still rightly worried about the suitability of cloud services for enterprise storage. SNIA is developing an API that will attempt to create interoperability among cloud storage services offered by different vendors, as Mearian reports.

"Part of the challenge with cloud is where does the data live? And how are you able to manage it once it's in the cloud, and can you get it back in the same format that you now have," Mark Carlson, a SNIA Technical Council member is quoted as saying. "There's this idea of how portable is my data that once I get it out there can I get it back in a format that can be ingested by another vendor?"

There are numerous examples of data being lost in cloud services, such as the recent Microsoft and T-Mobile Sidekick incident.

Some customers work in such highly regulated industries that cloud storage simply doesn’t meet their legal requirements. But there shouldn’t be any technical limitations preventing cloud vendors from keeping data safe. The question is, do you trust your vendor?

Feel free to use the comment form below to get a discussion going. Do you think cloud storage is robust enough for the enterprise, and if it’s not will it ever be? What do you think about the SNIA effort and other industry programs to accelerate cloud adoption?

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