Cloud Storage Strategy

Here’s the audio of my interview with Network World:

In essence, I cover the points I made in this blog post on OpenStack >>

Our Enterprise Cloud Storage ROI Model identifies the key enterprise business drivers for cloud storage, and provides a model that helps organizations quantitatively evaluate if implementing a private storage cloud is the best option for them.

The ROI model and paper may be downloaded here >>

In addition to reducing the cost of storage, the Enterprise Cloud Storage ROI Model examines other areas of opportunity, including:

• in-house backup
• thin provisioning
• risk management
• productivity gains
• the ability to manage large file transmissions
• workstation storage upgrades and
  
• sharing information versus emailing information

The good news is that implementing a private storage cloud can provide cost savings while maintaining control behind the firewall. This ROI model helps you evaluate multiple use case options so that you can make the right decision for your organization.

Download the Enterprise Cloud Storage ROI Model >>

Just read David Linthicum's post, A way out of the private cloud dead end. 

We discussed the advent of hybrid cloud in our earlier post on a maturity model for cloud storage. While it is important that technology providers are beginning to grapple with the requirements to move seamlessly from a private cloud to a public cloud, the assumption here is that the workload owner is willing to utilize a public cloud multi-tenant solution for their workload.  I'm not sure we're there yet.

It is unclear to me that the marketplace and especially the higher end enterprises  (who retain and own significant IT resources and data centers) are yet willing to embrace public multi-tenant clouds.  I know they'll eventually do so as the security solutions and their early experiences improve confidence in the public cloud.  Certainly there are non proprietary workloads that will be used for the earliest testing.  However, this is still a very nascent market, and you should expect that we have several years of work ahead of us to build out a fully functioning hybrid model that provides appropriate security and control.

I strongly agree that the level of activity is reminiscent of the late nineties.  The majors are trying to build out their cloud stacks, and they are doing that with internal development and by buying smaller companies focused on individual layers of the stack, or even a feature on the layer.  I looked at some "gee whiz" numbers from various research organizations, and saw that IDC postulates that more than one third of all digital information created on an annual basis will reside in, or at least pass through, the cloud at some point in its life cycle. 

Amazing!

On July 19, 2010, Rackspace led the announcement of OpenStack, with a goal of creating an open source cloud software solution for use on industry-standard hardware.  The initial releases contemplate solutions for both cloud compute and object storage.  While these are the first two releases, they are separate offerings.  Remember, cloud storage is not just the storage target for cloud computing, it is one potential storage target for cloud computing, and is in and of itself a stand alone cloud offering of programmable storage.

Now, I have purposely used a term from the clothing industry, "off the rack", to spend a moment looking at a framework for evaluating the opportunities this may present.  With dress shirts, you can buy off the rack, semi custom, or custom, each with a unique value proposition based on fit, choice and cost.   Interestingly enough, this may be a good lens through which to consider the possibilities of OpenStack, and in particular, OpenStack Object Storage.

Rackspace has made no secret of its motivations for leading this initiative, and its desire to focus on "fanatical" service as it's key differentiator versus the fundamental technology on which the service is based.  Fair enough, and so the question becomes, is the rapidly emerging and immature cloud marketplace already "mature" enough to seek homeostasis?  (Homeostasis is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition.)  Have enough models and innovations, from startups, academia, open source movements and large tech companies, been tested in the marketplace to the extent that we can already race to the common denominator?  Perhaps now is a good time to start, as long as you are willing to acknowledge that the desired results are a good ways off.

Before we jump off into "Off the Rack" software, a quick look back at open source is helpful.  For more reading on the open source software industry a good introduction is The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Six things are particularly interesting: 

1. An open source alternative can emerge as a follow on to a successful commercial technology and can become pervasive versus the commercial offerings it succeeded (LINUX versus UNIX is the reference case here).
   
