1. Choose the right storage for your business. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to cloud storage. The most fitting type depends on your business needs: SAN storage is the most expensive, but also has the best performance; NAS is mid-range for cost and performance; low cost options, such as EMC Atmos storage are great for bulk low cost storage, or where data is not accessed frequently.
2. Choose a storage provider that is located close to your users to minimize network latency and maximize performance. It may be best to work with a provider who has multiple locations if your users are dispersed across the UK and US.
3. Need a storage solution which you can provision quickly? One advantage of having a cloud storage based solution is that you can rapidly provision resources in minutes, rather than spending weeks or months waiting for CAPEX approvals and vendor lead times for storage equipment delivery.
4. You need to be able to flex your storage needs up or down, depending on business conditions and only pay for the amount of storage that you require.
5. It’s not just the physical storage that you need to take into account, there’s also a need to ensure that you have a backup solution which can come into play in case of systems going down.
6. Backup and recovery over the cloud is a great option, especially if you’re working with a provider who will only charge you for the amount of resources that you’re using. With a backup and recovery system, which is based on a physical configuration, the equipment will need to be paid for and be sitting unused until a disaster occurs. That’s a far more expensive option than switching on a cloud backup for only the time that you need it, and then switching it off. This way, you won’t be paying for it once the disaster is over and your main systems are up and running.
7. Set an RPO, recovery point objective (how much data can you afford to lose) and RTO, recovery time objective (how long will it take for you to restore). These will need to be set based on business objectives and also need to be tested with your provider to ensure that these targets can be met.
8. Choosing storage that has data compression & de-duplication built in can save a lot of costs
9. Making sure encryption is available protects your data both at rest & also during transmission to & from your service provider
10. Make sure the method of access to your storage meets your business requirements. For example, there’s no point buying fast state of the art storage if half your users have to access it over an old slow VPN ADSL connection
From flexibility to lowered costs to data recovery, the potential benefits of cloud storage are numerous. However, to take full advantage of the benefits of cloud storage, you must to identify your specific business needs and find a provider that can tailor to these. Partnering with a storage provider that takes time to understand your business and specific needs will not only help facilitate a smooth transition, but will also help advise and guide you through the tips above.
