The world of data management and storage continues to change and flex as it enters the realm of the cloud, with sophisticated technologies running in a never-ending horse-race against the increased demands of the end users. One constant remains: people need access to data, and they also need to store data, which is why they turn to cloud storage and backup specialists.
CloudBerry Lab (cloudberrylab.com) is one such specialist. They work a great deal in the Windows Azure environment, providing low-cost and reliable backup for small and mid-sized businesses. Alexander Negrash, Marketing Manager at CloudBerry Lab describes their service as “an easy and comfortable way for users to move data,” and they recognize the Windows Azure environment as a dynamic cloud solution that many of their customers are already comfortable with. This allows them to implement a multi-cloud backup strategy to meet a wide range of storage needs and operating platforms.
CloudBerryLab recognizes also that cost will always remain an issue for many corporate customers, especially given that the amount of data that needs to be accessed and stored increases with each passing day. So, in addition to their affiliation with Windows Azure, they assist by giving their clients access to Amazon Glacier.
Glacier is a fascinating spin on the concept of archiving, especially when one considers the effort that must have gone into the branding: the world’s largest river (Amazon) tied to the world’s slowest river (a glacier). But semantics aside, Glacier offers a remarkable visual and practical antithesis to the high-speed, amorphous entity that is the cloud. Although it, too, is cloud-based, Glacier essentially takes snapshots of existing data sets and then swallows them into a state of permanent immobility, encased, as it were, inside a giant block of ice. This is not real-time backup. This is month-end archiving. And once the data is frozen, it can be retrieved, but not immediately. Currently a retrieval request takes up to 24 hours to complete. It is ice, after all, not cloud vapor.
Amazon Glacier has an added benefit in addition to its huge storage capacity: it is very inexpensive. Current pricing is set at $0.01 per gigabyte, with a reliability factor of 99.9999999% against data loss. CloudBerry Lab offers Amazon Glacier backup service to its customers, thus completing a spectrum of backup and storage options, from fast to slow, short-term to long-term.
Negrash points out that CloudBerry Lab also provides encryption in a secure method that happens before the data is sent to the cloud, which differs from many other storage organizations that offer encryption, but store everything within the same data centres. By encrypting on the client’s end, before it is sent to the cloud, Negrash says, a greater level of security is achieved.
As always, however, Negrash states that customers should do some research when deciding on their backup and storage options, including just where and how their long-term storage should occur, given that the data to be stored will continue to expand on a weekly or monthly basis. Of course, the specialists at CloudBerry Lab are happy to provide assistance, and a great deal of information is available at their website. You can also download CloudBerry Backup with free 15 days trial.
By Steve Prentice
Post Sponsored By CloudBerry lab
