Here, we define the terms, clear the fog, and highlight the key differentiators in Cloud Storage. Let’s begin!
Defining Terms
Persistent Storage – this is a virtual block disk which is directly attached to a virtual server or desktop. The underlying physical disk for this is often SSD or SAS as the IOPS (input/output per second that a disk can handle) required for virtual servers or desktops is often quite high. IOPS for SSD is commonly around 5,000 IOPS, SAS 180, and SATA 100. Your typical virtual desktop will consume 40 to 80 IOPS each.
Snapshot Storage – snapshots freeze your persistent storage in usually <2ms and make it a read-only disk, with any new changes/writes are saved in a different/delta file. This acts as a quick backup because you can usually take as many snapshots as you want and then “revert” back to any of them at any point in time that you took them. Snapshots don’t take the place of full backups nor replication to other datacenters, but they are quite useful nonetheless.
Cloud Storage – is often SATA based distributed object storage front-ended by a protocol such as Amazon’s S3 or dinCloud D3 (S3 API-compatible alternative). You can’t use this type of storage directly without some type of client s/w. For example, to leverage S3/D3 you could use Cyberduck, S3 browser, TNTdrive for file access, archival, copy to the Cloud, whereas used for traditional server backup purposes you’d hunt down the “Cloud” editions from VEEAM, Symantec NetBackup, CA Arcserve, Commvault Simpana, and others to backup physical or virtual servers (i.e. on-premise VMware or Hyper-V virtual infrastructure). Popular apps like “Dropbox” are built on this type of storage. Also network attached storage such as QNAP (and others) use dinCloud D3 cloud storage to copy their local on-premise data to the Cloud for backup purposes.
Summary
Persistent storage is what your virtual servers & desktops will use first. You will leverage snapshot storage to “backup” persistent disks. Cloud storage is great as a full backup option or to merely stash & access files from your physical/virtual desktops that you can then access on your smart phone or tablet.
Why dinCloud?
No data transfer fees — Many of our competitors charge for data transport either within their network or to/from the Internet.
Integration with Microsoft Active Directory — dinCloud has full integration. Cloud stoage is great, but if you can’t use the same logins, file permission and other mechanisms you already painstakingly created within your on-premise environment up in the Cloud, then this is a huge feature gap/time waster. Look before you leap! Even on our D3 storage we can front end it with EGNYTE, a Windows 2008 or 2012 server, and many other AD integrated mechanisms to meet your needs.
Minimum 10g ultra-low latency networking – all resources spun up in dinCloud have a minimum of 10g ultra low latency network connections up to 40g! Many of our competitors are <1gbps or offer 10g in very limited circumstances and even then, they charge a premium for it! dinCloud doesn’t!
High capacity servers – up to 512GB memory, 128 vCPU’s, and much more, dinCloud’s servers often significantly outperform any competitors. Why? Because virtual desktops are the most demanding virtual workload and we engineering for those long before we did Servers and other workloads, making those a snap in our environment!
AES256 bit encryption – Many of our competitors do not encrypt their data by default – we do! Without encryption, your valuable personal or corporate data may be at risk. It also may be hard or impossible to meet various regulatory requirements without encryption.
Legal jurisdiction – with dinCloud, you can negotiate where your data lives. USA? Europe? Asia? Many cloud storage solutions don’t tell or don’t guarantee where your data will live at any given moment.
How many copies? – with dinCloud we keep 3 copies of all your data. Competitors may keep only 2 or even 1! Sometimes it’s very hard to find out.
Snapshots – we take 1xday for 10xdays FREE automatically of our entire cloud (everything! Worldwide!). Our competitors charge for snapshot storage or don’t offer it at all.
Security – we provide antivirus, IP reputation filtering, dedicated virtual firewalls, dedicated virtual load balancers, multi-factor authentication & more. Our competitors either don’t offer it or too often use multi-tenant security mechanisms which aren’t dedicated to you.
Premium datacenters – we give tours of our highly secure datacenters in Los Angeles, Chicago, and you can choose 98 other locations worldwide. Many of our competitors do not give tours or have a limited # of locations to spin you up at.
Support – dinCloud has a huge Channel of distributors & VARs (127+ worldwide) that you most likely are already familiar with: Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Arrow, CDW, Insight Enterprises, En Pointe Technologies and many others. It’s easy to get answers, data migration services, professional services, managed services, transport and more added to your cloud solution. Too many of our competitors feel this “isn’t their problem” or will charge you $15,000/month for “enterprise support”. Ouch!
Conclusion
Choose your Cloud Provider wisely. Unlike dinCloud, very few offer Windows/Linux servers, virtual desktops, cloud storage, voice, transport & more. Of the limited few, we are the only one offering a ton of security, snapshots, support and other mechanisms are part of the package. We are #1 in virtual desktops, and #1 in data migration to the Cloud. Try us today and you won’t be disappointed!
For more information on our dinStorage D3, please visit our Cloud Storage page or request information to speak with a cloud specialist.