2. A second result of this approach can also end up with a big success, although in more of a niche than a pervasive replace for the earlier commercial offerings (MySQL versus Oracle, IBM and Microsoft in the relational data base space).  
   
3. An open source effort can also emerge earlier in a technology cycle and come of age as a pervasive solution (Apache Web Server comes to mind here).
   
4. Open source generally requires very careful cultivation of the community of developers, with active interest by academia (and partnering with NASA is part of the formula here).  Commercially sponsored open source efforts are becoming more common, although it as of yet has not been proven as the typical "breeding ground" for most great open source successes.  Eucalyptus, with its roots at University of California Santa Barbara, seems to be a more traditional route.
   
5. Open source is not necessarily reflective of rapid commercial opportunities for success.  Eucalyptus is obviously beginning to maneuver towards a repeat of the commercialization model.  OpenStack is taking the approach most favored by other open source successes like Apache.  A couple of good reads here are this article from BusinessWeek and this. See also Derrick Harris' post over at GigaOm.
   
6. There are also hundreds of thousands of open source projects that had mixed success or languished altogether. A quick look at  SourceForge (an open source project hosting site) shows nearly a quarter million hosted projects. How many of these have languished or had little impact on the market.
   

So, the first issue is that there will exist for some time to come a real question as to the adoption potential of OpenStack.   I believe that adoption is driven by applicability to need.  In a moment we will address a serious issue which OpenStack Object Storage must overcome to be successful, at best, and at worst, will confine it to a niche market.  My views are very much directed at the Object Storage offering, versus the compute offering, which I believe exists in a different space and as a different type of solution.  With this backdrop, let's have a look at the cloud storage marketplace today, and use the analogy of off the rack, semi custom and custom:

• Off the Rack:  implement as is, one size fits all, each with unique approaches for performance, scalability, bit integrity, may or may not provide geo services.
• Semi Custom:  Select from storage types (DAS, SAN, NAS, JBOD), shared or distributed file systems and object systems, mix and match storage for different SLA and cost/usage patterns on the same infrastructure, multiple APIs, meta data and catalog abstracted from storage layer, geo services.
• Custom:  Generally a service only offering and not available as deployable infrastructure, specifics will vary widely based on service provider offering strategy.
  

Infrastructure	Type	Comments
Eucalyptus	Off the Rack	Limited S3 APIs
OpenStack	Off the Rack	CloudFiles APIs
Scality	Off the Rack	S3 APIs
Mezeo	Semi Custom	Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform API and Interoperability API
NetApp	Off the Rack	Bycast APIs, NetApp storage
EMC Atmos	Off the Rack	Atmos ReST APIs, EMC storage
Service	Type	Comments
Amazon S3	Custom	S3 APIs
Microsoft Azure	Custom	Windows centric
Rackspace	Off the Rack	Is the basis for OpenStack
Nirvanix	Custom	SOAP APIs, multi node
Google	Custom	Offers S3 APIs
AT&T Synaptic	Off the Rack	Based on EMC Atmos
OpSource, SoftLayer, Layered Tech and others	Custom	Based on Mezeo

As you can see from the summary above, there exist as many views of what constitutes either a cloud storage service or a desirable cloud storage deployable infrastructure as there are service providers and vendors.  Note that a semi custom infrastructure results in a "custom" service as implemented.  "Off the rack" results in very similar services by those who utilize the same infrastructure unless they make their own major additions.  Any offering can be differentiated by service, and the degree and quality of service is critical to customer satisfaction and plays a strong role in value creation.

The OpenStack announcement as it regards Object Store and its approach to cloud storage seems to view cloud storage infrastructure as highly akin to an operating system (or at least a "hypervisor") and more similar to a selection of LINUX or Windows than that of an application or middleware layer.  While I agree that cloud compute is very close to this model, cloud storage is a service oriented architecture, with programmability for new applications that can tolerate Internet latency because of Web Services (like ReST APIs). The industry constantly overlooks this key point as it is consumed with the low cost, pay for use and thin provisioning capabilities of this storage tier.  Solutions for thin provisioning and low cost have been available far longer than cloud storage. Further, pay for use is more of a business decision than a technology. 

