The Durability of Cloud Storage

One of the biggest concerns of cloud storage is not its overall storage capabilities but how reliable it is in storing each bit of data. Because of the improvements in technology, it can hold vast amounts of data and constantly provide it and back it up for clients. Therefore, experts typically don’t fear that certain cloud storage services won’t be able to store enough data for clients, but rather that how they store each individual byte.  The feature of durability separates the great cloud storage services from the ones that merely get the job done.

A recent TechTarget article discusses most users’ misconception about durability and how experts really define it. Dan Iacono, a research director at International Data Corp explains the importance of a guarantee of durability:

“Most people don’t even realize that durability is an issue in environments, because I may have terabytes or even petabytes in my environment, but when you’re a cloud provider, you’re thinking exabytes and zettabytes. What durability really is are those uncorrectable bit errors that you can’t recover from, from the underlying media. After you have written a ton of data, one of those bytes might not be correct.”

Because cloud storage is a growing industry and there are currently many resources devoted to it, there are considerable improvements made every day. But the difference between cloud storage services will not be how they market themselves, but rather their fundamental method of storing data and guaranteeing its use and security to clients.

Not all cloud providers are on the same level when it comes to durability, so it’s important to understand the durability agreement before purchasing it from a provider.

If you would like more information about cloud storage that guarantees durability, contact us.