Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is 20 years old, and while simplicity was, as the name suggests, the original inspiration, it has since become a sprawling platform.

But that doesn’t mean simplicity and ease of use aren’t still core tenets of the storage service, according to Andy Warfield, vice president and distinguished engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Speaking to ITPro ahead of the anniversary, Warfield said simplicity is still the “singular most important aspect” of S3. When it launched in 2006, a brief blog post outlined the core goal: “Amazon S3 is the storage for the internet”.

With a simple Representational State Transfer (REST) interface, users could PUT (store objects) and GET (retrieve them later) with relative ease. Warfield told ITPro that “parking the service” behind this architecture made it simple and easy for customers to adopt.

“At the time S3 launched in 2006, a lot of the verbs that we were using and a lot of the ways that the team approached presenting storage [were] actually really guided by the existing HTTP verbs,” he explained. So things like the GET and PUT support.”

“It made it incredibly easy to adopt. I think one thing that kind of taught the team, and it’s been true through the lifetime of S3, is that we do best when we focus on the customer, which you hear from us all the time, but on delivering for the customer in a way that is as simple as possible to consume so folks don’t have to do extra work.“

An explosion of growth for Amazon S3

To say Amazon S3’s growth over the last two decades would be a gross understatement. When it launched in 2006, S3 offered a total of one petabyte of storage capacity, spread across several hundred storage nodes in three data centers – it also had a maximum object limit of 5GB.

Compare that to 2026, and the numbers are jarring. As ITPro reported at AWS re:Invent 2025, the service now offers a maximum object size of 50TB, marking a ten-fold increase on the original limit.

Additional figures detailed by the company emphasize the sheer scale of S3 compared to its early days. Today it boasts:

• 500 trillion stored objects globally
• 200 million data requests per second
• 123 Availability Zones worldwide
• 39 AWS Regions

S3’s rapid-fire growth coincided with – and benefited from – an enterprise data explosion during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Indeed, Warfield notes that in 2006, you would have been “hard pressed to find something that you wanted to put in an object that was larger than 5GB”.

But with growing camera resolutions as a simple example, the rapid accumulation of enterprise data, and the formation of data lakes, demand surged. In 2026, Warfield admits the numbers are still rather mind-boggling.

“One that stands out to me is that the service processes over a quadrillion requests every year,” he said.

“We have tens of thousands of customers who, each individually, have objects that are spread over more than 10 million hard drives,” Warfield added, noting that the prospect of an individual enterprise building a storage setup of that scale as a “wild thing to think about”.

Underpinning enterprise innovation

Amazon S3 quickly moved beyond being a simple object storage service. Indeed, it became the underpinning foundation and enabler of customer data innovation.

The service helped kickstart the creation and subsequent growth of data lakes, and today, more than one million of these are stored on AWS. Warfield described this as a “structural aspect of why S3 is successful”.

Enabling enterprises to host data in a single source and all in one place helped break down long-running siloes that many had battled for years. It created a “shared foundation” for data.

“The data gives them this incredible flexibility and velocity to move quickly. And the data ends up being non-zero sum in terms of future value,” he said, reflecting on discussions with one particular customer.

“They often find that data they built for one system allows them to move into another opportunity.”

S3 in the age of AI

S3’s flexibility in adapting to customer demands over the last 2o years has been a key factor in its longevity and success - along with that of the company at large. AWS still boasts a large hyperscale market share o alongside Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, for example.

With the advent of generative AI raising the stakes for big tech providers, the storage service is once again evolving to accommodate skyrocketing storage demands.

Indeed, the company is heavily focused on positioning S3 as the critical foundation for AI workloads. At AWS re:Invent in December, the company officially cut the ribbon on S3 Vectors, which has generated significant excitement across the company.

When it comes to AI, vector search is used to identify similarities between specific data points. At the time, the company described vectors as a "numerical representation of unstructured data created from embedding models".

Uploading, storing, and querying vectors is costly, though which is something this particular service aims to remedy. The company claims it can reduce costs on this front by up to 90%.

“The thing that we really wanted to do with S3 Vectors was to get a vector indexing service that had the simplicity and elasticity of S3 that you could just pick it up and use it with just ten vectors, but scale to billion and trillions of vectors and pay something that was closer to storage costs because it was anchored on hard drives,” Warfield explained.

“We’ve seen incredible growth on it.”

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Rising cloud storage fees are severely impacting IT budgets, new research shows, as UK enterprises ramp up infrastructure spending.

Wasabi’s 2026 Cloud Storage Index report found 48% of storage costs now go toward fees, rather than actual capacity. The findings mark the fourth consecutive year in which IT leaders identified this as a key budgetary strain.

“One of the results of this fee-heavy pricing structure is budget excess,” the company said. Indeed, nearly half (46%) of UK respondents said they exceeded allocated budgets for cloud storage in 2025.

This overspending is typically due to a combination of factors, including increased storage use, growth, and migration. Wasabi noted, however, that fees have been a growing part of the problem in recent years.

“84% of UK respondents cited at least one fee-related reason why their spending on public cloud storage exceeded budget expectations,” the company said.

Cloud storage fees a major pain point

These mounting costs come at a critical time for enterprises, Wasabi said, with many ramping up investment in AI projects and transformation projects.

Storage infrastructure now forms a key underpinning component in AI initiatives, the study noted.

Only one-quarter of respondents said they had recorded a positive return on investment (ROI) with AI, yet nearly half (48%) said they’re confident in recording positive returns if infrastructure improvements can be achieved.

“When asked about the challenges they face implementing AI projects and solutions, the top response was data storage challenges like cost, data access, and management,” Wasabi said. “This highlights the key role data and storage play in a successful AI solution implementation.”

As a result, the majority of UK firms plan to increase spending on this front over the next year. Notably, nearly two-thirds (62%) of budgets will be specifically allocated to data, storage, and compute capacity build-outs.

"As organizations scale AI initiatives, they face mounting data storage and data quality challenges that can quickly erode ROI if not managed effectively," said Dave Friend, founder and CEO at Wasabi Technologies.

"Cost-efficient, reliable storage is essential to ensure high-quality data is readily available for AI models, enabling better outcomes without unsustainable infrastructure costs.”

Changing budget priorities

This surging infrastructure investment marks a shift away from traditional software-focused spending, according to Andrew Smith, director of strategy and market intelligence at Wasabi Technologies and a former IDC analyst.

Just 36% of spending is now allocated to AI-related software or SaaS solutions, highlighting the increased importance of hardware spending as an enabler of AI innovation.

“When we look at revenue allocations at the highest level of the public cloud services market – the vast majority comes from software/SaaS, not infrastructure services (IaaS),” Smith commented.

“What’s fascinating to see within our survey results this year is how most AI budget allocation is going toward infrastructure, not SaaS. In other words, it’s the complete opposite of what we might expect from a traditional market standpoint, and it’s a great illustration of the critical role cloud storage and cloud infrastructure services play in this generational build-up of AI-enabled solutions and services.”

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Wasabi Technologies has raised $70 million in funding in a move the company says will propel it into direct competition with hyperscale cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

The investment round was led by L2 Point Management and included funding pledges from existing investors like Fidelity Management & Research Company as well as flash storage provider Pure Storage.

The funding round values Wasabi at $1.8 billion and marks over $600 million raised by the firm to-date.

In a statement, Wasabi said the funding will enable it to ramp up AI infrastructure expansion plans and broaden its global footprint. David Friend, co-founder and CEO of Wasabi Technologies, said this represents a huge seal of approval for the company.

“We’re ushering in the next generation of cloud storage, powering data-intensive workloads like generative AI and autonomous systems,” Friend commented.

“This funding underscores Wasabi’s strong market position and continued growth as enterprises and AI developers alike seek a better, more predictable alternative to the hyperscalers.”

Founded in 2015, Wasabi launched its flagship “Hot Cloud Storage” service two years later, offering enterprises high-performance storage options for data-intensive applications.

“Hot” cloud storage streamlines access to data sources that are accessed frequently, as opposed to “cold” data which is typically unused. Wasabi says this approach improves efficiency for enterprises, and crucially, reduces overall costs by avoiding egress fees and vendor lock-in.

Wasabi has capitalized on the AI boom

Wasabi’s popularity has soared since the advent of generative AI in late 2022, with enterprises faced with burgeoning workloads and storage bottlenecks.

The firm’s AI product range has grown rapidly on the back of this boom period, first with Wasabi AiR, and more recently with the launch of Wasabi Fire, an NVMe storage option for AI and machine learning training.

Today, the company boasts more than three exabytes of data under management and operates in 16 global regions.

“AI is changing the way enterprises manage and store data. Wasabi is demonstrating strong execution in delivering scalable, low-cost cloud storage built for AI ready data environments without added complexity or unpredictable costs,” said Krishna Gidwani, VP for strategy and corporate development at Pure Storage.

“Our investment reflects a shared focus on building the next generation of AI infrastructure that is intelligent by design and simple to deploy and operate.”

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Wasabi Technologies has cut the ribbon on the latest iteration of its EMEA partner program for 2026, as the cloud storage provider looks to drive further growth across the European channel.

The refresh aims to equip partners for the next wave of cloud adoption as AI workloads and data volumes continue to gather pace.

Following the move, partners now have access to a new Systems Integrator program for improved solution delivery, new AI-ready storage offerings, as well as a host of tools, certifications, and incentives.

In an announcement, Wasabi said it is also enhancing its channel-centric strategy in EMEA by actively recruiting new partners in the Nordic, Benelux, and Southern Europe regions.

“Europe is entering a new era of data growth as AI projects mature, and our partners are on the front line of that transformation,” explained Kevin Dunn, Wasabi’s vice president and general manager for EMEA.

“Our evolved partner programme puts simplicity, profitability, and scalability at the core — whether it’s helping customers dissolve data silos to successfully run AI models, manage operational resilience, or modernize backup.”

Wasabi eyes new partner benefits

The introduction of the new Systems Integrator program will help partners address complex and changing customer needs as AI transforms the security landscape, according to Wasabi.

This initiative equips partners with a range of technical tools, as well as bespoke marketing and enablement materials, to help deliver solutions across AI, physical security, and cyber resilience with “predictable” pricing options and high-performance cloud storage.

The vendor’s EMEA channel refresh also includes new AI-ready storage solutions capable of handling performance-intensive workloads, with partner margins that aim to drive profitability in competitive markets.

Meanwhile, sales and technical teams have access to hands-on enablement and Wasabi certifications, alongside co-marketing materials, dedicated account support, and incentives.

“We’re giving partners not just the technology, but the training, incentives, and margin to thrive in this fast-moving market,” Dunn added.

Wasabi’s cloud storage offering aims to provide organizations with an alternative to hyperscale cloud providers, offering a predictable and high-performance solution without the burden of hidden fees, complex tiers, or vendor lock-in.

Since the launch of its cloud storage platform in 2017, the firm has found success through its expanding ecosystem of independent cloud application partners, which includes GmbH, Waterstons, Autodata, and Dynamips.

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Tenable's 2025 Cloud Security Risk Report has found that there's sensitive data being held in 9% of publicly accessible cloud storage, and that 97% of this data is classified as restricted or confidential.

The data includes API keys, access keys, encryption keys, and tokens, as well as traditional usernames and passwords.

More than half of organizations (54%) store at least one secret directly in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Container Service (ECS) task definitions, for example, making for an easy line of attack. And alarmingly, said Tenable, 3.5% of all AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances contain secrets in user data.

And using Identity Providers (IdPs) alone doesn't fix this: while 83% of AWS organizations are using IdPs effectively to manage their cloud identities, they are still being exposed to identity-based threats, thanks to overly permissive defaults, excessive entitlements, and standing permissions.

Things weren't much better among organizations using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Cloud Run, with 52% of users exposed, or for Microsoft Azure Logic Apps workflows, where the figure was 31%.

Researchers described what they called a 'toxic cloud trilogy' – a workload that is publicly exposed, critically vulnerable, and highly privileged. And while over the last year, the number of organizations in this situation has fallen from 38% to 29%, this still makes for a significant and common risk.

"Despite the security incidents we have witnessed over the past few years, organizations continue to leave critical cloud assets, from sensitive data to secrets, exposed through avoidable misconfigurations," said Ari Eitan, director of cloud security research at Tenable.

"The path for attackers is often simple: exploit public access, steal embedded secrets, or abuse overprivileged identities."

There are a variety of reasons for the secrets being exposed, said Tenable. Two big causes are misconfigured access settings and overly permissive policies. Another is privilege elevation by developers, which may be intended for short-term use but then forgotten, eventually becoming permanent.

Other contributing factors include flawed permission structures caused by inconsistent access policies or overlapping roles, inadequate – often manual – monitoring, and even the mistaken belief that obscure storage bucket URLs provide sufficient protection. And one major reason that secrets are being exposed may simply be that organizations aren't aware of the sensitivity level of the data.

"To close these gaps, security teams need full visibility across their environments and the ability to prioritize and automate remediation before threats escalate," said Eitan. "The cloud demands continuous, proactive risk management, and not reactive patchwork."

Welcome to ITPro's day-two coverage of Pure Accelerate 2025. We're live on the ground here in Las Vegas with more rolling coverage from the morning keynote session.

Yesterday was a big day, with a host of major product line announcements from Pure Storage, including updates to the FlashArray and FlashBlade products.

Elsewhere, CEO Charlie Giancarlo took a bullish stance on the launch of the company's Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC), which could prove to be a key differentiator for the storage firm in the year ahead.

We've got just over an hour until the opening keynote session kicks off, where we'll be hearing from Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo and the executive team.

There's been a lot of activity at Pure Storage over the last year, and we've already had a big announcement drop with the launch of the company's Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC).

ITPro caught up with Giancarlo yesterday to talk about the new data cloud and the company's platform-focused strategy.

You can check that out below.

• Pure Storage unveils Enterprise Data Cloud in bid to unify data storage, management

Elsewhere, we've had some hardware news from Pure Storage, with new FlashBlade and FlashArray series updates. The company has touted the big performance boosts across its all-flash products, with a particular focus placed on high intensity workloads.

You can find more on the updates below.

• Pure Storage beefs up FlashBlade, FlashArray offerings in platform performance focus

The keynote hall is filling up quickly now here at Resorts World, we've got around five minutes to go until things kick off - the music is blaring out.

Lynn Lucas, CMO at Pure Storage kicks things off today at Pure Accelerate.

Getting things going here, Lucas mentions the talk of the town over the last two years, AI. It's prompted huge changes for Pure and today we'll expect to hear a whole lot on how they plan to support enterprises ramping up adoption.

CEO Charlie Giancarlo takes to the stage now, and we're going to hear about the company's long-term strategy - expect to hear a lot about the new Enterprise Data Cloud. It's the big talking point this week so far.

"We, Pure, have grown consistently every single year. The fastest grower, and in some cases the only grower, in our industry."

Revenue at Pure now sits at $3.2bn, with a 17% operating margin.

50% of revenue is now in subscriptions, Giancarlo says, and it's a point of pride for the company.

Pure is now designing the next generation of data centers for Meta, a big win for the company. The appeal for Meta comes from Purity and DirectFlash, according to Giancarlo, and will enable Meta to drastically improve data center efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

"DirectFlash doesn't operate as SSDs do, as a substitution for hard disks," he says.

"Meta can now go all flash in their data centers, reduce their power and footprint by 20%"

With AI workloads posing a big problem for enterprises, Pure is dialing in on this challenge - the new FlashBlade//EXA series addresses this directly, offering "complete AI scale coverage" for users.

Giancarlo is now examining 'AI in the real world' - flashy numbers and stats on GPU clusters are all fine and well, but how is this technology helping enterprises on the ground?

"AI is going to change the relationship between software and data," he says. Looking back, software was eating the world, but that's all changing, Giancarlo says.

The technology is having a transformative impact across the enterprise and consumer space - and that means data is now more important than software, it's the lifeblood that underpins the technology. Without it, the engines fail.

Enterprise data center architectures are inherently flawed when it comes to accommodating AI, Giancarlo says. Arrays are managed and provisioned individually, and the data is "captive to the application stack".

What this essentially means is enterprises now face disparate, siloed datasets, which hampers innovation and efficiency.

Moreover, data governance is also sporadic as it's applied manually in separate areas by individual areas of the business based on specific requirements.

So how does that compare to the cloud? Enterprise storage architectures are vertical, Giancarlo says. Cloud storage architectures are horizontal, and the latter of these is far more efficient and streamlined.

This has been the big focus for Pure and Giancarlo. The company wants to simplify data center architectures and creating a "much more consistent environment, a much more automated environment".

This is where Purity, its software-defined foundation, which offers a common operating environment.

"In order to better manage your data in an enterprise environment, you need to start with a unified data plane."

Now we've got the big reveal - 'Fusion;. What this does is creates a "new intelligent control plane," Giancarlo says. This is a huge announcement from the company - it allows all of its arrays to be managed as a fleet in a cloud-like manner.

"It allows you to define how you want your different datasets to be managed on a global basis. It's not about clusters, about allowing a few arrays to work together. It's about a global cloud with available zones in different regions," he says".

There are huge advantages here in terms of governance, compliance, and security, the company says.

So how does this work?

With the Data Cloud, there's a greater degree of automation compared to captive arrays, which are operated manually.

With the Enterprise Data Cloud, you're going to a "virtual cloud of storage" and a "consistent environment across your global network".

Autonomous data governance is a key talking point here and something that will be highly beneficial to businesses operating globally. You're reducing manual toil significantly by automating this process.

"This is a major change in the way you handle your data," Giancarlo says.

"When you build your enterprise data cloud you can stop managing your storage and start managing your data on a global basis"

Next up we have Chadd Kennedy, VP of product marketing at Pure Storage. Chadd will be giving us a rundown of the intelligent control plane now in operation at the company.

Chadd makes the point that this intelligent control plane has been tried before. From observability platforms to storage virtualization to automation platforms. They all lack one thing though - intelligence.

"Over the last 13 years and tens of thousands of systems, we've been consolidating some of the largest systems of telemetry data out there," Kennedy says.

Pure has been working on this for over a decade to help automate and allow enterprises to better understand their data center architectures.

They're using this data and expertise to essentially streamline and automate large swathes of the enterprise storage estate.

So how does this work from an operational perspective?

Pure Fusion offers users 'presets' which allows users to streamline workloads and optimize workload placements.

We're getting a live demo of workload placements now, and it's a very speedy process, fully provisioned, and secured.

It's essentially a few clicks working with Fusion to streamline the process.

"This amazing technology works great within the pure storage ecosystem," Kennedy says. But they're also building it for outside the Pure ecosystem, like VMware, which now has Pure Fusion presets.

Integration with Rubrik is a big talking point for Fusion and the EDC, Kennedy says. This will help bolster threat detection and disaster recovery.

We've also got a new workflow orchestrator. This is an extension of Fusion, but within software environments, Kennedy notes.

"We can extend our automation intelligence beyond just storage to software environments".

We're getting another demo now to create a new SQL database. Again it's a speedy process here with a few "intelligent connected steps" - seven in total.

This is also integrated with Slack to provide progress updates - helping to improve visibility.

Now we've tackled the infrastructure and operations aspects, Kennedy wants to dive into the compliance considerations.

Kennedy points to the development of a Data Intelligence Engine - this offers data insights for users, data cataloguing. This will be integrated within Pure1, Kennedy notes.

Paired with this is the compliance reporting engine that's still under development. This will offer real-time alters and automated remediation.

From a productivity standpoint, Pure's AI Copilot plays a big role in streamlining processes for administrators.

He uses the example of a missed backup window. But with hundreds of arrays, that's like finding a needle in a haystack. With the Copilot though, users can query this using natural language to identify and troubleshoot the cause of the problem.

This will "change the way you do storage management", Kennedy says.

Next up we have CTO Rob Lee taking to the stage. Rob is here to give us a rundown of the enterprise data cloud.

We're looking at key priorities for enterprises today, including protecting mission critical systems and AI.

High-performance hardware plays a key role in keeping the lights on, Rob says. The new FlashArray//XL R5 "redefines" high performance block storage, Lee says.

This delivers 300% more IOPS compared to competitors, as well as 10x more reliable.

We have another announcement here, the FlashArray//ST, or 'FAST', as Rob mentions. It's a beast that's "only going to get faster" from current levels - 10 million IOPS and 8gbps throughput.

Now we're moving onto virtualizing options, starting with optimizing VMware.

The company has a deep history of VMware integrations, Rob says. With the XL R5 there are big efficiency improvements now.

But for those looking at alternatives, there's an expanded partnership with Nutanix. This will combine the Nutanix cloud platform with the FlashArray line to "deliver the best of both world's" according to Rob.

A big boon for architecture simplicity. The early access program is already oversubscribed, so there's certainly a big appetite for this.

But what about those looking to the cloud? The company's partnership with Microsoft allows Pure to deliver the same services on-prem as on Azure.

Later this year, they expect to have a fully managed VMware service in Azure , Rob says.

Now we're onto AI and high-performance computing.

"With AI the demands for high performance are growing - and we're showing our leadership", Rob says.

The new FlashBlade//S R2 is the company's latest solution to meet growing enterprise needs in this regard.

70% higher performance than previous generations, so huge gains here.

We've also got a big expansion to the object portfolio. The company now has FlashArray object support - there's a big momentum to this, Rob says.

"You're going to see us do a lot more in this space in the years to come," he adds.

Rob finishes up saying they're not "building products in isolation" - they're thinking about products for tomorrow and a unified approach. This is a real ecosystem build out.

"This is the unified platform that you need to build your enterprise data cloud on."

Now we have Naveen Neelakantam, Chief Architect of digital experiences. Naveen is going to give us a run through the Evergreen//One platform.

"You get operational simplicity. You get a rock solid service with no downtime. We make it easier to free and manage your finances. We give you a risk free experience," he says.

We have rapid fire announcement here with the new adaptive tier. This is a flexible service aimed at improving scalability and cost-efficiency for enterprises, Naveen says.

There's now an update to the universal credits service unveiled last year.

Snapshot retention is the latest announcement - it's an add-on to help enterprises beef up the volume of snapshots taken on an annual basis. Big focus on data protection and disaster recovery gains with this.

"We've covered a lot this morning," Naveen says. He's right. It's been a rapid fire session.

Now we're finishing off with a real-world scenario involving a cyber attack. "It's stressful, it's chaotic," he says. "The clock is ticking and you don't have any answers."

But with Pure, Naveen says enterprises "have to rethink the problem" - you can't be having data siloes. Consolidate and unify and with great visibility you can react to incidents in a more efficient manner.

Using Pure's intelligent control plane is a big advantage here due to the automated tools, disaster recovery, and simplicity.

"You get intelligence where you need it. You get a service that guarantees outcomes," he says.

Now we have a customer up on stage for a chat with Charlie. Fiserv is a key customer for Pure Storage that's undergone a major overhaul of its data storage infrastructure.

The payments company is one of the biggest in the US, processing 25 million transactions on a daily basis.

Naturally, the company has a big focus on high-performance, reliably infrastructure. The company has also "embraced new technology", according to Giancarlo.

"We don't want to stay with the same technology. IN 2019 we started with two storage arrays, and it worked. Now we're expanding globally, so it's about being agile, efficient with a fully ready architecture."

Being a payments company, finserv lives in "constant fear of outages", and for good reason - that's a nightmare scenario for the company and customers alike.

The company's relationship with Pure is close, and long-standing at this point. Reliability is a key factor in this, but also simplicity. Looking ahead, there's more to come with the partnership.

"We have over 100 incoming arrays and what we're looking to globally automate routine tasks - that's what we're really looking at."

The company has also reduced its storage footprint by 70% by working with Pure, which has downstream benefits such as general costs and energy consumption.

Opting to work with Pure was a "bold decision" but one that's ultimately paid dividends.

"We've improved the performance and reliability by going to Pure. My team's focus is on other initiatives now - automation and looking at other things."

So what lies ahead? Containers are a key focus at the moment along with far deeper levels of automation across the business and core operations.

Rounding things off today we have Shawn Hansen, VP & GM of the Core Platform Business Unit, to talk about AI strategies and the importance of adequate infrastructure in driving success.

'As a service' AI firms are abundant today, Hansen notes. Similarly, self-hosted AI which involves hosting on-prem, is becoming popular.

Both these come with inherent problems. The former often ends up with siloed datasets, Hansen says. The latter, meanwhile, can be clunky and cumbersome to operate.

Ultimately, simplification and automation when it comes to infrastructure should be a key focus for enterprises ramping up AI adoption.

Moreover, AI can actually be used to help drive this process, Hansen says.

We're going to get a demo using Claude by Anthropic to "provision a 5TB machine learning training volume, set up monitoring for it , and run a training simulation to verify it".

A rather complicated task that could take 6-8 hours for an administrator - Claude did it in no time.

Hansen show that workload provisioning can be drastically improved and simplified just using AI.

"This is science fiction. This is not just automating simple tasks. This is the fact that the AI knew nothing about storage. Everything was pre-encapsulated and existing independently of the underlying storage," he explains.

"What you just saw was the power of the enterprise data platform with an intelligent control plane," Hansen adds.

And with that the opening keynote this week is done and dusted. But that's not the end of our live coverage at Pure Accelerate. We'll be back first thing tomorrow morning with the day two keynote.

Keep tabs on our website and the daily newsletter for all the news and updates.

Not long now until the day-two keynote session here at Resorts World, and attendees are starting to trickle into the conference center.

While we're waiting for the keynote, why not catch up on our coverage so far, including an interview with founder John 'Coz' Colgrove yesterday.

• Pure Storage founder talks all-flash, the death of disks, and the future of data storage

• Infrastructure modernization has come on leaps and bounds, but there’s still a long way to go

• Pure Storage unveils Enterprise Data Cloud in bid to unify data storage, management

• Pure Storage beefs up FlashBlade, FlashArray offerings in platform performance focus

We're five minutes out from the day-two keynote now, the hall is filling up rapidly at this point and the music is blaring.

Today we can expect to hear about some more practical use-cases from executives at Pure and customers.

It’s Juneteenth in the US today, so we’re kicking things off with a dance and music performance.

First up today we have Shawn Rosemarin, VP of R&D, customer engineering at Pure.

“I want customers to think outside the box,” he says. Storage optimization and data management is a tricky process, and there’s no one way to do it - or is there? Pure thinks its Enterprise Data Cloud is a prime opportunity for enterprises to consolidate, unify, and simplify.

“Your infrastructure isn’t broken, it’s silently bleeding. And each workflow is adding hidden cost and risk.”

Rosemarin says infrastructural complexity is like “death by a thousand cuts” - it’s placing huge pressure on enterprises and adding costs. Upgrades, refreshes, optimization, it all has a cumulative effect.

Rosemarin notes that while data estates grow, teams become increasingly strained. This has a huge impact on efficiency and broader business productivity.

It's not just a lack of scalability that hampering enterprises though. It's not just a storage problem, it's a data management problem.

This is where the company's Enterprise Data Cloud comes into the equation.

"Performance management becomes proactive" with the EDC, he says. Upgrades become "self service on your time, with no downtime".

"This is a new paradigm for managing data," he says.

There are already some big customers working with Pure's EDC, including ServiceNow.

HealthEdge, meanwhile has a 70% smaller data center footprint. Notably, they reduced time spend on data center upgrades by 99% working with the company.

Next up we have Nirav Sheth, VP of worldwide systems engineering.

Sheth is going to give us a rundown of migration and modernization with Pure Storage.

"The flexibility of the enterprise data cloud is all about adapting and accommodating where you want to go," he says.

Nirav notes that many customers are increasingly moving toward a cloud-native approach with applications. One of these is Sirius XM - so we have Jeff Bethke, to run us through the relationship between the two.

The company has undergone a huge infrastructure modernization project in recent years.

Bethke says the company had a very rigid, monolithic infrastructure estate prior to working with Pure. Since 2020, the difference is night and day - but it's not over yet.

The company moved enterprise workloads to Pure from a competitor that Sheth says "he won't name".

Bethke says they thought it was risky at the time. In hindsight, it was a risk worth taking.

"Everything Pure committed to in terms of technology has made the journey at Sirius XM so much easier."

The company has had 632 non=disruptive software upgrades with Pure over the last five years, along with 42 hardware updates. Pretty impressive numbers here, and it's been very streamlined and uneventful for the company.

Working with Pure has allowed Sirius XM to focus heavily on virtualization in recent years - the company now uses Portworx for Kubernetes deployments and it's been a game changer.

"We got everything we wanted," he says. "I couldn't be happier with the solution".

So what are the big business outcomes here with Portworx?

"When Portworx was first introduced to me, I didn't quite get it. What's it doing, how's it helping?"

Bethke says it's like adding a turbocharger to a car.

Bethke says Portworx has "relieved us of drama" - as has the entire Pure ecosystem, including FlashArray, FlashBlade products.

It's been a huge productivity boost for developers and helped ramp up production timelines and quicker time to market.

Next up we have principal technologist Valerie Harrison at Pure Storage.

Harrison says speaking with IT leaders shows there's a growing cloud of uncertainty hanging over enterprises globally.

There's a huge impetus to become more efficient, cost-effective, and agile. That's where Pure thinks it can play a big role in delivering success with EDC.

Enterprises are focusing heavily on FinOps now also to glean more value out of their cloud experience. Similarly, there's huge concerns over resiliency and compliance - especially in the age of AI.

"Some of the traditional cloud drivers like cost optimization are still part of the conversation, but we're still seeing a shift toward AI."

Getting data organized is a big factor in success here though. Without an organized, decluttered infrastructural estate it's a bust from the get-go.

Hybrid cloud is still very popular, and there's a number of reasons for this - largely due to compliance and regulatory considerations along with security.

This approach is helping facilitate AI adoption rates at pace, with enterprises tinkering in the public cloud and then bringing data back on-prem for convenience and safety.

Pure's solution in Azure addresses this specifically, and it's proving highly beneficial for customers.

Gone are the days of the "lift and shift" approach to cloud. That was a means to an end, but it's actually caused a whole lot of issues and challenges for enterprises.

Enterprises are increasingly sticking with the hybrid environments, and the data management tools now available - particularly from Pure - are helping modernize infrastructure and declutter environments.

Getting cloud economics right relies heavily on improvements to the data layer. It's among the biggest costs enterprises can encounter and optimizing this aspect of enterprise IT estates is very challenging.

Improving visibility in this regard is crucial. By moving data into Pure, for example, this can help improve broader visibility.

One parting piece of advice for IT leaders would be to at least get one foot on the ladder, so to speak.

"When we think about orgs that are successful in their cloud journey, just getting started is the first big step. Getting on that path gives big learnings for the organization."

Organizations that are successful in cloud adoption and modernization often lean heavily on their providers and partners for support. Never go it alone.

That's all we have time for here at Pure Accelerate 2025. Thanks for following our rolling live coverage - make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and keep tabs on our social media channels for all the news from the conference.

Pure Storage has announced the launch of a new unified data management platform aimed at streamlining infrastructure for enterprises - and CEO Charlie Giancarlo believes it’s a key differentiator for the company moving forward.

Unveiled at the company’s Pure//Accelerate conference in Las Vegas this week, the Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) service aims to provide enterprises with a “virtualized cloud of data” that can be easily monitored, scaled, and managed.

The move marks the latest effort by the company to build out its platform-focused strategy for data storage and management.

With a unified architecture, it’s essentially cultivating an all-encompassing ecosystem which combines hardware and software, and caters to a wide range of enterprise storage options, including hybrid, public cloud, and on-prem.

If it all sounds rather familiar, then you’re not wrong. Other industry competitors, NetApp in particular, have similar options in the form of its Data Fabric - another unified data storage and management solution.

However, speaking to ITPro at the conference this week, Giancarlo said there are notable differences which make this an industry-first.

“I think they've used that [Data Fabric] for 25 years as their phrase,” he told ITPro. “But what’s really different is that we have this intelligent control plane, which has never existed in data storage before, just to be really clear.”

The intelligent control plane, a key component of the EDC, enables enterprises to automate aspects of their storage and data management practices, such as the optimization of storage arrays, for example.

It’s by no means the only aspect of the new Data Cloud that has Giancarlo and the company waxing lyrical. Indeed, the new solution combines an array of automation and analytics tools, including Pure1, the company’s intelligent planning and analytics platform.

Similarly, integration of its AI Copilot, unveiled at last year’s conference also provides enterprises more detailed insights.

Meanwhile, Pure Fusion, another resource management platform, plays an equally important role in the broader strategy. This allows users to unify storage as a “pool of adaptable resources”, which ultimately simplifies management of arrays and configurations.

Reaching the point of offering a unified data storage ecosystem has been a long-term effort by the firm, Giancarlo told ITPro, and has been facilitated by Purity, the operating system which underpins the company’s FlashArray and FlashBlade systems.

This is essentially the software layer that allows users to manage and optimize storage options.

“This was a very purposeful strategy that took us quite a few years to develop, where we have developed everything on purity,” Giancarlo told ITPro.