In the earliest days of cloud storage, there existed initial confusion that cloud storage was defined by cost, scalability, pay for use, and thin provisioning only and not programmable access (usually via ReST APIs).  ParaScale paid a huge price for not understanding that cloud storage requires Web services (like ReST API) access.  Now, with OpenStack Object Store, we see a follow on case of this same perspective, but with basic APIs for Put, Get and List.   Yes, it provides for Internet access via ReST APIs, but the focus continues to be primarily cost based versus new application enablement based.  It could be argued that the open source approach will provide for the appropriate additions of "advanced services" to be added.  However, even the use of the platform by NASA is more focused on cost of storage than on advanced functionality because NASA stores much more data than almost any institution or enterprise in the world.

I think Savio Rodrigues states this view very well in his post:

"Select products based on business needs, not license alone: It's also interesting to note that very few enterprises are in NASA's position with regards to size of IT investment and skills in-house. While NASA engineers were ready and willing to contribute new features into the Eucalyptus open source community, few companies have the skills or governance to consider allowing their developers to contribute to open source projects.  Summary trend number 7 from the 2010 Eclipse survey results highlighted this issue.

To suggest that NASA's buying or IT decision making patterns represents much more than the top 1 percent of IT buyers would be a stretch."

The overwhelming majority of enterprises would rather pay a vendor to deliver, maintain, support and enhance their private cloud software infrastructure than place that burden on internal IT staff. Whether the enterprise is paying for a closed source commercial product, a commercial product based on an open core product, or a subscription to an open source product, the product selection decision will be made based on business requirements much broader than 'is the product open source or not?' "

Keep in mind that cloud storage is a stand alone service associated with application delivery over the Internet and also associated with low cost, pay for use, scalable storage resources.  Social media applications and many Web based applications exploit these capabilities; for example publishing a file to a URL and significant tagging of files.

This view of cloud storage as nothing more than cost and volume-based ignores its extraordinary importance as a service-oriented architecture for new application enablement.  I believe both views are equally important and need to be equally served.  Will OpenStack, with its pervasive cost focus, be able to drive its community to this additional view of needed contributions of advanced services for cloud storage?  Lydia Leong of Gartner Group provides an interesting view of the open source community issues associated with this in her post:

"At the same time, open sourcing is not necessarily a way to software success. Rackspace has a whole host of new challenges that it will have to meet. First, it must ensure that the roadmap of the new project aligns sufficiently with its own needs, since it has decided that it will use the project's public codebase for its own service. Second, it now has to manage and just as importantly, lead, an open-source community, getting useful commits from outside contributors and managing the commit process. (Rackspace and NASA have formed a board for governance of the project, on which they have multiple seats but are in the minority.) Third, as with all such things, there are potential code-quality issues, the impact of which become significantly magnified when running operations at massive scale."

One last comment on this business of vendor lock in and cloud storage APIs (another focus of the OpenStack announcement).  I would submit that while a specific set of APIs has the potential to create vendor lock in, this is a much smaller problem than what is experienced in other technologies.  If you are really worried about it, you probably have never actually written a ReST API call.  It is written in many languages, and we have seen cases where applications that run on S3 run unchanged on Mezeo.  Others need very minor modifications, and still others are excited to take advantage of some of the unique Mezeo services.  It just is not a problem, and this is much more related to FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and marketing zealotry than it is associated with technological reality.  The APIs of choice will shake out, and it is far too early to say if it will be S3, OpenStack, CDMI or a combination of all of these, and others, as yet unforeseen. 

At Mezeo, we have never believed there will be one winner, and instead focused on architecture to enable easy and effective delivery of whichever APIs stand the test of time. The Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform API enables advanced services and programmatic access to Mezeo enabled storage clouds.   The Mezeo Interoperability API enables seamless interoperability of applications developed for Amazon S3, Google and Eucalyptus based storage clouds.

