On premise knowledge storage is loads like closet house: one can by no means appear to have sufficient! However, the arrival of cloud-based storage options has modified the dynamic. More storage is just some clicks away, making knowledge storage right now extra like a long run storage facility, the place you pay for the house wanted and the period of time you want that house.
However, there are a number of caveats with that analogy, particularly in the case of calculating prices. Most storage as a service options appear to have some hidden prices related to them. Typically, most customers not solely pay for a given quantity of space for storing, additionally they pay to entry that knowledge. Imagine that everytime you needed to entry one thing saved in a storage facility, you would need to pay a charge on prime of the agreed upon lease, even when you have been simply to take one thing out of storage.
Typically, cloud storage distributors cost for space for storing, in addition to accessing the info, utilizing one thing known as egress charges or charging for API requests. Case in level is Amazon S3, the place customers are charged per GB after which charged for knowledge retrieval requests or different sorts of knowledge entry. Adding insult to damage is the truth that Amazon S3 additionally makes use of a considerably advanced formulation to calculate these charges, making it tough to price range storage and entry prices.
To its credit score, Amazon S3 provides compatibility with quite a few purposes and companies, making it fairly easy for purposes and companies to make use of Amazon S3 as a main methodology for storing and accessing knowledge. It is these help and compatibility points that drive many organizations to default to S3, regardless of issues about prices.
Cloud storage vendor CrowdStorage provides a special tackle the cloud storage value conundrum with its Polycloud object storage service, which provides S3 appropriate API and set pricing, with none hidden charges.
A Closer Look at Polycloud
CrowdStorage constructed Polycloud with a number of aims in thoughts. The first of which was to construct a substitute for present cloud storage choices, corresponding to Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage Services, and Google Cloud Storage. Other aims centered on affordability, compatibility, and ease of use.
However, one main purpose was to determine a platform that would meet future wants in addition to convey extra innovation into the cloud storage image.
For instance, the corporate has designed a way to retailer small chunks of information throughout a number of cloud linked storage units, in essence creating cloud object storage that’s distributed throughout tons of, if not 1000’s of cloud linked storage units, with knowledge replicated throughout these units.
The firm has already established that cloud storage ideology for archival video information for a proprietary use case for a fortune 5000 firm. That use case leverages some 250,000 storage nodes, the place 60 Megabyte objects are saved as 40 shards on track units, making a extremely resilient and safe distributed object storage community.
Hands On with Polycloud
Polycloud makes use of a “storage as a service paradigm,” the place customers can join the service utilizing a browser primarily based kind. The service is priced utilizing a pay as you go mannequin, the place customers solely pay for what they use.
There aren’t any egress or ingress charges, long run contracts or licensing costs. Current prices are roughly $four per TB per 30 days. CrowdStorage provides a cloud pricing calculator which compares the price of Polycloud to different storage suppliers. The firm additionally provides a “try before you buy” free membership, which incorporates 10GB of storage.
Once an account is established, customers can entry storage utilizing a browser primarily based interface. The browser primarily based console is rudimentary and most customers will in all probability solely…