“At the core of purity is something called a key value store, which is a very modern way of having very scalable metadata,” he added. “So whether it's a block, file, or object, a large file, small file, everything is just a key value that is done as a lookup.

“Having a unified data plane made it easier for us, and the fact that we're on all-flash made it easier for us to be able to finally deliver, for the first time, a virtualized cloud of storage rather than individual arrays.”

It’s this aspect of the Enterprise Data Cloud that differentiates Pure Storage from competitors in the marketplace, Giancarlo noted.

“Now the Data Fabric did not allow NetApp to actually create a global cloud of storage,” he said. “It allowed them to expand their file system somewhat, but not beyond a few arrays.”

Responding to customer needs

Speaking to assembled media at the conference, Shawn Hansen, VP & GM at Pure Storage’s Core Platform Business Unit, described the launch as a “huge moment” for the company.

Hansen added that the motivation behind the platform has come in response to growing demands for flexible, scalable storage solutions in the age of AI. EDC essentially allows users to consolidate and streamline the storage and management of data resources.

“We have the ability to unify all of your data appliances, all your data infrastructure, into one common pool,” he said. “And that gives you the ability to govern.”

According to Hansen, engagement with customers and industry partners highlighted a common recurring theme over the last year - an inability to generate value from data as a result of poor visibility and disparate environments.

“We've met with many CIOs from different banks and large companies around the world…the number one thing they tell us is they feel like they're out of control, that AI is happening so fast they can no longer control the data cycles, and their new problem is they have to aggregate, they have to centralize it, they have to control it and govern it, and then make that data ready and easy to use in their new AI systems.”

Simply put, Hansen insisted that tackling this confluence of challenges for IT leaders is “impossible” without a unified infrastructure approach.

“The world really needs to have something to unify and simplify,” he added.

The waters off the northern coast of Britain are unforgiving and critical in equal measure, with the North Sea a region of huge importance to the UK’s national security.

During the Cold War, the North Sea and the skies above were the frontline in the UK’s decades-long tussle with the Soviet Union. It was not only a route for incoming aircraft in the event of a conflict but also a route into the North Atlantic for naval assets.

While the Soviet Union itself is gone, the threat still remains as Russian subsurface vessels and aircraft continue to probe the UK’s defensive capabilities. This cat and mouse game goes on largely unseen – aside from the occasional headline – and is a critical focus for the government, the Royal Air Force (RAF), and its partners in other branches of the armed forces.

A key component in combating this lingering threat is the RAF’s P-8 ‘Poseidon’ aircraft. Patrolling the skies above the North Sea and North Atlantic, the Poseidon conducts regular maritime reconnaissance sorties, often working in tandem with Royal Navy vessels to provide surveillance capabilities from both the sea and air.

The aircraft is state of the art and has been in service for over 15 years, flying out of RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. During a recent press tour attended by ITPro, we were given a glimpse inside the aircraft, and it was quite a sight to behold.

The interior is packed with an array of tools and equipment. This includes storage for 129 ‘sonobuoys’, which are shot into the waters below, alongside powerful electronic sensors and camera equipment. An unnamed RAF pilot conducting the interior tour told press the aircraft frequently flies as low as 200ft above the water, necessitating a jet wash after flights to remove salt water and prevent rusting.

While the sonobuoys and sensor equipment are vital for the Poseidon’s mission, this raises significant challenges. The volume of data gathered on each sortie is enormous, coming in at several terabytes of unstructured data.

Gleaning value from this raw defense data and turning it into actionable insights has been a longtime challenge for the RAF. To date, defense personnel tasked with analyzing and ‘cleaning’ have faced a laborious process, one that often takes days or weeks.

In a modern military environment where speed and agility matters, harnessing best-in-class technology is vital.

Big data insights for the P-8 Poseidon

To support the RAF’s work in this regard, the service has worked closely with cloud storage firm, NetApp, to streamline the process and accelerate both the speed and scale at which this data can be gathered, analyzed, and shared.

Each aircraft is equipped with NetApp’s E-Series flash storage arrays. Once a sortie is complete, sensor data is fed into StorageGrid, which Defence Digital’s Toby Milbright noted essentially acts as a “hub” through which analysts can dig into the data.

Ewen Litster, MOD solutions engineer at NetApp, told journalists StorageGrid object storage utilizes SV protocols and is in a ‘data mesh’, or ‘fabric’ - essentially a comprehensive ecosystem for storing and distributing data gathered on missions.

“So you have local storage, secondary data storage for resilience, and you also have local storage for the end users, both from a production point of view and the naval element,” he explained. “They will share some of their data from their sensors and their capabilities into the system, and that enables a big operational picture.”

“The ability to have local storage and access any of the data across the entire data fabric is really one of those advantages.”

Operational efficiencies

The results of this have been profound across a number of fronts. During a presentation at the event, journalists were told how automated metadata tagging means time to analysis has been reduced from the aforementioned days and weeks to minutes and hours

In response to a question from The Stack, Huw Davies, MOD account director for NetApp, said this has greatly improved “operational tempo” for personnel.

“We’re bringing in time efficiencies that weren’t there before, accuracy, and importantly, analyzing the metadata, seeing trends and threats by the adversaries, and that quickly going back up to command,” he said.

The speed of data sharing has, in essence, a domino effect on broader operational efficiency, he noted. In speeding this process up and gleaning value from sortie data quicker, this then aids subsequent sorties by the aircraft.

“I think that [data analysis] was a very manual process,” he said. “It took a lot of time, there were a lot of inaccuracies and lack of trust in the data. Now we’ve improved a lot of those challenges.”

Litster echoed Davies’ comments on this front, noting that from a ‘people ops’ perspective, reducing workloads has cumulative effects.

“The analysts get a big bunch [of data], they’ve got to spend time identifying the significant data,” he said. “Whereas now it’s a lot more fluid. So from a people point of view, there’s a lot less time on the job, so they have more time to do more jobs because of the efficiency.”

‘Multi-domain integration’

Similarly, cross-branch data sharing has also been accelerated as a result of the speed gains unlocked by this process. Enabling personnel to streamline the process means intelligence data can be distributed securely to other military sites and partners across the UK.

Milbright noted that unlocking greater levels of interoperability and ‘multi-domain integration’ are a key focus areas both for the MOD and Defence Digital through its work with the government.

“It’s about interoperability between our coalition partners, who are also P-8 operators,” he said, as well as great interoperability with naval assets assisting the RAF in operations.

The Poseidon will be gaining some company at Lossiemouth in the year ahead, journalists were told, with a host of E-7 Wedgetail surveillance aircraft set to fly out of Moray.

The Wedgetail is already in service with the Royal Australian, Turkish, and South Korean air forces, and similar to the Poseidon, is also highly interoperable with allies across the globe.

Pure Storage has announced a refresh of its Reseller Partner Program in a bid to drive partner profitability.

The revamp aims to equip partners with the tools to cater to customers’ data storage and modernization needs, the firm said, as well as enable tailoring of the Pure Storage platform to address solution-specific use cases, such as AI and cyber resilience.

Partners can now benefit from new solution-oriented training, with on-demand courses and technical boot camps available to those looking to enhance proficiencies.

Specifically, Pure said its solution-oriented use cases focus on four key areas to help partners drive transformation, including hybrid cloud optimization, AI-ready infrastructure, modern applications, and cyber resilience.

The program also features new tools, incentives, and rebates designed to accelerate customers’ transition to the Pure Storage platform.

In an announcement, Pure said the additions will help channel partners maximize their earning potential while providing enhanced support to customers.

“Pure Storage is deeply committed to driving shared success with its partners and we are excited to deliver a reimagined program experience that positions partners for exponential growth,” commented Amy Fowler, general manager of Pure Storage’s Commercial business.

“Partners recognize the unrivalled value in leading with the Pure Storage Platform to solve customers’ most challenging data storage use cases and guiding their imperative to build and operate responsibly for a sustainable future.”

Pure Storage expands partner tool options

Alongside the new training options, resellers can also access a host of updated tools through the program.

With Pure Partner Intelligence, partners can leverage real-time insights and analytics to identify growth opportunities, while Pure Realize serves up use case proposals, price quotes, and solution expertise to help partners differentiate themselves as providers.

There’s also a new digital partner master services agreement (DPMSA) process on hand for automated customer upgrades, expansions, and renewals via the Pure1 platform. Pure said the process enables quote requests, purchase orders, and installations in “a fraction of the time” it takes with competitors.

Additionally, partners will find a redesigned partner portal, new CPQ tooling for guided selling, as well as further updates later in the fiscal year, Pure said.

“Pure really leaned in and revamped their Reseller Partner Program by enhancing the unique tools and processes we need to deliver additional value to our customers,” commented Kapil Bansal, SVP of Partner Management & Solutions at SHI International, a Pure partner.

“From more relevant platform and solution-level enablement, to smarter and better-aligned incentives, to intelligence in recognizing growth opportunities, these program enhancements will help more efficiently address the huge customer demand in the storage market.”

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Pure Storage's recent hyperscaler 'design win' could be the death knell for disk storage
• Why Pure Storage thinks simplicity is its biggest selling point
• Flash drive efficiency will 'flatten out' - but it still has a role to play with AI

Abandoned cloud storage buckets were ripe to be taken over by cyber criminals and used to conduct a supply chain attack that would have dwarfed the 2020 SolarWinds incident, according to new research.

A report from watchTowr Labs demonstrated how attackers could potentially exploit unused cloud storage buckets to gain access to sensitive networks of national governments, militaries, and major enterprises.

One researcher at watchTowr Labs noticed that a number of organizations around the world had deleted Amazon S3 buckets without realizing that the buckets in question were still being referenced by third-party applications.

Looking into the incident, watchTowr found that by registering the same buckets, they were able to receive any requests still being sent to them.

“Naturally, we registered them, just to see what would happen - “how many people are really trying to request software updates from S3 buckets that appear to have been abandoned months or even years ago?”, we naively thought to ourselves,” the report detailed.

The report noted that it was certain this type of attack is applicable to a range of cloud-hosted storage services, but that Amazon’s S3 option happened to be “the first storage solution we thought of”.

The team spent just over $400 registering around 150 Amazon S3 buckets and enabled logging so they could track who was requesting files from each, as well as what it was they were requesting – and the results were very surprising.

WatchTowr found these buckets, long forgotten by the entities that originally set them up, were still receiving thousands of requests.

The report stated that over a two month period, the S3 buckets received more than 8 million HTTP requests for a number of things including software updates, unsigned pre-compiled OS binaries, VM images, JavaScript files, CloudFormation templates, SSLVPN server configurations, and more.

A potential attacker could have used these requests to carry out a number of malicious actions such as using VM images to backdoor the network using remote access tools (RAT), deploy ransomware using binaries, or use a Cloud Formation template to gain access to the victim’s AWS environment.

Critical blind spot in cloud security could have been “devastating”

WatchTowr noted that many of these requests came from important organizations, including government networks in the US, UK, Poland, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Taiwan, and Chile, as well as military networks, Fortune 500 companies, a “major payment card network”, and a number of global and regional banks.

The report stated the fallout from an attack leveraging this technique could have been potentially catastrophic, comparing it to the 2020 SolarWinds attack, which compromised a number of significant entities including the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“We believe that in the wrong hands, the research we have performed could have led to supply chain attacks that out-scaled and out-impacted anything we as an industry have seen so far - or put more clearly, we would've embarrassed Cozy Bear and made their SolarWinds adventures look amateurish and insignificant.”

Speaking to ITPro, Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at Huntress, described the issue covered in the report as a ‘critical blind spot in cloud security’, stating that it could have underpinned a ‘massive’ supply chain attack if exploited by threat actors.

“The research highlights a critical blind spot in cloud security—abandoned object storage can become a silent yet devastating supply chain attack vector,” Agha said.

“If threat actors had discovered and exploited these buckets first and compromised these upstream sources to deliver malice, the downstream consequences could have been catastrophic, affecting governments, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure."

“This research proves that a single, forgotten cloud bucket can become a ticking time bomb. If attackers had seized this opportunity first, we’d be talking about a massive supply chain attack(s).”

WatchTowr added that before publishing the report it informed AWS, who sinkholed the buckets used in the demonstration to ensure this type of attack could not be replicated.

A spokesperson for AWS told ITPro the cloud computing giant acted swiftly after being informed of the issue.

“AWS services and infrastructure are operating as expected. The issues described in this blog occurred when customers deleted S3 buckets that were still being referenced by third-party applications,” the spokesperson said.

“After conducting their research without notifying AWS, watchTowr provided the bucket names to AWS, and to protect our customers, we blocked these specific buckets from being re-created.”

The spokesperson noted that it provides guidance on best practices for customers to ensure robust storage security. This includes using unique identifiers when creating bucket names to prevent “unintended reuse”.

“In 2020 we launched the bucket ownership condition feature and encouraged customers to use this mechanism, specifically designed to prevent unintended reuse of bucket names,” they added.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• These tech firms downplayed the impact of the SolarWinds hack – now they’ve been fined by the SEC
• Software supply chain attacks are soaring – and security leaders are sluggish to react
• Hackers are turning Amazon S3 bucket encryption against customers in new ransomware campaign – and they’ve already claimed two victims

A new licensing deal between Pure Storage and an as-of-yet unnamed hyperscaler could precipitate a transformation in the enterprise storage market, according to Pure Storage CTO Rob Lee.

Flash storage has long been hailed as the successor to its spinning disk counterparts, yet thus far HDDs have clung on in the enterprise market. This could all change, according to Lee.

In November 2024, Pure Storage announced it had reached its first flash storage deal with a hyperscaler.

The hyperscaler in question is set to be revealed “soon enough”, according to Lee, who added this is the first of what the company hopes is a number of similar agreements with the other major industry players.

“We recently announced our first, hopefully, of many design wins with a top four hyperscaler who’s chosen our technology to standardize all of their storage, from their cheapest disk all the way to eventually their highest performance SSDs” he stated.

During an earnings call following the announcement, which caused Pure Storage’s share price to soar, Charlie Giancarlo, CEO at Pure Storage, said the deal could mark a turning point in the market, describing it as “the vanguard for flash storage providing all online storage in major hyperscale environments in the future.”

This could significantly shake up the enterprise storage market, Lee said, noting that the market for disk storage is incredibly concentrated on both the supply and demand side, hinting that one big move from a hyperscaler could have a major effect on the industry as a whole.

“There’s two suppliers of disks, and 60 to 70% is purchased by the top five hyperscalers. Just let that sink in for a second. So when you have a market that is that concentrated, if one of those buyers flips and stops buying disks and shifts over to flash, you can see what’s going to happen,” he explained.

“I think that’s going to be the biggest catalyst, the biggest nail in the coffin finishing the transition from disk to flash.”

Flash storage could be an unsung hero for decarbonizing hyperscalers

Lee’s comments came during a press tour of Pure Storage’s global R&D center in Prague this week. During a Q&A session, he told ITPro and assembled journalists the factors that brought the hyperscaler to the table included better reliability and performance.

The primary reason, however, focused firmly on the energy savings flash can bring compared to traditional storage methods.

Hyperscaler capital expenditure has been growing as they race to dominate the burgeoning AI market, but this has presented major challenges in terms of energy security, Lee noted.

Nearly all of the top hyperscalers now have projects to source clean energy to accommodate for soaring demand, with Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Oracle all signaling their approval for nuclear energy in particular.

With this in mind, Lee said Pure Storage has been working with hyperscalers over the last two years to both demonstrate and emphasize the benefits of flash storage in data center operations, adding that a single digit decrease in energy consumption could be enough to drive a wholesale transition to flash.

“These guys operate at such a scale that saving 1 or 2% in power overall is a huge needle-mover for them. By uptaking our technology or storage layer, they’re actually going to save more energy than building nuclear power plants.”

The rise of AI means more cloud storage is necessary – and it may even need to double, offering a big boost to cloud services.

That's according to a survey by Seagate and Recon Analytics, which asked business leaders around the world how they believe AI will impact their company's IT.

The survey found that 61% of respondents who use cloud storage now predict their storage needs will increase by 100% over the next three years. Similarly, respondents revealed that the cloud was the default for data storage for AI projects, with two-thirds of data stored in the cloud versus in-house.

"When you consider that the business leaders we surveyed intend to store more and more of this AI-driven data in the cloud, it appears that cloud services are well-positioned to ride a second growth wave," said Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst of Recon Analytics.

That's largely down to longer retention times, the Seagate report said, with 90% of respondents who are already using AI believing that holding onto data longer helps improve AI outcomes.

"As AI use cases and adoption becomes more pervasive, Recon Analytics forecasts companies will see exponential growth in their storage requirements," the report says.

"This will become even more evident when businesses move from their early AI trialing phase to being active AI users. Training LLMs, data replication, and longer data retention periods, all key elements of an AI strategy, will require increased storage investments to be successful."

The survey results echo previous research from Hitachi Vantara, which also predicted data storage capacity requirements more than doubling over the next few years.

Analysis from the firm found the average large organization currently holds 150 petabytes of data, and that will top 300PB by the end of next year — potentially sparking an increase in storage investment as companies race to boost capacity.

More data for trustworthy AI

Beyond that, almost as many Seagate survey respondents who use AI said that the adoption of trustworthy AI — which is an AI development framework that puts safety and transparency at the forefront — requires more data to be held for longer periods of time.

"Trustworthy AI is really the key to enabling mainstream adoption of AI," said BS Teh, Chief Commercial Officer of Seagate.

"With the vast majority of survey respondents saying they need to store data for longer periods of time to improve quality outcomes of AI, we’re focused on areal density innovation needed to increase storage capacity for each platter in our HAMR-based hard drives. We have a clear pathway to more than double per-platter storage capacity over the next few years."

That echoes comments made by Peter Zhou, president of data storage product line at Huawei, who said last year that storage architectures needed innovation to keep up with AI workloads:

"Data is not just used for recording, data becomes an asset that machines can use to study [the world], it’s the source of their knowledge and can enable their ‘thinking’, and now the data storage industry has to be changed."

The Seagate report also found that storage was ranked as the second most important aspect of AI infrastructure after security.

"Compute and energy have been the hot topics of the AI conversation over the past few years, but storage and security are ranked higher when looking from the storage infrastructure buyer perspective," the report noted.

Maximizing the use of data has never been more important for IT leaders in the age of generative AI. It’s the lifeblood of the modern enterprise which fuels innovation, yet a significant number of firms globally are still failing to fully capitalize on this.

Worse still, they’re putting it to waste, and it’s taking a serious toll on both bottom lines and the environment.

Research from NetApp in 2023 found that nearly half (41%) of data currently stored by UK organizations is either unwanted or unused - also known as ‘cold data’ - and these figures have since increased.

“The repercussion of this unnecessary data is that businesses are spending budget and emissions on storage and energy consumption when they don’t need to,” the study warned.

All told, this places significant financial strain on enterprises already contending with tightening purse strings. The average firm spends around £300,000 ($379,000) each year on data storage, meaning this unused data equates to £120,000 ($151,000) of investment.

That’s £10,000 ($12,000) per month.

Given the costs involved, Sandeep Singh, SVP of enterprise storage at NetApp, says the issue of data waste cannot be ignored by IT leaders.

Speaking to ITPro at the firm’s Insight Xtra event in London, Singh says the company has been keen to emphasize this in recent years. To this end, it’s introduced a slew of tools and features across its product portfolio to help customers cut down and better manage cold data.

For example, the firm’s FabricPool feature, included in ONTAP, helps users move data between local and cloud-based resources based on usage. Leveraging this, enterprises can free up local storage for ‘hot data’ while ensuring cold data is kept on the sidelines in optimized storage locations.

“Our customers are taking advantage of a capability that we call ‘FabricPool’ that enables automated and granular tiering,” he explains.

“Of your data that's cold data, what customers are able to do is seamlessly have their high-performance flash storage systems alongside the large capacity, lower power-oriented systems and ultimately cloud storage offerings.”

This allows enterprises to automatically tier their data, Singh adds, which offers marked benefits both in terms of efficiency and sustainability.

“Through that lens, they're getting the benefit of lowering the cost of data over its life cycle, and they're getting the benefit of more sustainable, power-efficient locations as well.”

Sustainability has become an equally critical focus for enterprises in recent years alongside the need for high-performance infrastructure, Singh notes. And this has been exacerbated by the advent of generative AI.

Environmental issues surrounding data storage have long been a key talking point in the global tech industry. But the monumental impact placed on infrastructure and its associated environmental toll has raised serious concerns among industry stakeholders.

The technology is power-hungry, placing significant strain on data center infrastructure. In the US, for example, research from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) predicts data center power consumption is expected to more than double by 2030 as a result of generative AI demands.

Meanwhile, warnings from European data center operators have also been rising amid worries that power grids simply aren’t up to the task of matching energy demands.

With this in mind, enterprises simply cannot afford to waste resources on cold data. NetApp’s own research shows data waste creates a double-whammy impact for enterprises both from a financial and sustainability perspective.

“Businesses aren’t only risking paying financially but could also sacrifice the quality of our environment by increasing detrimental carbon emissions,” the report stated.

NetApp is keen to champion sustainability

NetApp has been highly vocal about sustainability and has made significant strides toward improving energy efficiency.

The company has introduced ambitious emissions reduction goals, and accelerated the use of renewable energy by 144% compared to its 2020 baseline, for example.

“We have also committed to science-based reduction targets on an effective per-petabyte of storage capacity,” he adds.

Singh says the company views its sustainability objectives as a two-pronged approach, focusing on improving its products for end-users while ensuring its own operations are equally streamlined to reduce its environmental impact.

This sustainability drive aims to address even simple aspects of its operations, such as the introduction of product packaging built using recycled and renewable materials.

Elsewhere, its products are designed with data efficiency in mind, with Singh noting that it aims to “drive efficiencies and lower costs for customers through the lens of reducing datasets to help lower the overall need to store, and power that end-to-end dataset”.

“We have enabled in our BlueXP console the ability to classify the data that’s available for free for customers at any point, as well as having the sustainability dashboard to see in real-time the actual usage of power through their NetApp infrastructure, along with insights on how to go and further optimize usage there as well.”

All told, this means enterprises have a comprehensive suite of tools all aimed at improving efficiency across the data lifecycle. This, Singh says, enables them to greatly simplify management challenges.

“We're giving them not only the underlying tool sets but also real-time data to actually be able to make more and more informative decisions around that.”

Cloud storage provider Wasabi Technologies has announced the appointment of Jon Howes as its new senior vice president of global sales.

Howes steps into the role having served as the company’s vice president and general manager for the EMEA region since January 2023 and brings more than two decades’ leadership experience to the role.

As EMEA chief, Howes’ leadership is credited as being a key contributing factor to Wasabi achieving year over year annual recurring revenue growth of approximately 77% in the region.

His tenure also saw the firm establish key partnerships with prominent businesses such as Retelit, Bechtle, Exclusive Networks, and TD Synnex.

Prior to joining Wasabi, the seasoned veteran held senior sales and channel positions in EMEA for Juniper Networks, Infovista, and Oracle.

“Jon has built a very successful organization in EMEA, and we see the value in his exceptional leadership skills and his understanding of Wasabi's business as instrumental for our global sales initiatives,” said Marty Falaro, EVP and COO of Wasabi, in an announcement.

With Howes’ appointment, Wasabi said it is looking to build on global growth that has seen the company expand to serve more than 90,000 customers and 15,000 partners, with operations across more than 100 countries.

The firm has also established 14 storage regions, with further additions in the pipeline.

“I’m confident Jon will continue to elevate our global presence and look forward to seeing Wasabi grow under his leadership to solidify our position as the leader in cloud storage,” Falaro added.

In his new role, Howes will lead Wasabi’s global sales operations and direct a high-performance team to build on these recent successes. In EMEA, Kevin Dunn steps into Howes’ former role, having served as Wasabi’s country manager for the UK, Ireland, Nordics, and South Africa since 2022.

“I am eager to continue building upon Wasabi’s momentum on a global scale,” Howes said.

“The remarkable progress Wasabi has made since I joined is a testament to how much customers and partners value Wasabi’s offerings. I look forward to collaborating with the sales organization worldwide to drive further growth and identify new opportunities.”

The tech industry needs to do more to address growing AI sustainability concerns, according to NetApp CEO George Kurian.

Speaking to ITPro at the firm's NetApp Insight conference in Las Vegas, Kurian outlined his thoughts on the environmental impact of how businesses are implementing the technology.

When asked how leaders are balancing sustainability targets with increasing pressure to adopt power-intensive systems, Kurian insisted that firms need to improve the way in which they are deploying AI technologies and ensure they are doing so intelligently to minimize unnecessary energy use.

“I think the world needs to do a better job thinking through how we can make AI be used in a way that delivers the best results”, he told ITPro.

The recent explosion in generative AI has created an environment where businesses are forced to implement the technology at a rapid pace to ensure they don’t fall behind competitors. But this risks deploying the technology in a haphazard manner, Kurian warned, thereby creating longer-term challenges.

To counter this, the NetApp chief exec said enterprises should take more time formulating robust data strategies to prevent future pitfalls. When they get this right, Kurian added, enterprises can drive more sustainable operations and deliver marked cost benefits.

“With regard to AI, using data wisely is important because if you try to search through vast troves of data for a small amount of benefit, you are wasting an enormous amount of expense and energy,” he explained.

“So a lot of the data management tools we are building are enabling you to be really precise in the use of data and as data changes, use the model for only the change in the data. That’s beneficial for cost, that’s beneficial for time to value, and equally beneficial for sustainability.”

AI creates vast amounts of shadow data that continues to drain power

Speaking to ITPro, NetApp chief sustainability officer Nicola Acutt said the primary hurdle for AI sustainability was a data challenge. Acutt thinks the biggest factor driving the energy intensity of many enterprise AI applications is ‘dark data’, also known as ‘shadow data’.

Dark data is information that is collected, processed, and stored - often before never being used again by the enterprise.

This type of data is often backed up or stored in various forms, such as unstructured files, databases, or even via cloud storage. Crucially, shadow data is rarely governed or maintained in an appropriate manner and IT teams often have no idea if it contains potentially sensitive information.

Many businesses are using this type of data to train AI systems in a one-time scenario, Acutt explained, and then disregarding it despite the fact it continues to consume vital resources.

“What’s mind boggling about that is that almost two-thirds of that data that’s created for AI today is created but then it’s never used again…but it's still consuming power and ultimately that translates into a big carbon footprint for the data we don’t use again,” Acutt said.

She warned that enterprises will need to face up to this reality and take responsibility for the data they are collecting, and advised IT leaders to reassess governance approaches.

“There’s going to have to be a reckoning on the scope of dark data and there’s going to be a huge need for intelligence around that,” she explained.

AI means organizations are going to miss their sustainability targets

Jon Brown, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), told ITPro its own research indicates that some industries are implementing AI better than others, and that some felt it would drive sustainability.

“We saw a lot of different opinions about whether folks were going to be able to hit their commitments, and whether AI was going to be a positive for sustainability, mixed, or negative,” he reported.

“What we found was that for a couple of verticals, they were overwhelmingly positive about the impact that AI was going to have on their sustainability commitments, like retail, very bullish, technology companies like NetApp, very bullish on AI being a net positive for [sustainability].”

But some industries were less confident, Brown noted, and hinted the deployment of generative AI in their organization would put their ESG goals in jeopardy

“When we started to look at manufacturing and some of the other verticals that are out there, they said it was going to be mixed, ‘we’re going to have to balance this and recognize that it's going to be a challenge to hit these commitments’.

Many large organizations set themselves ambitious sustainability targets, such as net zero by 2030, in the years leading up to 2020, but frenzy around generative AI sparked by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 put these goals on shaky ground.

“I see some of those chief sustainability officers retiring in 2029,” Brown jested, adding that he foresees a number of these firms surreptitiously revising their targets to reflect more realistic reductions.

The revision of ambitious ESG goals has already begun at some major providers.

Earlier this year, both Microsoft and Google warned their sharpened focus on generative AI development resulted in a steep rise in data center energy consumption.

Google’s total greenhouse gas emissions stood at 14.3 million tons of CO2e in 2023, according to official numbers released by the tech giant. This marked both a 13% increase year on year and a 48% increase compared to 2019 when its sustainability targets were first set.

Similarly, Microsoft’s 2024 Sustainability Report found its carbon emissions surged by 29% as a result of its drive to expand data center capacity.

The issue has reached such an extent that reports in July showed Microsoft and Google’s combined electricity consumption exceeded that of around 100 countries, highlighting the steep rise in power demands placed on infrastructure by generative AI.

Good morning once again from sunny Las Vegas. It’s the final day of NetApp Insight 2024 here at the MGM Grand and ITPro is live on the ground with rolling coverage of all the action.

Over the course over the next few days we can expect to hear about the firm's latest products and recent partnerships, as well as the outlook for the year ahead. AI has been in the spotlight at most tech conferences this side of 2022, so don’t be surprised if NetApp puts heavy focus on where it fits into the ongoing AI explosion. 

This means we’ll be learning about the firm’s latest moves in hybrid cloud, public cloud, CloudOps, data services, updates to its unified storage portfolio, and innovations in the block storage space, including new security features implemented across their product ecosystem.

The central theme of today’s opening keynote, however, will be largely focused on CEO George Kurian setting out his broader strategy for the company as an intelligent data infrastructure provider, a motif he established at last year’s conference.

This concept encapsulates NetApp’s ambition to transition from being understood as a traditional storage company to a partner in helping customers modernize their data infrastructure from the hardware layer to their data engine, ready to leverage AI to deliver new value.

Product innovations, technology roadmaps, customer stories, and other exciting news will follow in the next two days, whilst today’s presentation is dedicated to outlining the current business and technology landscape, and where NetApp sees opportunities for further growth.

We're here on the ground at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, ready to keep you updated on all the latest news and announcements. 

Things are already underway with delegates circulating the conference center, jumping between partner sessions in the lead up to the opening keynote. 

In the main foyer area of the conference center dance music pumps out from a Google Cloud-branded DJ booth.

Notably, Google Cloud is headed up by NetApp CEO George Kurian's twin brother Thomas, who appeared at Insight 2023 and could make another appearance this year. We'll have to wait and see... 

We’ve still got roughly two hours to go before today’s keynote is set to get started at roughly 4pm (PT). While we’re waiting for everything to kick off, why catch up on some of our coverage from the conference so far exploring what could be coming up over the next three days and the years ahead?

● NetApp could corner AI infrastructure at Insight 2024 – but customer hype will ride on its messaging

At Insight 2023, NetApp was laser-focused on positioning itself as the go-to data storage and management provider for businesses looking to accelerate their AI adoption. On the back of strong performance from itself and competitors over the last year, this year it will look to carry this moment into Insight 2024, and so its messaging around why it stands out in areas like AI-ready storage as well as both hybrid and multi-cloud, will be key.

While we wait for the main event to get started here’s some more pictures from around the convention center here in Las Vegas. 

NetApp’s N-Powered branding is splashed all over the MGM Grand, representing the company’s promise to customers that it can modernize their data tooling and help them build intelligent data infrastructures.

As the sign says, things are heating up here in Las Vegas with less than one hour to go before the opening keynote of NetApp Inspire 2024.

The crowd is growing in the conference, as the excitement builds before George Kurian's opening address.

On entering the headliner stage the crowd is greeted with the dulcet tones of Pitbull. The DJ welcomes attendees from near and far, which is rather apt as 'Mr Worlwide' pumps out of the speakers.

Here is a shot of DJ Graffiti who is making good use of the mic to get the crowd going.

It's getting busy now as attendees flood into the auditorium. An emcee for proceedings is currently interviewing one delegate, who has just declared his love for 80s music.

We are now playing a guess the song game, and he guessed White Wedding by Billy Idol in a matter of seconds. Too easy!

Our emcee is now interviewing Nick Howell, global cloud field CTO at NetApp, who is currently explaining why he doesn't like former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. 

Just minutes to go before we get started here in Las Vegas.

We're almost at capacity in the headliner stage, and our emcee Mario Armstrong announces we will be hearing from George Kurian imminently.

But not before he stages a giveaway for VIP passes to tomorrow's entertainment Royal Machines at sardonically-named Area 15.

Ok! Here we go, the lights are dimmed and the obligatory showreel is running with some extravagant shots of cars speeding down roads and astronauts floating in space.

George Kurian has stepped onto the stage to rapturous applause. He thanks the delegates for attending.

Kurian harks back to last year's Insight 2023 conference where he claimed there will be data leaders and data leaders in this AI era.

He outlined the three keys to success in leveraging AI to produce new value for enterprises around the world. 

These three pillars are:

Data leaders need a cohesive data strategy, they need to treat data as a product in itself, and understand the foundations of a modern data architecture to leverage the inherent value in data.

Kurian says we are now in era of data and intelligence, which is handy considering NetApp are branding itself as the intelligent data infrastructure company. 

He adds that many things have changed since last year, stating that we've seen a real breakthrough in AI, where AI systems can now understand the domains in which they operate, without the assistance of humans.

