Enterprises may be harboring continued doubts about cloud-based storage systems, but the onslaught of big data may begin to override those doubts. The unprecedented expansion of unstructured data is the main driver behind cloud storage, writes George Crump, analyst with Storage Switzerland.

With the growth of user-generated data, including video and audio in addition to documents, combined with computer- and application-generated data, the need for storage capacity is exploding. Conventional storage systems might not be able to keep up, Crump writes in a post at InformationWeek.

Storage systems increasingly will have to be scalable and cost-effective. Crump predicts that we will see a trend toward systems based on commodity-class gear used in clusters and taking advantage of an object storage model, along the lines of the public cloud model. 

Public cloud providers themselves may be used for enterprise data storage as well. This would unfortunately involve latency in data transfer, which would not be acceptable for some organizations. What's more, some regulated industries could be prohibited from using this option.

Another possibility is using a caching appliance to stretch the public cloud into a private data center, Crump writes. Active data could be stored on-site and backed up in the cloud.

"In either case, the net result of this trend may break down the wall between public and private cloud storage. As data centers become larger, their capabilities to singularly deal with unstructured data may be untenable and, as a result, they will need to leverage a model where they have maximum scalability locally and unlimited scalability remotely," he writes.

For more:
- see George Crump's post at InformationWeek

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