The interesting view that seems to be missing here is that marketplace competition by service providers already serves to drive down the price of cloud storage, so a commoditized stack embraced by most is unlikely to yield extraordinary incremental savings.  At the same time, while the competitive market conspires to drive cloud storage costs ever lower, the need to differentiate, and deliver solutions as well as a programmable storage to enable multiple new and exciting types of applications will rapidly replace the pure cost and scale focus of current cloud storage offerings.  Sometimes, the "new" application is simply enabling it in the cloud, to produce the same result at a lower cost!  This requires significant cloud storage functionality in order to make this easy and productive.  Amazon continues to prove this with their many additions and capabilities which differentiate their service.  Mezeo sees much the same view on the part of our customers.  The focus is on what cloud storage can do, what problems will it solve, what business opportunities does it create, what new applications can it enable and all of these views assume it will be competitively priced.

Cloud storage represents significant opportunities for institutions, the enterprise (see my recent post on the business case for enterprise cloud storage) and for the IT service provider.  Cloud storage is substantially different from cloud compute, and requires that you understand this difference in order to effectively evaluate the impact of this announcement, as well as your next steps.

Austin, Texas - The Mezeo team has been at HostingCon this week.  This is our third time at this show, and each year we have seen the show grow and mature - reflecting the maturation of the hosting industry itself.

What we are observing at the show this year - and in the industry itself when we talk to customers - is a coming of age for the hosting industry and cloud storage.   Vendors and service providers truly "get it" now, and realize that they have to go to market with more than just a platform.  They need a solution that solves a customer problem. 

At the same time, we are seeing technologies maturing, more vendors coming to market with cloud storage offerings and more of what we refer to as "cloud enabling" solutions (i.e., solutions like TwinStrata's CloudArray and CTERA that target storage clouds).  The result is more solutions that help solve real business problems and help service providers push more data to the cloud.  
So, yes, the hosting industry continues to mature.  It's an exciting time to be in the industry and we only see great things to come.

Nicos Vekiarides is the Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Twinstrata, a market innovator producing cloud storage enablement software.  He has spent the last 18 years in the data storage field, both as a business manager and as an entrepreneur and founder in multiple startup companies.

CloudStorageStrategy.com asked him a few questions about "Intelligent Storage Cloud" and what it means for the enterprise.  We also discussed the business impact of TwinStrata's Cloud Array™ offering. Note: Twinstrata is a Mezeo Ready Solution Partner.

A recent blog post in the Harvard Business Review referred to cloud computing as still hype. How does your everyday business reality show a different perspective?

We are seeing quite the opposite as cloud technology is maturing quite rapidly and, in our experience, is resulting in accelerated end user acceptance and adoption. Cloud storage offerings, such as Mezeo, are available today and in use, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers across a growing service provider ecosystem. Our reality is that many end-users are opting for the compelling value proposition of storage-as-a-service and the pay-as-you-go pricing model.

No doubt, there is some confusion in the marketplace that fuels the notion of hype.  We believe companies like ours who offer tangible business solutions and benefits are proving out that cloud offerings are real and here to stay. When a technology addresses real pain points in the marketplace and offers customers seamless solutions that easily integrate with existing environments and applications, there is strong business interest. 

Can you tell us about your vision for "intelligent storage clouds"?  What does this vision mean for the Enterprise CIO?

"Intelligent storage clouds" give cloud storage the look, feel and performance of local enterprise-class storage and  address real pain points businesses have today, particularly when it comes to deploying off-site storage, easily and securely.

To the CIO, it means enhancing data protection and disaster recovery capabilities at significant cost savings without deploying infrastructure and incurring administration expense. At the same time, it means reducing risk by leveraging existing policies, software and infrastructure without disruptive changes.

