Understanding Cloud Storage

As the name indicates, Cloud storage is simply storage over cloud. It is the delivery of virtualized storage on demand over internet. It can also be defined as a model of networked online storage where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated servers.

The data center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the customer and expose them as storage pools, which the customers can themselves use to store files or data objects. Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers. Popular Vendors offering cloud storage are – Amazon S3, Windows Azure.



Cloud storage has the following characteristics:

• Global Virtualization
• Unlimited Scalability
• Continuous Availability
• Usage Based Service
• Maintenance Services - Backup, Data Replication

Some of the real world use cases for cloud storage include:

• Cloud Computing
• Web facing applications
• Backup and Archiving

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