"These systems enable us to build rich immersive experiences, combining multimodal technologies to understand all the data that resides in your enterprise."

Kurian says we are in the third stage of the modern data revolution. The first of these stages was the basic digitization of analogue information. The second stage took place two decades ago, according to Kurian, when humans started developing a longitudinal history of a particular type of data to do basic trending and analysis.

Now, in the third stage of the modern era of data collection we need to go wider in the scope of data, as well as long in terms of detecting trends, Kurian states, and to do this businesses need to understand all of the data in their organization so they can get the best results.

Kurian adds that we need to recognize that the industry is at the juncture of two profound opportunities. First of these is the enormous growth in datasets, as well as the rapidly developing sophistication of the tools to analyze these datasets and produce insights. 

Next up we get a brief message from Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and then to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the general availability of Azure NetApp Files we are introduced to Girish Bablani, president of Microsoft Azure, who joins Kurian on stage.

Bablani offers an example of one of Microsoft and NetApp's customers, Coca Cola Bottlers of Japan. 

Coca Cola Bottlers of Japan has one of the largest SAP DV2 workloads in thew world, Bablani explains, but with the help of Azure NetApp Files they were able to migrate this vast workload in five months without experiencing any operational downtime.

The firm was also able to achieve a 30% improvement in their TCO, a 49% improvement in their application performance, as well as a 90% improvement in their deployment time.

Bablani talks a little more about what he is excited about regarding AI in the coming years, he mentions Microsoft Copilot AI, no surprises there.

That's it from Bablani and now we are hearing from Kurian about the risks associated with AI. Kurian notes that of course any powerful tool like AI has inherent dangers to society. 

He explains that aggregating data to provide insight will naturally lead to concerns around bias. Kurian touches on the some of the mathematical techniques that underpin the foundations of AI, regression and clustering were devloepd by French polymath Francis Galton, who also happened to be the founder of eugenics, which is certainly an interesting observation.

Now we have a  video message from Mike Berry, chief financial officer at NetApp who is talking about how NetApp underwent their own digital transformation driven by leveraging their enterprise data.

Berry explains that NetApp was operating as three different silos in terms of data reporting, its storage business, the cloud arm, and its Keystone storage as a service business. 

"This greatly impacted our operational efficiencies in a few ways. Number one our unmanaged data stores meant people were getting different answeres to the same questions."

Second, Berry explains that individual analysis of the data meant it couldn't scale insights to the entire enterprise. Finally NetApps legacy platforms couldn't process the increasing size of its data fast enough to support AI workloads. 

"Today we have one data source that informs the entire business" he boasts.

One positive outcome from this transformation, Berry states, is that NetApp was able to reduce redundant data duplication by 65%.

"This really helps with having a single source of the truth across the entire enterprise and peraps most important, we are more agile and can innovate with new technologies like AI much more quickly." 

That's it from Berry and Kurian is back on stage to talk about some of the challenges around getting the most out of AI.

Kurian explains that first amoung these hurdles is, the AI challenge, and these data challenges associated with AI comprise how enterprises select and unify data to build their business applications. It also covers how businesses govern this data in a responsible and ethical way. 

Finally, businesses need to be able to ensure that their data is fresh and accurate, as the outputs AI models can generate are only as good as the data they are being fed.

Kurian adds that AI is a complicated and costly endeavor for any business, but today NetApp is reiterating its commitment to building an intelligent data infrastructure that builds a bridge between AI systems and data systems, and can manage that data the way it is supposed to be managed so that it can be leveraged for insights. 

Ultimately what this means is bringing AI to your data, Kurian emphasises, and not the other way around, and doing so with solutions that are intelligent, agile, attainable, and secure.

This brings Kurian to three transformative data innovations NetApp has its sights on at Insight 2024:

- helping businesses understand and manage data for AI

- bringing AI to their enterprise data

- delivering the power of AI efficiently and securely.

We are now welcomed by Krish Vitaldevara, SVP and GM of platform at NetApp. Who wants to talk about making this vision real. To underscore this goal, Vitaldevara is helpfully wearing a T-shirt with 'bring AI to your data' printed on it.

Vitaldevara reiterates that the mission is to help customers get full value from their enterprise data, and this includes innovations across their technology stack.

Vitaldevara breaks a businesses tech stack, as it relates to implementing AI down into its infrastructure layer, with AI infrastructure that scales economically.

It also includes transforming the data layer in enterprises around the world, providing an integrated data engine that can make their data AI ready.

These solutions should also be inherently hybrid, multi-cloud, and ecosystem integrated, Vitaldevara states, a claim Kurian made at last years Insight 2023 conference.

One way in which NetApp is helping transform the data layer for many businesses,  Vitaldevara, is by bringing structure to the unstructured data where the real insights can be found.

NetApp are building a unified global metadata namespace, Vitaldevara states, which will provide businesses with an easily synthesized, single unified global view of the data. This basically means overlaying structure over the top of unstructured data sets.

Vitaldevara dives into an example in BlueXP NetApp's hybrid multi-cloud control plane, which has been prepopulated with various untapped data sources, showing how this solution brings new functionality for users.  

After Vitaldevara finished up with his demo, he gives way to Kurian, who introduces our next guest Monica Jain, director of R&D data science at pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson.

Jain is here to talk about her experiences at J&J driving data transformation in order to leverage AI.

She explains that there were a number of challenges to optimizing the firm's data for AI workloads. First among these is data quality, which as Kurian noted earlier significantly impacts the quality of outputs which in her industry can have incredibly serious negative impacts on the lives of patients around the world.

As a result making sure the the data is clean is a primary challenge, Jain explains.

Next is breaking down silos and integrating many different data sources. In J&J's case can include diverse datasets from various siloed inputs including field trials, medical studies, and real world data.

As a result, Jain says data mobility is a key piece that NetApp's solutions were able to provide.

Jain is now discussing how vital a hybrid cloud architecture has been in providing the company with the flexibility, cost-efficiency, and performance her organization requires to implementing AI effectively.

Operating in the medical industry, Johnson & Johnson is responsible for highly sensitive data that is subject to stringent regulatory requirements, she notes, which they prefer to keep on premise.

"This approach allows us to maintain very tight control over security compliance and data governance, which is the key to ensuring that we meet all of our industry standards and protect patients' privacy"

On the other hand, she states they are moving less sensitive, high volume, and compute intensive workloads to the cloud, including data used in large scale AI model training and analytics and machine learning experiments where scalability, flexibility, and advanced computational power and the cloud provides significant advantages. 

Johnson & Johnson are utilizing NetApp to help sort and manage costs, allowing the firm to have divided workloads in different environments.

That's it from Jain, and almost immediately Kurian is welcoming Matt Wood, VP of AI products at AWS on stage.

Wood begins with what seems like the obligatory AI statement, "Generative AI is probably the single largest shift in how we're going to interact with data and with each other since the advent of the very earliest internet."

But we quickly move on to what Wood thinks are the most important AI use cases.

First, he says there are those organizations that want to 'get into the weeds' of building and optimizing their own models. For these firms Wood says AWS makes a broad set of accelerated chips available.

These include some from partners, like Nvidia, and some that AWS produce like their Trainium or Inferentia systems, which he says are designed to deliver the lowest cost per dollar and lowest cost per watt for ML training on AWS.

This is where Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP comes in, he says. "You really want to get the data onto those chips as quickly as possible to build these remarkable models and to be able to use them with your own data when you're running predictions against them."

Wood says AWS also offers the Amazon Bedrock service, which allows firms to pick from a range of pretrained models that they can start building inside their applications moving forward.

"We believe there is no one model to rule them all so we have a range of 32 foundation models. We make it super easy to evaluate them and the one that works well for your organization and for your use case."

Finally, Wood says that AWS also makes a set of applications available for those firms that don't want to 'futz' around with models and just want to be able to use the application with their knowledge workers or support teams, for instance.

Wood says these are the three main use cases that he sees from customers.

Kurian moves onto AWS and NetApp's joint solution, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP,  saying that they are seeing accelerating joint innovation, service growth, and records for the service each quarter. 

He asks Wood what it is that customers like about the solution. Wood says he thinks it comes down to security.

"When customers start their generative AI journey they have this schism in their mind, and I can understand where it comes from, that in order to be successful they have to make some negative tradeoffs as it pertains to the confidentiality and security of their data."

Wood says that this isn't the case with FSx ONTAP and customers get full visibility over what data gets used where, which he says is just a very different model to many other generative AI infrastructure solutions on the market.

Kurian's final question for Wood is whether his call to action for customers would be 'get your data ready', he agrees, getting your data in order means businesses can extract the latent value in much of the data they already have. 

He describes it as low-hanging fruit across all enterprise data, and to be able to quickly, safely inspect that information in new ways will open up myriad new opportunities for customers.

That's it from Wood and he thanks the crowd before exiting the stage. This brings the opening day's keynote to an end as Kurian summarises the key messages from today's session, stating the pillars to success in the data and intelligence era are your uniqe enterpris data and your data strategy.

He concludes that NetApp will bridge the chasm that exists between firms' AI systems and their enterprise data, bringing the AI to their data, wherever and however they store it.

That's it for today, but be sure to tune in at 9am PT tomorrow as we get ready for a flurry of new product announcements to NetApp's storage line, cloud services, and more!

Yesterday we heard from George Kurian about how the industry is currently sitting at an inflection point in what he described as the third phase of the modern data revolution. This new phase, Kurian explained, is one where businesses should be able to fully understand all of the data in their organization, and use it to generate new insights and drive productivity, all with the help of NetApp’s intelligent data infrastructure solutions.

Today we will get to see Harv Bhela, EVP and chief product officer at NetApp, and Sandeep Singh, SVP and GMof enterprise storage run through all the latest updates to NetApp’s storage ecosystem. Then Pravjit Tiwana, SVP and GM of cloud storage will join us to talk all things cloud, and update us on how NetApp’s strong commitment to hybrid and multi-cloud has fared over the course of the last year.

Haiyan Song, EVP of cloud operations, will also be presenting today, walking us through new announcements from the segment, which has undergone something of a rebrand to tie in more closely with NetApp's intelligent data infrastructure messaging.

Song will also be talking to some NetApp customers including a major animation studio in the US, I’m reliably informed, about their work together to overhaul their data infrastructure in order to leverage AI and facilitate more efficient operations across a distributed workforce.

It's another invariably sunny day here in Las Vegas, and attendees have begun trickling down through the labyrinthine complex towards the complex center.

Things are still pretty quiet this morning, as just a handful of attendees move around the corridors outside the headliner stage getting their coffee before minutes before the main event gets underway in about 40 minutes.

The crowd is certainly growing now with just 30 minutes before the start of the day-two keynote.

The doors are flung open and we have been let into the arena, a steady stream of delegates makes their way into the auditorium as DJ Graffiti plays some high energy club mixes.

Our lively host Mario Armstrong is now onstage welcoming everyon einto the arena, before giving way to a video reel announcing the winner of NetApp's social impact award: NMDP a nonprofit organization that used AI and advanced data analytics to help provide transplants of bone marrow for patients with blood diseases.

Now it's time to really get started, Mario is briefly reading a disclaimer before we get stuck in, the lights are dimmed and music blares from the PA. 

First up its Harv Bhela, EVP and chief product officer who says he's here to discuss what NetApp have been hearing from customers, and how the firm can help them solve their biggest data challenges.

He goes back over George Kurian's claim that we are in the era of data and intelligence. But to unlock the value in your data businesses need to overcome some problems, Bhera adds, including the exponential growth of data, numerous silos, and the fact that data is constantly under threat.

"Without overcoming these challenges you cannot unlock the value of your data. At NetApp our entire mission is to help you with that transformation."

Bhela lists four key innovation areas where NetApp is working. First is enterprise storage. Bhela says this is the meal and soul at the core of what we do NetApp, who offer most comprehensive storage portfolio in the industry he claims.

Bhela says the new C-series all flash storage option became the fastest growing storage product in the company's history. For cost effective solutions NetApp brought in the AFA series he notes.

The second area is cloud storage, where Bhela says NetApp are best in the market for workloads across myriad providers including SAP, VMWare, and more. He says customers wanted solutions for their data across various public cloud options, and NetApp answered in the last year bringing out first party storage service in Google Cloud.

Moving onto security, Bhela adds customers said ransomware has become a board-level priority for them. To meet these concerns NetApp have brought out a built in ransomware service into their ONTAP architecture. As well as a ransomware recovery service, adding no other storage company in the world has all of these protections built in.

He teases that later in the keynote NetAPP will outline new innovations that will take their detection capabilities to the next level.

Rocketing through, Bhela is now onto the fourth pillar: AI. NetApp have delivered direct integration with several AI workflow tools to remove productivity blockers reported from customers.

Another innovation Bhela wants to touch on is the helping businesses deploy AI responsibly, including features allowing them trace model versions back to the specific data set they used.

That was very quick, and Bhela has invited Sandeep Singh, SVP and GM of enterprise storage on stage to go deeper on what NetApp has been doing with their unified data storage portfolio.

Singh says NetApp have expanded their portfolio to include capacity flash with the introduction of C-series, which as Bhela noted has become the fastest growing product in their history.

NetApp doubled down with AFF A-series, Singh adds, as well as the ASA system to accelerate VMware and database workloads, noting the momentum around this product has been "truly amazing".

Today he says NetApp is upping the innovation ante once again. We are on SAN workloads where customers have had to choose between simplicity and performance, forced to comprise which he says has held back modernization efforts.

No more he says, it's time to introduce the ASA A Series, the lights are dimmed and atmospheric music plays as a number of ASA A Series racks are rolled onto the stage.

The ASA A series gives customers three key advantages Singh says, simplicity, power, and affordability. They are in simple to deploy and scale, as well as manage, with built in AIOps, and deep integrations with VMware. The new systems comprise the ASA A70, A90, and A1K block storage arrays which it promises will giver performance boosts of 109%, 88%, and 50% respectively.

The ASA A series offers unmatched affordability too he says. NetApp claims the new solution will offer 25 - 50% lower upfront price and better ROI over time. The arrays’ low power consumption and low operational overhead cuts their TCO over time too.

NetApp says ASA can help customers who love their ONTAP experience bring that experience to their block storage workloads, bringing simplicty at scale.

To put their simplicity to the test, Singh says he gave the solutions to one of their marketing interns and rolls some video reel where Kathy shows how easy it is to set up ASA in 60 seconds (she actually does it in 20) using in the system manager dashboard.

With primary storage out of the way, Singh is now covering NetApp's moves in secondary storage. Today he announces the introduction of the FAS 70 and 90 storage systems, which he says are economical, simple, and secure.

NetApp says these systems are ideal for achieving a low cost of data over its lifecycling by auto-tiering cold data.

Typically 60% or more of the data in secondary storage is cold data and NetApp can automatically and granularly tier that data to  lower cost storage thus optimizing the cost of the data itself.

"Powered by ONTAP the new FAS systems are ideal for data tiering, cyber vault, and ransomware recovery."

Singh say no hybrid storage offering would be complete without a storage as a service offering, which brings him to Keystone, formally known as insights to data infrastructure insights.

Singh says keystone continues to gather momentum, offering 0% attrition but says he will be talking more about that later in the keynote.

Here's a picture of a handy summary of NetApp's storage portfolio.

Now we have Pravjit Tiwan, SVP and GM cloud storage on stage to talk about all things cloud storage. 

He says they have seen 20% growth in cloud storage customers, with a 114% increase in overall data stored in NetApp storage in the cloud, growing above 1 exabyte in terms of capacity.

Block storage has seen strong growth in particular Tiwan adds, with a 140% spike in growth, with 3 out of 5 cloud storage custoemrs being new to NetApp altogether.

NetApps delivery engine enables the firm to boast one of the best massively caled enterprise storage service in the cloud. Offering some examples Tiwana refers back to Coke Japan which he says weer able to reduce their cost by 30% using NetApps cloud storage solutions.

Another Japanese customer, Fujifilm were able to achieve 55% savings in their cost when moving from on prem DAS to Azure NetApp files for their services in the cloud.

AI gets a mention, of course. Tiwana adds that NetApp's generative AI toolkit gives businesses the chance to learn how to create RAG-based applications in minutes using the LLM model of their choice against a proprietary dataset.

Tiwana says the most exciting part of their AI story is that the company is deeply integrating their one piece storage service with each of the hypercsler's AI stack. 

Tiwana says the most exciting part of their AI story is that the company is deeply integrating their one piece storage service with each of the hyperscsaler's AI stack.  AI agent builder to build applications in no code or low code environments."s

Cost is a major concern for businesses using the public cloud. ONTAP is known for cost optimizations, compression, authentic provisioning, Tiwana states, with all of these capabilites available in their cloud services.

NetApp will continue to reduce the minimum threshould for NFS and SMB volumes and the minimum capacity pool he states.

"Cost should never be the reason for not using our first party cloud services", Tiwana declares.

Now Tiwana gives way to Bhela alongside Sameet Agarwal, VP of engineering for storage at Google Cloud, who will be talking about the launch of their coengineered Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (GCNV) solution.

We have launched a very large number of capailites in the last 12 months, Agarwal says, rapidly enabling many workload businesses might need, from VMware to Kubernetes.

He says that in a matter of months over this summer Wayfair online furniture sales platform which was able to complete a full migration of their SQL backup 4 times faster using Google Cloud NetApp volumes in their migration journey.

The partnership has truly gone to the next level in the last few years Agarwal says. Although they really wan tot help customers transition to the cloud to transform their business, we can't forget about onprem workloads, bring them on to Google distributed cloud (GDC)

These are services that you can run in an air gap and manage standalone, as well as run in data centers and edge locations. We could not have been successful with GDC without NetApp and he thanks Bhela and co for their help on this.

Looking forward Agarwal says he is really excited about bringing Google's analytics smarts combined with enterprise data storage to enable new functionalities.

Google Cloud have been working closely with NetApp on how to bring them Vertex AI agents grounded on their enterprise data. 

Agarwal says he can announced that this year they will be able to make NetApp Volumes the first class data store in Vertex AI.

So if you have any data in NetApp anywhere, on prem or Google Cloud, all of that data is available for the customer to use with all the AI toolkits and platforms that Google has. Pretty impressive.

Bhela says goodbye to Agarwal, stating they have covered two of the inteligent data infrastructure pillars but now it's time to talk about the services that bring the data held in these storage solutions to life.

Here comes Haiyan Song, EVP of cloud operations. Song asks how do you operationalize the data infrastructure to get the best value out of it, and this is where intelligent data services come in. 

Intelligent data services covers data service and infrastructure and workload services, Song explains. 

CloudOps is no longer a standalone portfolio Song says, and is now part of NetApp's intelligent services family.

As they scale, businesses will be able to use the services comprised under this umbrella to bring automation and continuous optimization of the infrastructure for their mission-critical workloads.

As an example, Song discusses open source an area piquing the interest of an increasing number of businesses. NetApp now supports two new open source solutions, ClickHouse and and Valkey.

Focus on data centric open source and helping businesses that don’t have expertise in the area. Providing services all the way to fully host and manage open source systems that underpin mission-critical functions.

NetApp offers a unique proposition compared to the hyperscalers, providing what Song describes as true enterprise-level support, meaning response and SLAs come in minutes, particularly important for mission critical solutions. Another factor is that most businesses aren’t just using one open source solution, they have a combination and don’t have time to go to five different companies. NetApp simplifies this by giving businesses just one place they need to go for support.

Song also announces they are rebranding their Cloud Insight arm to Data Infrastructure Insight, which can provide realtime polity for SAN solutions, NetApp Advisor for ASA, which is about real-time topology for SAN systems. 

This is a simple but powerful service, Song adds, stating that NetApp are for the first time  releasing a new data infrastructure insight feature in tandem with new blaock storage products.

Now back to Keystone as Singh promised. Song announces that NetApp is now offering data infrastructure insight as a subscription offering within Keystone.

She summarizes that intelligent services play a key role in building and operating an intelligent data infrastructure.

Now the crowd welcomes Gagan Gulanti, VP and GM of data services at NetApp who wants to talk about security in regards to storage.

He notes this year NetApp were one of the inaugural firms signing the US government's secure by design pledge, which receives a big cheer. 

Today NetApp are bringing out integrated ransomware response and recovery features in their ONTAP architecture, as well as BlueXP, this is NetApp ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI).

This makes them the first storage vendor to bring real-time ransomware protection Gulanti notes.

This is now generally available and leverages AI to gives businesses what it claims to be 99% accuracy for detecting ransomware threats. Customers can use ARP/AI to monitor abnormal workload activity and automatically snapshot data at the exact moment an attack occurs, so they can respond to and recover faster from attacks.

Gulanti adds that NetApp will be providing automaitc updates to these ARP/AI models in ONTAP without customers having to upgrade ONTAP itself.

Gulanti is now walking through exactly how this works, where NetApp gets daily feeds of the latest ransomware attacks being launched by threat actors around the world.

NetApp's researchers add these new attacks to their model streams to the existing mix of training data, and retrain their detection models. Once they are effective in protecting against the latest attack techniques, NetApp pushes these to customer ONTAP systems, "and that my friends is magic" Gulanti shouts.

BlueXP also now integrates with Splunk SIEM to simplify and accelerate threat response by keeping security stakeholders across an organization continually in the loop, Gulanti adds. 

He is now going through a demo of how a SOC operator can move through the recovery process in BlueXP after getting an alert in their Splunk SEIM. 

The system automatically recommends the best snapshot to restore from, and this could be a mixture of snapshots from different points in time, depending on how data was exfiltrated from the environment.

Customers can choose to restore the affected app, in this case, to a new location while the security team continues to investigate the attack in a different location. This should help businesses minimize downtime after they experience a ransomware attack, and helps prevent security teams rushing through the remediation process which could risk missing malicious elements on the network.

Gulanti says instead of just telling us why this important, he wants to show us, and cues a DreamWorks video reel.

Haiayn Song is back on stage with Bill Ballew, CTO at DreamWorks to talk about how NetApp has used intelligent data infrastructure and workloads services to help their applications run with better perforamnce. 

The video reel appears to have been for a new film called the Wild Robot, and we are treated to a trailer.

After that's done we are back with Song and Ballew, who are talking about how CG animation is ultimately a data businesses, with many multifarious streams feeding into one system from a wide range of distributed sources.

Ballew says DreamWorks used NetApps solutions for data storage which has been the foundation of their production workflow, and on top of that foundation DreamWorks leveraged NetApp's intelligent data services to achieve new functionality in terms of data visibility, management, and optimization.

Data infrastructure insights allow DreamWorks to analyze their infrastructure in real time, generating alerts allowing them to get ahead of any issues before they become bigger problems.

He says the for just one CG animated film, they create more than half a billion digital files. so they rely on cutting edge technology to ensure their outputs are of the highest quality.

That's it from Ballew, who leaves to quite a large applause and Song passes the mic back to Harv Bhela. He says that yesterday Krish Vitaldevara, SVP and GM of platform shared the start of NetApp's AI journey and he wants to continue on this path.

He wants to talk specifically about generative AI for enterprises, which he says NetApp is uniquely positioned to help businesses harness to their benefit. One example he offers is the fact generative AI relies on unstructured data, and a very (he repeats this quite a few times) large amount of unstructured data is already in NetApp storage solutions.

Next up, he says AI is inherently hybrid, training usually in the cloud the data is usually on premises, and Bhela emphasizes NetApp's unique position to offer a seamless hybrid. 

But to speak more on brining AI to the enterpise data he welcomes back Vitaldevaram this time sporting another T-shirt with the 'make data AI ready' slogan.

Vitaldevaram says the AFA-90 systems will give industry leading 1 TB per second throughput, noting ONTAP achieves this perfomance while leveraging open protocols like S3 and pNFS over standard ethernet.

Vitaldevaram announces the Nvidia certification process of NetApp ONTAP storage on the AFF A90 platform with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD AI infrastructure to loud applause.

He then unveils that NetApp is building a disaggregated storage architecture to a similar pop from the crowd, which is built all ONTAP with all the data management features including snap mirror, flex cache and more.

He says he is confident that this really transformational change to firms' data infrastructure ready for AI and wants to hear from customers next year how this technology has transformed their AI data journey in their data centers.

Vitaldevara harks back to the global metadata namespace he discussed onstage yesterday which brings new structure to unstructured data, stating no one else can bring AI to your data like NetApp.

Business AI workflows have a  number of different operations that change the data, including embeddings, vectorizations, data classifiers. Vitaldevara says the ONTAP-isms like snapdiff can make this AI engine automatically capture changes to their data to provide firms a unified, structured view of their unstructured data.

Vitaldevara is now demonstrating how NetApp can deploy data collection directly into NetApp AI data , creatingng an optimized vecotr embedding that businesses can use for their generative AI application of choice. 

He shows how this can work with Nvidia Nemo integration, their LLM playground, the tool can immediately connect NetApp's data collection using RAG, and when asked a question it will use the the data provided, in this case a doctor's notes, to come up with a summary.

"And this summary is constantly updated with newly created content, so when you add data the content refreshes"

Vitaldevara asks a different question, which the model cannot answer due to governance policies prohibiting it from giving out PII, noting that NetApp brings the customer's policy and governance rules through the whole process ensuring the model never gets to train on sensitive information you don't want it to.

Vitaldevara is now summing up the last five minutes claiming NetApp have introduced the best infrastructure for AI, he runs through the disaggregated architecture with all the data management features customers already enjoy with NetApp insight.

"We also announced a robust data engine, with a global metadata namespace and it's going to be integrated with vector databases, and thi swill help you do inferencing in a box'.

"Hopefully this wets your appetite with just a taste of all the amazing AI innovation we have planned for this year." 

Vitaldevara says he hopes the audience visit the AI team's booth at the expo hall to hear more about what NetApp is doing to bring AI to enterprise data wherever it may be before handing back to Bhela.

Things are wrapping up here on day-two at NetApp Insight 2024, Bhela is rolling through everything we've heard today, from the updates to NetApp's block storage line, its security features, and the strides its making in AI.

He stresses that NetApp has achieved this using one common architecture, meaning no silos that require extra resources to circumnavigate, or costly reengineering to break down, "you get way higher ROI from investments in us."

"Thank you for trusting us with your data" Bhela says before handing back to Mario Armstrong to bring the ceremonies to an end.

That's it for today, make sure to tune in tomorrow for ITPro's rolling coverage of all the exciting developments on the final day at NetApp Insight!

Yesterday we were treated to a raft of product announcements, including new additions to NetApp’s block storage portfolio, as well as updates on the latest AI-focused features the company is rolling out in its newly dubbed intelligent services arm.

Today we will be hearing from César Cernuda, president of NetApp who leads the company’s go-to-market strategy and execution, as well as Jenny Flinders, SVP of NetApp’s worldwide partner organization.

We have been informed Hoseb Dermanilian, senior director and global head of AI go-to-market and sales at NetApp, as well as Jonsi Stefansson, SVP and CTO, will also be presenting today.

There will be a number of NetApp’s partners and customers also taking the stage, including Nvidia’s VP of global AI solutions, Matt Hull to talk about their work together. We will also be hearing customer stories from medical organizations such as the European Institute of Oncology and the US-based Monument Health. 

The agenda is packed so be sure to follow along to stay up to date on what NetApp has been up to in the last 12 months, and what’s to come in the years ahead!

The closing keynote is set to take place at 10am PT. While we wait for things to get started, why not check out some of our coverage from the last few days action.

●  NetApp could corner AI infrastructure at Insight 2024 – but customer hype will ride on its messaging

●  NetApp eyes AI capabilities to tackle growing ransomware threats

The conference center is fairly quiet at the moment, with just a sprinkling of delegates getting their breakfast and coffee before the final day get's started. 

Perhaps the slow start has something to do with NetApp's Insight Encore party taking place last night... 

In the main lobby area, the Google Cloud DJ is still hard at work, a valiant effort from him over the last three days. 

Opposite the DJ booth a graffiti artist has been working on a NetApp mural over the course of the conference, here's a shot of him yesterday.

And here's an update on his progress, We think we saw some other artists working on this yesterday so perhaps it's a joint effort. The masking tape suggests it is not quite finished, so we will have to keep you updated with a photo of the finished article.

Things are starting to pick up and the crowds are growing in the waiting area outside the headliner stage, ready for proceedings to get underway.

Eventually we are let into the keynote arena, and as if he know some attendees are a little worse for wear after last nights party, DJ Graffiti has forgone the high intensity club mixes for Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. 

Well that was short-lived, he's quickly transitioned back into the heavy stuff and some Beastie Boys.

There are still quite a few empty seats here in the auditorium with just 10 minutes to go before César Cernuda takes the stage, as the audience continues to stream in.

We're almost there, just five minutes to go before we get started, our host Mario Armstrong is interviewing some of the delegates, asking how they've found this year's NetApp Insight conference, all glowing reviews so far.

The keynote arena is almost full, with an impressive final day turn out, as Mario turns things over to the usual high-gloss show reel to get things started.

Mario is on stage now welcoming all the attendees and he's clapping it up trying to get some energy going in the room. The crowd participation is going... okay. But now he welcomes NetApp president, César Cernuda to the stage.

Cernuda is running through some of his highlights from the event, with a little collage of photos from his time at the conference. He emphasises that he wants to thank the attendees for their presence, their trust, and the most important asset they have: their data.

This is a responsibility that Cernuda says they don't take lightly.

Cernuda sets off on a recap of some of what he've seen this year at NetApp Insight 2024, starting with CEO George Kurian's opening address, setting out his strategic vision for NetApp as an intelligent data infrastructure firm in this third stage of the modern data modernization.

Cernuda says he hopes the audience can see that NetApp is consistently innovating to stay ahead of the ongoing AI boom. He touches on some of the product launches from yesterday's presentation, the new ASA A-Series storage solution gets a nice cheer from the crowd.

He moves onto Krish Vitaldevara, SVP and GM of platform's presentation on disaggregated storage which he says is the future of infrastructure that will inderpin high performance AI workloads in years to come.

Cernuda wants to come back to the overall picture of NetApp as an intelligent infrastructure firm, showing a infographic that illustrates how all these pieces come together to realize this vision.

After running through a brief summary of what we'll be seeing today, Cernuda is talking about how NetApp thinks about AI-enabled customer success.

This includes providing proactive support, listening to customers to provide easier, simpler, and a streamlined experience, he says. Another part of this equation is NetApp's Active IQ, it's digital support service.

AI Ops in NetApp's BlueXP control plane for its ONTAP data architecture is another feature that brings predictive health monitoring to lower TCO.

Cernuda says NetApp's Keystone storage as a services offering is also vital to maximizing customer value and increasing agility.

That's it from Cernuda and he introduces Hoseb Dermanilian senior director and global head of AI go-to-market and sales at NetApp.

Dermanilian says the AI journey he wants to talk about today has been six years in the making, and he is proud to have been part of this journey from the very start.

Dermanilian says that intelligent data infrastructure is more about just  storing data at super fast speeds, its about having the capability to understand your enterprise data “intelligent'.

He is runnning through some examples of what this actually means in reality. First ensuring data access is seamless, providing businesses with a single copy of their data, with data scientist having their own version that they can work on. 

He says that at one retail customer was able to turn down costs by reducing energy, cooling power, and wasted capacity. This saved thousands of dollars, Dermanilian says.

To make things a little more real, Dermanilian introduces Matt Hull, VP of global AI solutions at Nvidia, here to tell his point of view on what's happening in the AI market today.

He says the past two years have been very exciting. But he says right now we are at a sea change where experimentation evolves into actual workloads at enterprises. "The next two years of artificial intelligence will look very different to the last two".

Moving experimentation into the enterprise means businesses have very wide ranging use cases that they need to apply AI to, and that's where Nvidia and NetApp's partnership is so important to bring the things enterprises need to do to AI.

Speaking about NetApp's SuperPod certification, Nvidia is able to bring the entire AI factory at the SuperPod scale down to BasePod level solutions to their enterprise partners.

Dermanilian notes that Jensen Huang CEO at Nvidia singled out NetApp at their GTC conference earlier this year, and Hull explains that this was because NetApp has been a leader in the data infrastructure for AI since day one.

Data movement and data strategy are going to be extremely important Hull says, and NetApp will be a critical partner on this journey, he says.

That's it from Hull and Dermanilian, and we are now joined by Jonsi Stefansson SVP and CTO at NetApp who wastes no time getting straight to it. He says NetApp fundamentally believe that AI is going to stay hybrid forever, a mix of on prem and cloud to get the best of both worlds. 

He dives into a demo showing data ingestion and training using Domino Data Labs, who NetApp have deep integrations with, as well as other ecosystem solutions like Kafka. 

He says "whatever cloud you want to work with NetApp has your back."

But now with a model its time to put it into production. Stefansson says maybe you're pinning this model back  from the clouds to on prem, businesses can choose  from designs with RedHat, OpenShift AI, Kubeflow, and more to make their AI projects ready and available. 

For those who need help, NetApp will also offer Instacluster as a managed service for key pipeline components such as Kafka and PTvector.

