Executive Summary

• The conversation about cloud and cloud storage has shifted. Organizations no longer discuss if they will use the cloud. Rather, they may determine how many clouds they will use. As they do, many will minimally use cloud storage as a target for their backup data. 

• Cloud storage affords them access to a virtually unlimited pool of storage capacity for their backup data. This eliminates the effort, overhead, and cost of implementing and managing on-premises storage. Further, enterprise backup solutions make implementing and adopting cloud storage from multiple providers almost a wizard-like experience. 

• However, ease of adoption does not automatically equate to ease of management. Beneath cloud storage’s front-end simplicity, complexities exist. Organizations should initially examine which types of cloud storage their enterprise backup solution formally supports. They should also note in which cloud region they store their data. Finally, they should confirm how well or if their backup solution manages different tiers of storage available from different cloud providers.