Cloud Storage: Is a Standard Needed?

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — To the surprise of virtually no one who works in or follows the enterprise IT world, a new survey reported that cloud computing services and system building continue to become more prominent in both augmenting and replacing older data center equipment.

In addition, the research indicated that the Storage Networking Industry Association’s Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) standard — the industry’s first attempt at such a development standard — is turning up in more and more commercial implementations.

On Day 1 of Storage Networking World here at the Santa Clara Convention Center, storage consultancy Storage Strategies Now on April 4 released the findings of its survey of data center managers and other IT decision-makers that confirms these upward trends in all enterprise segments.

A key point uncovered in the research was that email storage — not backup data logs or files — is the No. 1 most likely business content to be stored in a cloud service, contrary to most prevailing thought. Sixty-six percent of respondents replied that they are storing email in the cloud; an even 50 percent said they are — or will — back up their business files with a cloud service. 

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