"Make no mistake with intelligent data infrastructure, you get rid of data silos, accelerating business values, simplifying your data environment and most of all, de risking the implementation of AI."

That's it from Stefansson, and Dermanilian is back running through all of the features, capabilities, and integrations that customers have asked for and NetApp has delivered: disaggregated architectures, Nvidia SuperPod certification for ONTAP, metadata engines, and more, and all of this is delivered with a single unified architecture with no silos.

This gets quite a big cheer from the crowd.

Dermanilian welcomes NetApp president Cernuda back on the stage who cues a video introducing our next guest Annarosa Farina, CIO at IEO, the European Institute of Oncology.

Farina says she's been working in healthcare for more than 20 years, always focussed on process optimization through technology, system integration, always at war with application silos, and above all on data integration.

She says she is currently the game changer at the IEO driving it into a data-driven company. She runs through the most important changes she is seeing in healthcare technology.

First up is AI-assisted diagnostics, she says healthcare is very much process driven, where standardization is key to safety which is a vital principle for any healthcare institution. Ai allows healthcare instirutions to create models which can provide practitioners with outcomes that are evidence based.

Farina is now discussing her organizations work with Google, using Vertex AI to  and train proprietary models, which was finalized in just 46 days and allowed the organization to transform 76,000 unstructured reports into structured data sets, allowing for 300 times faster than the previous manual process.

"This means were able to collect this data at the point of care, which is faster, and also accurate actionable data collection."

On some of the challenges she is facing, Farina says the language barrier continues to be a problem, which means that some of the models they are developing are not at the point they wish or need them to be at. As a result she says her organization tends to train smaller models so they can govern the quality of the outputs better.

Cernuda thanks Farina for sharing her thoughts and both take their leave to some impressive record scratches from DJ Graffiti.

Mario Armstrong is back on stage who is letting us know that this is where he leaves us, and is making an early exit. But before he goes he wants to shout out the entire production team, getting the crowd to show their love, with a special shoutout for the NetApp events team.

Mario gives way to Jenni Flinders, SVP of NetApp's worldwide partner organization, who will be giving a special shoutout to some of the NetApp partner network.

Jenni Flinders wants to give a quick tour of from three areas in the world where there partners are doing 'great things'.

These include XPANSE Party limited in Australia, CDW in the US, and the Saudi Telecom Company.

"Each one of these stories are just a subset of a larger picture of hundreds and hundreds of similar cases with customers around the world", and now Flinders will be announcing the winner of NetApp’s Partner Innovation Award.

This year's winners are IT service management firm CDW and their customer Monument Health.

Flinders welcomes Clint Oyler, senior systems engineer at Monument Health, and Travis Rubida, principal consultant at CDW.

Their story comprises helping Monument with their migration of their EMR system to  EPIC, one of the most widely used electronic medical record applications in the world.

After a quick picture for the winners CDW and Monument Health, César Cernuda is back on stage to take us home. 

Cernuda rolls back through some of the names we've seen on stage over the last three days, Johnson & Johnson, the Institute of European Oncology, Monument Health.

"Those stories are that really impact our lives in a material way, and that's what all of us do everday when we come to work."

Cernuda wraps up some of the key takeaways he wants the audience to leave Insight 2024 with. 

First is that the best AI data intelligence will win the next era of business. Second, that to handle these AI workloads they need the right data infrastructure – one defined by intelligence.

Finally, NetApp and their partners can offer businesses the most comprehensive, unified AI ecosystem.

Cernuda flashes the dates for the next Insight 2025 conference, and begins thanking all of the stakeholders that have made the conference what it is.

Cernuda says goodbye, DJ Graffiti gets the music going once again and the audience is steadily making their way out of the auditorium. 

And that is it for for keynote presentations at NetApp Insight 2024, here's a quick wrap up of the key takeaways and announcements from last three days:

●  Unveiling of the ASA A-Series, NetApp's all-flash block storage SAN array, including the ASA A70, A90, and A1K

●  Two new secondary storage products, the FAS 70 and FAS 90, offering features like auto-data tiering, and and air-gapped cyber fault functionality

● Nvidia SuperPod certification for ONTAP

● New AI-powered ransomware detection feature in ONTAP, NetApp ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI)

● A disaggregated storage architecture for future NetApp products and releases, including a global metadata namespace to bring structure to unstructured datasets and enabled improved RAG AI systems

We hope you've enjoyed ITPro's live coverage of all the presentations this year at NetApp Insight 2024 in Las Vegas, and be sure to read our ongoing coverage of the conference that will take a deeper dive into what we've seen over the last few days

Pure Storage has unveiled a new virtual machine (VM) assessment tool aimed at easing cost management for enterprise users in the wake of Broadcom’s VMware acquisition.

The offering – generally available in FY2025 Q4 – will help IT decision makers (ITDMs) monitor performance, plan scenarios, and rightsize recommendations through the Pure1 platform.

Optimizing VMs will be simplified with the tool, Pure Storage revealed, proving an especially attractive concept in a world where many VMware VMs have become difficult to manage under the firm’s new ownership.

Speaking during a press conference at Pure//Accelerate London 2024, Prakash Darji, GM of Pure’s Digital Experience Business Unit, said the announcement was focused on helping customers optimize their VMware license spend in the wake of the Broadcom acquisition.

“With Broadcom VMware licensing, they did what Oracle did many years ago, where they changed their metric to not what cores you are using, [but] what cores you could be using,” Darji said.

Darji’s thinking is that customers “were not prepared” for this change, thus providing the impetus for Pure Storage’s development of the new tool.

With the platform, the storage provider aims to give users “recommendations on how to optimize the core licenses within VMware,” and help them “decide what to consolidate to save on core density on the VMs.”

"We could even allow them to model how much it's costing them on their VMware licensing for putting their vCenters on a disk system versus a flash system,” Darji added, vCenter being the server management software delivered by VMware.

A turbulent time for VMware customers 

Following Broadcom’s mammoth $69 billion acquisition of VMware in 2023, customers have been left in a state of disarray over how the VMware business model is changing.

Research from Civo earlier this month revealed that over half (51.9%) of VMware customers are considering abandoning the firm’s services after Broadcom’s leadership dropped numerous licenses and products.

The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade group has hit out at Broadcom for the changes, accusing the firm of “holding the sector to ransom” by abusing its market share to charge higher prices.

Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan has largely shrugged off the backlash, however, describing the changes as part of a simplification process focused on driving innovation and meeting customer needs more effectively.

In June, VMware unveiled its first Cloud Foundation overhaul since the acquisition with the aim of complexity reduction, improved deployment, and improved cyber resilience.

As data storage has evolved, tech companies have found more and more ways to deliver compute capabilities at scale and without businesses needing physical locations.

This is made possible by the cloud and specifically by cloud servers. In simple terms, this a physical server made virtual. The physical server is virtualized and divided into multiple virtual servers. Customers can then use these without a need for physical access.

Physical servers are often virtualized using a hypervisor, a piece of software used to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on one physical machine – in other words, it creates cloud servers out of a physical server.

Cloud servers are fundamental to the delivery of cloud computing as a whole, forming the bedrock of the cloud storage model. Cloud providers can essentially lease out the land of their physical servers to cloud customers in the form of virtualized cloud servers.

This creates near-endless possibilities in terms of scale and is one of the key driving factors behind the cloud computing explosion in the mid-2000s – all manner of businesses can utilize cloud servers as and when they need them to grow and trim their storage requirements.

Cloud server vs traditional server

Once you've got a sense of how cloud servers are constructed, it's pretty clear that they rely on traditional servers. Traditional – or physical – servers are what cloud servers are made out of.

Cloud servers are formed out of traditional servers through virtualization, so the process of using and interacting with a cloud server is logically quite different from how one might interact with a traditional server.

When dealing with a traditional server, a user must purchase the physical object before undergoing the setup process, gearing the server to store the correct forms of content or host the correct networks.

By contrast, dealing with a cloud server is a process of navigating a cloud provider's website and selecting how much storage is needed or how much compute power is required.

No physical interaction is needed to operate a cloud server, as the physical object is managed and maintained elsewhere. That is unless you seek to establish your own cloud server for other users. In this case, a business or enterprise would need to purchase a physical server before virtualizing it and establishing distinct VMs within the traditional server environment.

The benefits of a cloud server

There are several benefits to using a cloud server, but the bulk of them can be defined under one neat banner: ease of use.

Also known as the hyperscalers, the big-name cloud providers - AWS, Microsoft, and Google - have all established hugely successful global markets through their development and delivery of cloud servers to end users.

These firm's huge data center portfolios allow them to virtualize and rent out vast portfolios of compute real estate to thousands of businesses across the planet. The reason these markets are so big is that businesses are more than willing to pay for cloud server storage if it means they don't have to maintain their own physical servers.

To use a cloud server, all an enterprise customer needs to do is pick a provider, select their requirements, and start paying a cloud bill, either monthly or annually. The ease of use of a cloud server therefore makes it an attractive option for many businesses.

Part of this ease of use is the flexibility and scalability offered by a cloud server. For an end user, there is no limiting factor of physical space and they can keep purchasing more VMs, compute power, and storage space. This is particularly helpful for newer businesses growing at unpredictable rates.

However, this scalability and flexibility depend on cloud providers having physical servers en masse which they can keep selling space for. With the sudden rush of AI services, there are conversations about the extent to which physical servers can be built quickly enough to provide for growing cloud server demand.

Types of cloud server

The most prevalent type of cloud server is a public one. This is the kind of cloud server delivered to users via the typical 'big three' cloud providers and is used by consumers and businesses alike. It runs on the physical servers of the respective cloud provider and is part of a public ecosystem of cloud servers, a reality that can present problems for some enterprises depending on the sort of data being processed.

If data is particularly sensitive, there may be internal concerns at an enterprise that the data would be vulnerable in the public cloud. Where its security can be less closely handled by the company itself.

Similarly, data processing laws often differ between geographical regions, meaning storing data in the public cloud can lead to violations of rules when the company can't keep as close an eye on it. There has been much discussion about how cloud providers can establish sovereign cloud regions in recent months to curb this issue.

In this case, businesses may opt to use private cloud servers. Private cloud servers function in the same way as public cloud servers but the VMs are delivered to the company either directly via an in-house data center or from a separate cloud provider using a private network.

There are also hybrid cloud servers, which are a combination of both public and private cloud servers. These allow for data to be moved between the different environments.

How to choose a cloud server

Taking on board the points from the previous section, the choice of a cloud server will depend largely on whether or not your business needs a public cloud, private cloud, or a combination of both.

Smaller businesses and startups may find it relatively straightforward to use the public cloud as they can navigate scaling with ease. Larger companies or those dealing with more sensitive data will probably consider combining their public cloud use with private cloud deployments.

Within public cloud servers specifically, there are also choices to be made. While Microsoft, AWS, and Google rule the roost on public cloud computing provision, there are other options available.

Companies should take note of what public cloud providers charge and should be wary of software licensing or vendor lock-in issues.

Cloud storage provider Wasabi Technologies has struck up a new partnership with technology infrastructure provider Retelit to expand cloud storages services in Italy. 

As part of the strategic partnership agreement, Retelit will sell Wasabi’s hot cloud storage as part of its core offering, while Wasabi will open the first Italian storage region in Milan.

Scheduled to be operational in Q3 2024, the new region will be deployed in the newest hyper connected data center within Retelit’s Avalon Campus, Avalon 3, and will become Wasabi’s fifth in Europe and 14th globally.

In an announcement, Wasabi said its hot cloud storage offering will provide Italian businesses with cloud storage at a cost of up to 80% less than competitors with no fees for egress.

"Wasabi is on a mission to store the world’s data,” commented Mark Vella, vice president of business development, Wasabi Technologies. “As our business surged in Europe over the last few years, Italy emerged as the next logical expansion location based on demand.

“By leveraging Retelit’s Avalon 3 data center in Milan, together with Retelit’s robust infrastructure, local expertise, and broad range of Italian enterprise customers, we can deliver unparalleled speed, reliability, and cost-efficiency in data storage to significantly advance Italy’s digital transformation.”

Headquartered in Milan, Retelit has established itself as a prominent Italian telecommunications company that focuses solely on the B2B market, offering a comprehensive suite of services that includes advanced network solutions, high-speed-connectivity, as well as cybersecurity.

The company’s cloud platforms are based within Italy and are certified by the Italian Cybersecurity Agency, ACN.

“Retelit has a long-standing reputation for delivering cutting-edge technology solutions to businesses across Italy,” said Mimmo Zappi, Retelit’s CCO.

"That’s why we are really proud that Wasabi chose our Avalon 3 data center in Milan to host its first-ever Italian storage region.”

Retelit eyes market gains with Wasabi Technologies deal

By integrating Wasabi hot cloud storage into its portfolio, Retelit said it is enhancing its ability to provide customers with scalable and cost-effective cloud solutions.

“Our partnership with Wasabi strengthens our position as a leader in the technology infrastructure sector and enables us to provide our customers with a superior storage solution that is both cost-effective and high-performing,” Zappi added.

“By enhancing our portfolio with Wasabi hot cloud storage, we are equipping businesses in Italy with a game-changing solution that delivers unmatched performance, scalability, and affordability for their organizations.”

Cloud-based content management specialist Box has unveiled fresh enhancements to its Box AI offering, including unlimited user queries for enterprise users and upcoming integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o.

Enterprise Plus customers can now take advantage of unlimited end user queries in Box AI for Hubs, Documents, and Notes, while GPT-4o integration, support for image and spreadsheet files, and the Box AI for Metadata API are expected to be available later this year.

Launched in 2023, the Box AI capabilities suite integrates advanced AI models to Box’s Content Cloud – a platform leveraged by more than 115,000 enterprises to secure, store, and collaborate on critical business content.

Built on the firm’s platform-neutral framework, the offering connects with popular large language models (LLMs) including Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.

As demand for Box AI has increased since its launch, Box said is now removing its query caps so enterprise users have unlimited access to enterprise-grade AI capabilities. Previously, the plan offered users 20 queries per month, with 2,000 additional queries available on a company level.

“The improvements we’ve made to the Box AI platform – combined with the decreasing cost of AI over the past few months – have driven tremendous efficiencies and, as a result, we are removing our query limits in Box AI,” explained Ben Kus, chief technology officer at Box.

“The combination of AI and unstructured data represents the biggest untapped opportunity in enterprise IT, and we want Box customers to be on the leading edge of innovation with Box AI as a core part of the Box platform.”

All the new Box integrations and features

In addition to unlimited user queries, Box is also introducing support for OpenAI’s new GPT-4o later this year. 

The firm said the model offers advanced capabilities that will help Box Hubs improved answers and support for more than 20 additional languages.

Box Hubs users will be able to leverage enhanced text-related functionality that includes multimodal understanding, ethical and sensitive content handling, as well as task-specific adaptation.

File type support

With support for natural language queries on image file formats, customers will also soon be able to ask specific questions about images stored across the Box platform, with additional support to include querying on spreadsheets.

It means users will be able to run precise data analysis in spreadsheets – a function Box said will simplify interactions with large structured datasets and drive insight generation.

Metadata API

Additionally, Box is introducing the Box AI for Metadata API which will enable developers to integrate Box AI with custom applications to automatically extract key information and data from documents at scale. 

Currently in beta for customers on Enterprise Plus plans, users can pair the API with Box’s workflow automation tools to automate processes based on file metadata, extract key fields from unstructured content, as well as save information to external applications such as Salesforce.

Pricing for the Box AI for Metadata API will be revealed closer to general availability, Box said, along with pricing for other platform API calls and end user metadata queries within the core Box application.

Commenting on the additions, Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, said Box AI’s expanded functionality will help enterprise customers drive further efficiencies across their businesses.

“Since Box AI became generally available earlier this year, we’ve seen significant interest from customers to upgrade to Enterprise Plus plans so they can benefit from the power of AI with their content,” he said.

“Today’s announcements will make it even easier for customers to roll out Box AI across their enterprise while also delivering new innovation so they will be able to get additional value from Box AI.”

Welcome back to ITPro’s live coverage of day-two Pure Accelerate 2024. There’s a busy final day in store here at Resorts World Las Vegas, kicking off with a slightly shorter opening keynote at 9am PT. 

Yesterday, we heard all bout the exciting new announcements from Pure Storage, including its new AI copilot, its cyber security and cyber resiliency offerings, and updates to its platform. 

Expect more updates along the same lines today in both the opening keynote and the closing keynote at 4pm PT with a special guest speaker.

We're up bright and early here at Resorts World, partly due to a touch of jet lag. But there's not long to go now until the opening keynote here at Pure Accelerate 2024. 

Across the week, we can expect to hear a lot about cloud storage and how this relates to the ongoing generative AI boom. At last year's event, this was a key talking point, but in the year since then the pace of change has been lightning fast. 

Pure Storage firmly believes it's the go-to storage provider for enterprises dabbling in generative AI at the moment, largely due to its all-flash storage offerings providing significant performance benefits for those innovation at scale. 

Sustainability was also a key talking point at Pure Accelerate 2023, and we can expect that to continue at this year's event. 

While this has been a recurring topic for years now, the emergence of generative AI and the environmental impact of data center operations has very much brought this back into the public eye. 

You can read more about Pure's approach to sustainability - and how it plans to fix up the data storage industry - below. 

• Sustainability is more than a flash-in-the-pan topic for the data storage industry

Pure Storage has had a strong start to 2024, having recently posted strong reports in its Q1 earnings report for fiscal year 2025. 

Revenue is up at Pure, reaching $693.5 million - equivalent to an 18% increase year-over-year. Elsewhere, subscription services revenue reached $346.1 million, up 23% year-over-year.

These represent positive figures for Pure given it contends with intense competition in the storage market, butting heads against industry heavyweights such as NetApp, HPE, and Dell EMC. 

Channel partners will be eager to see what's in store this week as well. In March, the firm unveiled a revamped channel partner program as part of a sweeping move to facilitate "greater partner empowerment, scale, and preference". 

The updated program includes a new pricing model framework, which Pure said is designed to provide partners with a simple product and services MSRP, as well as programmatic discounting based on partner type, tier, and deal registrations.

The company also confirmed updates to its channel quote configuration and pricing models during the update. This, Pure said at the time, aims to give partners the ability to provide quotes independently. 

You can read more about the updates below. 

• Pure Storage unveils revamped channel partner program as firm records strong 2023 performance

There's less than an hour ago until the opening keynote at Pure//Accelerate 2024! 

The lobby area is already filling up with eager Pure//Accelerate attendees excited to hear the coming announcements. Why not read up on some more coverage from this year's event to get a jump on the talking points:

Pure Storage looks to 'fundamentally change' cloud storage management with new AI copilot tool

How BT is driving sustainable IT through Pure Storage platforms

Pure’s gone all out on the decoration this year - check out this branded Connect Four set!  

The show floor is empty for now but expect it to fill up after the keynote. 

It’s filling up in the keynote theatre - there’s even a countdown clock letting everyone know how long there is until the event kicks off. 

A band of drummers take to the stage to kick off the opening keynote. It's a mesmerizing display and definitely seems to get the crowds attention ahead of the announcements. 

Next up its a video from Pure to hype up the crowd, followed by Pure CMO Lynn Lucas. She thanks the audience and talks about the need to “rethink data storage,” lining up the schedule for the rest of the talk.  

Now it’s time for Charlie Giancarlo, Pure’s CEO, who also takes a moment to thank the crowd. He outlines some of the new challenges facing businesses - AI, cyber security, applications modernization, and hybrid cloud optimization. 

We can’t use the same thinking to address these new challenges, Giancarlo says. Users need to start challenging assumptions about storage, such as in areas of IT provisioning and siloed data. 

Giancarlo says Pure’s goal is to build a platform that is consistent, as-a-service, and fit to serve all storage needs. This depends on Pure’s Evergreen architecture and Pure’s Purity operating system, both flagship products of the company. Giancarlo calls them foundations.

He also mentions Pure Fusion and the ease of SaaS or, more specifically, Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS). Pure is promising to support “all of your workloads,” Giancarlo adds.  

He goes into some more detail on the Pure Storage platform, outlining, for example, how it can assist in AI training. To this end, Pure’s platform can access stored data directly. The Pure platform can also automatically tier and balance storage and data. 

Giancarlo covers some old ground, even going as far as to reflect on Pure’s years of experience and leadership in the industry. Pure does, however, want to lead the way to the “next era of data”. 

Now Giancarlo introduces Pure GM Shawn Hansen to the stage who opens by talking about Pure’s Evergreen platform and the benefits it offers from its ability to be consistently and constantly updated - “you can add more seats and a faster engine without stopping the car”, he says. 

But what’s next? Well, Hansen is here to tell us. For example, Pure is introducing Secure Application Workspaces, its AI copilot for storage (which will apparently be “magic”), and the next generation of Pure Fusion.  

This next generation of Pure Fusion (which will also apparently feel like “magic”) introduces a unified control plane for storage arrays and it will be introduced in three phases. 

Hansen then gets Prakash Darji onto the stage, Pure’s GM of digital experience. Darji hammers home the ease of SaaS and the superior capabilities of Evergreen//One over other “on-demand” models. 

Darji moves on to talking about storage safety - cyber resiliency to be specific. On the back of that, Pure is announcing four new security capabilities, two of which are powered by AI. The other two are service level agreements (SLAs) designed to support customer cyber security.

Next up is Shawn Rosemarin, VP of R&D, customer engineering. He’s outlining application development, citing a Pure Storage report which predicts that 80% of new applications will be built on cloud native platforms. 

This shift, however, comes with challenges. Containerization at scale, for example, is an issue, while there is also a significant level of operational complexity apparent in hybrid cloud environments.   

While compute and networking issues have been solved in the wider industry, storage has been “left behind”. That’s where Pure comes in, driving efficiency and modernization as a storage solution at the infrastructure level.

Rosemarin reinforces the simplicity, efficiency, and flexibility of Pure’s solutions, mentioning both a healthcare provider and a top global bank which were both able to optimize on Pure. 

After a quick video it’s time for a recap, followed swiftly by a customer success story from Jo Drake, CIO at online retailer THG. 

After giving us a brief overview of her role and the company, Drake dives into how the firm employs Pure Storage’s services. She talks about how THG has a challenger mindset and that it’s always prepped for disruption. 

Drake says THG has been in the AI business for a long while and that it has been using it in a number of different ways. The firm built semantic search into its platform, for example. 

As AI is driven by data, Drake says, THG’s partnership with Pure has been key. It’s allowed them to more effectively manage data and operate on a unified data platform. 

Drake says THG is working on some “really exciting” things with Pure at the moment, while she also says THG could more widely converse with Pure to improve the partnership. Rather than just communication with the infrastructure team, she says it would be good to have even more collaboration in different departments.

As a closing note, Pure runs a video celebrating THG and announces that it will be giving THG a breakthrough award. Following that its legendary Pure Storage founder John ‘Coz’ Colgrove 

Coz has brought some props to the stage, including a new flash drive and a 3D model of the flash drive set to come along next year, both set to aid sustainability efforts and combat e-waste.

Now it's time for a demo of the previously mentioned cyber security and anomaly detection tools, supported by another member of Pure (and a spinning stage screen!)

Coz then invites a software engineer from Pure onto the stage to demo Pure’s copilot for storage offering. The engineer shows off how the copilot can show users a ranking of their business's security posture against other organizations. 

Pure’s copilot certainly seems powerful, allowing customers to diagnose problems that would usually be difficult to find, as well as allowing users to update and improve security as a whole even when there’s no specific problem. 

Similarly, the copilot tool can help predict the future by analyzing past behavior within individual storage environments. It also offers recommendations based on this analysis. 

Next up, it's a run-through Pure Estimate. This platform offers users recommendations for storage updates and capacity expansion, fit with explanations of why recommendations have been made. 

Estimate helps to optimize business assets as well. Users can select a particular data center they want to optimize, as well as particular arrays within those data centers which can then be consolidated. 

After a couple more awards (and after running a little over its allotted time), its time to wrap up the keynote. The crowd is given a little glimpse at the agenda and thematic focus for tomorrow’s keynote.

The crowd filters out of the keynote theatre into the rest of the conference area. 

It’s a bit quieter on the conference floor this morning as Pure//Accelerate attendees look around ahead of today's keynote talks and sessions. It’s possible that Pure has already covered its key announcements for the event, though the firm likely still has plenty to talk about. 

The firm announced a range of new offerings yesterday, including a new AI copilot tool designed to simplify cloud management and a range of new service level agreements to better serve customer needs. Check out ITPro’s coverage here: 

Pure Storage looks to 'fundamentally change' cloud storage management with new AI copilot tool

Pure Storage tweaks SLAs amid sharpened focus on cyber resilience

Everyone is getting their morning hit of coffee outside the keynote theatre. 

The same DJ is back up on the stage, spinning the usual mix of upbeat pop tracks to get everyone going! 

It’s time to kick the proceedings off, this time with a slick promotional video from Pure. Following that, CMO Lynn Lucas takes to the stage to cheers from the crowd. She reflects a little on the previous day, asking who among the audience 

She says that the talking points for the day will be cyber security, AI, and application modernization, continuing on, it seems, from the previous day's main talking points. To dive into these themes further, she introduces Pure’s CTO Rob Lee to the stage.

He starts of by talking about Pure’s customers, specifically with regard to the complex pace of change that faces said customers in the current environment. Ultimately, he says, businesses need a solid data storage strategy to tackle these issues. 

He mentions the important attributes of such a platform - performance, enterprise readiness, container readiness, and flexibility. He says Pure offers sustained performance, accusing some competitors of not offering the same thing. 

From an enterprise readiness perspective, storage solutions need to be secure, efficient, and reliable, while from a container readiness perspective, storage solutions need to be easily scalable.

Next up, it’s a speaker from Nvidia, Charlie Boyle who is preceded by a rousing, inspirationally scored video about the firm. Boyle is interviewed by Lee on stage, and both talk up the value partnership and collaboration between the two companies.

In line with Pure’s messaging, Boyle says that data is key in AI development. He also drive home the point that customers need to be flexible in their data use, as well as efficient and sustainable. 

“Invest in architecture” that can grow with your business, Boyle says. After Lee asks him what advice he would give to companies looking to pursue AI, Boyle says that he thinks the importance should be placed on what will unlock the most value. They also discuss the recent SuperPOD certification announcement, unveiled at yesterday’s keynote.  

Boyle then leaves the stage to be replaced by a video announcing SoftBank as another of Pure’s breakout winners. Following that, Pure CIO Krithika Bhat jumps on the keynote stage to talk about cyber security.

She then invites Hector Monsegur and Kim LaGrue to the stage. Now working in cyber resilience and security, Monsegur used to himself be a hacker, having been involved in attacks on Sony and government websites. LaGrue is the CIO of the City of New Orleans. 

LaGrue talks about cyber resilience within her role, explaining some of the issues she has faced with her department in terms of cyber security. Monsegur then talks more generally about how businesses can improve cyber security posture. 

He talks about the disconnect that can exist between executive-level policy decisions on cyber security, also explaining that companies need good cyber hygiene as well as secure and recoverable data. 

The discussion finishes off with a question for LaGrue, asking for her advice on risk reduction. She says technology and data resiliency should be top of mind, and that businesses should be prepared for any unexpected scenario.

Next to the stage is a speaker for the electric vehicle company Rivian. Namely, it’s one of the firm's software engineers, Joshua Crater. He talks about the mission of the company, to make a better world for future generations.

Under the hood, Rivian has undertaken three major initiatives to modernize. These were focused on areas of production efficiency, infrastructure resiliency, and as-a-service delivery, which Crater goes on to expand on.

In terms of production efficiency, Rivian ran with Pure Storage’s Portworx and Flash Array offerings to up their game. On the infrastructure side the firm utilized similar Pure Storage solutions, Crater explains.

The firm also wanted to minimize developer wait time in terms of looking to as-a-service delivery. They utilized Pure’s platform to enable a greater level of developer self-service to drive efficiency. 

CMO Lynn Lucas is back to wrap up this morning’s keynote. She takes a moment to thank Pure’s sponsors and highlight a few of the day’s remaining sessions, including the conference’s final keynote with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (which ITPro will be covering right here at 4pm PT!)

The crowds file out onto the conference floor - make sure to check back in when we start our coverage of Pure//Accelerate 2024’s closing keynote.

It’s time for the closing keynote here at Pure//Accelerate 2024 - the room is already filling up with attendees ready to here olympic swimmer Michael Phelps speak. 

Make sure to have another look at our coverage of the event if you haven’t already: 

Pure Storage looks to 'fundamentally change' cloud storage management with new AI copilot tool

How BT is driving sustainable IT through Pure Storage platforms

Pure Storage tweaks SLAs amid sharpened focus on cyber resilience

Shout out to the DJ who’s still going strong as the event draws to a close!

Pure’s CMO is back on stage - she’s become quite a familiar face on the keynote stage at this conference! She opens up by saying how important sustainability is to Pure (even the Pure//Accelerate 2024 badges are recyclable, she says).

Next up it’s Niki Armstrong, the firm’s chief legal officer (CLO). She begins by talking about data, the “lifeblood of every organization”. This data, in turn, is responsible for a huge amount of power consumption.  

The audience gets a sudden shock next - Pure cuts out the lights suddenly in the keynote theatre to symbolically express one of the main concerns in power consumption. Namely, a power outage. 

Armstrong gets Merlin Kister from Intel on to the stage to talk sustainability further. Kister talks up Intel’s sustainability credentials, including the firm’s ability to reduce its emissions and it’s green-focused collaborations with Pure.

Armstrong and Kister move on to AI, and the issue of sustainability in the context of this technology. The pair drill down on the issue, exploring the issues created in data center power consumption as a result of the huge compute demand for AI.

Kister says businesses should “assess” their current needs to drive power efficiency and performance efficiency. He also adds that businesses should find good collaborative partners for efficiency, as Intel and Pure have down. 

Following Armstrong and Kister it’s Pure COO Matt Burr who, in turn, goes on to introduce decorated athlete Michael Phelps (though not before Burr reads out an impressively long list of sporting achievements for the Olympic swimmer!)

The pair go over a few of Phelps’ achievements when he gets on stage, too. The crowd is enthusiastic to hear from Phelps as he reminisces on previous Olympic games and talks about the pressure of competitive racing.

After finishing up the chat with Phelps, it’s time to wrap up Pure//Accelerate 2024. It’s certainly been an exciting conference packed full of speakers, sessions, and announcements - make sure to check out all our other coverage if you haven’t already!

Pure Storage looks to 'fundamentally change' cloud storage management with new AI copilot tool

How BT is driving sustainable IT through Pure Storage platforms

Pure Storage tweaks SLAs amid sharpened focus on cyber resilience

Pure Storage has unveiled sweeping updates to its service level agreements (SLAs) in a bid to support customer cyber security and resiliency, a critical need according to experts. 

As part of the move, the data storage firm announced it will expand the coverage of its ransomware recovery SLA on the Evergreen//One platform, updating it to include disaster recovery scenarios.

Specifically, this ‘Enhanced Cyber Recovery and Resilience SLA’ will deliver customized recovery plans, “clean” service infrastructure, onsite installation, and additional professional services for data transfer.

Pure will also focus on collaborating with organizations to create “comprehensive” cyber security strategies, conducting quarterly reviews to help businesses pursue best practices, and conducting risk assessments.

Max Mortillaro, analyst at TECHunplugged, told ITPro the announcement signals a move into a “different realm” for Pure Storage, owing to the far higher degree of severity in the handling of data recovery.

“It's not the same as guaranteeing the duplication ratio,” Mortillaro said. “You need to look into the customer's applications, infrastructure, architecture, security settings and so on, and work with them”.

“I think for me, the most critical SLAs are those related to cyber resiliency,” Mortillaro said. That’s because, Mortillaro added, these SLAs act as the final line of defense for a company which faces having its data completely wiped out.

While less crucial SLAs can be important in giving customers “more peace of mind and confidence”, Mortillaro added, the ones focused on cyber resilience and recovery are “really critical”.

The firm did unveil other SLA offerings, one dubbed ‘the Site Rebalance SLA’. This will be focused on organizational storage requirements, allowing companies to act flexibly by giving them adjustment capabilities.

As a business's storage requirements evolve, this SLA will allow a firm to adjust “existing reserve commitments”. If capacity needs cease to be required or if performance at a site is oversized, this SLA allows organizations to “rebalance” reserve commitments once every 12 month period per subscription.

Pure Storage has other targets with SLAs

Other recent announcements have seen Pure commit to GPU support. In relation to this sort of compute, an SLA will also provide the ability to purchase based on needs and requirements, eliminating the need for planning or overbuying. 

Prakash Darji, GM of digital experience at Pure, told ITPro that this was the most important new SLA in his mind, owing to the fact that it looks to meet and solve a fundamentally different problem in storage management.

That’s because AI workloads don’t scale in the same way that other, more traditional workloads do, Darji said. Based on his own AI research, Darji discovered that “static infrastructure can never be used to solve AI”.

