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In the first quarter of 2010, we created a 4-phased Cloud Storage Maturity Model which still makes complete sense in 2012. The market is finding the way forward, following the blueprint we described almost to a T.

With our cloud storage maturity model in mind, here are some thoughts on the trends we're seeing this year. What we're describing is the State of Cloud Storage in 2012:

• The rise of a new application delivery architecture

We think this year everyone will figure out that cloud storage is not just cheap storage via the web, but the delivery of a new application architecture, whereby applications are fully contained on a variety of devices (smartphones, tablets and PCs) and the backend is a cloud data store with REST APIs. 

• The consumerization of everything

Enterprises as well as large institutions will seek alternatives to allowing their employees to use consumer tools like DropBox as well as alternatives to tools like box that still store data (albeit encrypted) in a public cloud (i.e. Amazon S3). This trend, aptly named the "consumerization of IT" is creating many alternatives that provide more security, and integration with key corporate support tools.  Cloud Storage is a key enabler of the consumer tools that have found favor with early and wide adoption, so look for the successful entrants with enterprise class security to be based on cloud technologies, and stored behind private firewalls so that the solutions will be as attractive to end users as the consumer tools, but that IT can control the security of their confidential corporate data and compliance initiatives.

• Disintermediation of services
  

The disintermediation of telcos and device manufacturers will continue, with the most cogent example being Apple delivering text messaging "off network" via iCloud.   Already, with devices using WiFi, from multiple suppliers, a storage cloud is a key enabler of these services.

• Manageability

Storage cloud manageability will grow as a requirement as the storage clouds get larger.  Storage clouds will become a delivery vehicle for highly complex management schemes focused on storage tiering. Let's talk ITIL in the Cloud.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens of the Cloud, the enterprise is ready for cloud storage. Let us know what you think.

Let's discuss the rapid adoption of "App Stores", and the types of applications that are being enabled for a variety of devices, primarily tablets and smartphones. While these applications are each written to deliver unique capabilities and take advantage of the platform they are designed for, as well as being written for different platforms (for example, Android apps are developed in JAVA, Apple IOS apps in Objective C) they share a common enabling technology: REST API access to a storage cloud.  

This approach is rapidly enabling new applications, which differ from older approaches like client server, virtual desktop and Web browser enabled applications in very important ways.  The backend infrastructure ( a REST API storage cloud) is a simple, massively scalable server-based solution, that can reside within the enterprise data center (a private cloud), or at an IT Service Provider (either a hosted private cloud or a public cloud). It is easy to scale, easy to manage, and by providing a consistent storage backend, it allows developers to focus on their applications and associated business logic versus worrying about the backend architecture. This provides for a "separation of concerns" in that Web, Windows, MAC, Android or IOS applications can be substantially different, but they all use the same REST API of the storage cloud they depend on. As your application use and portfolio grows, you simply scale the storage cloud, versus having to make significant changes to the server infrastructure, as is the case with client server, virtual desktop or Web browser enabled applications.

The disruptive wave is coming fast, and you will see it bringing new capabilities and applications for that large screen in your automobile (watch for car makers offering applications in App Stores), a touch screen on your refrigerator, as well as enterprise applications that will support tablets and smart phones.  Think about estimating at a job site with an application on a tablet, or estimating a property insurance damage claim with a tablet, the application is on the tablet, and the data could reside in multiple storage clouds.

Expect to see more enterprise applications taking advantage of this low cost, and easy way to deliver the kind of applications their employees and partners need.

In Standardized Cloud APIs? Yes, Don Macvittie takes on the opposing view held by editor Mike Fratto in Standardizing Cloud APIs Is Useless.

Gentlemen, you are both right.

In a previous blog entry, I noted the following:

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 some are excited to take advantage of some of the unique Mezeo API based 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 yet unknown. 

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 interoperability of applications developed for Amazon S3, Google and Eucalyptus based storage clouds. 

(Note:  we are soon announcing our first addition to the Interoperability API that will deliver the SNIA CDMI data management capability).

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.  Their focus is on what cloud storage can do, the problems it can solve, what business opportunities it creates and what new applications it enables.  All of these views assume it will be competitively priced.

So, should we ultimately and will we ultimately achieve some sort of "standardized" API for cloud storage and cloud computing?  YES! 

