A public cloud is a platform that relies on the standard cloud computing model, making resources accessible to users remotely. Such resources include applications, virtual machines, or storage. <\/span>Cloud costs are typically operating expenses<\/span><\/a> (OpEx) and not capital expenses (CapEx) – most cloud services are offered on a pay per use basis.<\/span><\/p>\n The public cloud provides an alternative approach to application development, differing from traditional on-premises IT architectures. In the typical public cloud model, a third-party vendor hosts on-demand, scalable IT resources and makes them available to users via a network connection. This connection is either over a dedicated network or the public Internet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In this article, I\u2019ll explain the options for storing your data in the public cloud, and explore specific cloud storage services by the world\u2019s leading cloud providers.<\/span><\/p>\n There are three common technologies to use in managing storage in the cloud:<\/span><\/p>\n It stores data as objects, which are self-contained units arranged in a flat hierarchy. Object storage does not use files or folders\u2014instead, objects have metadata that facilitates organization, search, and retrieval. These can include any type of data or file type, including structured and unstructured data. This storage is elastically scalable, making it easy to share data across multiple physical storage devices.<\/span><\/li>\n This is similar to the storage system used on a PC or file server. It stores data in files with a file extension that determines which application to use to view or edit the file. File storage can be deployed in a hard drive directly attached to a computer, or computers can remotely access files stored elsewhere using protocols like network attached storage (NAS). Cloud-based file storage makes it easy to migrate legacy applications to the cloud, because it behaves similarly to on-premise systems.<\/span><\/li>\n This splits data into blocks of predetermined size, with unique identifiers. When the data needs to be retrieved, it is pulled from multiple blocks and reassembled. Block storage is the storage technology used by hard disk drives, as well as enterprise storage systems like Storage Area Networks (SAN). The main advantage of block storage is that it supports high performance and high throughput scenarios.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Below are some examples of public cloud storage services:<\/p>\n Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud services platform. The platform provides database storage, cloud computing infrastructure, API support, content delivery, and bandwidth. In addition, it has several PaaS and IaaS services.<\/span><\/p>\n S3 is an object storage service that is infinitely scalable and provides high data durability. With it, one can create data lakes, backup and archive data, and store static data for web and mobile applications. It has management features that let you organize access to data and automate data lifecycles.<\/span><\/li>\n It is a serverless elastic file system that scales up and down on demand without disrupting applications. It integrates easily with legacy applications, enabling lift and shift of workloads to the cloud. EFS provides a web services interface that lets you create and configure file systems.<\/span><\/li>\n This is a service that enables running large-scale high-performance file systems. It supports Lustre, NetApp ONTAP, Windows File Server, and OpenZFS.<\/span><\/li>\n A block storage solution that provisions virtual hard disks you can attach to Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. They can be based on HDD or SSD technology, and can be dynamically configured based on requirements.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The platform is a frequent backup and disaster recovery tool; that is why many organizations use Azure storage as an archive in order to meet their long-term data retention requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n It is a managed file service based on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. It lets you mount cloud file shares from any Windows, Linux, or macOS machine, whether on-premises or in the Azure cloud.<\/span><\/li>\n This is an object storage service that enables storage of unstructured data in any format. You can use Blob Storage in combination with Azure Data Lake to easily build an enterprise data lake and support big data analytics.<\/span><\/li>\n These are virtual hard drives that can be mounted and accessed from an Azure virtual machine (VM).<\/span><\/li>\n These supports asynchronous, high speed message queueing between applications in the Azure cloud.<\/span><\/li>\n These are unstructured, key-value data store with a schemaless NoSQL design.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Google Cloud Platform provides PaaS and IaaS services such as data storage, computing, and networking. Moreover, this platform offers developer tools and applications for running on Google hardware. Certain offerings include App Engine, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Container Engine, and BigQuery.<\/span><\/p>\n Google Cloud Storage is a public cloud storage platform for enterprises to retain sizable unstructured data sets. Organizations can buy storage for their main or infrequently used data.<\/span><\/p>\n An object storage service that can be used for production or archive data. It provides four storage tiers, enabling storing data in one or multiple Google Cloud regions, and archiving with frequent or infrequent access.<\/span><\/li>\n A cloud-based file service that creates file shares that can be mounted using the network attached storage (NAS) protocol, and supports high performance workloads.