Mortillaro agreed that this was an important SLA in its own right, particularly for users dealing with expensive GPUs and who want to make sure their data can “get through in time, so that you're not wasting resources”.

SLAs are integral to Pure’s model

As Darji put it, an SLA is essentially a guarantee of something from vendor to customer. If such an agreement is not met, then the vendor will offer financial remuneration to the customer as part of the deal.

Pure started with only three SLAs according to Darji, in the areas of performance, capacity, and buffer capacity, the latter being a guarantee of extra capacity beyond a customer's requirements.

From there, Pure embarked on a process of creating SLAs for the other management needs of users, such as energy efficiency and protection. For Pure, SLAs are becoming “less an agreement” and more a definition of its product, as the firm looks to “replace all of the management by SLAs”.

Pure Storage has announced a suite of new AI features, including the introduction of a new ‘copilot’ feature and enhanced support for GPUs.

The firm unveiled these new features as part of its flagship Pure//Accelerate 2024 event in Las Vegas as it looks to aid businesses in AI deployment and AI management of storage assets.

On the management level, Pure Storage is looking to give its customers a greater level of control through its new ‘Copilot for Storage,’ a platform which will allow users to monitor and manage their storage environments via natural language inputs.

The company said the new AI tool leverages data insights from “tens of thousands” of customers to assist storage teams in complex tasks surrounding performance and management.

Copilots are increasingly all the rage as generative AI continues to gather momentum, though Pure thinks its own offering is unique and described it as an “industry-first”.

At a press conference ahead of the firm’s annual event, Shawn Hansen, GM at Pure Storage, said the new tool “fundamentally changes the way that you simplify managing storage”.

“Instead of having to search through 10 different screens to be able to find something, you can ask a question in your own language,” Hansen said.

Copilot will simplify how users find solutions to complex storage problems, Hansen added. For example, instead of having to call customer service to deal with the “rocket science” that is a latency problem across many different arrays, users can just ask Pure’s copilot.

“AI does an amazing job of looking across billions of rows of information … we will automate some of the most difficult needles in a haystack to find,” Hansen said.

The AI tool will have additional advantages in cyber security by providing a greater level of visibility to CISOs into benchmarking their security posture against other Pure Storage customers, the company added.

Pure Storage lifts the lid on new STaaS offerings

The firm also introduced ‘Evergreen//One™ for AI,’ a storage-as-a-service (STaaS) focused on streamlining AI deployment and offering “guaranteed” storage performance for GPUs to support training and inference.

The new Evergreen//One platform also offers the ability to purchase “dynamically” based on performance and throughput needs, offering customers an increased level of flexibility in terms of AI storage requirements.

While Pure Storage already offers a range of Evergreen platforms, as well as an existing Evergreen//One platform, this new announcement highlights the firm's shift to ensuring AI provisions.

Pure also rolled out ‘AI-Powered Anomaly Detection Enhancement’ which allows users to discover various cyber security threats such as ransomware attacks or unusual activity.

The firm said the models used to underpin this platform analyze customer environments with “historical data for anomalous patterns based on heuristics of performance as well as user context on how storage is used”.

Pure Storage is going at AI from different angles

There are “multiple components” to consider in terms of the market for AI, according to CEO Charlie Giancarilo. 

Speaking to ITPro at the pre-event press conference, Giancarlo said the company aims to support customers through a multi-pronged approach centered around bolstering the underlying infrastructure needed to drive AI development.

Data center capacity - or the lack of it - has been a key hurdle identified by enterprises seeking to explore the use of generative AI over the last 18 months.

The GPU cloud market, for example, looks for “raw horsepower and performance and scalability,” Giancarlo said, and Pure has a specific set of programs for these sorts of users.

“That's our Flash Blade product, and we continue to develop that set of capabilities,” Giancarlo said.

That’s a “unique market,” though, with a comparably smaller number of customers, Giancarlo added. Most enterprises are looking at smaller environments to develop AI and, for these markets, Pure is looking at “two main activities”.

“One is to be able to deploy ready made, highly configured, inference type environments,” Giancarlo said. Complete with vector databases, these environments would be focused on simple deployment models for AI.

The second aim for Pure is to help businesses deal with the issue of data, which is often spread out across enterprise environments. As arrays are often “highly tuned” to the applications and stacks they’re tied to, businesses can end up copying data into new arrays dedicated to AI.

“We're saying that's a really silly and old fashioned thing to do,” Giancarlo said.

Pure’s view, Giancarlo added, is that businesses should ensure that “all” of their storage is accessible to AI as they look to upgrade their storage environments. This also involves moving to flash storage to enhance performance.

“We now can sell all-flash systems at the same price as existing disk-based storage, and when we do so the performance is at least at least five times higher, if not more” he said.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of technology when it’s still in its infancy. From fossil fuels to the internet, businesses and industries are often liable to put rewards above risks when a new innovation promises to change the world.

The same goes for generative AI, which, ethical and existential concerns aside, has a serious problem with power consumption. To unlock the benefits of AI, many businesses risk putting new technologies ahead of sustainability goals.

Pure Storage has set out to tackle this issue directly. The data storage company is looking to position itself as the sustainable alternative in the AI revolution with its efficient flash storage offerings.

Pure’s position is as the newcomer in the storage space, navigating its way between the big hitters of Dell and HPE, though the firm seems confident in its ability to offer something both attractive and important: sustainable AI.

Pure//Accelerate 2024, the firm’s flagship event in Resorts World Las Vegas, is where the firm can make that offering crystal clear. With more than 1,200 set to attend the event from 18-21 June, Pure can double down on its mission to keep the next technological revolution.

Lessening the load on data centers

Earlier this year, research predicted that data center power consumption is set to double by 2030, constituting almost a tenth (9%) of US power consumption. Microsoft alone saw its carbon emissions surge by 29% on the back of data center development.

In both cases, the unsurprising root cause is generative AI. This is a power-hungry technology, running on demanding compute operations that suck up electricity and necessitate bigger data centers in more numerous locations.

For Pure Storage, this is a growing concern that’s been top of mind for some time. The topic was a key focus at the firm’s 2023 event, in fact, with CEO Charlie Giancarlo telling audiences that “disks are done”.

Giancarlo referred here to disk drives, which he sees as the old guard of storage in that they require inefficient cooling systems to keep them operational. Instead Pure Storage, much like its competitor NetApp, offers a more efficient flash storage alternative.

Being Pure Storage’s core product offerings, these flash storage devices will no doubt be a talking point at the approaching conference.

The firm has been hard at work seeking to prove the value of its offerings in a more sustainability-conscious world since its last conference. Earlier this year, for example, the firm announced that a client was able to reduce its storage rack size by 95% on Pure’s solutions.

The climate crisis is a key issue for businesses and efficient use of power is only becoming more pertinent as an issue, so we can likely expect to see this as a topic of conversation at this year’s event.

Despite the efficiency gains offered by flash storage, however, adoption has also been noticeably slow, so it will be interesting to see whether Pure has made significant gains in the data center market as a whole.

Sustainable storage, sustainable AI 

With sustainability at the core of Pure’s strategy, it’s highly likely to be built into anything the firm looks to unveil, announce, or parade at its approaching conference. Seeing as storage is the firm’s foundation and AI the unavoidable elephant in the room, we can expect a focus on tying sustainability into both. 

Storage as a Service (STaaS) has been a key focus for the firm since its inception. In 2015, Pure introduced its Evergreen architecture which was followed up in 2018 with the release of Evergreen//One.

Following last year’s Pure//Accelerate, the firm announced the next phase in its STaaS operations by committing to pay for its customers’ power and rack space costs on their Evergreen platforms to help customers “consume less power”.

Pure seems similarly committed to sustainable AI, commissioning surveys that show the extent to which the industry needs more preparation for AI power demands - for example, 73% of IT buyers were not completely prepared for the energy requirements of AI.

The firm has also partnered and collaborated with the likes of Nvidia in an effort to help its customers drive AI adoption through a more effective AI architecture and framework.

Hands-on with cloud native 

As a cloud storage provider, Pure puts a lot of its focus on the cloud native community, investing a lot of its time into Kubernetes and cloud native development.

As a result, platform engineering may get a look-in at the approaching conference, being a methodology that aids the cohesion of application deployment on container orchestration systems in the cloud.

In line with this focus, Pure Storage recently released a report looking into cloud native adoption. The report found that the majority (80%) of new applications will be built on cloud native platforms, reaffirming its position as a cloud-first provider.

Similar to its partnership with Nvidia on AI, Pure has also sought to partner up with the big names in cloud computing such as Microsoft. The firm announced recently that it would be bringing its storage solutions to native Microsoft Azure services as part of a new agreement.

Strength to strength for Pure Storage 

Last year, ahead of the firm’s 2023 conference, the firm’s most recent earnings call showed a 5% decrease in year-on-year revenue, though the company still exceeded analyst expectations.

This year, the firm is building on strong results in the latter half of 2023, which saw full-year revenue growing by 3% year-over-year to a total of $2.8 billion. Pure’s subscription services revenue in particular saw a 24% year-over-year increase during fiscal Q4 2024.

Pure Storage is also still outpacing analyst expectations, having exceeded revenue guidance in Q4 2024, according to reporting by Forbes. As of the firm's most recent earnings call for Q1 fiscal 2025, Pure is posting a revenue of $693.5 million, an increase of 18% year-over-year.

Though Pure is still very much the plucky underdog - HPE, for example, posted revenue of over $7 billion at a recent earnings call - it seems to be in a good position. The firm has a lot to be confident about in the storage market, and Pure//Accelerate 2024 is the perfect place to show that confidence off.

AWS has fixed an Amazon S3 storage flaw that cost one customer thousands in compute bills after they were hit with unauthorized requests. 

The problem affected S3 buckets in particular, with third party access requests inadvertently sent to storage systems which the customers was then charged for.

This AWS customer, Maciej Pocwierz, blogged his experience of the bug, explaining how he created a single S3 bucket and then uploaded some files for test purposes.

“Two days later, I checked my AWS billing page, primarily to make sure that what I was doing was well within the free-tier limits. Apparently, it wasn’t. My bill was over $1,300, with the billing console showing nearly 100,000,000 S3 PUT requests executed within just one day!,” Pocwierz said. 

In his explanation, Pocwierz described how the unknown actor used a popular open source tool which, by default, was set to store backups in S3. The bucket name used for backups in this case was identical to the name of Pocwierz’s bucket. 

Even though these requests were denied, Pocwierz was still charged by AWS and he reportedly received a message from the firm at the time describing this as “expected behavior”. AWS did, however, proceed to cancel Pocwierz's S3 bill.

Other users took to social media to talk about the mishap, with one going as far as to exclaim “I can’t believe this is true”.

“Wow. That all sounds pretty painful, and I’m surprised AWS doesn’t have a process in place to tackle this scenario,” wrote another to Reddit. 

AWS has now fixed the issue, however, with the company confirming that it will no longer be charging for “Access Denied” error responses if they have been initiated from outside an AWS account.

“Amazon S3 will make a change so unauthorized requests that customers did not initiate are free of charge,” the firm stated.

AWS’ chief evangelist Jeff Barr took to X to provide confirmation of the firm’s move, telling customers to be wary that the rollout would take a few weeks to complete across all regions.  

“We’ve started deploying changes to Amazon S3 to make unauthorized requests with certain error codes which were not initiated by you to be free of charge,” Barr said.

A US federal court has ruled AWS must pay up to $525 million in damages to technology company Kove for infringing cloud storage patents. 

According to court documents, Kove alleged that two AWS products, Amazon S3 storage and the DynamoDB database service, infringed on three of Kove’s patents. 

Kove originally sued Amazon over this claim in 2018, with the company claiming that it paved the way for high-level cloud storage systems long before the advent of cloud computing as it currently stands. 

“As the amount of data stored in the cloud grew exponentially, there needed to be a way of storing and locating it that was more dynamic and adaptable, otherwise the system can only be so big,” Kove’s CEO, John Overton, said at the time.

Kove’s original complaint stated that the popularity of AWS cloud storage systems relied on the removal of this limitation.

The firm alleged that AWS benefited from Kove’s original innovations, allowing the hyperscaler to dominate in the cloud space by using its data storage designs as the foundations on which to build. 

Jurors concluded that AWS was guilty of infringing on US patent law through the operation of its cloud services, with the court finding that three separate violations of Kove’s ownership rights had taken place. 

AWS counterclaims and assertions of non-infringement, invalidity, unpatentability, and unenforceability were all “dismissed with prejudice” by the jury. 

Though there was some respite for AWS in the fact that the infringements were not found to be “willful”, the company has still been hit with a sizable fine.

AWS plans to contest the ruling

The cloud computing giant, however, does not agree with the court’s decision that it violated patent rights and has told ITPro that it intends to appeal the ruling. 

“We disagree with the ruling and intend to appeal. We thank the jury, which also acknowledged that AWS did not wilfully infringe on patents,” an AWS spokesperson told ITPro. 

By contrast, Kove's lead attorney Courtland Reichman called the verdict "a testament to the power of innovation and the importance of protecting IP (intellectual property) rights for start-up companies against tech giants," according to Reuters.

Kove is also seeking similar damages in a pending lawsuit against Google which began in 2023. 

Rackspace Technology has become the latest firm to tap sovereign cloud services as a product offering, in this case specifically aimed at supporting workloads in the UK public sector and other regulated services.

Aligning itself with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and other UK regulatory bodies, Rackspace’s ‘UK Sovereign Services’ platform will provide dedicated compute and storage ‘Pods’ for various sectors. 

With segregation between each pod, Rackspace said it will provide a “cost-effective hosting solution” for customers designed to provide high levels of data and workload security. 

As this platform has a focus on public sector cloud workloads, this separation is key to ensuring bodies from UK healthcare, government, and law enforcement don’t operate on overlapping compute or disk workloads. 

Government agencies need to adhere stringently to regulatory compliance measures, so operating with sovereign cloud services helps to ensure they can do this more easily while simultaneously benefiting from a reduction in cyber security risk. 

“Digital independence and sovereignty within the UK have become key requirements of the public sector and many other regulated industries,” said Rick Martire, general manager for sovereign services at Rackspace.

“This truly digital Sovereign offering allows for the UK public sector to achieve cost savings and compliance all through a single provider, without compromising on security or performance,” he added.

Cloud sovereignty in focus

Cloud sovereignty has been a recurring talking point in both the UK and European Union (EU) over the last year or so, with major companies announcing various plans to introduce dedicated regional cloud services in a bid to adhere to regulations.

While Rackspace’s new offering puts the question of cloud service sovereignty more firmly into the UK’s market rather than the EU’s, it still makes a clear impression as to the increasing global focus on sovereignty in cloud computing.  

Microsoft was a notable early voice in the space, revealing plans for its EU data boundary solution that would see a staggered rollout take place in January 2023.

The idea behind this data boundary, set to first be established for the public sector and commercial customers, was to allow users the ability to store and process customer data within the European Union (EU).

Microsoft then upped its commitment to sovereign cloud requirements in January 2024, extending EU processing capabilities to include data found in system-generated logs. 

More recently, IBM announced the launch of a data center in Germany which promised to ensure a greater level of data sovereignty for European customers, followed swiftly by Oracle’s unveiling of its ‘Sovereign Cloud’ region.

Oracle heralded its new region as paving the way for public and private sector organizations across the EU to gain a greater level of control over both data privacy and sovereignty requirements.

Nvidia also looked to the EU as a focus, partnering with Scaleway to drive the increased availability of sovereign infrastructure in the region. 

Cloud storage costs are inflicting a serious financial toll on European businesses, according to new research from Wasabi Technologies, but many enterprises are biting the bullet and ramping up investments regardless. 

Analysis from the firm revealed that over half of EMEA firms exceeded their budgeted spend on cloud storage across 2023, but in the year ahead are looking to expand storage portfolios. 

Fees associated with cloud storage options are a particular pain point for many firms, the study found, with a significant portion of respondents spending half - or more - of their budgets on usage fees and data access rather than direct storage capacity.

EMEA businesses typically spent more on cloud storage fees than those based in other regions, according to the study, with the global average spend on cloud storage budgets absorbed by fees reaching 47%.

Andrew Smith, senior manager of strategy and market intelligence at Wasabi Technologies, said expanding public cloud budgets is a growing trend across the globe, and that the EMEA region displays a particular appetite for ‘cloud-first decision making’.

“Organizations worldwide are increasing their use and budgets for public cloud storage solutions, and Europe is no exception," Smith said.

“Like the rest of the world, European cloud storage users continue to struggle with storage fees, but despite this, the region continues to show a healthy preference towards “cloud-first” decision making when it comes to IT services adoption.”

The report specifically highlighted rapid growth in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption as a key factor in both surging cloud costs and efforts to expand budgets.

96% of EMEA respondents said they believe they will have to contend with new cloud storage concerns associated with AI and machine learning.

Of these concerns, the top ranking worries include demanding requirements to store data across a wider range of locations (46%), implementing robust mechanisms for data backup, protection, and recovery (43%), and new or expanding storage migration/movement requirements (42%).

Europe’s multi-cloud mentality

Wasabi’s report indicated that Europe is marginally ahead of global markets in terms of their commitment to a ‘cloud-first’ strategy for IT services adoption. 

This means organizations in the region are less inclined to adopt private cloud or on-premises IT infrastructure. 

The survey revealed that 44% of firms in Europe were pursuing a cloud-first approach compared to the global average of 42%. This difference was attributed to particularly strong commitments to cloud-first IT strategies in Germany (51%) and France (47%).

In addition, the study also recorded the importance of interoperability between cloud services for EMEA companies when choosing cloud storage providers. 

Organizations in the region reported they prioritize integrations with existing third-party applications such as Salesforce and Veeam (43%), security and compliance features (40%), and sustainability (39%) when assessing which cloud provider to go with. 

Wasabi asked respondents for the driving factors behind multi-cloud adoption in the region, 48% of whom revealed they are using multiple providers in a bid to avoid vendor lock-in.

Jon Howes, VP and GM of EMEA at Wasabi Technologies, noted the global trend toward off-prem cloud storage solutions is being driven by the AI explosion, but emphasized a growing dissatisfaction with exorbitant fees and cloud lock-in among EMEA companies.

“Wasabi’s annual research once again shows that progress towards off-premises cloud storage solutions is a direction nearly all enterprises are taking – and one that’s only made more necessary by the adoption of AI/ML applications”, Howes explained.

“However, the ever-growing frustration with unnecessary fees and vendor lock-in, as highlighted by the investigation by the UK’s market watchdog, provides a navigational challenge for cloud-first organizations in EMEA.”

Wasabi Technologies has announced the acquisition of Curio AI from GrayMeta in a move that CEO David Friend believes could revolutionize the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud storage industry. 

The acquisition will see Wasabi incorporate Curio AI technology within a new class of “AI-powered intelligent storage” for the firm’s media and entertainment segment, which it plans to release in Q2 2024.

As part of the deal, staff behind the Curio AI tool will also join Wasabi alongside GrayMeta CEO Aaron Edell, who joins the firm as its new senior vice president of AI and machine learning.

Curio AI is an intelligent data platform that uses AI to generate metadata for content stored in media libraries, simplifying search and retrieval processes for specific assets for editors or producers.

The tool is capable of detecting and transcribing speech in over 50 languages, and can identify media files based on people, places, events, logos, or even background audio.

Friend told ITPro the AI tool is equally powerful and simplistic in terms of enabling users to access stored materials or assets.

“The way this will work is it's really no more complicated than something like Google Photos, where it just grinds through your photos and if it sees a face that it doesn't recognize, it asks you who is this?

“You can put a name to it or not, but the user can train it themselves.”

Speaking to ITPro ahead of the announcement, Whit Jackson, VP for global M&E at Wasabi, said the firm has already integrated Curio AI capabilities within its storage offerings.

However, increased customer demand for more intelligent, AI-powered cloud storage capabilities over the last year appears to have been a key motivation behind the tie-up.

“We’d had a partnership with GreyMeta and their Curio AI technology for quite a while now,” he said. “As time has gone on we have had varied levels of interest in that.

“That interest really started to ramp up a lot more over the last year. This year at IBC we had the GreyMeta Curio team on the Wasabi stand providing a demonstration of a lot of football content, with people being able to watch from the stand and search for their favorite players and particular things.

“We went into some joint engagements with customers coming out of that event, and there was an opportunity there to tie up the companies a bit more and that's really what led to the acquisition.”

Jackson suggested the acquisition has wide-reaching implications for the future of cloud storage, not just at Wasabi but potentially across the industry. This was a statement echoed by Friend to ITPro ahead of the acquisition on Monday.

The integration of AI capabilities will position Wasabi’s storage offering as a powerful “intelligent data management” platform where customers can store and index content more efficiently and, crucially, streamline retrieval processes and remove what previously would’ve been an arduous, inefficient task identifying specific assets.

Wasabi acquisition could set an industry-wide standard 

Looking ahead, Friend said the acquisition could set a benchmark for competitors in the space, prompting a broader industry focus on the integration of AI capabilities within cloud object storage. 

“I think in five or ten years, everyone who sells object storage is going to have to have AI capabilities built in,” Friend said. “I think once the market sees what we’ve done, I think everybody who markets cloud storage is going to want to do the same kind of thing.”

“My goal has always been to be a key innovator in the field, but I’m sure other people will come up with similar kinds of product offerings in the future. I think it’ll really revolutionize object storage. I think this is going to be a very important acquisition, not just for us, but for the industry.”

Bringing Edell and the Curio team on board as part of the deal will also support Wasabi’s long-term AI ambitions, Friend said, allowing the firm to draw upon the expertise of a team that otherwise would have taken years to build from the ground up.

“We brought over all of the development team for Curio. So we’ve got a good core of excellent AI scientists and engineers now. This would be very difficult for us to do in any other way hiring people one-on-one - it would take three or four years to build a product like this.”

AWS has unveiled its new Amazon S3 Express One Zone storage offering, promising marked performance and speed improvements on its standard edition. 

CEO Adam Selipsky revealed the move during his keynote address at the annual AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas today alongside a slew of product updates which included the launch of its ‘Amazon Q’ generative AI assistant.

Selipsky told attendees that One Zone represents the next iteration of the popular cloud storage offering, which is 17 years old at this stage.

The new high-performance, low-latency storage class offers a 10x improvement on data access speeds in addition to a 50% lower request cost compared to Amazon S3 standard.

This equates to single-digit millisecond data access for customers.

The update comes amid a period of intense ML and AI-related workload demands from customers, the company said in a statement.

“Amazon S3 Express One Zone is the most performant storage class for request-intensive operations such as machine learning (ML) training and inference, interactive analytics, and media content creation,” the firm said in a statement.

Amazon S3 Express One Zone is tailor-made for AI 

Focusing heavily on supporting intensive AI workload capacities, AWS confirmed the launch of a new bucket type, dubbed an Amazon S3 directory bucket.

The cloud giant said customers will be able to create new directory buckets “with just a few clicks”, allowing them to upload new objects directly or copy objects from existing datasets in other S3 storage classes.

Traditionally, customers have been able to choose specific AWS Regions to store S3 data. However, the latest update also means users can now choose to co-locate One Zone data in the same availability zone as compute resources.

AWS said this will help “lower compute costs and run workloads faster”.

“Millions of customers rely on Amazon S3 for everything from low-cost archival storage to petabyte-scale data lakes, and they want to expand their use to support their most performance-intensive applications where every millisecond counts,” said James Kirschner, GM for Amazon S3 at AWS.

“Amazon S3 Express One Zone delivers the fastest data access speed for the most latency-sensitive applications and enables customers to make millions of requests per minute for their highly accessed datasets, while also reducing request and compute costs.”

The announcement marks the latest major update to Amazon S3 in recent years and underlines the continued longevity – and popularity – of the service.

In 2021, the tech giant added S3 Object Lambda, a service which enabled users to add their own proprietary code to process data retrieval from buckets before it is returned to an application.

2021 also saw the addition of the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval function, also unveiled at its re:Invent conference.

The archive storage class offered low-cost storage for older datasets that are typically not accessed.

The emergence of cloud has dramatically changed the game – businesses are now more agile to customer demand and can bring products to market faster. 

We’re also seeing the cloud drive the desire to improve employee productivity, while it is shifting global workforce trends towards remote and hybrid working. It’s no wonder that end-user spending on the cloud is forecasted to reach nearly $600 billion this year.

In the channel, it is transforming partner solutions and reshaping the dynamic of the entire channel partner ecosystem, presenting new opportunities for partners to collaborate, innovate, and reach new customers within a shared cloud environment. 

Consequently, it is imperative that partners consider the benefits and do not miss out.

Embracing common, open standards

The cloud has emerged as a unifying force with regard to standardization of platforms, hardware, and solutions offered by channel partners. 

Unlike the fragmented and diverse nature that often characterizes on-premise solutions, cloud-based services can adhere to a set of open standards in hardware architecture and development. 

A commitment to uniformity with a shared cloud environment promotes easier integration across customers, managing of updates and performance, and even compatibility with other solutions. 

For channel partners, this translates into tangible benefits. It simplifies the integration of solutions into their portfolio and significantly reduces compatibility and patch management issues that can emerge from on-prem systems. 

This means channel partners can allocate more of their resources toward delivering value to their clients, rather than wrestling with the technical intricacies of integration. Shifting the focus in this way enables partners to provide more efficient and reliable services, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Moreover, the adoption of open standards in the cloud means it’s easier to design and roll-out new solutions. 

Channel partners do not have to oversee time-consuming customer integrations, while thanks to the cloud’s scalability, they can react faster to client demands and better allocate resources. In turn, this alleviates valuable time and resources that can be redirected towards innovation and strategic planning.

Fostering specialization and collaboration in the cloud

Following a traditional sales model, channel partners resell solutions directly to their clients. However, under a shared business cloud, partners can adopt a new approach that sees solutions sold through other partners, creating a network that enables more specialized offerings. 

How does this work? The shared business cloud empowers partners with niche expertise in a particular industry or technology to develop cloud-based offerings, knowing that they can easily integrate and share these solutions with their peers. 

This collaborative approach not only extends the reach of specialized solutions but also enriches the entire ecosystem with knowledge sharing and co-innovation. 

It’s a win-win situation as partners can both deepen their expertise and broaden their market presence with a more in-depth portfolio of products and solutions. 

Some have voiced concerns that this approach could infringe upon intellectual property (IP) rights, something which partners are rightly protective over, but it is still entirely possible to maintain solution ownership. 

In shared clouds, partners can protect their IP with advanced access controls and encryption and at the same time, share proprietary solutions with other partners. In a collaborative world where marketplaces, platforms, and apps become more essential, and where multiple routes to market is a must, this model will help partners to future-proof their operations. 

Delivering a comprehensive service

Moving towards the cloud represents a pivotal transition for channel partners who are seeking to offer a more comprehensive service. With a shared industry cloud, partners can expand their offering without having to manage all the heavy lifting. 

For instance, partners can offer DevOps services with far less initial infrastructure investment, with the cloud taking care of performance and issue monitoring, and deploying updates where required.  

This real-time monitoring and engagement maintains exceptional service levels and allows partners to respond quickly to any issues that arise. It also provides a means to gather valuable insights from client usage data to facilitate ongoing improvement and customization of solutions.

In addition to the above, partners can capitalize on unique cloud benefits and incorporate them into the solutions they offer. As updates and maintenance are simpler, partners have enhanced control over the lifecycle of a solution. 

This makes it far easier to incorporate things like customer feedback into the solution design process, while providing a renewed focus on customer needs. 

The cloud-powered future of channel partnerships

The transition to the cloud represents a wealth of opportunities for the channel. It empowers partners to provide scalable, flexible, and low-maintenance solutions, offer deeper and more proactive support, and harness the collaborative environment to drive customer satisfaction. 

Through a shared industry cloud, channel partners are not just solution providers but strategic enablers of customer growth and innovation – a dimension to the role that will see them become long-term partners and drive success. 

Welcome to ITPro's live coverage of day three at the NetApp Insight 2023 conference. 

After two busy days packed with announcements and news from NetApp, this morning's keynote sessions will round things off with another overview of the company's future outlook. 

While we're waiting for things to start, why not catch up on some of our coverage from the conference so far?

• NetApp aims to become ‘true data pipeline’ for enterprises with latest AI updates

• NetApp CEO: Hybrid cloud will be the only way to capitalize on generative AI

The keynote theatre is starting to fill up ahead of the opening session here at NetApp Insight 2023. 

Some groovy tunes to get things going. 

CEO George Kurian is first up today with an 'insight primer', giving us a run through all the latest developments at NetApp. A big welcome for George as he takes the stage. 

This is the first in-person NetApp Insight since 2019. It's been a while, and there's been no shortage of disruption since the last event here in Vegas. 

A global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, conflicts, you name it. All of this has had an impact on global business. The years ahead will be defined by how businesses overcome the lingering effects of these disruptions and rebound. 

Data leaders, not "data laggers", Kurian says, will be the ones who deliver success for their businesses in the years ahead. Data-driven, AI-ready businesses are in a prime position to capitalize on new technologies and opportunities. 

Being data-driven and AI ready starts with "having a cohesive data strategy and organization", Kurian says. 

A top down approach to transformation is antiquated. Businesses have to view transformation as a unified, cross-functional and cross-division push. 

Businesses must develop a modern data architecture, Kurian says. This should be a strong focus in the coming months for those looking to unlock the value of their data, optimize their operations, and deliver marked benefits. 

But it's not a one-size-fits-all approach here. Businesses are too hasty with transforming their data architecture, and it causes harm to agility and performance. 

"We're not one to tell you to transform every level of your stack, what we say is transform the right parts of your data architecture and consolidate and simplify other parts to give you agility," he says. 

"A modern data architecture is the technological foundation stone of a data-driven enterprise."

This is where NetApp comes in.

"Over the last few years as we have worked with our customers, we've realized that customer needs for data management have expanded," Kurian says. 

NetApp is focusing heavily on "dynamic workloads", he adds, such as generative AI. 

NetApp has a raft of recent updates that are centered around enabling generative AI innovation among partners and customers. 

"AI is a major disruptor", he says. Kurian wants to make NetApp customers the "winners" in the ongoing generative AI race, not the "laggers". 

"Trust us, AI runs on data, data runs on NetApp."

Ai expert Dr Fei-Fei Li is our first guest at NetApp Insight today for a fireside chat with Kurian. 

Dr Li says we're at a "special moment, an inflection moment" with regard to generative AI. This has been combined with a "public awakening moment". 

Dr Li led the ImageNet project in 2007, which revolutionized machine learning and was a landmark moment in the global technology industry. 

Li is giving us a fascinating insight into the project, and how those early machine learning advancements have parallels to the current acceleration in the generative AI boom. 

Li says amidst all the current hype, there is a tendency to obsess on the models and their capabilities within restrictive parameters. How can this improve a certain aspect of our work? How can this optimize a certain business process?

The truly exciting possibilities are how this can support creativity. 

Li works closely with lawmakers and regulators to examine how emerging technologies can have a negative impact on broader society. There's been a lot of scare stories so far this year over the potential harms of the technology, including the prospect of mass AI-related job losses. 

Li says it's critical that we examine these technologies critically to "understand what's under the hood" and forecast risk and recommend important policies. 

"We brought this technology into the world, we should be seeing that this is used for the public good," she says. 

There's "so much fear mongering around AI", Kurian says. 

Li says this has become her "favorite topic for the last five years" as it's a topic often overblown. 

"The relationship between humanity and technology has been a profound and ancient one. We've never stopped innovating and every step of the way we've had to redefine ourselves with the tools we invent."

She says we "need to be careful" over AI-related scaremongering. 

"My view of AI's role in our world is to augment humanity, but not taking away our dignity. Not taking away our human agency."

That's not to say this isn't a serious topic that needs addressed, Li warns. 

"There will be pain, and if we're not careful we'll have social unrest."

Our next guest is...Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud CEO and George's twin brother. 

Thomas is going to give us a run down of how Google is innovating in generative AI and its current cloud strategy focus. 

Generative AI has such wide ranging implications for businesses, Thomas says. 

CIOs are using the technology to modernize IT operations. Generative AI is being used by software engineers and developers, HR representatives, customer service workers. 

George asks how Google Cloud is responding to concerns around hallucinations, privacy, and security associated with generative AI. 

Thomas says the company is investing heavily in Vertex AI. 

"Vertex runs in a private environment. No-one, even Google staff, have access to your data," he says. 

"We have 18 types of controls. We have grounding to make sure that model answers are grounded in fact and are fresh and current, not when the model finished training," Thomas adds. 

NetApp and Google Cloud have a very close working relationship. The two firms have recently integrated the NetApp Volumes platform with Vertex AI. 

NetApp's long-standing relationship with the hyperscalers, including AWS and Microsoft, is a key differentiator for the firm as far as its standing in the cloud storage space goes. 

NetApp Volumes and Vertex AI are helping unlock the value of unstructured data. 

