Digital Walkabout

Dropbox ushers in Storage-as-a-Platform

With Dropbox's announcement of auto-image upload from Android devices, following its acquring partners such as Picasa to use it as a device and set-top-box backing store, we are now seeing the emergence of Cloud Storage-as-a-Platform. 

What's not mentioned by the TC article - this builds on the Dropbox SDK, growing in popularity, to enable apps on devices - from smartphones to notebooks/desktops - to integrate with Dropbox Cloud storage directly, enabling auto-synchronisation to the provider. Whilst not as yet neatly integrated as iCloud's Photostream, this is a solid step in the building of Storage-as-a-Platform, where one can plug in their Cloud storage solution of choice to their apps. 

Watch for the continued transformation of Cloud storage from simple repository to content hub,, where one can look forward to accessing their content, anytime, anywhere, with ease, transparency and fine-grained management using their preferred apps. This architecture addresses one of the greatest problems of Cloudbursting: partitioning app processing from data sources. More than just connecting one's apps to one's data in a highly decoupled fashion, one can now run their apps in a Cloud separate from where their data lives. This may sound simple - but has been a messy and complicated problem for years. No longer. 

 

 

 

 

What are the principal barriers to Cloud adoption?

45% of European IT decision makers view a lack of security and service level agreements (SLAs) as top concerns for moving to the cloud, according to a survey by Interxion.

Created with service providers (SPs) and system integrators (SIs) in mind – two of the key groups supporting companies’ transition to the cloud – the survey results aim to provide a clear understanding of how organizations are using the cloud today and plan to be using the cloud tomorrow.

The perceived challenges of moving to the cloud also include apprehension of being locked into a specific infrastructure vendor, as cited by 40% of respondents. Under the umbrella of security concerns, preventing data loss was stated as the main fear overall, with 71% of respondents identifying it as one of their top three security concerns.

However, preventing outages, rated second with 64%, and was cited most often as the top issue due to the severe impact outages can have on business processes and bottom line performance.

Despite the concerns of deploying to the cloud, the survey found that 69% of European IT decision makers believe the cloud is a priority today. Large companies led the charge with 71% believing it’s a priority, with small and medium companies close behind at 68 and 67% respectively. Moreover, 75% of the companies either currently use or plan to use cloud computing within the next two years, showing significant growth potential for the industry.

Encouraging results surrounding the future of the cloud come from nearly half of the respondents, who expect that more than 50% of their IT will be delivered from the cloud within the next two years, with 23% citing more than 75% of their IT expected to be housed in the cloud.

Additionally, an overwhelming 90% of those planning to deploy a private cloud said that they are likely or very likely to choose a hosted solution rather than buying their own hardware, signifying the opportunity for SPs and SIs to meet the demand for these services.

Confirming that the cloud is already fully engrained in today’s business landscape and has lasting power for the future, the survey gives SPs and SIs valuable insight for delivering value to their current cloud-based customers, emphasizing the need to address the security and SLA concerns of potential future customers.

One way to alleviate the barriers to entry is by allowing organizations to determine compliance in the cloud before and whilst they are deployed. More on this in the next post....