Finally, the "intelligent storage cloud" is a key enabler of what we call the Compute Anywhere™ data center, a hybrid on-premise/cloud data center with access to on-demand storage and compute resources that give IT increased agility to meet business needs.

How does "storage-as-a service" change the datacenter?

"Storage as a service" represents a substantial change to how and when infrastructure is deployed in the data center. The pay-as-you-go model eliminates the waste that comes with dedicated but underutilized storage infrastructure. At the same time, it levels the playing field for smaller enterprises, giving them access to economies of scale and global infrastructures that their larger counterparts enjoy.

 This does not mean we see primary data storage infrastructure disappearing overnight. Instead, we initially see cloud storage providing a better alternative to remote datacenters. Think of it as pay-as-you-go unlimited offsite storage capacity but without the traditional administrative burden, physical costs and storage deployment cycle. Consider it an offsite storage array that doesn't require the standard 3-yr hardware refresh cycle: purchasing more capacity than is needed at the outset, realizing low utilization over a large portion of the investment and the unavoidable and arduous task of migrating data to new hardware to begin a new cycle.

In the primary data center, similar benefits can be achieved via the ability to move archival tiers of storage to the cloud. This can help ease constraints around power, cooling and floor space as storage capacities continue to expand.

Can you describe your Cloud Array offering and how it impacts the business?

CloudArray is iSCSI SAN software that allows any data center to connect to cloud storage without the need to program to specific API's.  CloudArray supports block level access and any industry standard file system, enabling and accelerating cloud storage deployments for business. It does this by removing inhibitors around integration, performance, availability and security.

Most importantly, CloudArray enables solutions that directly address today's top IT business initiatives.  IT professionals are asking for solutions that offer off-site storage for data backups, replication, disaster recovery, archiving and even deployment of new applications. CloudArray does this with minimal hardware, and a significantly reduced administrative footprint, using a software platform and a pay-as-you-go model.

What is the market telling you? Is the recession an opportunity?

The market, particularly the midmarket, is telling us that they want cost-effective business solutions for their off-site data protection.  That's today.  What they are also telling us is that they are looking for a robust on-demand compute and storage capability that will address an even broader variety of needs in the future. CloudArray enables cloud storage providers to offer a compelling value proposition from day one with a path that meets future needs.

As for the recession, we've found it to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is causing some companies to cling to the status quo, sticking with sometimes inferior IT processes and infrastructure, and putting off refresh cycles until the economy improves. On the other hand, it is causing other companies, large and small, to rethink how they deploy storage infrastructure and take a closer look at alternative solutions such as cloud technology.

Interestingly, the companies who are clinging to existing methodologies may soon find themselves at a disadvantage as their more nimble competitors find a way to leverage the cloud.

We recently published a Cloud Storage Maturity Model on our blog.  We're interested to get your feedback on the model.

We certainly agree that cloud storage adoption will have distinct phases and find the model very well thought out. We see the enablers of cloud storage, such as TwinStrata, not only accelerating immediate adoption, but also enabling private and federated models in the longer term.

Overall, we see cloud storage maturing quite rapidly as more customers start deriving business benefit. This is not all that different from where we were with server virtualization several years ago. Back then, virtualization was more a technology than a business initiative and was not yet synonymous with server consolidation and cost savings . Today, virtualization ranks as a top IT initiative for all businesses, both large and small.

There is no doubt that every enterprise has devoted some time and energy to evaluating how cloud technologies can best be put to work in their ongoing pursuit of cost reduction and to a lesser extent for potential improved service levels particularly around rapid provisioning of compute and storage resources.  Mezeo has recently begun to work with various enterprises, and I want to share some of the opportunities that appear to align strongly with these two goals.

In terms of cost, most enterprises are experiencing continued and significant growth in unstructured data.  As they look at the cost of this growth, it is more than just physical storage, data center occupancy, bandwidth utilization and power and the accompanying management demands; it is also the backup and disaster recovery requirements and the ability to quickly satisfy users who need more storage in order to execute whatever tasks and jobs they have.  Against this backdrop, the drumbeat of Amazon S3 and other public storage clouds advertises storage at costs that are generally below the internal "advertised" cost of the typical Fortune 500 company.  What gives?