George says this is going to "make breakthrough advances so easy and simple" for developers and organizations globally. 

We've moved onto sustainability now. And there's a lot of chatter about the environmental impact of generative AI at present. 

Thomas says that Google Cloud has been carbon neutral for some time now, but it plans to go further. This includes new data center designs and new cooling systems aimed at improving machine efficiency. 

Reducing power consumption, latency, and energy efficiency are all key objectives at present. There's a lot to be excited about though. With uncharted territory comes innovation, and data centers will absolutely benefit from this generative AI wave in terms of long-term advancements. 

Moving onto security now. Another key focus for NetApp at present, George says. 

"Over the last 15 years or so cyber has tried to protect everything. Servers and networks and identities and so on," he says. 

George adds that a rethink of data security is required, however. 

He believes that if leaders assume the probability of being compromised, then organizations would naturally focus heavily on their crown jewels. This inverted approach to security, as he describes it, must become a priority moving forward.

To discuss this topic, George is joined by Jen Easterly, director of CISA, to discuss how advances in AI represent both a challenge and opportunity for security practitioners and organizations globally.

Generative AI has generated a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for businesses. But the flip side to this is that it could be used for nefarious means, such as disinformation and in cyber crime. 

"It's important to be able to put in place measures for responsible innovation," she says. "These aren't going to be the most powerful capabilities of our time, but also the most powerful weapons."

Easterly says that in the era of generative AI, security by design has to be a key priority for developers and innovators in this space. 

CISA is in the process of outlining a roadmap for responsible AI development, and its potential use in cyber defence. To achieve these goals, this will require greater collaboration between the public and private sector, Easterly says. 

A secure by design revolution could emerge due to recent generative AI advances, Easterly says. 

The reality is that governments and businesses globally can't take the risk with poorly created AI-powered products and services. The potential implications of compromise due to poorly created products could be devastating. 

Easterly says it took 20 years of work to implement legislation requiring drivers to wear seatbelts in the United States. This is a comparable situation, she adds. There is an obvious risk here, and everyone can see it. In this scenario, however, regulations and legislation have to be introduced quickly. 

"We can't wait that long," she says. 

Working with private sector will have a positive impact and accelerate efforts to introduce responsible AI regulations and legislation, Easterly says. NetApp is among the partners collaborating with CISA on both AI and security best practice. 

NetApp president Cesar Cernuda is up next at NetApp Insight to explore some of the most exciting partnerships the firm currently has, including its work supporting Lockheed Martin. 

Lockheed Martin is a long-standing customer of NetApp cloud storage solutions, which help support innovation in areas such as disaster prevention and space exploration. 

Cesar is taking things from here and wants to take us "into the worlds of fantasy" with a look at the company's partnership with visual effects company, Weta FX. 

Kathy Gruzas, CIO at Weta FX, has joined Cesar on stage. The visual effects company has worked on films such as the Avatar series. The sheer volume of data processed during the development process in an individual film is enormous, Gruzas says. 

"This required significant quantities of data generated by a significant pipeline," she says. 

Visual effects production requires serious storage capabilities, Gruzas adds. Performance, efficiency, and reliability are key requirements. 

The first Avatar film required one petabyte of storage capacity for the visual effects developers. The second needed 23 petabytes. A major jump in performance requirements, and NetApp played a key role in supporting this and making the movie possible. 

A quick fire session there with Weta FX. George Kurian is back on the stage now to round things off in the opening session. 

George announces that the firm will expand its Data Explorers support scheme for young people hoping to pursue careers in the technology industry. 

It's a scheme he's immensely proud of, George says. 

That's all from the first keynote session at NetApp Insight. We hope you've enjoyed our coverage so far. We'll be back tomorrow with the day-two highlights and announcements. 

There are a raft of upcoming product reveals, so remember to tune in!

Things are heating up at the headliner mainstage ahead of the day two keynote sessions here at NetApp Insight. Some more live music to liven things up. 

We'll be hearing from Harv Bhela, NetApp's chief product officer, and Haiyan Song, EVP and GM for CloudOps will be guiding us through the morning session today at Insight with a "deeper dive" of all the latest developments at NetApp. 

Reflecting on yesterday's opening keynote, Haiyan says security and AI are among the key talking points at NetApp and among its customer base. 

Flexibility is another key focus, says Harv. Customers crave flexible, agile and streamlined data storage as many look to transform how they maximize the use of their data and unlock value. 

Harv is taking things from here with a look at the latest unified storage announcements from NetApp. Unified storage is still evolving, Harv says. 

"NetApp has expanded what unified data storage means. Any data type, any workload, on any storage protocol from file to block to object and deliver it anywhere," he adds. 

"This is going to be a very exciting year for our flash portfolio," Harv adds. 

The company recently brought out its A150, the "best entry level all flash performance system on the market", he says. 

NetApp also announced the AFF C-Series. This, he reveals, is the fastest growing product in the company's history. 

Finally, the NetApp ASA S-Series offers "industry leading efficiency and availability with future-proofed cloud connectivity". 

NetApp advance is another source of immense exciting at the firm. Guaranteed efficiency, ransomware recovery, and availability. 

Software licensing has also been "simplified" with ONTAP One. The most "comprehensive data management suite in the world" and a "huge shift" for the firm in terms of capabilities. 

NetApp certainly is hammering home its goal of "breaking down silos" in data management. But why's this important?

"It gives you simplicity of deployment, of management, consistency of automation," Harv says. "That's important in the world we live in with all the changes we have to confront"

The new ASA C-Series has been officially unveiled. Up to 70% better energy efficiency compared to competitor offerings, the firm says. 

The newest member of the ASA family. 

"The industry's best portfolio of data center solutions. The best data storage ownership experience, and the best data management suite," Harv says. 

There's more here. Today's announcements aren't limited to flash storage, Harv says. 

The firm is deepening ties with the three hyperscalers - Google, AWS, and Azure - to provide enterprise-grade storage in the cloud. 

This is a unique arrangement. The hyperscalers "don't do this with anyone else", Harv adds. A key differentiator for NetApp as it leaves competitors in the dust. 

"I'm hearing from some of our competitors that we have cloud offerings too. But what, it only took ten years after us to recognize that customers need storage in the cloud and on-prem," Harv says. 

These relationships are helping customer solve the frequent problems encountered when shifting to the cloud. 

We're moving on now with some vmware-related announcements...

NetApp has 20,000 customers that rely on NetApp every day to support vmware workloads. The firm also remains the only cloud storage vendor working with vmware for on-prem storage. 

A new high availability feature for disaster recovery is coming to ONTAP. This will offer customers a far more simplified and "undisruptive" process. 

We're going to hear from a customer that's really "laser focused" on how to use NetApp products to "change the future", Harv says,

Phil Adams, CTO of the national ignition facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is up on stage now. 

Last year, the lab made history with a breakthrough that was six decades in the making. One that has the "potential to change the future of clean energy". 

Adams said scientists demonstrated nuclear fusion ignition for the first time ever. 

This controlled fusion ignition is no longer a dream, but a tangible reality, Adams says. 

The Lawrence Livermore National Lab relies on NetApp storage solutions, Adams says. 

To support this kind of leading edge research, the infrastructure must be reliable, maintainable, and flexible," he adds. 

The lab keeps vast quantities of data, 30 years' worth, in fact. NetApp underpins all of this. 

Data protection, naturally, is a big focus at the lab. Such sensitive, cutting-edge research is a natural target for threat actors. NetApp is supporting the lab with ransomware threat protection and supporting its efforts to implement a zero trust policy. 

On the topic of data protection...we're talking ransomware and resilience. 

"Sometimes hackers are trying to make money by targeting you, or by harming your reputation," Harv says. 

"They are after your most valuable asset. Your data. That's a risk no-one can afford to take."

Harv says NetApp's goal is to build the most secure storage in the world. 

ONTAP can help this, Harv says. The solution includes "multi-admin" verification features and tamperproof snapshots to prevent data destruction, he says. 

It also harnesses machine learning to offer the "industry first automatic ransomware detection and protection" features. 

This represents the industry' best, most secure data storage solution against ransomware. 

"We are so damn confident in this, we guarantee it with our ransomware recovery guarantee," Harv says. 

NetApp plans to extend its guarantee to cover all of ONTAP on-prem systems, he adds. The recovery assurance service will ensure that "systems are protected against ransomware". 

"If the worst does happen, you will automatically get 365 day, 24/7 recovery services. If somehow we can't recover this data - which I honestly don't know how that can happen - we will stand behind that with our guarantee."

We're switching gears now for a look at AI and data management. 

"AI requires an intelligent data infrastructure that is simple to deploy, and yet scalable to process and deliver that massive amount of data at the right time," Harv says. 

AI also exposes enormous amount of data - both structured and unstructured - across an organizations' data estate. This means that data protection is paramount in the age of AI, according to Harv

Charlie Boyle, VP for DGX Systems at Nvidia has joined Harv on stage now to discuss the company's relationship with NetApp. 

"We're on the journey of simplifying AI and absorb it into their infrastructures," Boyle says. 

NetApp and Nvidia have long-standing ties dating back to 2018, he adds. To make the best use of AI, companies have to maximize their use of data. But they need something that's easy to use, Boyle says. 

Simplifying IT infrastructure and data storage gives data scientists breathing room to continue to innovate without significant hurdles. 

Nvidia's enterprise AI software stack is all underpinned by NetApp ONTAP, Boyle says. 

In the age of generative AI, so much corporate data is "sitting somewhere in the cloud", but NetApp is helping to unlock this data in a hybrid cloud capacity, bring it on-prem, and deliver value. 

Haiyan is back on stage now to round things off in the keynote session and explore how NetApp is investing heavily to support data infrastructure transformation among partners and customers. 

"We're focused on making your data infrastructure more intelligent," she says. "The main theme of this conference is about turning disruption into opportunities.

Recent changes in the tech world have brought a whole new raft of corporate lingo, she adds, as well as a lot of complexity. 

"Hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, public cloud, DevOps, SecOps" and more mean that things can become confusing for customers. 

NetApp is "focusing its solutions" to simplify cloud operating models. 

NetApp's instaclustr data services enabling customers to transform their data environments and IT infrastructure, Haiyan says. 

Spot is also helping with public cloud optimization, she adds. Major efficiency boosts and cost savings are being unlocked by customers using this service. 

Daniel Cap, product operations manager at Nubank is the latest guest to join us today. 

Nubank has been growing rapidly in recent years, serving customers in Latin America. 

Seven out of ten people in Latin America are unbanked, he says. Major income inequality. Nubank hopes to address this and make banking more accessible. 

It's just reached its 90 million customer mark

The bank has no traditional brick and mortar branches though - it operates entirely in the cloud. 

This presented challenges with how to scale efficiently, Capp says. This was why a "reliable partner" in storage was critical to supporting this rapid growth. 

Nubank uses SpotOcean, Capp says. It's the underpinning foundation across its entire architecture. This has helped the bank drive automation in Kubernetes and optimize costs. 

Capp says Spot has helped drive efficiency. But it's not just about costs. 

"Efficiency means scaling everything efficiently. Not only the infrastructure, but also the teams as well," he says. 

And with that we've reached the end of the keynote session this morning. Harv is back on stage to round things off for us. 

Reflecting on yesterday's keynote, Harv echoes George Kurian's comments. We're absolutely "in the age of data", but it's up to organizations to maximize how they use this data to deliver success. 

"We are ready for the new era, the era of intelligent data infrastructure and AI applications," Haiyan adds. 

We hope you've enjoyed our coverage so far at NetApp. We'll be back tomorrow to provide all the news and announcements in the final keynote session of the week. 

Not long to go now until the first keynote this morning. 

Some very live loud music to complement a few sore heads today after yesterday's evening function. 

NetApp president Cesar Cernuda and Jenni Flinders, SVP, worldwide partner group will be up first this morning. 

We'll be "connecting all the dots" from the two previous days to bring things full circle, according to Cesar. 

"On day one, George shared our vision and what drives us forward - our 'it factor'," Cesar says. 

We've been through the latest AI-related developments at NetApp, data transformation, the future of hybrid cloud, and security. 

On the topic of data transformation, Cesar says we're "making decisions for the future". That's what separates NetApp in the cloud storage space. 

Our first guest at Insight this morning is Timbaland. He'll be discussing inspiration in his career, the use of technology in music, and how technology can play a role in powering creativity and productivity. 

"Because I'm like a horse that runs the race. I keep blinders on and I don't get strayed away from what I do," Timbaland says on maintaining creativity levels. 

"Everyone wants to work smarter and harder," he adds. 

With innovation comes trepidation. Emerging technologies such as generative AI have been a source of concern both across the technology industry, but broader society. 

Embracing change is a powerful thing, however. Without adapting, we can't unlock the benefits of generative AI. 

NetApp as an organization has a lot in common with Timbaland. They're both anticipating 'customer needs', in some capacity. 

Timbaland's 'B Club' for content and music creators is exploring how to support young aspiring musicians and artists. 

Timbaland is 'just the coach' in this situation, though, much like NetApp. Giving partners and clients the tools and inspiration to drive creativity and offering a helping hand along the way. 

B Club is a platform and a marketplace for artists to promote their own music content. It's all about democratizing access for creators and young people. 

"Many artists are getting their music licensed" through the B Club platform. 

There are parallels between data and talent in the music industry. 

68% of all data is just sitting dormant and unused. Organizations are missing out on enormous value from not maximizing the use of that data. 

"Imagine if 68% of all artists in the music industry weren't active." 

The industry would be missing out on huge value. Unlocking that is the key to success in both instances here. 

Timbaland has been experimenting with AI, he says. 

"Every artist is going to use AI," he believes. Eventually, musicians won't want to miss out on the potential benefits of integrating AI within their workflows to support creativity. 

AI-generated voice samples are a source of excitement for Timbaland. 

There's a lot of people "converting" to using AI in the music industry because it's helping them become better musicians, Timbaland says. 

On a final parting note, Timbaland says it's critical to embrace opportunity, be bold, and take risks. 

"We're in the middle of a paradigm shift. Everyone in this room has to teach one to shift with the paradigm," he says. 

Cesar is back on the stage now to give us a run through how technology can benefits society. AI, in particular, is a tool that can "really serve everyone" and should be embraced. 

"We need to have that technology that can really help you change the world," he says. 

Partnerships and collaboration are critical as well to support innovation. NetApp is focusing heavily on its partner relationships, specifically in driving AI adoption, Cesar says. 

To give us a deeper insight on this topic, Jenni Flinders will be joining us. 

"We're always looking for ways to deliver value for our partners," Flinders says. 

This is about meeting customer expectations and needs on a rolling basis to help them adapt to rapid industry changes, 

Offering NetApp natively on all three major hyperscalers is a big differentiator, Flinders says. This offers customers huge flexibility in how they approach their cloud strategy. 

"Our partners are NetApp's 'it factor'," Flinders says. NetApp is fostering closer ties with vmware, which we heard about yesterday. 

Flinders unveils a new vmware partnership to help drive virtual environment modernization for customers. 

Flinders announces NetApp's 'partner innovation' award winner for 2023. 

Clusterpower is this year's winner. The company has been using AI to drive sustainability and enhance customer service solutions. 

Cesar is back at the helm in the keynote session now.

We're "celebrating a birthday today", he says. The anniversary of a dynamic partnership with Microsoft on the NetApp Native Azure File Service. 

It's one of the fastest growing services on Azure, he says, and has helped customers streamline workload migrations. 

NetApp has deep ties with Microsoft and views the tech giant as a vital partner organization. There's been a lot accomplished between the two firms over the last four years. 

We've also got a new product announcement here today with the launch of the new standard storage with cool access service on Azure. 

The partnership will enable customers to streamline and optimize costs by shifting cold data off to Azure storage, Cesar says. 

"It's more cost effective and more sustainable," Cesar says. "The beauty is that users will not see the difference in the way data is presented and continued access to all files."

We're coming to a close here now at NetApp Insight, with Cesar reflecting on the last three days. 

A few thoughts on what we've discussed at the event this week from Cesar:

"AI runs on NetApp", he says. "We know the opportunities AI offers to your business."

NetApp is "all in" on artificial intelligence and aims to support customers exploring the use of generative AI tools in the coming months and years.  

Security has also been a key talking point throughout the conference this week, Cesar adds. 

The company has a great track record on security, he says, and provides "the most secure storage on the planet". 

"We pride ourselves on the fact that customers can rely on our technology."

Finally, NetApp's position in the cloud storage industry is unrivalled. 

It's the only data infrastructure company working with the three largest hyperscalers. Closer relationships with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. 

Competitors can't match this. Truly best in class, Cesar says. 

"What a great few days together here. We had powerful stories from our customers and partners," Cesar says. "I'm extremely thankful to everyone being here, to our customers, our partners. 

And that's all from the keynote session this morning. A fantastic three days of content and a great insight (no pun intended) into all the current developments at NetApp, as well as future plans. 

We hope you've enjoyed our coverage of the conference. Be sure to keep tabs on the ITPro site and newsletter for all of our coverage as it continues rolling out. 

Ransomware has been a persistent threat for many years, posing serious challenges for organizations threatened by the prospect of being locked out of networks and having their critical data stolen. 

At the same time, the amount of data businesses manage has been growing exponentially, meaning there’s little choice but to turn to more sophisticated data management and backup systems designed with security front of mind.

When a ransomware attack strikes, the logical next step for a victim organization is to restore data from backups – but as we’ve recently seen, even backups are no longer safe from cyber criminals. In fact, almost all ransomware attacks (93%) target backups, and in three-quarters of such cases, hackers succeed in preventing victims from restoring their data, according to Veeam’s 2023 Ransomware trends report.

Some 85% of organizations were targeted at least once in the last year, with ransomware attacks increasing by 12% over this period. It’s never been more critical to ensure your backups are as resilient as possible. This is where platforms like Object First’s Ootbi come in, offering ransomware-proof, object-based backup safeguards for Veeam customers. Hence, businesses have a reliable and ransomware-proof backup from which they can restore data when targeted. 

Big data is fuelling the growing attack surface

Organizations are collecting, managing, and storing vast quantities of data, with the scale increasing over time. The amount of data created, captured, and copied globally is expected to be 181ZB by 2025, which is just shy of three times the figure of 64ZB in 2020, according to Statista. 

Historically, businesses have depended on multiple-point products to safeguard the growing volumes of data they manage, including target storage, media, and master servers. Because these create numerous silos, which span a combination of cloud and on-prem storage, this could widen the attack surface. 

Ransomware operators effectively have a much bigger target to aim for, with such a regime undermining the effectiveness of a backup solution. Reducing the attack surface by adopting a unified system should be an absolute priority for organizations that operate such sprawling data infrastructure.

Without one, it might also become much harder to detect ransomware operators that have already infiltrated corporate networks and are engaged in a data exfiltration process. These gangs are highly effective in siloed environments in which an organization has little visibility over the data. Backup tools that employ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems are a vital pillar of defense if you’re hoping to detect and stop ransomware attacks in real time, leading to faster attack discovery.

Why is ransomware targeting backups?

Backups are your primary insurance policy against ransomware attacks– cybercriminals know this. While one in six organizations fully recover data from backups following a ransomware attack without ever having to pay the ransom, according to Veeam’s report, that still leaves five in six unable to successfully restore from a backup. For these businesses, the time it takes on average to recover is 3.4 weeks, which translates to 136 business hours worth of downtime. Of those that aim to trigger a restoration point, 56% risk infection during that process, the report added.

But just because this is the way things are now doesn’t mean this is how things should be, and certainly not something organizations should just accept. 

Indeed, businesses should still try to attain the best possible backup system for their critical business assets and data. But they must also strive for fit-for-purpose configuration, ideally based on object storage, to ensure their backups are resilient and become a genuine insurance policy, not just one in name. 

Modern threats demand modern solutions, and scalable, immutable, and flexible backups are becoming more highly coveted. 

It’s also far preferable to house data in object storage format, which is ideal for the vast quantities of unstructured data businesses generate, rather than using the once more conventional file or block storage. 

Because many on-prem systems aren’t optimized for block storage, looking to object-based solutions, like Object First’s Ootbi for Veeam customers, would be ideal for organizations hoping to safeguard their data and guarantee a restore point can remain intact if ransomware strikes.

Simple but effective backups

Designed for high backup performance and ransomware recovery, Ootbi is the first storage appliance explicitly designed for Veeam software and offers immutability out of the box. Minimal setup is required, and the system eliminates the risk of ransomware due to its immutable nature. 

Object First’s Ootbi delivers optimized object storage for Veeam and supports backup data ingest speeds up to 4GB/s. Better yet, the Instant Recovery feature lets users run failed workloads directly from backups within minutes. Such a system provides organizations that use Veeam backup software a much stronger edge in the fight against ransomware. 

In today’s climate, ensuring your organization has a sophisticated and immutable backup has never been more critical. Object First’s solution resolves such concerns with a compact, simple-to-use, and cost-effective offering. Storage buckets, powered by AWS S3 object lock, synchronize with the Veeam v12 direct-to-object storage configuration, in turn, powered by the Smart Object Storage API. This is an OS that’s hardened with no root or backend access. Customers can also rack, stack, and power the system up within minutes, while linear scaling means simply adding more nodes as and when they’re needed.

With ransomware rife and backups increasingly under threat today, there’s no use in hanging onto antiquated systems. On the other hand, adopting an immutable and secure backup system may give you the best chance of keeping ransomware-proof backups from which you can restore data.

Download the whitepaper from Object First for more information, or request a demo.

37 Signals has saved more than $1 million in cloud costs in a matter of months after embarking on a significant cloud repatriation project earlier this year, a company executive has revealed.

The SaaS firm’s shift to hardware has already unlocked sizable cost savings, with more expected to come, CTO David Heinemeier Hansson said in a blog post last week.

Hansson said the firm has managed to reduce cloud spend by around 60% since its shift, down from an average of $180,000 per month to “less than $80,000”.

“That’s a cool million dollars in savings at the year run rate, and we have another big drop coming in September, before the remaining spend will peter out through the rest of the year,” he wrote.

The reported initial cost savings far exceeded what the company invested in hardware earlier this year, according to Hansson.

When it first embarked on the cloud repatriation project, 37 Signals spent $600,000 on eight servers to replace cloud rentals, Hansson said. The move came in response to what he described as “grotesque” costs over the space of a year, with the firm spending $3.2 million for AWS services across 2022.

“While there are some additional other costs associated with the extra servers, it’s relative peanuts in the grand scheme,” he said.

“Which means that by the basic comparison of money saved vs money spent, we'll be in the money on the big purchase with the current monthly savings in less than six months.”

Initial projected savings were initially said to be around $7 million over the space of five years. However, he now believes that the company can increase savings to around $10 million across the same period.

“Let's see where things end up when it's all said and done, but we don't have to squint hard to see the eventual savings climb all the way up to about $2m/year,” he wrote. “That would be ten million dollars over five years. Just absolutely bonkers amount of money straight to the bottomline.”

Cloud repatriation hype

The topic of cloud repatriation came into sharp focus earlier this year during a period of rising cloud costs, with many businesses struggling to contend with heightened spending during challenging economic conditions.

Singaporean SEO firm Ahrefs revealed it had saved more than $400 million dollars across the space of several years by relying on its own on-prem infrastructure rather than cloud computing services, further highlighting potential benefits.

However, the reality for many firms is that cloud repatriation simply isn’t an achievable goal, and may actively inhibit their operations.

René Büst, senior director analyst at Gartner told ITPro in June that cloud repatriation “really isn’t a trend” and represents a reactionary backlash among some firms to rising costs.

The benefits of cloud repatriation are wholly dependent on the individual circumstances of each business, Büst said at the time.

Similarly, the analyst said they did not expect cloud repatriation to gather significant momentum among businesses due to both the complexity of this process, as well as the overall benefits of public cloud.

Oracle and Microsoft have announced a new service that will allow customers to access Oracle database servers located in Microsoft Azure data centers.

Intended to smoothen the cloud transition and give customers more flexibility when it comes to managing their multi-cloud environment, Oracle said that its existing customers could benefit from Azure without having to unlearn Oracle tools and processes.

The service will see Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) hosted for the first time in Azure data centers, widening the availability of Oracle’s various product offerings and bringing in new benefits such as the low latency of Azure.

Customers will be able to purchase Oracle Database@Azure through the Azure Marketplace, and deploy the service using developer tools such as Azure application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kids (SDKs).

Complex purchasing processes were identified by Oracle and Microsoft as one of the biggest challenges customers face when it comes to adopting multi-cloud architectures, and it hopes that having the service on the Azure Marketplace will mitigate this.

They also identified disjointed management and siloed tools as two of the other major pain points for customers - factors addressed by the service’s “fully integrated experience” within the Azure portal.

“As we continue our digital transformation through innovation and technology, interoperability across cloud service providers to enable safe, secure, and rapid financial transactions for our 40 million customers is paramount,” said Mihir Shah, enterprise head of data, Fidelity Investments. 

“Today’s announcement displays how industry leaders Microsoft and Oracle are putting their customers’ interests first and providing a collaborative solution that enables organizations like Fidelity to deliver best-in-class experiences for our customers and meet the substantial compliance and regulatory requirements with minimal downtime.”

In the past year, CIOs have expressed concern that cloud complexity exceeds human ability, with IT teams unable to process data efficiently due to massive overburdening and lack of understanding of their cloud environment.

Bringing together the Oracle and Azure tools could allow customers to choose the approach that best fits their needs.

Oracle will operate the services, which are set to launch in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany initially.

In a live stream on the announcement, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the new service is the product of a lengthy collaboration between the two firms, and that it would allow customers to better reap the benefits of their data.

“Everyone’s very excited about the cloud, we’ve been talking about it for a long time, but actually a majority of the data has not migrated from on-premise into the cloud as yet,” said Ellison.

“But it will, and we're trying to hasten that process to make it easier for customers to actually move their entire data center workload to the cloud. And that means moving all those Oracle databases which are currently on-premise into the cloud, for everything to coexist and be easily managed even though some of this technology is Oracle's technology, some of the technology is Microsoft’s Technology, to allow you to seamlessly manage that infrastructure that's a multi-cloud, multi-provider infrastructure.

“To be able to do that in a convenient secure reliable way, that's what we're trying to accomplish with this partnership.”

Nadella argued that the inclusion of Oracle Database in Azure was also well-timed for the rising interest in and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Generative AI models in particular hinge on the careful organization of massive amounts of data.

“When I look at anything that you do around AI you need to have access to data, and so to have now Oracle Database in Azure means we can take something like Azure OpenAI, and take it to where the data is. 

“So whether it is fine-tuning a model, pre-training a model, or meta prompting a model [it] requires that low latency access to data and so we are very very excited. This is the moment where data and AI come together to transform data businesses and business processes, it couldn’t be a more profound timing of these two things.”

Danish cloud hosting provider CloudNordic has fallen victim to a devastating ransomware attack that security experts have described as a ‘worst case scenario’ for the firm. 

CloudNordic confirmed the ransomware incident occurred on Friday, revealing that customers have “lost all data” held by the firm.

The attack on the firm’s systems appears to have occurred during a data center migration and saw threat actors gain access to administrative systems, CloudNordic said in a statement. 

Thereafter, the attackers were able to “shut down all systems” and take down its website and email services along with encrypted customer systems and websites.

Crucially, CloudNordic said attackers managed to “encrypt all servers’ disks, as well as on primary and secondary backup systems”. 

The firm said there is no evidence to suggest that customer data has been exfiltrated by the attackers. 

“CloudNordic was exposed to a ransomware attack, where criminal hackers shut down all systems,” the firm said. “Websites, e-mail systems, customer systems, our customers' websites, etc. Everything.”

The company said the attack has “paralyzed” the company and has seriously affected customers. 

Reports from Danish media suggest that hundreds of companies have been impacted by the attack, and CloudNordic confirmed that “the majority of customers have lost all data”. 

CloudNordic isn’t isolated in this incident, either. Its sister company, AzeroCloud, has also been subjected to a ransomware attack which has crippled systems. 

Both companies are owned by Certiqa Holding, a Danish-based company which owns telco security provider NetQuest. 

‘Worst case scenario’

Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at KnowBe4 told ITPro that the incident “appears to be the worst case scenario for customers” and that the attack will have long-lasting implications for those affected. 

“Many customers rely on cloud services precisely because they want to avoid concerns about security and backups, expecting the provider to handle these aspects,” he said. 

“The fact that not only the service has become unavailable, but also the data seems to be irretrievable, will have a significant impact on customers.”

Malik added that incidents such as these "intensify pressure” on cloud service providers. Similarly, the circumstances in which this attack appears to have taken place highlights the precarious nature of migrations. 

“This is especially crucial during periods of change, such as data center migrations, where multiple components are in motion and a single vulnerability in software, mismanaged credentials, or even a phishing email could have enabled the attackers to gain unauthorized access.”

Sascha Giese, global tech evangelist at SolarWinds, echoed Malik’s comments, suggesting that the initial breach is likely to have happened “months ago”. 

“An incident of this gravity doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “It's quite normal that virtual servers are moved around between different hosts and even different data centers.”

“That's a standard practice for redundancy, scalability, and load distribution. The attackers might have been lucky, or they might have done a lot of reconnaissance ahead of the attack.” 

Liverpool Football Club (Liverpool FC) is one of the world’s most renowned soccer institutions, with a massive global fan base and a rich history of success. As a prominent brand in the sports industry, the club has recognized the importance of digital transformation and embarked on a journey to improve its operations and fan experiences.

One of the key challenges Liverpool FC faced was managing its large digital media workflows and handling vast volumes of content. The club generates and distributes a substantial amount of digital content across various platforms. This includes live match broadcasts, highlights, interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and promotional materials. The sheer magnitude of Liverpool FC’s digital media workflows posed significant challenges in terms of content creation, distribution, storage, and accessibility.

Understanding the need for change

Traditional on-premise infrastructure Liverpool FC has traditionally relied on proved to be inadequate for efficiently managing the club’s digital media workflows, says Drew Crisp, its senior vice president of digital.

“Initially, we would have done this anyway because all of our media archives are on-premise and were on traditional 24 spinning disks, and actually accessible [only] when you're in the office,” he tells ITPro. It was always the plan to get data into the cloud, Crisp adds, as it would be “faster, quicker, easier to access”. 

Liverpool FC faced numerous challenges with its infrastructure, including slow data access, limited remote access capabilities, performance bottlenecks, and the physical limitations of storing and processing large volumes of content. He adds COVID-19 accelerated plans. “It brought forward a bunch of stuff because hybrid working doesn't lend itself particularly well to accessing archive when it's on a bunch of hardware that's in the office.”

Recognizing the importance of data as a critical asset, Liverpool FC crafted a robust data management strategy to support its operations. Crisp stresses how important this was, adding: "We needed a capability that is remotely accessible, really quick and really easy to use, but also which could enable us to do future things – not just with archived content, but post-production content we could share with partners."

This would also improve the decision-making processes. By harnessing the power of data analytics, Liverpool FC could gain valuable insights into fan behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns. These insights would guide its marketing efforts, fan engagement initiatives, and overall business strategies. A data-driven approach would help Liverpool FC understand its fans better, tailor its content offerings and deliver personalized experiences to its global fan base.

Scoping out a cloud partner

To overcome these challenges and unlock new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and fan engagement, Liverpool FC embraced the cloud by partnering with Wasabi as its storage provider. The club revolutionized its digital workflows through this agreement and maximized the potential of its vast media library.

“I mean, the biggest advantage, as we see with wasabi cloud is we don't have to pay for egress. From a commercial model perspective, as well as speed and efficiency, actually, it does an awful lot for us. Because you don't pay commercially, you can ingest really quickly and then you can get into operation,” says Crisp.

Neither the club nor Wasabi encountered major challenges, and the migration's success means the club is exploring how else it can use the cloud in the future. Ultimately, Liverpool FC’s decision to move to the cloud has provided a solid foundation for future improvements to its end-to-end content workflow.

Wasabi’s cloud storage has allowed Liverpool FC to store and access its media content with ease and speed, eliminating the performance issues and physical limitations of its previous on-premise infrastructure. It's also provided Liverpool FC with scalability and flexibility, allowing it to adjust its storage capacity according to changing needs and demands.

This has translated into measured improvements. Liverpool FC can now share and access data across various teams and departments within the club, which facilitates better collaboration and communication. It’s also streamlined workflows, reducing the time and resources required for content creation, distribution and management.

Crisp says the organization’s editors are “probably three times more efficient in its eight-hour day than they would have been previously waiting for all sorts of things to upload, download and edit on the fly”.

“From an efficiency and time point of view, that means that they can get through more content and create more content significantly faster,” he continues. “I'd say probably, we probably do 20-30% more content now than we did previously.”

Amazon Web Services S3 buckets provide flexible, highly scalable, and cost-effective cloud-based, high-availability bulk data storage, suitable for everything from backups to big data, to hosting for media, files, and web apps.