What benefits will it bring?  The usual ones we expect from standardization. 

Will it be a panacea and a reason to buy?  No, but it will ultimately be a reason not to buy.

Is it the most important thing all of us in the cloud space can do right now?  No, but supporting the standards bodies is, and your suppliers should have a position on that. 

I like practical business approaches.  That is why we try to look at cloud storage through the lens of what it can be used for, why that makes sense and why it is a big business opportunity.  We developed our Interoperability API to make it easy for cloud storage solution providers to use Mezeo enabled clouds.  We built the Mezeo API to provide a robust development environment for programmable storage.  Both are important.  We did not do either one to get engaged in the "which API will prevail" struggle for becoming a standard.  We support CDMI, and are beginning to utilize it where it makes sense and adds real business value. 

I would like to close by saying that standardization will be important, it will never be perfect and it is going to take some time.  In the meantime, what I do know is that there are excellent ways to use cloud storage to solve real business problems in new ways that will yield substantial business improvements, including savings.  If you are worried about vendor lock in, get your top technical people together and do two things:

1)    Make sure that you understand that converting from one API to another, while not the most productive or best use of time, is simply not that big a deal and;

2)    Remember that there are big market forces at work here, and that your cloud storage service suppliers will be bound as much by those versus being protected by their proprietary APIs!

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CLOUD STORAGE: A BUSINESS MODEL for THE ENTERPRISE

After looking at this snippet I decided to read the full paper from Appirio.  It actually says that 68% of "cloud adopters" expect to have the majority of their data and applications in the cloud within three years. 

What we are not told is the actual % of cloud adopters amongst medium and large enterprises. So, 68% of some subset of medium and large enterprises are racing to the cloud - not bad - but not the marketplace as a whole either.

Since "cloud adopters" are also early adopters, it comes as no surprise that they are rapidly moving to the cloud and will be done in three years.  They are also doing it because they intuitively understand that the cloud is the right thing to do, and they know that even if it is at best a break even proposition today, they will be the first to arrive at the true benefits.  Or, perhaps, they are solving something more problematic than others may be enduring, like poorly designed home grown applications, legacy application that are ready to cycle out, lack of capital for data center expansion, or any other of the many drivers that sends you to the cloud for a solution.

 Also, cloud adoption is slowed primarily by security concerns, and two concurrent activities are solving this problem on a daily basis.  One, IT organizations are winding up their early evaluations and figuring out what they can immediately live with in a cloud solution.  Second, improved security solutions are racing to market to solve these concerns associated with cloud based solutions, so more and more cloud capabilities are now deemed secure.  This trend will continue until security is no longer the blanket excuse for not becoming cloudy, and instead wide spread adoption will be governed by capacity, conversion capability, business case process and analysis, and the orderly march to the next generation of computing infrastructure.

I have a golden rule of IT technology adoption:  It always happens, and it always happens slower than the industry pundits suggest.  Cloud computing is no different.  As a matter of fact, it is very supportive of my golden rule of IT Technology, and is behaving in the usual, predictable fashion. Every time someone tries to convince me otherwise, I think about IBM, the mainframe, and the many occasions it was pronounced dead.  I went to that funeral twenty years ago and it is still growing strong.  How about the AS/400? Same story.  

Now is an exciting time to be in information technology.  What excites me about cloud computing is that it is an approach to computing service delivery that is driving significant technology investment and the promise of significant returns.  And, it is being delivered in the crucible of the open market, not by government edict, or with central planning, but with the chaos and creative destruction that only capitalism can provide.

Dan Decasper co-founded Cirtas with the vision of enabling the enterprise to utilize cloud storage as if it were a local array.

CloudStorageStrategy.com asked him a few questions about "Cloud Storage Controllers" and what the technology means for the enterprise. 

Note: Cirtas is a Mezeo Ready Solution Partner.

What was the original idea behind Cirtas?
Cirtas' co-founders previously built a WAN optimization company that was acquired by Citrix.  Together, they saw the coming of the cloud and recognized that broad scale adoption of cloud storage would require a "catalyst" technology to make the experience seamless and high performing.  They had the expertise to develop such technology and founded Cirtas to address the market need.

