Benefits of Storage as a Service for Multicloud Storage Environment

Deploying a Storage-as –a-Service model is one way enterprises can maintain better control of storing, activating, managing, and monetizing data surges within their multicloud-storage environment. 

Businesses today are generating more data than ever before. The earth’s population is more than 7.8 billion and growing, and more people are working from home, meaning technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), the growth of edge computing, edge data centers, and artificial intelligence (AI) are growing as well. Add in an increase in enterprise and consumer endpoint devices, and the result is a proliferation of enterprise data.  

The Need for Enterprise Multicloud Storage 

The world will generate 175 zettabytes (ZB) of data a year by 2025. Enterprise data alone is projected to grow at an annual rate of 42.2%, helped by the increase of data-centric activities such as self-driving cars, smart factories, and automated disease diagnostics. 

Mining and analyzing this data can open doors to a new wave of innovation, higher operational efficiency, and new sources of revenue. Companies that are sitting on these data repositories are missing out on its revenue-enhancing value. In fact, more than 68% of the data available to enterprises goes unused. 

This data management puzzle is getting even more complicated as more enterprises move their data infrastructure to a multicloud environment. According to a recent 451 Research Pathfinder Report, “Cloud Storage Elevates Data Protection,” 63% of respondents either ran data protection through a hybrid-cloud environment or solely through cloud-based backup services (up from 61% in 2020). 

The rapid influx of data received and stored by enterprises will be accompanied by a desire to better store, activate, manage, and monetize it. Deploying a Storage-as-a- Service   solution has resulted in improved multicloud efficiency. 

Journey to Multicloud Storage

Enterprises, regardless of company size, industry, or business goals, are embracing the multicloud data storrage approach. Historically, cloud adopters opted for either private-cloud or public-cloud platforms. Private cloud provides greater control and security compared to public-cloud platforms that use third-party cloud services and infrastructure. Next came hybrid-cloud architectures with a goal to combine load balancing and the cost-effective scale of public cloud without exposing  a company's applications and data beyond their own intranet. 

Multicloud architecture goes a step further. It combines services and resources from two or more cloud providers to increase the flexible use and availability of various applications and services. These include Storage as a Service (StaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Compute as a Service (CaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). 

Lyve Cloud enhances multicloud management by offering capacity-based pricing that supports limitless scalability for enterprises rapidly accumulating data. Lyve Cloud optimizes cost-effectiveness further by foregoing charges for API calls or egress fees. This allows enterprise users to pay only for the storage they need —for however long they need it. 

While multicloud flexibility can maximize the value of this data-storage approach, managing storage across multiple clouds can create a great deal of complexity. Enterprises attempting to modernize storage applications through a cloud migration—or those juggling the management of two clouds within a multicloud environment—can experience an influx of fees associated with transferring, storing, accessing, reading, and writing data.  

How StaaS Boosts the Value of Multicloud Storage 

The challenges that come with managing explosive data growth in a multicloud environment is where Storage as a Service can make a difference. 

The best-in-class Storage-as-a-Service providers don't just offer a subscription model. Instead, they make pricing simple, scalable, and predictable. They ensure that there are no vendor lock-ins and enable enterprises to have their data processed by any public-cloud service as the need to scale storage fluctuates. 

Scalable Storage 

As organizations combine public- and private-cloud services, data is moved between multiple cloud platforms from time to time. In such a dynamic environment, enterprises need the flexibility to scale storage up and down at regular intervals. The ideal Storage as a Service would offer a zero-commitment, risk-free model that enables enterprises to pay for only the storage they use on a subscription basis. The ability to pivot quickly is a critical advantage in a world where market conditions—and data amounts—change in a blink. 

Cost-Effective Storage 

Pricing models of cloud platforms vary. As a result, multicloud implementations involve complex cost calculations. Deploying Storage as a Service helps reduce complexity by enabling businesses to acquire storage as an operating expense, without the need to commit capital resources to purchase, manage, and scale storage infrastructure that might quickly become obsolete. 

Moreover, the “as a service” strategy reduces the total cost of ownership over the lifecycle of a storage system. The cost of on-demand storage for the first year or two will be much lower than the cost of buying the same amount of storage space upfront. Businesses benefit from volume pricing if they scale up later (and without incurring any add-on charges) while maintaining the cost of ownership advantage over the long-term. This makes costs predictable and eliminates guesses about future storage needs. 

Eliminate Vendor Lock-In 

Vendor lock-in can cause your enterprise to miss the mark on its business goals and lose money in the process due to potential occurrences such as vendor changes to:  

• Scope, capabilities, and/or product offering 
• Pricing 
• Storage capacity 

Leveraging technology like Lyve™ Cloud, which is compatible with a suite of partner software, can deliver an affordable and scalable option for your multicloud storage management without the need to commit to binding contracts.  

Stay Secure 

Best-in-class Storage-as-a-Service offerings typically make backing up data easy via automation so users simply select what and when they want to complete a backup. Security, resiliency, redundancy, and data recovery are built in, and data is encrypted both during transmission and while at rest, ensuring only authorized users can access the information. 

Lyve Cloud’s S3-compatible interface is certified with leading backup software providers, and ensures all data is fully encrypted at rest and in flight—from end to end. Lyve Cloud’s multi-regional availability enables your data to be accessible without costly delays. Lyve Cloud air gapping, ransomware protection, and object immutability, makes it ideal for data backups, restores, and disaster recovery. 

Stay Compliant 

As data continuously evolves, so do domestic and international data privacy and governance laws and regulations. For enterprises, it is vital that data remains in compliance. Plus, you must ensure data is updated and accessible in the case of an audit.  

Lyve Cloud is automatically internationally compliant. It allows you to automatically store and scale data while seamlessly integrating with S3 API, so calls made to organize and access object storage are quick and easy. This means vital data requested in an audit is easily accessible.  

Scalable Multicloud Storage is a Necessity, not a Choice 

When considering the complexities of managing data in a multicloud environment, it is important to understand that storing and harnessing vast amounts of data is no longer a nice- to-have feature—it's a necessity to be successful. 

Take healthcare, for instance. Artificial intelligence algorithms, trained to interpret images and recognize patterns, now outperform humans in detecting breast cancer on mammograms. This would not be possible without collecting, storing, and analyzing the huge amounts of unstructured data as a result of decades of medical imaging.  

Now consider self-driving cars. To navigate the roads on their own, they need to process troves of data from maps and sensors to compare and assess current conditions. Similarly, they need data that enables the vehicle to identify nearby objects, such as other cars, pedestrians, traffic lights, road markings, and other signals. This has the potential to help improve safety and traffic flow, and to help pave the way for other smart city implementations. 

The story is similar in fields as varied as enterprise video, advertising, manufacturing, and retail. That is why organizations across sectors need a robust infrastructure equipped to handle the ever-increasing volume of data being generated by cameras, sensors, and humans. 

Data growth, however, is outpacing storage capacity and network bandwidth, especially when sensors and cameras are located in remote locations, far away from data centers. 

Building an Information Economy 

In today's business environment, data is not just generated, reviewed, and considered. Outside of human intelligence, data is the most valuable asset for most enterprises and to extract the most value from it, companies need a flexible and affordable infrastructure to store, move, analyze, and leverage their data. 

That is perhaps the biggest reason why a Storage-as-a-Service model should be central to a multicloud strategy: it simplifies the complex cloud management system, and it enables organizations to economically store data they might have historically been forced to delete. As a result, business leaders who leverage Storage as a Service will be able to make the most of their data, spurring better outcomes and greater opportunities for growth. 

Explore how Lyve Cloud can optimize your multicloud storage environment.