S3 – short for Simple Storage Services – is popularly used for data storage, everything you upload is stored as a key-value pair with a unique name and the stored data as its value. This effectively means that it's a lightweight NoSQL database that can hold a vast amount of structured data, which can then be easily queried for analysis via S3 Select API calls. 

Critically, S3 doesn't care what the data you're storing is – you can stuff anything into an S3 bucket, with a maximum individual object size of 5TB and unlimited total storage, as long as you're prepared to pay for it.

Setting up and securing Amazon S3 storage

There are several different S3 storage classes. This guide primarily addresses S3 Standard storage, intended for "hot" data that's going to be regularly accessed. But it's worth being aware of your options, particularly if you anticipate eventually archiving your data to cold storage in Amazon's cloud.

These include S3 Intelligent-Tiering, which can potentially save money by automatically moving your least-accessed data to cheaper storage, Infrequent Access (IA) tiers that cost less than hot storage but still allow data to be accessed within milliseconds, and the Glacier tiers, which cost a lot less have increasingly slow retrieval times – up to 12 hours in the case of S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage.

While costing your deployment is beyond the scope of this article, we recommend using the AWS Pricing Calculator and billing alarms to help you avoid any unpleasant surprises. Amazon provides a helpful step-by-step deployment guide, but the density of the reference documentation for S3 means that it can be challenging to winnow out exactly which of S3's many options you need.

The convenience of setting up and using S3 storage, particularly if your data set is never intended to be made available to the public, can be deceptively simple. With both hackers and white hat cybersecurity professionals routinely scanning for unsecured S3 buckets using a variety of effective free tools, security through obscurity isn't going to cut it here.

Its default options have been beefed up in recent years, to minimize the danger of accidentally exposing the personal data of your staff, customers, or citizens, but it's still important to ensure that your S3 deployment is appropriately planned, configured, and secured for your use case.

In this guide, we'll take you through the key considerations you should apply to every S3 deployment, from planning to access and version control, through logging and multi-factor authentication.

Amazon S3 setup

Before setting up your S3 bucket, you should decide what it is – and isn't – going to be used for. Different use cases require different options and settings on the bucket, and some settings, such as S3 Object Lock, can only be set when the bucket is deployed, and cannot be changed later. This is also a good time to work out who or what will be accessing it, how they will be doing that, and from where. Document all of this for clarity, and to prevent function creep in the future. You don't want to find that people have been storing critical documents in your low-priority off-site backup store, or that access to these documents is too slow because you created the bucket in the wrong AWS region.

Local legal requirements should also be taken into consideration when choosing the AWS region in which your bucket will reside, such as EU requirements for data protection. If you're unsure about this, choose the AWS region in your country if there is one, or – if your country doesn't have its own AWS region – consult someone who knows the legal requirements and can advise on which regions are suitable.

Amazon S3 retention and deletion protection

Depending on the usage case for your bucket, you may wish to enable the S3 Object lock, or WORM (Write Once Read Many) mode. This means that once a file has been uploaded to the bucket, it cannot be deleted or modified in any way. This is useful in cases such as storing copies of quarterly backups, or accounting files needed for compliance. Files stored in buckets with this enabled will be preserved unchanged until the end of their retention period. 

Alternatively, you may wish to enable versioning for objects in this bucket, if it is to be used to store critical files, or disable it, for example, if this is a backup store, as the backup software should take care of that. 

Lifecycle settings

Once you've created your bucket, you'll want to set some lifecycle rules to keep it in check. Rules can be set up to move files to less expensive storage classes after a specified period of time, delete older versions of files in buckets with versioning enabled, and perform basic housekeeping tasks. At the very least, you would probably want a set of rules to move objects from primary instant-availability storage to a lower cost tier such as Glacier after a time, and then eventually purge outdated files, so as to keep costs down.

S3 Default Encryption

Since January 2023, S3 has automatically encrypted all new objects uploaded to it using AES-256 hashing with server-side S3-managed (SSE-S3) keys, at no additional cost to users. This default option now has to be deliberately opted out of if you require an alternative approach, while it was previously an opt-in setting, which contributed to unnecessarily poor security on some users' buckets.

Note that objects in a bucket predating the new default, which had not previously been opted into S3 default encryption, can be manually encrypted to the same standard using a batch operation.

While SSE-S3 encryption is the default standard, you can also enable SSE-KMS, another approach to server-size encryption which uses the AWS Key Management Service. A dual-layer version, DSSE-KMS is also available, and customers can alternatively deploy their own keys using SSE-C, server-side encryption with customer-provided keys. While different objects in your bucket can use different encryption methods, you can't apply multiple types of encryption to a single object.

Access management

To control access to your new bucket for either people or processes, you will need access keys. Whilst you can generate these as your AWS admin user, you very much should not do so. It's better for your security if you create a dedicated user in IAM (AWS Identity and Access Management) for each process or person requiring access, granting them the minimum rights required, for example read-only, read-write, or full S3 access. Security keys can then be created for these users from their IAM details page.

Version control

For those who require more granular access control, access policies can be used. These are written in JSON, and if you wish you can input that directly. However, for the majority of users who'd prefer not to do that, there is a policy generator. Set the policy type to S3 Bucket policy then configure the required access conditions. Example policies are also available at this stage to assist with this process.

If your bucket is to be used for storing regularly accessed files, rather than as a backup or archive of some form, you may wish to enable versioning. This will allow you to revert any object stored in the bucket to any previous version, limited only by the retention policies set in your lifecycle rules for this bucket. Lifecycle policies can be used to move older versions to cheaper storage tiers or delete them completely after a given time. Care should be taken when setting these rules to balance the utility of being able to revert files to previous versions against the increased storage costs this incurs. 

Replication

If the objects to be stored in your bucket are critical, then you may wish to enable replication. This feature automatically – but asynchronously – copies objects from one S3 bucket to another, usually within 15 minutes of the initial object's creation. This ensures that there's never a single point of failure for your most critical data.

You can configure replication rules to replicate certain classes of objects in the bucket, or its entire contents. The replication target will be another S3 bucket, either in the same region as the original or in a different region. Note that data transfer charges will apply to data moving between regions, so bear this in mind when deciding on your replication setup. Likewise, the target bucket will also need its own lifecycle policy.

Logging, monitoring and auditing

If required, you can enable either basic access logging, event auditing, or both for your bucket. This will allow you to keep track of who accessed what data and when, and make it easier to spot any unauthorized access to these objects. It's thus highly recommended.

AWS's monitoring tools for S3 include alarms that will alert you if any selected metric (such as storage in use) passes a specified threshold, detailed user activity and server access logs, and "AWS Trusted Advisor", an automatic inspection and recommendation tool that will inspect and make security and configuration recommendations for your S3 bucket.

Security

There are two forms of access used in most cases with S3 buckets. Interactive user access and programmatic key-based access. For interactive users, multi-factor authentication (MFA) should always be enabled, and the users' rights should be limited to the minimum required. You should not be using your AWS admin account when accessing the bucket contents, but rather a lower privileged account setup for the purpose.

For programmatic key-based access, such as your backup software storing its nightly backups in the S3 bucket, the access keys should be rotated periodically. This helps to avoid any unauthorized access incidents resulting from keys that may have leaked. It also familiarises you, as the admin, with AWS's key rotation procedure, which is important as this will need to be done promptly as and when staff leave the organization, or in response to security incidents.

For those developing software that uses an S3 bucket as storage, be especially careful not to commit the access keys to any public (or even internal) code repository. There have been many security incidents reported by the press caused by someone carelessly committing an access key to Github or similar.

Common S3 code errors

When it comes to configuration, the AWS Share Responsibility Model warns users that they are responsible for security 'in' the cloud. AWS takes care of security out of the cloud, so the user is liable for the changes they make that publicly expose their own data. Thankfully, the most common misconfigurations are avoidable.

Arguably the most common S3 error code is the 403 'AccessDenied' code. This is usually a case of bucket and object ownership. If the error is from 'GetObject' or 'HeadObject' requests, you should check whether the object is also owned by the bucket's owner – if you are the bucket owner, then you should check the access control list (ACL) permissions. An S3 object is, by default, owned by the AWS account that uploaded it. If other accounts have permission to upload to your bucket, then you would need to verify the account that owns that object – also verify who can access it.

Another common error is "MultiRegionAccessPointModifiedByAnotherRequest" or error code '200'. These can crop up for a range of reasons but they are all to do with regional access points. So, for example, an action failed because another request is modifying a specific resource. Or you have a multi-region access point with the same name. 

For a complete list of error codes, see the AWS Error Response page here.

S3 pricing

You can start using S3 for free, though you will be charged for what you use. Essentially you don't pay to have a bucket, but you do pay for putting stuff in said bucket and the amount you pay is dependent on the size of the objects you store and how long you store them. You will also be charged on the tier of S3 service you use – Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-Infrequent Access, S3 One Zone-Infrequesnt Access, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Flexible Retrieval, and Glaxer Deep Archive.

AWS provides an online calculator to work out your fees. You need to consider ingest and transfer costs first, but you simply estimate your region, your storage needs, and your preferred tiering. So, for example, if you were to set up S3 with California (US West Coast) as the region and wanted 10TB stored per month in S3 Standard, the monthly fee would be $267. 

Video surveillance companies are struggling to modernise their businesses due to unique challenges inhibiting cloud migration efforts, but the launch of new solutions is thought to be accelerating the much-needed transformation.

Cloud storage is quickly being seen as a business-critical tool for video surveillance companies as they continue to face surging costs and cumbersome volumes of footage, according to David Boland, VP of cloud strategy at Wasabi.

However, surveillance firms have historically been overly reliant on on-premise infrastructure and are encountering issues such as struggling to find the right tools to enable a move to the cloud.

Speaking to IT Pro, Boland said the growing volume of surveillance video content in recent years - and their file sizes due to higher-resolution captures - has placed great strain on storage capacities.

The same is true for most businesses across the industry. The concerns have also been backed up by IDC’s recent Video Surveillance Survey which warned that resource demands are expected to be strained even further across the next three years.

“What we’ve seen in the past few years is an increase in the number of devices that are being deployed globally for capturing data,” said Boland. “That can be video data, or environmental sensors, or security data.

“We’ve also seen an increase in the quality of resolution and framerates. So, this increase in devices, resolution, and framerate equates to an increase in the need for additional storage.

“The storage has become more of a hurdle or a hindrance for many of our customers.”

This is an issue expected to continue unless operators adapt and expand their cloud storage capacity, Boland warned.

The cost of updating an existing technology stack to meet these demands is also proving to be a major challenge. A key factor in this has been an inability to move footage stored on-prem to the cloud.

This lack of interoperability has meant many organisations operating in the global surveillance industry have been held back from embarking on digital transformation programmes due to the potentially huge costs - and risks - of migrating to the cloud.

“The issue that many surveillance users have today is that they've been collecting video footage and keeping it on site and they’ve had no way to move it from on-site storage to the cloud because there's a lack of a gateway that is interoperable with their VMS package,” he said.

Wasabi Surveillance Cloud

This week, Wasabi launched its new cloud storage platform, Wasabi Surveillance Cloud - a product the company believes will help surveillance firms make their first steps towards completing a successful cloud migration.

Described as a ‘first of its kind’ hybrid cloud platform, Boland said the new solution will enable users to offload surveillance footage from their local storage environment directly to the cloud and break down traditional barriers to migration.

Cloud storage offers marked advantages for surveillance companies in terms of both cost reductions and the ability to create a more seamless flow of data, which in turn will help operators boost organisational agility, Boland noted.

“The real benefit comes in the storage cost savings for companies,” he said. “On-site storage is about 30% of the entire spend for a video surveillance customer, but what cloud can do is reduce that spend and save them money.”

Early-stage cloud shift

At present, the global surveillance industry is still in the formative stages of shifting to the cloud, but Boland expects this to accelerate rapidly in the coming years.

Drawing parallels to the cloud shift in other industries, he predicted that we will begin to see rapid movement in this space as organisations realise the benefits that cloud can deliver.

“I think that we are in the very early stages of migrating video surveillance from on-site to the cloud. Around 90% of video surveillance footage is kept on-site just now, and over the next ten years I can see that changing,” he said.

"In ten years from now, I see a situation where 90% is kept in the cloud, and 10% is kept on-prem. We are at the very beginning of the adoption stage and learning curve for most of the companies out there.”

The initial adoption of cloud storage has traditionally been the first tentative step for many organisations who are grappling with the decision to make a complete shift, Boland said. And this is similar to what we've witnessed in the broader technology industry over the last decade.

“A parallel example could be seen by looking at where the IT industry was five to ten years ago,” he said. “Data backup packages and software did not have a cloud interface, and so a gateway was required.

“But over the past five years, we’ve seen that gateway being incorporated into data backup packages so customers can take advantage of cloud - specifically cloud storage.

“Using cloud storage is usually the first step for many organisations to understand the cloud and get used to it before they move other applications to the cloud.”

Cloud storage giant Dropbox has signed an agreement to acquire several key assets from Boxcryptor, bringing end-to-end encryption to business users.

Germany-based Boxcryptor specialises in providing end-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption for cloud storage services. Its integrated technology is designed to protect business data in the cloud from unauthorised access.

Dropbox is now bringing these capabilities to its own enterprise users and, by combining them with its own cloud storage product, the company says it will be able to better meet its customers’ evolving needs.

“We know security is a top priority for our customers,” Dropbox said in an announcement. “It’s important that we offer features that are seamlessly built into our product so customers who want or need an end-to-end solution can safeguard their confidential information without compromising their user experience.”

Specifically, Dropbox said the move is in response to heightened customer demand for built-in end-to-end encryption functionality and features, as the number of cyber attacks continues to rise. It pointed to Ernst & Young’s 2021 Global Information Survey which concluded that more than three-quarters of respondents saw an uptick in the number of disruptive attacks following the COVID-19 pandemic.

To help tackle this, Boxcryptor’s capabilities will be embedded natively within Dropbox for subscribed business users, providing an additional layer of security that encrypts files locally on their devices prior to syncing their content to Dropbox.

“We look forward to being able to offer end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption so that our customers can focus on working and collaborating on Dropbox knowing their content is even more safe and secure,” Dropbox added.

As for Boxcryptor itself, the company said the move will enable it to better scale its security capabilities through Dropbox’s global platform and provide an “elevated encryption service for users”.

The company was also keen to emphasise that its existing customers will not be affected by the acquisition and that “no contracts, customer data or keys will migrate to Dropbox”. All data will remain in its German data centres.

“While we’ve sold several key technology assets to Dropbox, we will continue to service our existing users and customers pursuant to the terms of their existing contracts,” Boxcryptor said in a company blog post. “However, as of today, we will not allow the creation of new accounts or purchases of any new licenses.”

Dependable and secure cloud storage for business is paramount for any data-driven organisation, especially in sensitive industries like healthcare, financial services, education, transportation, and manufacturing.

Before you choose the best cloud storage provider for your needs, it's essential to understand the basics of secure cloud storage for business, so you can make an informed and cost-efficient choice.

In this article, we discuss how secure cloud storage for business works, including its essential and cutting-edge security features; region-specific compliance regulations; and the importance of multi-layered security infrastructure. Finally, we provide some recommendations on security-focused cloud storage.

What is secure cloud storage for business?

Keeping your business’s data secure can be cumbersome and expensive, which is where the best cloud storage for business can be of service.

Companies in this field, especially those offering secure cloud storage for business, specialise in storing their clients' data across multiple server locations worldwide. They take responsibility for maintaining their servers, backing up and safeguarding clients' valuable data with state-of-the-art encryption technology, and guaranteeing access to it at all times.

A great cloud storage service takes care of all aspects of data security, and ensures sufficient data transfer speeds, reliable cloud uptime, and excellent customer service, enabling clients to focus on their core business activities.

Data should be encrypted in transit and at rest

Encryption is the process of encoding or scrambling data so that only an authorised party can unscramble and access it. Encryption can be broadly classified into two categories—in transit and at rest. The former applies to securing your data while it's being transferred from your computer to the cloud server, and the latter refers to protecting your files once they're in the cloud.

For in-transit security, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is considered a must-have. It is a method of securing information between two end systems or devices, to ensure that no third party can access your data during transit, keeping it confidential and safe.

But if one end is a cloud service provider where the data is meant to be stored, at-rest encryption is also required once the data reaches the server location.

For at-rest encryption, 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technology is considered the industry standard. AES encryption uses a secret key to protect your data. You can think of a key like a password. However, whereas a password phrase is human-generated and therefore more easily remembered, an encryption key is machine-generated, random, and may contain special characters, making it almost impossible to crack.

The only easy way for an unauthorised individual to access your data when it's encrypted with 256-bit (AES) technology is to get their hands on your encryption key. A disadvantage of basic AES technology is that your encryption key is also stored on the cloud servers. If a hacker breaches your cloud service provider's security apparatus, they may be able to use this secret key to access your files.

Zero-knowledge encryption for extra security

Zero-knowledge encryption means that no one other than you has the keys to unlock your files. Once an encryption key is created, no copies of it are stored anywhere else. The cloud service that hosts your files will have no means of decrypting them without your consent. And even if your files are breached by criminals or government agencies armed with a warrant, they will only get access to encrypted and unreadable data.

Services like Sync.com include zero-knowledge encryption as part of their regular plans, and pCloud, another security-focused hosting provider, offers it as a standard feature of its pCloud Crypto service for businesses.

You might think this makes zero-knowledge encryption a must-have in all cases, but there are significant trade-offs to consider. If your files are encrypted on the cloud, they can't be accessed without decryption. So any media files, including photos and videos, cannot be previewed or opened directly from the cloud.

Another downside of zero-knowledge encryption involves a common scenario—losing your password. If you lose your encryption key, there is no way to recover your files. This is, of course, a feature and not a bug, so it's essential to carefully consider your security requirements rather than choosing a one-size-fits-all solution.

Compliance regulations are your friends

Regulations provide an invaluable safety net for data owners and end-users. When researching secure cloud storage services, it's essential to understand which regulatory framework applies to them.

Although compliance regulations vary by country or region, a strong framework may require that each file and folder has an audit trail that shows the dates on which files were uploaded and modified, user permissions, and operations performed, including copy and delete. Such detailed record-keeping is vital for security-conscious businesses, and can prevent the loss of millions of dollars due to negligence, criminal activity, or unforeseen events.

For example, Sync.com operates out of Canada, a country with powerful data protection laws. Canadian businesses must comply with the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Another well-known regulatory framework is the EU's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies to any cloud hosting service with server locations in the EU.

If your chosen cloud hosting provider is located in a country or region with robust compliance regulations, you can rest easy knowing that these laws are helping to protect your data.

Security measures must be holistic

Data loss and breaches can happen for many reasons, ranging from natural disasters to hacker attacks. A handful of security measures are not enough to protect against all eventualities. For example, if criminals manage to get a hold of your encrypted files, they may not be able to read them, but they could still hold them for ransom.

That's why many providers employ a multi-layered security infrastructure for every contingency. These measures may consist of firewalls, cutting-edge encryption, multi-factor authentication (where users are required to present two or more forms of identification to access a service, e.g., a password and a code sent to their phone), and the ability to remotely wipe a local device in case of loss or theft.

Some backup service providers like Storj split your files into multiple pieces after encryption and distribute them over a global server network, making it virtually impossible for an unauthorised entity to access your data. Files are reconstituted when you need them, and unlocked using an encryption key accessible only to you.

Other hosting services like Egnyte pride themselves on physically protecting your data, with measures such as a state-of-the-art intrusion detection system, biometric access controls, surveillance cameras, and natural disaster-resistant data centres.

Conclusion

Cloud service providers like Sync.com, pCloud, and Storj focus heavily on data security, and you may be assured of a solid security setup if you go with one of these companies.

However, with constantly evolving technologies and changes in compliance laws, it would be prudent to consult with data security and compliance experts and read the fine print before transferring your valuable data and dollars to any cloud service. When it comes to data security, it always makes sense to measure seven times and cut once.

Further reading on cloud storage

If you're looking for cloud storage but don't have much of a budget, make sure you take a look at our guide to the best free cloud storage, though we don't recommend this for businesses.

Wondering what might be best for your business when it comes to cloud and local storage? Our comparison pitting cloud storage vs local storage aims to explore the similarities, differences, advantages and disadvantages of both types.

Data platform company Splunk has filed a lawsuit against rival Cribl, alleging that its CEO and other employees stole source code and technical secrets for its own advantage.

Splunk alleged that former employee Clint Sharp, who left the company in 2017, took code without permission that he then used when he co-founded Cribl the same year.

Additionally, it claims that since its formation Cribl has illegally sourced technical documents from outgoing Splunk employees in order to undermine the company.

“Mr Sharp founded Cribl using code he intentionally and unlawfully took from Splunk when he was a Splunk employee without a licence or permission to do so,” read the complaint.

“Since that time, Cribl and Mr Sharp have recruited numerous Splunk employees to Cribl, and have systematically encouraged employees to take Splunk’s confidential technical and business documents with them. In turn, Cribl has used the information it misappropriated to compete unfairly against Splunk.”

In a blog post, Splunk alleges that it attempted to settle the matter privately, but that this was unsuccessful. It characterises Cribl’s actions as a “coordinated campaign of misappropriation” and claims that the company used Splunk’s Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) programme to further its theft.

After launching in 2017, Cribl joined the TAP program, an agreement that allows partners to add to Splunk’s Enterprise platform, through the use and limited copying of Splunk software.

However, the TAP program agreement states that partners may only use the software to demonstrate the use of extensions with the software and to develop extensions further. Using copies of the software to determine source code would constitute a violation of the terms of agreement.

"The allegations in Splunk’s lawsuit are false, and we will defend against these baseless claims," Cribl stated in a blog post.

"We have built interoperability using our own hard work and open source implementations, such as Eventgen. While Splunk tries to stifle competition through litigation, we will keep our relentless focus on our customers to give them choice and control over their data."

Splunk has requested an injunction against Cribl, Clint Sharp and all associated Cribl entities, from further infringing Splunk copyrights. It has also requested an accounting of the profits that Cribl has made from the activity and subsequent damages. The company has requested a trial by jury.

"Proving infringement of copyright in source code, as Splunk is alleging here, tends to be difficult," said Michael Buckworth, founder at UK law firm Buckworths. "A former employee would be incredibly foolish to use a carbon copy of code he has misappropriated; rather he would likely recode the software to deliver substantially similar functionality.

"New code achieving the same outcome as existing code is unlikely to infringe copyright in existing code leaving the damaged party to look at patent infringement or breach of contractual obligations," he added.

"Splunk may believe that they can prove each allegation that they have made with the result that they could secure significant damages from Cribl, or even have it shut down.

"Alternatively, this may be a strategic move to dry up investment and other financial support in Cribl. There is nothing that will turn off investors more than a high-profile IP dispute! Either way both parties will now need to prove their position and live with significant costs if they fail.”

Splunk operates in more than 21 regions internationally, providing customers with a suite that provides oversight over their data and allows them to conduct big data analytics. It also aims to improve observability across multi-cloud environments. Last year it announced a new cloud security suite in addition to its other offerings.

Cribl supplies data management solutions to its customers, aiming to provide data flexibility and stack observability. Its service Cribl Stream is used by DevOps engineers and other industry professionals in order to process data in real time, supply context to data, and encrypt sensitive fields.

IT Pro has approached Splunk for comment.

This article has been updated to include a statement from Cribl.

The best cloud storage for business gives companies secure and safe storage of key data and files. In addition, top platforms offer collaborative, administrative, and file-sharing tools, helping your business more ably cope with a hybrid workforce and an increasingly-digital business world.

Factors integral to modern-day success include speed, compatibility, security, centralised data requirements, and ease of collaboration. As such finding and choosing the best cloud storage for your business is more important than ever before.

For many, comparing and contrasting cloud storage vs local storage is still the first port of call. However, cloud storage holds all the cards when it comes to performance and security at a reasonable price, while a wide range of extra advantages relating to blending remote and in-office workforces gives it the edge.

The best cloud storage for business offers cloud sync and military-grade security, with vendors featured below numbering among the best encrypted cloud storage services and the most secure cloud storage systems. With so many options, it's wise to choose a service offering adequate storage, advanced security, high performance, and top-level customer service.

We've ranked the best cloud storage for business on all the above factors, plus size limits, maximum storage, pricing, additional tools, and ease of use.

The top 3 best cloud storage providers for businesses

Egnyte: the best cloud storage for business

Egnyte’s enterprise-class cloud storage for medium to large organizations allows files to be stored and backed up efficiently. Highly rated management tools, third-party app integrations, and API support supplement the system’s robust security features, intuitive user interface, and competitive pricing.

Box for Business: top for security and integrations

Box for Business boasts impressive third-party integrations and powerful security and encryption features, facilitating painless collaboration and file-sharing. The platform is extremely easy to use with a tidy user interface and high-quality Android and iOS apps, while top-value pricing on its Business Plus subscription tier offers great value for businesses.  

Dropbox Business: the leader in file-sharing

A household name in cloud storage services, Dropbox remains a great option for businesses looking for best-in-class file-sharing functionality. Compared to its business cloud storage competitors, Dropbox offers customers added flexibility with third-party applications as well as an easy-to-use dashboard. 

Which is the best cloud storage for business?

Our top pick for the best cloud storage for business is Egnyte, due to its brilliant software and synchronization, accessible collaboration systems, sharing for any file type, third party integrations, and providing users with the option to store sensitive data on on-premises servers for added security, all of which separate it from the rest of the pack. 

Cloud storage stalwarts Box for Business and Dropbox Business also feature highly in our rankings demonstrating extensive experience in the personal cloud storage solutions can translate to the enterprise sector.

SpiderOak is the solution for businesses  looking for zero-knowledge encryption for their cloud storage, while Microsoft’s OneDrive for Business tries to compete for customers looking for security-focused cloud storage.

The best cloud storage for businesses available now

Egnyte

Plenty of storage accompanied by flexible sync tools

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: 50GB per employee
• Number of devices: Potentially unlimited
• Encryption: End-to-end

REASONS TO BUY

• 15-day free trial
• Superb integration
• End-to-end encryption

REASONS TO AVOID

• No native Linux client
• Average speeds

Since its launch in 2007, Egnyte continues to provide premium software to meet the file sharing and synchronization needs of businesses, regardless of size. Customers are able to store multiple types of data in the cloud, locally and online, and more sensitive data can be kept on-premises for extra security.

Egnyte provides content services such as a user-friendly collaboration system that allows employees to work together whenever, wherever they are. Both internal and remote employees are able to access important files via the service’s seamless integration with Microsoft 365.

In terms of pricing, Egnyte’s Business plan starts at $20 per user per month and offers customers 1TB storage (plus 10GB per employee) for files up to 100GB in size, spanning 10 to 100 employees. You will need to contact Egnyte directly to get a custom quote for their ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Enterprise Lite’ plans, which provide additional benefits such as AI-based content classification, behavior-based ransomware detection, security issue alerts, unusual behavior detection, and more. 

The only drawback noted by critics online is the platform's long load times for certain files, namely images.

Read our comprehensive Egnyte review

Box for Business

Low-cost and solid storage from a reliable provider

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: Unlimited
• Number of devices: Unlimited
• Encryption: AES 256-bit

REASONS TO BUY

• Intuitive interface
• Inexpensive
• Excellent business feature set

REASONS TO AVOID

• Read-only sharing
• Can’t restrict which networks to sync from

Box has been a household name in the cloud content management and file sharing space for over 15 years. Its strengths lie in a wide range of management abilities and a clear focus on robust security protections. 

A simple user interface means there is no learning curve for new users trying to navigate around the platform. A handy user dashboard enables admins to control access to settings, files and folders, as well as monitor users and manage sharing options.

The Box Drive client is available on both MacOS and Windows, as well as offering an Android app through which users can access their files. Box’s storage services are supported by a number of popular productivity suites such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Box for Business starts at $15 per user a month, allowing users to upload files up to 5GB with unlimited storage, technical support during local business hours. The standard Business plan offers organization-wide collaboration, advanced security features, and no limit on the maximum number of users.

The Business Plus plan package costs $25 per user a month and ups the maximum file size to 15GB. This tier also allows for unlimited external collaborators and has an expanded feature set including advanced search filters and custom metadata templates.

With the Enterprise tier, priced at $35 per user a month, the maximum file size upload is expanded to 50GB and offers extra features including password policy enforcement, document watermarking, 2FA for external users, and more.

Box also offers an Enterprise Pus package that offers everything included in the Enterprise tier but allows users to upload files up to 150GB. Other bonus features include enhanced threat detection and smart access controls, improved 24/7/365 customer support, data residency controls, and more. 

Read our full Box for Business review.

Dropbox Business

Affordable and dependable storage from the industry heavyweight

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: Unlimited
• Number of devices: Unlimited
• Encryption: In transit and at rest

REASONS TO BUY

• Simple to use
• 30-day free trial

REASONS TO AVOID

• No online editing tools

Dropbox Business’ greatest strength is its simplicity, making it a popular choice among business customers. Cross-platform functionality across most devices and apps, no compatibility issues with different file types, and intuitive drag-and-drop functionality on the desktop app make Dropbox Business one of the easiest cloud storage services to use.

Content can be shared quickly via links, even if the recipient is not a Dropbox user. Dropbox’s business plan lets users connect to their personal account and manage all of their files from one dashboard.

Administrators can gain insights into the status of each team member from the dashboard, as well as modify how they share and manage files, set access permissions, and monitor usage. Third-party support is high level, with apps such as Microsoft Office and Slack part of the package.

Speaking of packages, Dropbox Business offers three different tiers. The Standard plan will cost you $12 per user a month, starting at three users, and includes 5TB of space for secure storage, 120 days of file recovery, 2FA, and more.

The Advanced package builds on this, starting at $26 per user a month with unlimited storage, advanced admin controls, and user management tools. To subscribe to the Enterprise tier, it’s necessary to contact Dropbox directly and work out a deal.

There is a 30-day free trial available, for which you will have to provide your payment credentials: after this, you’ll be automatically bumped up to a paid plan and charged. One consistent complaint from users however was the absence of online editing tools.

Read our comprehensive Dropbox Business review and our Dropbox review.

SpiderOak

High security combined with a simple interface

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: Unlimited
• Number of devices: Unlimited
• Encryption: End-to-end

REASONS TO BUY

• Top-notch security
• Central device management
• Unlimited devices

REASONS TO AVOID

• Not as collaborative-friendly as other services
• Relatively expensive

SpiderOak serves as a collaboration tool, online backup and file hosting service, leveraging a cloud-based server to allow its users to access, synchronize, and share data.

Not only does it boast high-level data security and privacy, but it also provides cloud storage, online backup and sharing services using a ‘zero knowledge’ privacy environment (at least the company claims so). There's also a 21-day free trial available, so you can see how the service works and test it before making a final decision.

Considering the focus is on security and privacy, SpiderOak didn’t waste much energy on intricate design. Its interface is pretty simple and straightforward, with a convenient drag-and-drop feature that helps you organize files quickly and efficiently.

The centralized device management dashboard grants users easy access to settings for all applications, such as sharing and backup selection, allowing them to manage their accounts, set group permissions and monitor usage.

In terms of pricing for businesses, a minimum of 500 users is required to qualify for the enterprise package, and you will need to contact SpiderOak’s sales team for a quote. As per the online community, SpiderOak is said to lack many of the collaboration tools that can be found with other cloud storage providers.

Read our full SpiderOak review.

Microsoft OneDrive for Business

Best business cloud storage for Microsoft users

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: 1TB per employee
• Number of devices: Unlimited
• Encryption: In transit and at rest

REASONS TO BUY

• Fast file uploads and downloads
• Backed by the power of the Microsoft ecosystem
• Very user-friendly web interface

REASONS TO AVOID

• Average security tools
• Customer support is average at best

Post-Windows 10, OneDrive has been the main Microsoft cloud storage solution, as it's integrated into the file explorer for immediate access. Via Android and iOS apps, as well as a macOS app, OneDrive for Business is interlinked with Microsoft 365, to boost productivity with its many collaborative features.

The best of these include selective syncing, multi-page scanning, access anywhere from any device, 1TB per person on the cheapest plan, and the aforementioned interaction with Microsoft Office apps via 365. This is OneDrive’s biggest draw, with Microsoft 365 plans packaging OneDrive with Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Skype.

While security isn't as high-level as competitors, in transit and at rest encryption ensures file safety, and the potential for unlimited storage is a real advantage for larger businesses. The most expensive plans also come with a one-month free trial, but business plans start at $6 per user a month, with 1TB, potentially unlimited users (via upgrades), file versioning for up to 500 versions, and much more.

Read our full OneDrive and OneDrive for Business review.

Tresorit

Superior file encryption through stylish apps

SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage capacity: 1TB
• Number of devices: Potentially unlimited
• Encryption: End-to-end

REASONS TO BUY

• 14-day free trial
• Strong end-to-end encryption
• Multiple packages available

REASONS TO AVOID

• Pricey
• Few in-app collaboration features

Hailing from Hungary and Switzerland, Tresorit is a cloud storage provider with a focus on increased security and strong data encryption for businesses, as well as personal users.

