“Cloud” has become such a mainstream word that it’s evolving into an all-encompassing concept. Due to the use frequency of this word, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between its applications – cloud storage and cloud backup. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are using this confusion to their benefit because it gives them a broader appeal.
In this blog, we’ll tell you a story about the relation between cloud storage and cloud backup – and how the two are different from one another.
Before we indulge in the story though, let’s look at some statistics about cloud adoption and how mainstream it really is.
According to a Forbes Contributor, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the Cloud by 2020. In January 2018, Right Scale conducted a survey about the State of the cloud and formulated a report on the latest cloud computing trends. This survey collected information from 997 IT professionals, according to this report the top priority of enterprise central IT are as follows:
It’s very clear that Public Cloud adoption is on the rise in 2018 while the hybrid model presents promising applications, it’s expected that public cloud won’t slow down either. Now that we know the pace of cloud adoption, let’s look at Cloud storage and cloud backups individually.
What is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage, simply put, is storing your data in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google’s data center. Cloud storage is an easy way to store, access and share files. Examples of popular cloud storages include Google drive and OneDrive.
Service providers, like StoneFly, enable businesses to optimize data storage using data services like WAN acceleration, Automated data tiering, policy based storage tiering, deduplication, encryption and more. These services secure data transfers and data at rest (before and after transit). Services like deduplication reduce bandwidth consumption and improve cost effectiveness while services like policy based storage tiering allow users to automate cloud storage and remove human error.
Businesses can leverage cloud storage to reduce the cost of on-premises data storage and long term data retention. Integrating cloud storage with enterprise IT environments also facilitates businesses to enhance data mobility and support productivity.
The downside to cloud storage is that it does not prevent data loss. For instance, let’s say a user deleted a file accidentally, then there’s a chance it’s gone permanently. The same applies to malicious deletion. Cloud storage integrates services like Geo-redundancy to ensure that data is always available but geo-redundancy does not make sure that it’s backed up.
If users configure geo-redundancy, then data is replicated over to different infrastructures or regions, depending on the CSP. If the original data is deleted, then geo-redundancy replicates this change all over the eco-system and deletes the file permanently. That’s why Cloud storage, even with features such as Geo-redundancy, cannot replace cloud backups.
Did you know that StoneFly offers cloud storage in Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google and other S3 compatible clouds? Learn more here: Cloud Storage for Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud – Block, File Object.
What is Cloud Backup?
Cloud backup solutions create historical copies of your data and store them in the cloud. In the event of accidental or malicious deletion, or any other disaster, users can recover their important data using these backup files.
Cloud backup solutions, like StoneFly CDR365™, offers users a simple-to-use and easy-to-manage online backup solution with automated services. Users can configure schedules for their backups and setup quicker backups. Using StoneFly CDR365™, users can setup synchronous or asynchronous replication – to either create real-time backups of their data or create backup files at a specified time. For instance, an office with limited bandwidth can schedule asynchronous replication and schedule backups after the end of each workday. This enables users to leverage the available bandwidth during the day and the backup process can initiate later on without disrupting any project or application.
The purpose of cloud backup is to make sure that there are copies of data that users can use to recover files. Similar to cloud storage, users can integrate a number of data services to support faster backups and recovery. StoneFly CDR365™ delivers enterprise-level data services like snapshots, replication, encryption, and more.
If you’re interested about StoneFly CDR365™ – online backup solution, you can learn more about it here: CDR365™ – Backup and Disaster Recovery in the Cloud and Local (Hybrid).
The line between Cloud Storage and Cloud Backup
Once users look at cloud storage and cloud backup individually, the line between them thickens and becomes very clear. Cloud storage, as mentioned above, is meant to store data and share it with people with the right credentials. If this data is deleted, then it’s gone and there’s no way to recover it.
Cloud backup are the historical copies of data stored in the cloud. Using cloud backups, users can prevent data loss and recover their files in the event of a disaster like hardware failure, power outage, software corruption etc.
Considering the difference between cloud storage and cloud backups – it’s clear that both are must haves for businesses. With cloud storage, users can reduce cost of data storage and using cloud backups, users can protect their mission-critical data.
To learn more about StoneFly’s cloud storage solutions or cloud backups, contact us. You can call us at 510 265 1616 or send us an email at [email protected].