First, cents/GB/month is only the tip of the iceberg, and bandwidth along with access charges gives a more realistic cost appraisal.  Next, real and legitimate concerns about data security exist (will someone gain unauthorized access, by accident or via an attack, to company data stored in a multi-tenant public storage cloud?).  Also, data integrity concerns are well founded (will the bits I store be returned, and will they be backed up and appropriate DR measures taken?).  Finally, can I absolutely trust the service provider to execute to the extent deemed necessary, and if they do, can they really save me any real money versus the assumed risk profile?  Private cloud computing is an appropriate strategy for addressing these issues.  

Not all unstructured data is a candidate for the latency of cloud storage as delivered from an IT service provider via the Internet.  So, while some tiers of data may be appropriate for a cloud storage service, it is a subset of the enterprise unstructured data requirement and not a lower cost panacea.  Hopefully, CIOs can easily make this case with their peers in senior management, although it may sometimes seem like they are making an excuse for keeping control and not exploiting new technologies.

Question one surrounds the cost proposition, and our analysis suggests that, even at sub petabyte initial cloud sizes, the enterprise can deliver economics for in-house cloud storage that compare very favorably.  In fact, it may even be lower than what is available from a service provider.  The Mezeo team comes from both a hosting and a cloud storage background, and this just reinforces our view that the cost proposition for private cloud storage has favorable economics.  However, if you are being forced to allocate capital for data center build outs, or you are otherwise CAPEX constrained, the hosted public cloud economics can be quite appealing.  Since businesses require positive margins, this further drives up the cost of cloud storage as hosted at a public service provider.

The case for improved user satisfaction is similar, regardless of public versus private, because the cloud gives users the capabilities they want.  First, with rapid provisioning of pay-as-you-go low cost cloud storage, the end user gets what they need when they need it via a frictionless interface.   Second, several benefits drive end user demand for cloud storage; including: avoidance of workstation storage upgrades, one solution for file sharing and collaboration, new capabilities and applications that exploit file search, tagging and publishing to a public URL, and the ability to access your storage anytime, anywhere and on any device.  Third, the solution is also ideal for implementing a workstation backup solution with sync.  It is not hard to see why end users would find all of these capabilities appealing.

Cloud storage clients, gateways and edge devices are also beginning to appear, and can solve many different issues.  For example, a client gives the end user access to multiple cloud storage accounts at multiple providers.  Why not replace that tape backup operation at a remote location with an iSCSI interface directly to a storage cloud, for a scheduled backup without local user intervention (get rid of the tape backup of your local file server, forever)?  Speaking of file servers, multiple solutions for replacing or even displacing file servers are coming to the market.  The savings from removing an entire layer of infrastructure are quite compelling.

New applications, including use of social media, may require file publishing.  Cloud storage allows you to store training videos, and make them easily available at every end user in the company.  Tagging and search offers new application capabilities, and new opportunities to support existing compliance requirements.  Secure file sharing, versus file publishing, may be a significant requirement as you work with customers and business partners.  Partner, customer and employee portals can reach new levels of capability with API accessible cloud storage, as the availability and the management of information is delivered via the cloud.

Our observation is that the early adopters have begun the move to cloud storage.  Why?  Simply, enterprise private cloud storage allows you to gain many of the benefits and set aside the security and data integrity concerns of public cloud storage.  At the same time, data tiering and private and public could solutions will drive "hybrid" cloud approaches that will allow the enterprise to exploit the best of both worlds.  In an upcoming post, we will offer up some tools to examine the cost and the benefits of cloud storage for the enterprise. 

