IBM and Verizon to make cloud storage pop in 2010

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage may turn out to be one of the very few technologies that actually lives up to all the hype that precedes its launch into 'real life'. Long-heralded as the future of data storage, giving businesses and individuals the chance to achieve massive economies of scale and far more efficient control over information, 'the cloud' looks to be a genuine game changer.

Now two major tech firms in the US are hoping to make 2010 the 'year of the cloud' by joining forces to offer a cloud-based data backup system to let enterprises securely store data in a way the companies say is "more reliable and easier to retrieve" than many current data storage methods.

IBM and Verizon Business are looking to lure large enterprises to cloud data backup by combining Verizon's virtual private network (VPN) services with IBM's cloud data backup client software. The two companies claim that using Verizon's VPN rather than the public internet to transport backup data will ease security concerns and enhance the performance of cloud data storage at the high end.

'Managed Data Vault'

Known as the 'Managed Data Vault', Verizon says the offering provides "security, quick and reliable daily backups and fast recovery of enterprise information". Verizon and IBM say the service will be particularly useful for enterprises that have to securely store data in the 15 to 150 terabyte range.

Among the many advantages of cloud storage are, access to a lower-cost tier of storage that helps drive down IT costs; the ability to shift storage costs from a capital expenditure to an operational expenditure, freeing capital to support other parts of the business and wider access to affordable disaster recovery as data copies stored in the cloud are off-site and protected.

Retrieving data using traditional, tangible data tapes is a very time-consuming and cost-intensive process.

IBM and Verizon's Managed Data Vault will do away with the need for tapes. The idea is to create a single network-based repository for all enterprise data, up to hundreds of terabytes, and enable fast retrieval of that data when required. Furthermore, Verizon claims its MPLS-based VPNs can offer "up to ten times the capacity of traditional internet-based backup and recovery".

The future is cloud shaped

"Internet-based backup services have throughput limitations, and the lack of dedicated throughput on the internet doesn't appeal to large data centers," said Warren Sirota, strategy and program development executive for IBM Global Technology Services.

"In some instances, it has taken over 40 days over the internet to achieve the first full backup of a single server, and the problem grows with large data stores. So security and reliable, fast throughput remove the significant barriers to adoption [of cloud data backup in the enterprise]."

Despite the widespread endorsement of cloud computing, enterprises have so far been slow in adopting the technology (only 3 percent of companies in North America and Europe have implemented some form of cloud-based storage). IBM and Verizon hope that this will change when people see their names behind 'the cloud'.

The Managed Data Vault service is initially available in New York City but will be rolled out across the country to high-end customers with very large data footprints this year, and eventually to all market levels over the coming years.

I've seen the future, and it's cloud shaped.

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Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

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