What is ‘Cloud Storage’?
It is a term referring to having your data and files stored in a decentralised data storage facility that is online and off-site. Data stored off-site becomes the responsibility of your third-party cloud provider, which you can access via the public internet or a dedicated private network. As your provider, Z1 Storage hosts, secures, manages and maintains the servers and associated infrastructure, ensuring you can access your data whenever needed.
The amount of data that can be stored on on-site hard drives or storage networks is finite and Z1 Storage offers a cost-effective, scalable alternative. Normally, organizations have had to build and maintain storage area networks (SAN’s) when they are out of storage space and need to move the files to an external storage device to archive the data. It is costly to maintain SAN’s and as stored data increases, organizations need to pay for more servers and infrastructure to meet the increased demand.
Z1 storage will give you more freedom as you can scale your capacity according to your data volume. Instead of using capital to build and maintain in-house storage networks, your organization can rather pay for the storage capacity and technology as a service. This way, you only pay for the capacity used and you do not have to over-provision storage networks when you are expecting an increase in data volume.
How does it work?
Cloud storage and on-site storage networks use servers to save data however, the cloud storage servers are at an off-site location. The servers used are a part of a storage cluster that can be quickly adjusted according to your needs. We constantly monitor our cloud storage infrastructure and ensure that free capacity is adequate at all times. Taking the burden away from our clients to maintain a reliable backup storage. New nodes will be created according to your storage needs.
You can connect to the storage cloud via the a secured connection of the internet or a dedicated private connection (VPN), using any of the below:
- web portal
- website
- mobile app
- S3 compliant API
- Virtual Private Network connection (Available on request)
After connecting to a server, your data is forwarded to a pool of servers located off-site in one or more of our secured data centres.
As part of a good backup strategy, users should will duplicate data to multiple devices and optimally to more than one physical location for redundancy.
Z1 Storage hosts your data on more than one storage node so that in the even of a storage node be taken down for maintenance or suffering an outage, you will still be able to access your data reliably.
Cloud storage is available in private, public and hybrid clouds. Z1 Storage is a public cloud provider that allows you to expand your backup strategy and enhance your data recovery protocol.
Cloud storage for business
There are many cloud storage services available, depending on your needs, whether a sole proprietor or a large enterprise and anything in-between.
Small business: Your small business will not have the hassle of maintaining the data. It will be easier to budget as costs are predictable and scalability is available, as your business grows.
Large business: It is common for large businesses to transfer huge amounts of data on a regular basis. Contact us to work out a favourable deal customised to meet your individual needs.
Security:
Below is a list of the basic security measures that you will encounter.
- access control
- user authentication
- data encryption
We can understand that the security of your data is of utmost importance and you require peace of mind that it is secure. Below is a list of things that you will want, to help ensure your data is secure.
- endpoint protection
- content & email filtering
- threat analysis
- regular update & patches
- well-defined access & authentication policies
There are security risks whenever data travels and it is the responsibility of both the service provider AND the organization to secure data being sent to the cloud. Below is a list of ways to decrease risk.
- encrypt data in motion at the source (client-side)
- use a dedicated private connection or a suitable secure connection protocal.