What is a Cloud Storage Controller?
A Cloud Storage Controller (CSC) is analogous to the array controllers found in enterprise storage systems, except instead of providing data protection, security, advanced virtualization features, and performance for an array of locally attached disk drives, a Cloud Storage Controller provides these capabilities on top of public cloud storage.  The net result is that public cloud storage can be utilized by the enterprise as if it were a local storage array - quickly, easily and for any application.

Who uses them Cloud Storage Controllers? Why do they need them?
Cloud Storage Controllers are used by mid-to-large enterprise - typically organizations with 10TB to several petabytes of data that are looking to reduce their overall cost of storage and simplify their storage environment.

These types of customers need Cloud Storage Controllers because leveraging public cloud storage services is simply not feasible without them.  The sheer number of applications running in a typical enterprise precludes them from being re-written to cloud APIs, and other concerns such as security and performance must be overcome.  Cloud Storage Controllers address all these concerns in a very robust way, allowing cloud storage to be used like local storage - but with superior economics and simplicity.

What benefits does a CSC offer?
A Cloud Storage Controller offers three main benefits:

1) It creates a seamless and highly robust connection to cloud storage, while requiring no changes to applications running in the data center.  Applications are able to access the cloud using standard block and file access protocols on what appears to be a standard logical volume.  The magic of the Cloud Storage Controller is in presenting a standard storage interface to servers and applications on the SAN, while connecting to the cloud over the WAN, and requiring nothing of the user to make this happen.

2) It accelerates the performance of applications using cloud storage through advanced WAN acceleration techniques including caching, deduplication, compression, and protocol optimization.  These techniques make cloud storage perform like local storage - even over relatively limited Internet connections (e.g. a DS3 at 45Mbps).  Furthermore, these same techniques help customers reduce their cloud storage service fees (and total cost of ownership) since they are not storing as much data in the cloud or moving as much data back and forth to it.

3) The Cloud Storage Controller provides the same features and capabilities expected of local storage arrays, such as thin provisioning, automated storage tiering, volume management, snapshots, and more.  These capabilities enhance the native functionality of the cloud, making it easier to use and providing superior data protection capabilities.

What applications/data sets make sense for the cloud?
Any Tier 2 or Tier 3 application or data set makes sense for the cloud through a Cloud Storage Controller.  The applications that don't yet make sense are highly mission critical or performance sensitive applications like large databases, ERP systems, and data warehousing.  Applications that make perfect sense are home directories, unstructured content storage, SAN offload, archiving, backup/tape replacement, and large-scale data collection (e.g. log storage)

What are your impressions of the cloud storage market today, and where it's going?  
It's an exciting time to be in the cloud storage market.  There's so much potential and things are just getting going.  Cloud storage has been very successful for web applications, and in conjunction with cloud computing.  However, it hasn't yet transcended into a tool for the mainstream enterprise.  At Cirtas we've got an opportunity to change that and we're seeing tremendous traction.  When we started two years ago, IT managers were aware of the cloud, but were fairly uneducated about it.  Today there are increasing numbers of cloud storage initiatives being driven from the CIO level, along with much more recognition of the technology among the media and analyst community as a potential game changer.  So these days it's much easier to engage with customers.  Keep an eye on the statistics published by cloud storage providers - you'll be amazed at the growth rates you see them achieve.

Las Vegas, Nevada - The Mezeo team is at the Tier 1 Research Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit this week.  The Summit has been very well attended this year, and we are seeing an increased focus on the cloud (evident by the name change of the summit itself) and much discussion on the enterprise adoption of the cloud.  This is our third time to sponsor the summit, and we're seeing new faces like CA and Nimsoft this year.

In the opening keynote, Antonio Piraino, VP of research for Tier1 Research, talked about "phase two" of the cloud computing market. In this phase, Piraino says we'll see enterprises begin to seek hybrid solutions and telcos enter the cloud market.  He noted that the entry of the telco cloud is a significant development in that it reflects that enterprises are driving this demand for cloud-based solutions.  This change is already evident in the marketplace with many of the recent telco acquisitions of cloud based providers.

On Tuesday, I participated in a panel discussion with CA, Microsoft and Verizon Business on Enterprise Cloud Adoption.  The consensus from these big players is, like Tier 1, is that they are seeing enterprises begin to move to the private cloud, and that the public cloud adoption was coming next.

For more insights, see our cloud storage business maturity model >> 

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

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

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!

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.]