<\/span><\/li>\n These are virtual hard drives that can be attached to Google Cloud VMs, and are used for persistent storage in Google Kubernetes Engine.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Below are some best practices that can help you make better use of your cloud storage:<\/span><\/p>\n Certainly, migrating too much data to the cloud at once can often be a mistake. Like any new system you adopt, adopting cloud gradually allows your organization to test and adapt to the new environment. Create a migration strategy and start small, by migrating smaller datasets that are not mission critical.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n There is a common misconception that data stored in the cloud is automatically backed up. It is true that many cloud services have built-in backup and archiving features; however, you need to correctly configure them first to protect the data.<\/span><\/p>\n The responsibility for data backup in the cloud rests with the cloud storage user. It is then best to consider cloud-native backup options such as storage tiering and replicating storage units to other cloud data centers.<\/span><\/li>\n Many organizations migrate to the cloud to save costs; therefore, it is important to validate that your cloud migration does indeed reduce costs. Cloud storage eliminates upfront investments in storage equipment and ongoing maintenance, and it creates an ongoing operating expense which can grow exponentially if your data volumes grow. Define a clear budget for your cloud storage deployment and track usage to ensure it does not exceed the budget.<\/span><\/li>\n Public cloud providers have various strategies for encouraging customers to make more extensive use of their services and avoid switching to other providers. Avoid using cloud services in a way that will lock you into a specific cloud provider and make it difficult to migrate data away in the future. Prefer to use industry standard data formats and protocols to make datasets easily portable. Conduct due diligence to understand cloud provider offerings and to avoid lock-in.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n In this article, I explained the basics of public cloud storage, described the two main technologies used to store data in the cloud\u2014object storage, file storage, and block storage, and briefly showed how the three biggest cloud providers package and provide their storage services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I provided several best practices that can help you make better use of cloud storage\u2014first, <\/span>consider your migration strategy before moving to the cloud. Second, <\/span>remember that backup is your responsibility. Third, <\/span>watch costs; and finally, <\/span>avoid vendor lock in.<\/span><\/p>\n I hope this will be useful as you explore your organization\u2019s use of the public cloud as an elastic, flexible storage option.<\/span><\/p>\n If we\u2019ve got you scratching your head with all this talk on storing data in the public cloud, we invite you to uncover your most high-potential data superpower by taking our free <\/span>Data Superhero Quiz<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s a fun, 45-second experience that will show you the most powerful data career path for you given your skillsets, passions, and personality.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Storing](\"http:\/\/data-mania.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Storing-Data-in-the-Public-Cloud-What-You-Should-Know-BLOG-BANNER.png\")
<\/p>\nStoring Data in the Public Cloud and What You Should Know About Storage Options: Object vs File vs Block Storage<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Object storage<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n
File storage<\/b><\/h4>\n
Block storage<\/b><\/h4>\n
Examples of Public Cloud Storage Services<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Amazon Web Services<\/span><\/h3>\n
Key AWS storage services include:<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Simple Storage Service (S3)<\/b><\/h4>\n
Elastic File System (EFS)<\/b><\/h4>\n
AWS FSx<\/b><\/h4>\n
Elastic Block Store (EBS)<\/b><\/h4>\n
Microsoft Azure<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Storing](\"http:\/\/data-mania.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/storing-data-in-the-public-cloud3-683x1024.png\")
Microsoft Azure is Microsoft\u2019s public cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services for computing, data storage, data analytics, and networking. Azure is a common platform for hosting databases in the cloud. Microsoft offers serverless relational databases such as Azure SQL and non-relational databases such as NoSQL.<\/span><\/p>\nKey Azure storage services include:<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Azure Files<\/b><\/h4>\n
Blob Storage<\/b><\/h4>\n
Disks<\/b><\/h4>\n
Queues<\/b><\/h4>\n
Tables<\/b><\/h4>\n
Google Cloud Platform<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Google Cloud Storage<\/b><\/h4>\n
Cloud Filestore<\/b><\/h4>\n
Google Cloud Persistent Disks<\/b><\/h4>\n
Storing Data in the Public Cloud: What You Should Know About Cloud Storage Best Practices<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Consider your cloud migration strategy<\/b><\/h4>\n
Cloud backup and disaster recovery<\/b><\/h4>\n
Watch cloud storage costs<\/b><\/h4>\n
Avoid vendor lock-in<\/b><\/h4>\n
Capping off: Storing data in the public cloud, what you should know<\/strong><\/h2>\n
More To Explore\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Data](\"http:\/\/data-mania.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/free-data-career-quiz-and-guidance.png\")
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