For these large files that are edited infrequently but may be read often, the cloud provides an ideal, cost effective home, Krishnan says. But change-intensive, mission critical stuff is probably better suited to tier-one storage, such as hardware arrays from an EMC or NetApp, he says.

So don’t count out the continuing importance of traditional onsite hardware-based storage technologies just yet. Tudor says that as the storage industry shifts, there will be pressure on storage vendors to shift their infrastructure and products to better align with the overall market. Walters adds that while traditional vendors will have to rethink how they do business, the need for their products isn’t going away anytime soon.

“This technology is certainly going to limit the amount of NAS devices we buy from major vendors, which would have been a lot of capital expense for our business,” he says. “But we won’t be putting them out of business anytime soon – customers always have the need for that fast, on-site access.”