It is a little difficult to discuss an article like What's a Hybrid Cloud and Where Can I get One? without at least agreeing upon some sort of definition.  We've already heard many of these definitions, but I'm not sure they're good enough.  Note: we did try to define the term hybrid earlier, as part of our Cloud Storage Maturity Model.

Well, what is it? 

First, let's look at the textbook definition of the word hybrid:

A hybrid is the combination of two or more different things, aimed at achieving a particular objective or goal.

A "hybrid car" has both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine, and the combination of the two serves to propel your automobile while providing a more efficient use of fuel.  So, a hybrid cloud is a combination of a public and a private cloud, aimed at providing a common cloud computing experience.

But for what purpose?  Hybrid computing clouds provide cloud computing that delivers the appropriate offerings with provisioning, pay-as-you-go for relatively limitless capacity, and improved security, and some would say at a lower cost than an internal cloud. Hybrid clouds can and do offer the opportunity to provide baseline processing within your own facilities, and use service providers for peak requirements.  By doing this, they can lower the cost versus private cloud computing. 

I've seen some hybrid cloud definitions that include edge or gateway devices, but I do not think that is definitive for hybrid cloud.  Now, with this definition, we can sort out what a hybrid cloud actually delivers.  In general, the argument that a multi-tenant public cloud is lower cost (on an absolute cost basis) than a private cloud is hogwash, in my experience.  I have seen examples of all of these, and in the case of a large enterprise, they may very well run private clouds for their own use that cost less than what they can buy the resources for on an open market basis.  (Now, before the switchboards light up with capex versus opex and idle resource arguments, I want to assure you that even taking these issues into account, the theory holds water).  This still begs the question as to what purpose does hybrid cloud serve?

In its most general case, the business value of hybrid cloud lies in its ability to bridge the gap between baseline computing and peak computing, assuming all things are equal or if not equal, at least acceptable (in terms of security and other incremental costs associated with hybrid cloud).  Otherwise, why go to the trouble?

There are other examples that are associated with backup and disaster recovery versus cost that also can be of high value with a hybrid approach, particularly if you only have one data center.  I store my backup locally, in case I need to do a speedy recovery.  I store an encrypted copy remotely, at a service provider, for DR purposes.  Voila!  Low cost, secure, multiple requirements solved.  Hybrid, it's a beautiful thing.

The hybrid cloud can also allow you to "bridge the gap" if you are in a data center bind, i.e. out of space or between build-outs.  This is a special case of bridging the gap.

Where can you get this, now? 

This is exactly our game plan (at Mezeo), and working with backup and archive providers, as well as Mezeo-based cloud storage service providers, and Mezeo private storage clouds for the enterprise, we deliver this solution today - in a matter of days and weeks, not months!

Cloud Storage Strategy interviewed Gladinet co-founder Jerry Huang on cloud desktops, cloud gateways, and his company's business model. 

[NOTE: Gladinet is a customer of Mezeo Software.]

Cloud Storage Strategy recently interviewed Layered Tech CEO Jack Finlayson on the economic benefits of cloud computing, the downturn, and virtual private data centers for the enterprise. 

NOTE: Layered Tech is a customer of Mezeo Software, the underwriter of this blog. 

Layered Tech has obviously focused on building a trusted infrastructure for customers.  How do you sustain that trust level?

As customer requirements and expectations continue to change, we've evolved in order to handle more detailed and complex requirements. We continually evaluate every aspect of our IT infrastructure and network to ensure we have the appropriate resiliencies and protections in place. We also take pride in our culture of continuous improvement in all aspects of customer service; it's the best way we can support our customers.

This is why we're here - to manage our customers' infrastructure so they can concentrate on their business.  From the beginning, it's all about providing superior levels of customer support. When we begin a new customer relationship, we learn the customer's specific business needs and provide counsel on the best infrastructure solution to best support those needs and meet overall business goals. 

