Cloud computing is an essential resource for companies aiming for a successful Digital Transformation. Migrating to the cloud allows them to respond to market needs since storing data securely through service providers can shorten times and save money. It also make s possible to have excellent responsiveness in jobs requiring a shared file system and simple integration.
Data storage allows, among other things, to create, delete, modify, read, write and organize files on servers in digital infrastructure.
In this way, the cloud has different uses, the most common of which are detailed below.
What are cloud storage services and how to use them?
Cloud storage is a service model in which data is transmitted and stored in remote storage systems. Information can be maintained, managed, backed up, and made available to users.
There are different use cases according to the workload of each company. Among them, the following stand out:
1. Web servers: This software is responsible for dispatching a website's content to the user. In this case, the cloud allows the information to be loaded in a single place, making the process more agile. It also provides the possibility of storing shared files for applications, which facilitates the work of developers.
2. Big data analysis: When it comes to data, the cloud allows storing a high volume of information, providing the capacity to adjust its scale to its growth and offering the necessary performance to supply data to analytical tools.
3. Content management: Like servers and applications, content management systems (CMS) have multiple servers that need to access the same set of files. The cloud allows storing documents and other files to integrate with developer workflows easily.
4. Multimedia content and entertainment: These work environments require flexible, stable, and secure access to data to ensure good content production, digital supply chains, media streaming, broadcasting, analysis, and archiving.
5. Database backups: The constant growth of data has made data management and security increasingly complex. The cloud offers better scalability and security in data storage and transfer.
6. Development tools: The cloud enables continuous integration and delivery of innovative developments, accelerating the development and deployment of a solution. In addition, it will allow monitoring metrics and logging to know the performance of the applications.
7. Containerized storage: Containers are ideal for creating microservices, managing hybrid applications, and batch processing. The cloud provides shared data access for all containers in a cluster use.
Types of cloud storage
An Omni platform strategy starts with creating a technological infrastructure that allows integrating all channels in one place. There, both physical and digital media form a unified vision that helps orchestrate an organization's actions.
A platform that centralizes all the channels of a company allows, for example, to visualize and make decisions that take into account inventory, business rules, logistics, operation, pricing, content, transactions, and databases.
Tools of this type require enormous computational power, as they require large amounts of data and functionalities based on technology such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. For this reason, they are only possible thanks to cloud services, integrations, microservices, or headless technologies, all complemented by the best talent and an organizational culture committed to agile methodologies.
Six actions to start on the road to omnichannel
Last but not least, these are the different storage strategies that can be used when developing an application:
Object Storage
Companies handle data sets from various sources and use them in company-specific applications and processes. Not having the proper infrastructure in place deepens the fragmentation of information and makes the innovation process slow and complex.
Object storage is a flat structure in which files are divided into units called objects and stored in a single repository rather than being kept as files in folders or as blocks on servers. Objects function as units in a separate repository with a unique identifier. This type of storage requires an application programming interface (API).
File storage
When developing applications, access to shared files is required. In file storage, data is stored as a single piece of information within a folder that provides servers and applications access to the data via shared file systems.
Block storage
In this mode, data is divided into blocks and stored in separate parts where the system deems it is most practical.
