February 5, 2015

Consequences Of Combining Off Premise Storage and Corporate Data

By Marc Malizia

Off Premise Corporate Data Storage Cloud storage is a broad term. It can encompass anything from on premise solutions, to file storage, disaster recovery and off premise options. To narrow the scope, I’ve dedicated the focus of today’s discussion to the more popular cloud storage services—such as Dropbox, Box, OneDrive—which are also known as hosted, […]

Off Premise Corporate Data Storage

Cloud storage is a broad term. It can encompass anything from on premise solutions, to file storage, disaster recovery and off premise options. To narrow the scope, I’ve dedicated the focus of today’s discussion to the more popular cloud storage services—such as Dropbox, Box, OneDrive—which are also known as hosted, off premise solutions.

These services have become widely popular within the consumer market. The explosive growth of the mobile device industry over the past three years has been the main driver for the cloud storage market. Consumers were in search of a way to easily share and access files, pictures and video content across all their devices whether it be a laptop, desktop or smart device. They wanted their content readily accessible and east to access. Companies like Dropbox and Box were the early pioneers of this cloud storage niche that has now become a battleground for the big players such as Google and Microsoft. The competition of this market has benefited the consumer with cost-effective pricing and almost limitless storage. Microsoft includes 1TB of OneDrive storage with the office 365 subscription and Dropbox cost /year for 1TB.

Consumers, now equipped with a DropBox or similar service for personal data, demand the ability to access corporate data on their smart devices or mobile workspace in a similar manner. Initially, this leads to people using their personal accounts to store and share work related documents. With this, a variety of issues surfaced when using this approach; from security to compliance the list runs long. In order to remedy these issues, corporations began buying enterprise accounts from cloud storage providers where a higher degree of security is offered, and access control to data and improved logging addressed some compliance issues.

Service Level Agreement Omission

SLA

Though these services are scrambling to entice the enterprise market, there are still many apprehensions I have that prohibit me from recommending these services for corporate data. First and foremost, the omission of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) guaranteeing the availability of data is a concern. Most IT organizations build resilient networks with three, four or five 9’s of uptime. This equates to a high degree of availability for your corporate data. As a corporate user, you expect (or require) the same level of service for your cloud storage, yet most of these providers only commit to “provide the service as is“, “with all faults” and “as available” while providing no warranty that the service will be uninterrupted, free of harmful components or that the content will be secure or not lost or damaged. These terms and conditions significantly minimize the provider’s responsibility to ensure data is accessible, safe, error-free and uninterrupted. On the flip side, it’s hard to believe a company would accept this type of disclaimer from an internal IT department.

Maintenance Scheduling

Most IT departments schedule routine maintenance windows to patch and upgrade systems when usage is low. These windows typically occur on the weekend or late at night to minimize disruption. Cloud storage providers reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to make necessary unscheduled deployments of changes, updates or enhancements to the Service at any time.  In essence, upgrading their systems whenever they desire.

Also worth considering, is the fact that these services can terminate any account, locking users out of data at any given time with or without cause based on their sole discretion and charge an additional fee to retrieve the data once this occurs.

While the off-premise service providers’ capabilities may fit the needs of consumers, the risk potential when it comes to data loss and security can significantly inhibit satisfaction and productivity for corporate users. To shield your organization from these threats, I suggest leveraging the providers that allow on-premise implementations of their software. By doing so, companies can take advantage of the ease of use and accessibility these applications offer, while enjoying the peace of mind that comes with a higher degree of security, compliance, availability and accessibility of an incredibly valuable asset: their data.

By Marc Malizia

Marc Malizia

Marc Malizia is co-founder and CTO of RKON Technologies, responsible for the company’s overall technical vision and strategy. Since he helped start the company in 1998, Malizia has played a key role in creating many of RKON Technologies’ products and professional service offerings, as well as building the company’s internal computing platform, which serves as the basis of the brand’s cloud and managed services portfolio.

Prior to RKON Technologies, Malizia was director of engineering at LAN Systems.

Malizia holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from University of Illinois and a master’s degree in telecommunications from DePaul University.

AI at the Gate: Navigating the Future of Cybersecurity with SonicWall’s Bobby Cornwell

Navigating the Future of Cybersecurity In the face of the digital age’s advancements, AI’s role [...]
Read more
Jeff DeVerter

Charting the Course: An Interview with Rackspace’s Jeff DeVerter on AI and Cloud Innovation

Rackspace’s Jeff DeVerter on AI & Cloud Innovation In an insightful conversation with CloudTweaks, Jeff [...]
Read more

Lambda Cold Starts: What They Are and How to Fix Them

What Are Lambda Cold Starts? Lambda cold starts occur when AWS Lambda has to initialize [...]
Read more
Steve Prentice

Episode 19: Why AWS Needs to Become Opinionated about FinOps

On today’s episode of the CloudTweaks podcast, Steve Prentice chats with Rahul Subramaniam, CEO at CloudFix [...]
Read more
Steve Prentice

Get Smarter – The Era of Microlearning 

The Era of Microlearning Becoming employable and then staying employable requires ongoing, up to date [...]
Read more

Azure Free Tier vs. AWS Free Tier: Which Provides More Value?

Cloud computing has become a cornerstone for the digital transformation of businesses. From startups to [...]
Read more

SPONSORS

Interviews and Thought Leadership

Srini Kalapala

Driving Growth: Srini Kalapala Discusses Verizon’s Network APIs

Welcome to our interview with Srini Kalapala, Senior VP of Technology and Product Development at Verizon. Today, we explore how Verizon’s network APIs are reshaping global developer landscapes and enhancing [...]
Read more
Michael Kleef

Akamai’s Michael Kleef Reveals Key Shifts in Cloud Computing Landscape

Welcome to a conversation with Michael Kleef, Vice President of Product Marketing, Developer Advocacy, and Competitive Intelligence at Akamai Technologies. Today, we’re privileged to have him share his insights with [...]
Read more

Karen Buffo, CMO of MixMode, on the Rise of AI in Safeguarding Digital Assets

Welcome to our Q&A session with Karen Buffo, CMO of MixMode, hosted by CloudTweaks. Today, we’ll explore the profound impact [...]
Read more

5 Azure Cost Management Strategies

What Is Azure Cost Management? Azure cost management refers to the practices and processes that organizations implement to monitor, manage, [...]
Read more

Exploring SaaS Directories: The Path to Optimal Software Selection

Exploring the Landscape of SaaS Directories SaaS directories are vital in today’s digital age, serving as key resources for businesses [...]
Read more

SPONSOR PARTNER

Explore top-tier education with exclusive savings on online courses from MIT, Oxford, and Harvard through our e-learning sponsor. Elevate your career with world-class knowledge. Start now!
© 2024 CloudTweaks. All rights reserved.