This is how we've built our reputation as a trusted provider with our customers around the globe, and our customers know they can count on Layered Tech for the highest quality infrastructure solutions and service.  With seven top tier data centers on three continents, we deliver secure, scalable and ultra-reliable solutions for IT infrastructure that support even the most complex enterprise requirements. 

We also maintain relationships with leading technology partners and keep up with our extensive certifications to ensure that we have the resources and expertise to deliver the best in managed dedicated hosting, cloud computing services and cloud-based storage.

Has the economic downturn helped accelerate the migration to cloud based data centers? 

Absolutely. The economic downturn has forced almost everyone to do more with less, which is why more companies are turning to cloud computing. 

Increased scalability and flexibility and a pay-per-use model creates a more cost-effective and agile infrastructure solution.  Customers leveraging Layered Tech's cloud computing and virtualization solutions reduce capital and operating expenses while enabling IT staff to focus on higher priority business needs rather than their infrastructure. 

Customers can also choose from a range of support options from Layered Tech's tiered managed services, ranging from the highest root-level access down to the lowest self-managed option with varying levels in between.  It's all about helping them to be flexible and do more with less.

Can you explain what the Virtual Private Data Centers (VPDC) platform service is?  Is this a flavor of the cloud computing model that people have been talking about?

Sure. We pioneered Virtual Private Data Centers - or VPDCs - which offer enterprise-class security, choice and flexibility.  It's a hybrid approach that gives customers dedicated, unshared resources in their off-premise cloud infrastructure rather than placing their data into purely public clouds.  VPDC platforms and private clouds are becoming popular cloud computing approaches for enterprises because they provide more control and security than public cloud offerings.

Whether it's an "internal private cloud" created and maintained by the enterprise's IT staff and housed within its onsite data center, or it's an "external private cloud," where the enterprise engages with a third-party hosting provider like Layered Tech to develop and operate a private cloud within one or more of the hosting company's data centers, enterprises want to have their own cloud infrastructure.  In other words, we believe that enterprises will not want clouds with shared resources, like those that exist in purely public cloud environments.

So, with the VPDC, customers gain the on-demand scalability of the cloud with all the reliability and security of dedicated servers.  The integrated virtualization platform also offers levels of managed services, security and flexibility via a proprietary API that were previously unavailable in an integrated offering. 


We created a maturity model for cloud storage just a few weeks ago. Can you tell us if it matches with your experience in the industries you serve?

Yes, it does. We believe that 2010 will be the first meaningful stage of cloud computing's rocket-ride of growth and enterprise usage, and it's all fueled by the need for further operational and financial improvement.  We've found that enterprises are seeking cloud computing benefits such as lower costs, higher productivity, greater speed to market, and near-instantaneous scalability of computing resources. 

It's important to note that CIOs now have an easier time showing their CEOs and CFOs the value of migrating to cloud computing and virtualized environments, especially considering the competitive advantages they create. The investment required to migrate to the cloud alone generates immediate short-term value, while also delivering long-term upside.  

Like your cloud storage maturity model, we think that custom migration plans and hybrid approaches to cloud computing also will be an emerging trend in 2010.  Enterprises will evaluate business drivers and align technology solutions to their corporate needs more closely than ever before.  The result will be the growing adoption of a hybrid approach, where a portion of the IT infrastructure stays in the physical, dedicated server world, while the remainder migrates into the cloud.

Finally, can you tell our readers about LT Depot, your cloud storage solution?

As you know, we just launched our new cloud storage solution called LT Depot, which is powered by the Mezeo™ Cloud Storage Platform.

LT Depot allows you to create and select scalable, reliable, and secure storage for your application and service needs. If you need storage for images, videos or critical documents without significant capital expense, LT Depot is your answer.

Not only is LT Depot designed as a robust and reliable storage avenue, it provides customers the extended advantages of sharing and collaboration. This provides features such as access, create, manage, and edit documents and files no matter where your users reside -- even from their mobile devices. Whether your team exists in one office, or multi-site locations around the world, stay connected and work together seamlessly and efficiently.