Many in the IT industry likely remember the storage service providers at the beginning of the decade. Companies like Storage Networks offering managed backup and recovery perished after the dot.com crash.

Online storage services are back, and the market once again is poised to explode. What’s different is the services are the precursor to cloud computing, and these days broadband connectivity is better.

IDC finds storage as a service a viable alternative in this tight market when firms want to minimize capital expenditures and are reducing staff. A new IDC study shows demand for online storage services is strong in small, midsize and large firms that are facing budget and IT staffing pressure. Firms are exploring online services for backup, disaster recovery, long-term record retention, business continuity, and availability.

What’s more, online backup and archiving services appeal to consumers too. According to the report, “Storage-as-a-Service: Commercial Opportunities,” commercial providers focusing on online services and those that have strong technical backgrounds will have an edge. And for consumers, anywhere file accessibility is one capability customers will prefer, and may make it easier to telecommute.

As consumers and business organizations continue to generate vast amounts of data and seek optimum methods to store and protect them, the growth of storage capacities delivered through storage-as-a-service offerings will outpace traditional storage architectures," said Brad Nisbet, program manager for IDC’s storage and data management services. "With storage-as-a-service capacity growing over 65% from 174 petabytes in 2007 to over 2.1 exabytes in 2012, the market is rife with opportunity."

Amy Schurr is the former managing features editor of Network World.