Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mega-Uploads: The Cloud's Unspoken Hurdle

Posted by samzenpus on from the mountain-of-disks dept.

First time accepted submitter n7ytd writes "The Register has a piece today about overcoming one of the biggest challenges to migrating to cloud-based storage: how to get all that data onto the service provider's disks. With all of the enterprisey interweb solutions available, the oldest answer is still the right one: ship them your disks. Remember: 'Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.'"

5 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Second biggest challenge by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Second biggest challenge: trusting any of these places have the motivation to keep your data more secure than credit card companies do.

    1. Re:Second biggest challenge by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, that's third. The second biggest challenge is believing that those fine hosting companies with servers hosted in lower Slobbovia won't have a few entrepreneurial employees who will *actively* be searching your data for all that is monetizable.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  2. Re:The real hurdle by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Getting around all the buzzwords

    Well that's one hurdle.
    The next is RECOVERY when ICE or FBI or some other 3letter agency walks in an takes your data because one tiny customer use the service for some allegedly nefarious purpose.

    The key here is to use a service so big that even god himself would not dare take it down, although the Ayatollah might try. Small cloud services, even if multi-homed are a risky proposition. Even if you do manage to get all your data into them, they are not large enough to push back against any subpoena or search warrant that any misguided judge in some backwater jurisdiction may issue.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  3. A problem bigger than getting your data on ... by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... is getting it all back OFF again when you want to switch service providers.

    The one thing you want never to happen is that you get locked in to a single cloud service. They might go bust, they might become uncompetitive. They may become politically "unfriendly" or tainted with customers you have no desire to be associated with - or any of a number of other reasons to say "adios".

    Just like with disaster planning, all the processes and procedures, agreements and SLAs are worthless until you've actually PERFORMED the operation and done so without a major service interruption. How many cloud users have gone that far - and how many are locked in but don't know it?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  4. But then... by TemperedAlchemist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How did you manage to fix armed FBI storming your servers located in another country problem?