How the cloud can answer data needs
INCESSANT talk of big data over the last 18 months has gone hand-in-hand with talk of the abilities of cloud storage and computing to meet these demands.
Just what is cloud storage and what can it mean for your business requirements? It can mean different things to different people, but its aim is to provide on-demand network access to a shared storage pool that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort.
The banking and insurance sectors will see a continues onslaught of legislation and regulatory requirements – the likes of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive review (Mifiid II) will increase exponentially the transaction reporting requirements for financial institutions. On the insurance side, Solvency II will create similarly increased demands for storage that is scalable with data that is easily accessibly and on demand. So what are cloud computing’s advantages and how can it respond to the demands being placed upon data storage?
1 Scalability. One of the biggest advantages of cloud storage is its relative ease of scalability – it is much easier to bolt-on increased cloud storage to your existing system than it is to upgrade an internal data centre. And as the storage, archiving and reporting requirements are ramped up across the financial sector, cloud computing is well placed to respond to the ever-increasing storage demands.
2 Reduced IT costs. With a well-configured system, the implementation of cloud computing and storage can cut the costs of network management and overall IT spends. Rather than having huge amounts of storage and processing power in reserve “just in case”, by pooling hardware and software in the cloud, you pay for what you use.
3 Accessibility. Cloud storage can give businesses and their clients access to data from anywhere with an internet connection. It has also opened up possibilities for “bring your own device.” As employees amass an increasing number of powerful personal mobile computing devices, from smart phones to tablet computers, they have begun to demand the same level of flexibility in their work environment and the ability to connect these devices to their professional IT network. Cloud computing makes this achievable and helps IT systems administrators manage the devices connected to their network.
4 Data security. By backing up company data on a remote cloud – by its very nature spread across a number of locations – risks of losing company data to fire, floor or another natural disaster are mitigated.
5 Ease of maintenance. Rather than maintaining the in-house data centre yourself, cloud storage software and hardware are updated by the cloud storage provider. Though this will form part of your usage fee, these costs will be greatly reduced compared to traditional in-house storage networks.