It will primarily entice businesses whose main priority is keeping online data safely stored, as Tresorit offers ‘zero-knowledge’ encryption. This means that only the people you choose can have access to your data. Moreover, its 2FA login provides an additional layer of security for your account.

Let’s talk pricing: the Business Standard plan costs $10 per user a month, billed annually. You get 1TB of encrypted storage per user, syncing of existing folder structure, secure access for up to 10 devices per user, and a few other features.

The Business Plus plan starts at $20 monthly per user, on the annual billing basis, and includes data residency options, enhanced collaboration and tracking, and support via phone. It also increases the storage per user to 2TB.

The ‘Enterprise’ option will require a custom quote from Tresorit, and is perfect for businesses with more than 50 users. Additional features include admin API, personalized staff training and custom deployment. If you decide on this option, you will need to contact the Tresorit team directly in order to sign up.

All Tresorit’s packages are accompanied by a 14-day free trial. While it might be considered a bit pricey, keep in mind that it offers a higher scale of security compared to other similar services, as well as additional features, so it's probably worth it.

Read our Tresorit Business review.

What is cloud storage for business?

Cloud storage works by storing data on a physical drive, before making the data accessible via an online software platform to users whenever and wherever they want to view it.

Many business cloud storage providers rank among the best apps to share files as a result, and fall into one of two camps: self-hosted, utilizing on-premises (on-prem) infrastructure; or storage as a service (StaaS), using externally managed, third-party infrastructure. A combination is known as hybrid cloud storage.

StaaS providers achieve economies of scale by managing advanced, expansive data centers, and thus can provide large, affordable levels of storage. In comparison to self-hosted services, StaaS providers are always more affordable per TB, and are known as storage and syncing platforms because they're designed for collaboration.

They provide the ability to seamlessly upload and access data, as well as edit or share it, from any connected device. Cloud sync technology meanwhile encompasses link sharing and file versioning, allowing for simple sharing of documents within and across businesses.

Users can track document changes and incorporate colleague edits, allowing StaaS products to provide a cohesive and integrated digital environment.

How to choose the best cloud storage for business

When looking for the best cloud storage for business, you must ensure that the provider you choose offers stable, highly secure storage, and is able to protect company data - often both sensitive and important - at all times.

Look for services offering end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge architecture. Both security elements are integral, with the former meaning providers are almost hack-proof, but the latter is particularly significant, because your cloud storage service is unable to access your data, even if law enforcement authorities compel them to.

Many services offer in-transit and at-rest encryption, so data is totally indecipherable even if a cybercriminal intercepted it. Both your data and the infrastructure housing it are protected, with StaaS organizations housing servers in highly secure data centers with 24/7 security, biometric authorization for entry, and frequent security auditing.

These safeguards are particularly crucial for enterprise and business cloud storage, especially if you're operating in privacy or data-sensitive industries. It's non-negotiable at this level to invest in cloud storage providing the very best security, especially if you're planning on going cloud-native.

Data center locations are key too, as different countries have different privacy laws, so you'll need to ensure data is stored in a country that complies with the data privacy obligations of your business. This is where the best web hosting services cross over with cloud, specifically the best cloud hosting providers, because regional cloud hosting is affected in the same way.

As well as security, administrator controls for businesses using StaaS providers (which covers most business cloud storage services) enable managers and IT staff to oversee access and system usage. Elements such as 2FA, roles-based permissions, access management, and auditing are just some of the controls available, and StaaS providers also utilize cloud sync technology to offer collaborative functionality as well as seamless digital workflows.

When it comes to the best cloud storage, secure cloud storage platforms should be at the forefront of your mind, especially if you're looking for the best cloud storage for business. Many services don't perform as well when it comes to security, as while files may be encrypted and safe from hackers, not every platform is equal.

Some may, for example, control your encryption keys, so they can essentially access your data if required to by law enforcement. Hackers may also cause a data breach, leaking your important information. Thankfully, a good number of services are truly secure, including those we've outlined in this guide.

Truly secure cloud storage solutions, particularly the best encrypted cloud storage providers, utilise not only end-to-end or in-transit and at rest encryption, but also offer zero-knowledge encryption. This means that you have full control over who can access and view your stored data, and even the provider is unable to access anything - even if compelled to by law enforcement authorities.

Other security controls offered by leading providers include versatile administrator controls, as well as cloud data storage in highly-secure, well-maintained data centres. Those seeking business cloud storage will need these elements, because protecting confidential and vital business data is paramount.

We looked closely at the leading secure cloud storage services available, analysing their security features and tools and focusing particularly on encryption, data safety, and all-round security practices.

The 3 best secure cloud storage providers right now

IDrive: the best secure cloud storage provider

IDrive's high storage, reasonably-priced plans are protected by end-to-end and at-rest encryption, while a private key can be created to enable zero-knowledge encryption. It provides extensive file versioning and offers data centre security measures. For a limited time, get 10TB of cloud storage for only £3.27 for the first year!

pCloud: a security leader in cloud storage

pCloud offers encryption across the board, not least via its pCloud Encryption add-on, which includes zero-knowledge architecture as well as client-side encryption. For business plans meanwhile, user and access controls are available, with the encryption add-on only £4.99 a month on top of subscriptions.

SpiderOak: the top choice for zero-knowledge security

SpiderOak, via the SpiderOak One cloud storage service, offers advanced end-to-end encryption, but also has strict no-knowledge encryption, so will never have access to user files. Additional features include file versioning and recovery, while all plans are available for unlimited devices.

Which are the best secure cloud storage providers?

The best secure cloud storage provider is IDrive, thanks to its range of excellent secure storage solutions for individuals and businesses. Configurable storage and backups, alongside multi-device compatibility, are top features only enhanced by zero-knowledge and at-rest encryption on all files.

pCloud follows closely behind, its pCloud Encryption paid add-on providing advanced zero-knowledge and client-side encryption for an extra £4.99 a month, while business plans benefit from user and access controls as well as multi-device capabilities.

SpiderOak meanwhile is the leader in zero-knowledge, with advanced end-to-end encryption only adding to its zero-knowledge policy, which means the company and its staff cannot access any of your data or information.

We also recommend considering Icedrive, Sync.com, Tresorit, MEGA, and NordLocker when considering which secure cloud storage solution might be right for you or your business.

The best secure cloud storage providers, compared

The best secure cloud storage providers available

IDrive

Best configurable secure cloud storage

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Optional
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Phone, live chat, email, online form submission

REASONS TO BUY

• Compatible with various devices
• Uses full end-to-end encryption
• Configurable backups
• Support for unlimited devices

REASONS TO AVOID

• User interface can be a little confusing
• Upload and download speeds are a little slow

IDrive is a leading cloud storage provider, and offers excellent secure storage solutions for businesses of all sizes. It's also our top pick not only for the best cloud storage in terms of premium plans, but also the best cloud storage for photos, and more pertinently the best encrypted cloud storage.

It’s known for its configurability, which essentially enables you to specify exactly how you would like files to be stored and how backups should work. In addition, IDrive offers excellent multi-device compatibility, and accounts can be used with unlimited devices, including on mobile and desktop. End-to-end and at-rest encryption is used throughout, and you can create a private key to enable zero-knowledge encryption.

All of IDrive’s data centres are located within the USA. They are designed with multiple failsafes, and they employ industry-standard security measures to prevent physical data breaches.

There’s a basic free plan with 5GB of storage, but you will need to upgrade to a premium subscription for full access to all tools and features. Prices start from £65.25 a year for a single user licence with 5TB of storage. IDrive is currently offering 10TB for a hugely discounted price of £3.27 for the first year — one of the most affordable high-capacity plans we've seen.

It is worth noting that IDrive does have a few small flaws. Upload and download speeds can be slower than average. The user interface is also a little confusing, and you may find it hard to navigate at the beginning.

Read our full IDrive review.

pCloud

Best overall secure cloud storage platform

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: With add-on
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Email

REASONS TO BUY

• Generous 10GB of free storage
• Excellent file-sharing tools
• Leading client-side encryption practices
• Fast and easy to use

REASONS TO AVOID

• Support is a little basic
• The free plan has limited tools
• Zero-knowledge encryption is a premium add-on

Swiss-based pCloud is one of the world’s leading cloud storage providers. It’s one of our top choices when it comes to secure cloud storage, and it should be easy to see why.

For starters, pCloud provides all of the expected encryption services across the board. Advanced zero-knowledge and client-side encryption is available through the pCloud Encryption add-on, which costs a relatively small £4.99 a month.

The cheapest business plans also offer excellent value for money. Prices start from just £9.99 per user a month for 1TB of storage per user. Admin team members will benefit from a suite of user and access controls, and there are numerous other tools available to streamline the cloud storage process.

In addition, pCloud offers excellent multi-device capabilities. It’s available across all popular mobile and desktop operating systems, and its user interface is streamlined and intuitive across the board.

On the downside, collaboration tools are notably lacking. The free version is a little limited, and customer service is basic, at best.

Read our full pCloud review.

SpiderOak

Excellent zero-knowledge storage solutions

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Email, live chat

REASONS TO BUY

• Support for unlimited devices
• Point-in-time recovery tools
• Tight security all-around
• Tidy desktop app

REASONS TO AVOID

• Quite expensive
• Phone support is absent
• Limited mobile support

SpiderOak offers advanced secure cloud storage solutions through its SpiderOak One product. This enables you to create full backups of all of your files and other data, storing it in a safe cloud environment.

Like most of the providers on this list, SpiderOak offers advanced end-to-end encryption. It has a strict No Knowledge policy, which means that the company and its employees will never have access to your files or any information associated with them. The point-in-time recovery tools are excellent, enabling you to restore previous versions of files or folders.

In addition, all plans come with support for unlimited devices. Prices are a little high, though, with the base 150GB plan costing £4.89 a month. There’s a 21-day free trial that you can use to test the platform.

Unfortunately, there’s very limited mobile support. The desktop client is attractive and beginner-friendly, though, which is nice to see.

Read our full SpiderOak review.

Icedrive

Highly affordable secure cloud storage

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Phone, online ticketing

REASONS TO BUY

• Uses Twofish encryption algorithm
• Attractive web, desktop, and mobile apps
• Very competitive prices

REASONS TO AVOID

• Somewhat limited support
• Lack of collaboration tools

Icedrive is a newcomer to the cloud storage space, but it offers excellent secure storage solutions nonetheless. It uses the advanced Twofish encryption algorithm, rather than the more widely-used AES encryption. This is a much more secure option, which is nice to see.

In addition, Icedrive offers web, mobile, and desktop apps. These are attractive and highly functional. Collaboration tools are notably absent, though, and customer service is limited to phone and email.

Prices start at a very competitive £1.50 a month for 150GB of secure storage. Lifetime licences are also available from £79.99, and there’s a basic 10GB free forever plan that you can use to test the platform. All purchases are backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Read our full Icedrive review.

Sync.com

Advanced zero-knowledge encryption

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Email

REASONS TO BUY

• Excellent zero-knowledge encryption
• Streamlined file sharing
• Unlimited storage options

REASONS TO AVOID

• Support is limited to email
• Few third-party integrations
• Limited collaboration tools

Sync.com is a clear industry leader, and focuses on data security and privacy across the board. It’s known for its advanced end-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption, which means that no one will be able to access your data except for you.

The secure sharing tools on offer here stand out as excellent. You can set clear access permissions and control which users have what sort of access. For example, you can set permissions to read-only or read-write as necessary.

On the security front, Sync.com offers advanced 2FA tools. It’s compliant with regulations in various parts of the world, including the USA, Canada, and the EU. All data centres are highly secure and protected by tight controls.

Prices start from £4 per user, per month for 1TB of secure storage. Unlimited storage can be accessed for £12 per user a month. There’s also a free version that you can use to test the platform.

On the downside, there’s only email support. In-app collaboration is limited, and there’s only a small number of third-party integrations.

Read our full Sync.com review.

Tresorit

Versatile secure cloud storage for businesses of all sizes

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Live chat, phone, email

REASONS TO BUY

• Excellent encryption tools
• Encrypted file sharing available
• Real-time collaboration tools

REASONS TO AVOID

• Slow upload and download speeds
• Expensive compared to some alternatives

Tresorit is known for its advanced cloud storage solutions backed by a suite of collaboration and other productivity features. It uses zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption across the board.

The secure file sharing tools also stand out as excellent, particularly for those dealing with sensitive data. All links are encrypted, and you can set clear access permissions to ensure files are only available to selected people.

In addition, Tresorit boasts full compliance with various regulatory bodies. It’s fully HIPAA compliant, and its Swiss roots enable it to offer leading privacy features.

The collaboration tools also stand out as excellent. You can work alongside other team members to edit files. All changes will be tracked, and you can mark files that you’re working on as “editing” to notify your colleagues.

Some users will be concerned by the slow download and upload speeds, though, which are somewhat lower than we would expect with a leading cloud storage provider. Prices are also a little high, with the cheapest business plan starting at £9.58 per user a month for 1TB of storage.

Read our Tresorit Business review.

MEGA

The best free secure cloud storage available

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Email

REASONS TO BUY

• Very competitively priced
• Great free forever plan
• Tidy user interface
• Built-in team messaging tools

REASONS TO AVOID

• Slow upload and download
• Limited support options
• Few third-party app integrations

MEGA is our clear choice for those looking for a free secure cloud storage platform. It offers 20GB of storage with its free-forever plan, which is backed by a full range of premium tools.

As expected, all files are protected by zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption. 2FA is available, and you can set clear link permissions to ensure only the right people can access shared files.

On top of this, the MEGA user interface is tidy and packed full of advanced features. The collaboration tools are excellent, enabling you to work alongside your colleagues and other team members. There’s a built-in secure chat tool, and there’s even a MEGAdrop tool that enables third parties to upload files to your cloud.

The lack of support options will be a little concerning for some, as will the limited number of third-party app integrations. Upload and download speeds are also a little slow.

Read our MEGA review.

NordLocker

Competitively-priced secure cloud storage

SPECIFICATIONS

• Automatic backups: Yes
• Zero-knowledge encryption: Yes
• At-rest encryption: Yes
• Support: Email

REASONS TO BUY

• Great user-friendly interface
• Leading encryption and security tools
• Very competitively priced
• Global data centre locations

REASONS TO AVOID

• Only available on desktop devices
• File sharing is a little limited
• Limited support options

Unlike most of the other platforms on this list, which focus on cloud storage with encryption and security added as extra features, NordLocker uses an encryption-first model. In short, it offers advanced encryption services with cloud storage capabilities, and is from the same product family as NordVPN, one of the best VPN services available.

One thing that stands out about NordLocker is its local encryption services. You can drag and drop files or folders to upload them to a secure cloud server, or you can encrypt your files locally for even more security.

All cloud-stored data can be accessed from any desktop device, at any time. On the downside, though, there are no mobile apps, which will be frustrating for some users. File sharing is also limited, as you can only share with other NordLocker users.

Prices start from just £2.39 a month for 500GB of secure storage. There’s also a free version which offers 3GB of storage. It’s worth noting that customer service is limited to email, which is certainly a downside. However, there’s a decent knowledge base, and the platform is simple and intuitive, so you shouldn’t have too many problems.

How secure is cloud storage?

Cloud storage stores data on physical drives accessible via online platforms whenever and wherever users want to view it. With many contrasting the benefits and disadvantages of cloud storage vs local storage, it's worth pointing out how secure the former is.

End-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge architecture mean providers are almost hack-proof and unable to access your data, even if law enforcement authorities compel them to. In-transit and at-rest encryption ensure data is totally indecipherable, even if a cybercriminal intercepted it.

Data infrastructure is also protected, with highly-secure data centres monitored by 24/7 security, biometric entry authorisation, and frequent security auditing. Data centre locations are key: different countries' privacy laws can vary, so ensure data is stored somewhere that complies with your business's privacy obligations.

Administrator controls including 2FA, roles-based permissions, access management, and auditing also help ensure data transfer and file editing applications are secure as well.

More and more individuals and businesses are turning from traditional hard disks to cloud storage. The cloud provides more flexibility, scalability to meet the demand of growth, and integration with a limitless variety of apps and services.

If you’re considering making the switch to cloud storage, it’s critical that you choose your provider carefully. Cloud storage can only be as good as the data centres where your data resides, and the quality of providers’ data centres varies widely. Server technology has improved rapidly in the past decade, so a centre that was top-tier in 2010 won’t cut it anymore if the owner hasn’t been making continuous upgrades.

At the end of the day, getting the right cloud storage provider impacts everything from how much you’ll pay, what level of security you’ll have, and whether you can rely on your files to be accessible when you need them. So, let’s take a closer look at five things you need to consider when choosing an online storage service.

1. Location, location, location

To some extent, the whole point of the cloud is that your data can be located anywhere in the world and you will still be able to access it. But in reality, location is one of the most important things to think about when choosing a cloud storage provider.

In general, the closer you are to the data centre where your files are held, the quicker it will be to transfer data back and forth. You might not notice a difference of milliseconds, but it can be critical for business applications where time is of the essence. For example, financial data needs to be delivered nearly instantaneously, while online shopping relies on speedy data delivery to customers.

Location also matters for the simple fact that some places are more prone to natural disasters than others. Store your files in a data centre on a fault line or in an area with high risk of hurricanes at your own risk.

On top of that, with more countries imposing data access and privacy laws, location matters for legal reasons. If you’re worried about governments taking your data or having it used without your permission, make sure the country your data centre is in honours privacy with its laws.

2. Security

Cybersecurity is quickly emerging as one of the most important issues of our time. The number and reach of hackers is growing quickly, and threats aren’t limited to individuals looking to ransom your files—governments and enterprise-scale companies are also actively engaged in cyberespionage.

A data centre that’s weakly secured can be a potential point of entry for attackers to get to your data. Make sure that the building where your files reside is generously equipped with physical protection, including access controls, video cameras, and 24/7 monitoring by professional security teams.

The servers themselves should also be closely monitored for suspicious network activity around the clock. Ideally, your provider will have a security information and event management (SIEM) system and a team of cybersecurity experts to detect threats before they can be embedded in the network. Of course, it’s also essential to make sure that the server network is kept up to date with antivirus software and airtight firewalls.

3. Power & efficiency

It’s easy to take for granted that your data centre will always have the power it needs to keep the lights on and the servers running. But what happens if the local power plant is taken offline for a few hours or the electrical lines are damaged in a storm?

In that case, it’s critical that your cloud storage provider has a plan for backup power. An unexpected shutdown can be much more damaging than just taking your file offline for a short time—it can also damage the servers and cause irreparable data loss.

Your storage provider should have emergency generators on-site at the data centre at the very least. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and n+1 redundancy for all mission-critical components is even better. This redundancy should be maintained as the data centre grows over time.

Power is also important from the perspective of environmental sustainability. Data centres have a significant carbon footprint. This is especially important for businesses that pride themselves on sustainability initiatives and environmental responsibility.

A data centre’s efficiency is best measured by its power usage effective (PUE), which is a measurement of how much of the energy the data centre uses is directly consumed by its IT equipment. A lower PUE signifies a more energy-efficient facility, which means a smaller carbon footprint.

4. Connectivity

Connectivity with other data centres and with the global Internet are critical to a data centre’s functioning. Ideally, your storage provider will have several data centres in a single region. If they’re all connected, your data can be seamlessly transferred to deal with disruptions like natural disasters or power outages. Even better, that connectivity will extend to data centres spread across multiple regions.

5. Expertise

More than 70 percent of data centre downtime is caused by human error. That’s a staggering figure that demonstrates just how essential it is to ensure that your data is in the hands of experienced professionals.

There’s no single way to evaluate whether a cloud storage provider truly has the expertise it claims. But, you can dig deeper by looking for certifications from independent auditors, such as Uptime Management, and industry trade groups. You should also consider what pathways a company has in place for training and retaining its employees. The better a storage provider is at keeping highly skilled IT techs, the more likely it is that your data is in good hands.

The data centre where your files are stored makes a huge difference in the quality of your cloud experience. By considering these five factors, you can better evaluate cloud storage providers and find the right partner to host your data for the long term.

Apple devices are well known for quality and reliability, but you never know when you might run into an issue with your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Thankfully, Apple devices can easily be backed up to iCloud, but as with the best data recovery software, you’ll need to know how to restore a backup from iCloud if something goes wrong.

That’s why we’ve laid down these eight easy steps to reset your iOS device from an iCloud backup. Keep in mind that although iCloud is one of the best cloud storage solutions, it comes with one major caveat—you need to delete everything on your device before uploading a backup. Skip to step 7 of this guide if you need a workaround for this issue.

How to restore a backup from iCloud: Preparation

Before you can restore your iOS device from a backup, you need to set up iCloud backup. Ideally, you should do this when you first set up your device, but it can be done at any time.

To begin, go to the Settings app and tap on your name at the top. Then tap "iCloud" and scroll down to "Backup". Make sure "Backup" is set to on. Once backup is enabled, iCloud will automatically back up your data when your device is locked, plugged in, and connected to WiFi.

You can also navigate to Settings > iCloud > Backup and hit "Back Up Now" to manually trigger an iCloud backup. If you experience a technical issue or need to restore lost data, you can revert your Apple device to the latest iCloud backup at any time.

Keep in mind that the free iCloud account that comes with your Apple ID only has 5GB of available storage. Most Apple devices come with significantly more internal storage than that. The iPhone 13, for instance, comes with at least 128GB of onboard storage.

If you attempt to back up your device to iCloud and find that your iCloud storage is full, consider deleting some unneeded content, or upgrade to iCloud+, which starts for 79p a month for 50GB of storage.

Step 1: Prepare your device for a factory reset

Before you restore your device from a backup using the official process provided by Apple, you will need to perform a factory reset. This means you will need to erase all of the content currently present on your device. If you do not want to do a reset, you can get around this by using third-party software instead. Skip to step 7 to learn how to restore from a backup with third-party software.

Look carefully through your photos, files, notes, and any apps that might have important data. Anything that was added after your last backup will be permanently lost once you perform the reset.

Step 1b (Optional): Unpair your device (Apple Watch only)

If you are resetting an Apple Watch, you will need to complete an extra step before proceeding to step 2, which is to unpair your watch from your iPhone.

To begin, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, and navigate to My Watch > All Watches. Tap the info button next to the watch you want to unpair, then tap "Unpair Apple Watch". The system will ask you if you would like to keep or remove your cellular plan. Keep it, since you will be restoring from backup shortly.

Tap again to confirm, and input your Apple ID password to complete the unpairing process before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Reset your device

Once you are confident that nothing important will be lost, navigate to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset [Device]. Next, tap "Erase All Content and Settings" to initiate the factory reset. You will now be prompted to enter either your device passcode or your Apple ID password.

After entering the passcode, wait for the reset to complete. This can take a few minutes, depending on how much content you currently have on your device. You will know the reset was successful when you see the Hello screen that you saw when you first set up your iOS device.

Step 3: Set up and activate your device

Since your iOS installation is now effectively brand new, you will have to go through the initial setup steps the same way you did when you first bought your device. Start by tapping the Hello screen and choosing your language.

Follow the onscreen prompts to set up your device and connect it to the internet via WiFi or cellular data. Finally, set up your Face ID, Touch ID, and passcode. Note that not every Apple device will have all of these features. At this point, you are ready to restore your iCloud backup.

Step 4: Restore your data

On the next screen, you will receive several options to restore your data. Tap the top option, "Restore from iCloud Backup". You will now be prompted to sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID.

Upon signing in, you will see a list of available backups. Choose the most recent one, unless you would like to backdate your device to a specific date and time. iOS may indicate that you need to perform an update at this point. If this occurs, wait for the update to install then proceed to restore your device.

At this point, your data, including photos, notes, and files, will be restored. The next step is to restore your apps.

Step 5: Restore apps

To restore purchased apps, sign in with your Apple ID. Remain connected to WiFi while your device downloads all of the apps associated with that ID. If you have multiple Apple IDs, sign into each, one at a time, and wait for the associated apps to download.

Be prepared to wait a while, since depending on how many apps you have, this stage can be quite time-consuming.

Step 6: Complete the setup process

Once you have finished restoring your data and applications, there are still a few final touches before your device is ready to use. Follow the onscreen prompts to continue setting up your iOS device.

You will be asked to decide whether or not you want to share data with Apple for development purposes, and whether you want iOS updates to trigger automatically or manually.

You will also be prompted to set up Siri, Apple Pay, Screen Time, and other default features. Once you have completed this step, congratulations! You have fully restored your iOS device from an iCloud backup.

Step 7 (Optional): Restore your device without a reset using third-party software

Resetting your iOS device from an iCloud backup can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. The factory reset itself, downloading the backup, re-downloading your apps, and—potentially—re-updating iOS can take hours.

If you only lost a small amount of data, like a single image or a few messages, going through the entire reset and restore process can be a huge hassle. Fortunately, some third-party programs, such as EaseUS MobiMover, allow you to selectively restore a small amount of data from an iCloud backup file without a full reset.

To begin, download the reset software of your choice. Note that most third-party reset software is not free, but comes with a free trial that lets you download a limited amount of data. If this is a one-off case, you can use the trial to recover a few files for free.

Step 8 (Optional): Connect and run third-party reset software

All reset software works in a similar way, so this step applies regardless of what program you choose. To start, open your reset program and log into iCloud through its interface. The program should now present you a list of your iCloud backups. From the list, select a file that you wish to recover.

Download the backup file. Be prepared to wait for some time, especially if it is a large backup. Once your backup has finished downloading, the recovery software will open a new window with all of the files in that backup. Pick and choose which files you would like to download, and click "Restore to Device" to return them to your phone.

How to restore a backup from iCloud: Summary

Now you know how to create an iCloud backup of an iOS device and restore your device from that backup. Using iCloud to back up your devices is just one of the many benefits to this powerful cloud storage service.

Further reading on cloud storage

Learn more about cloud storage in our comparison pitting cloud storage vs local storage; our discussion on how you can start reducing cloud storage costs; and our buying guides evaluating the best free cloud storage, and the best cloud storage for photos.

Have you ever lost important data, experienced a technical issue, or simply wanted to transfer your old data to a new Google device? If you know how to restore a backup from Google Drive, you can recover your lost data, as with the best data recovery software.

Google Drive is one of the best cloud storage solutions available today. You can use it to save and share documents, collaborate via Google Docs, and access your files from any device. But did you know that you can also use Google Drive to back up photos and files, and retrieve them at your convenience?

In this article, we’ll cover all the steps required when it comes to learning how to restore a backup from Google Drive, so you can retrieve all of your data whenever you need to.

How to restore a backup from Google Drive: Preparation

This step only applies to Android devices. If you are using an iOS device, skip ahead to step 6 of this guide. If you are using a Windows PC, skip ahead to step 8.

Before you can restore your Android device from a backup, you’ll need to create a backup of your device. Ideally, you should start backing up your device regularly from the day you purchase it, but you can start this process at any time.

There are two kinds of backups for Google devices: manual and automatic. You can create a manual, one-off backup at any time, or start an automatic backup schedule that will create regular backups of your device in the background.

To create a backup of your Android device, download the Google One app. Go to the Storage tab at the top, and scroll to the device backup section. Tap "Set Up Data Backup", and choose which data you want to back up.

For the most comprehensive backup, you should back up your device data, full-resolution photos and videos, and MMS texts. Backups will now occur automatically when your device is idle, connected to WiFi, and when at least 24 hours have occurred since the last backup.

You can also manually trigger a backup by hitting the "Back Up Now" button in the Google One app under Storage > Backup.

Step 1: Retrieve backed-up photos and videos

You can retrieve backed-up photos and videos from your Android device at any time. They are stored separately from the rest of your backup data, in your Google Photos library. You can access Google Photos from any device by logging into your Google account and navigating to the Photos tab.

Photos and videos backed up from your device will be stored here, and you can restore them to your Android device if they are ever lost.

If you want to bring back your old photos, download any photos you want from Google Photos after you have finished setting up your device. You can also download the Google Photos app from the Google Play Store, and access your photos without having to download them.

Step 2: Reset your device

If you only need to restore a small amount of lost or corrupt data—your contacts app, for example—skip to step 5. If you want to upload a backup to a new Android device, it will already be set to its original factory settings, so skip to step 3. Otherwise, read on to learn how to reset your Android device.

To begin, go to the Settings app and tap "Backup and Reset". Depending on your specific device, these options might be named slightly differently, such as "Accounts and Backup" instead of "Backup and Reset". The sequence should still be similar.

Tap "Reset Device", then tap "Erase Everything". If your display isn’t working, or you cannot navigate your menus due to a technical error, you can also reset your device by holding the volume up, home, and power buttons simultaneously. This shortcut varies depending on the type of phone you are using, but this particular combination is common across most Android phones.

This will boot your phone’s recovery menu, which you can navigate using the volume buttons. Navigate to "Wipe Data/Factory Reset", and press the power key to initiate the reset.

Step 3: Restore your data

Once your phone is reset, you should see the welcome screen that you saw when you first set up your Android device. Tap "Let’s Go" to begin. On the next screen, select the option to "Copy Your Data", then choose "Backup from Cloud" as the copy method.

Sign in to your Google Account, and agree to Android’s terms of service. You’ll receive a list of items that you can restore, like your apps, call history, device settings, contacts, and calendar. Since you did a full factory reset, choose everything, and hit restore to begin restoring your data.

Once the reset is complete, you should have a fully functional Android phone, current to your latest backup. The only thing missing will be photos and videos, which you can now restore by following the instructions from step 1.

Step 4 (Optional): Restore without resetting

Instead of using the Google One app, you can use a third-party application like AnyRecover, Disk Drill, or iBeesoft to back up and restore your data, or one of the best data recovery software platforms.

Third-party apps can access your files in Google Drive and photos in Google Photos directly. You can download individual items from your backup, like individual messages or contacts, without resetting your device.

If you only lost a small amount of data, this is more efficient than doing a full reset. Plus, by using third-party software, you can access photos and files from one location instead of two separate ones.

Step 5 (Optional): Back up an iOS device with Google Drive

In addition to Android devices, you can use Google Drive to back up an iOS device. Apple products come with their own proprietary cloud account called iCloud.

iCloud has some limitations. Most notably, you cannot restore to a backup without doing a full factory reset of your iOS device. If you only want to restore a small amount of data, restoring from an iCloud backup can be very time-consuming. Google Drive, on the other hand, lets you restore data without a reset.

To begin, download the Google Drive app to your iOS device from the App Store. To create a backup, navigate to the Google Drive app settings and go to "Backup". Then hit "Start Backup". Google Drive will back up your photos to Google Photos, contacts to Google Contacts, calendar to Google Calendar, and so on.

This is a great way to migrate data from an iOS device to an Android device, or to keep your iOS data in sync with your other data if you keep most of your files on Google Drive.

However, you’ll have to navigate to each individual app to restore your data. This is beneficial, because you don’t have to do a full reset, but it is time-consuming if you are trying to recover a large amount of data. Consider keeping an iCloud backup for total resets of your phone, and a Google Drive backup for small amounts of essential data that you may need to restore quickly.

Step 6 (Optional): Enjoy unlimited backup with Google Pixel

Google Drive’s free storage space is limited to 15GB across all of your Google devices. This is particularly noticeable when you back up your photos, as it is quite easy to hit that 15GB cap.

However, if you own the original Google Pixel, you can enjoy unlimited full-quality backups to Google Drive for your photos and videos. Owners of the Pixel 2 and above get unlimited backups, though the quality is reduced after you surpass your 15GB storage cap.

You can recover your photos at any time by navigating to Google Photos in your browser and downloading them individually. Alternatively, you can access your photos in the Google Photos app without downloading them to your device.

Step 7 (Optional): Back up your PC to Google Drive

You now know how to restore your Android or iOS device from a Google Drive backup. But what about your Windows PC?

Note that these instructions are for backing up a large number of files. If you only need to back up a few files, drag and drop them into your Google Drive, and download them back to your PC at any time to recover them.

To begin, download Google Drive for desktop. Run the installer and hit "Sign In In-Browser" to sign in via your Google Account. Once Google Drive is installed, run it and right-click the drive icon in your taskbar. Click the gear in the top right corner and navigate to Preferences. Click "Add Folder" to choose which folders you would like to automatically back up to Google Drive.

These folders will now automatically back up any data in them to Google Drive. You can restore the data to your PC by downloading it from Drive at any time.

As you can see, there are many ways to restore your data from a Google Drive backup. You can do it on Android devices or your Windows PC. Google Drive can also be a cloud storage alternative to iCloud for your iOS devices, as it allows for more speed and flexibility when recovering an iCloud backup.

Further reading on cloud storage and data recovery

To learn more about cloud storage from Google, find out what Google Cloud storage is. Beyond Google, learn what hybrid cloud storage is, and read our guides to the best cloud storage for business, the best encrypted cloud storage and the best free cloud storage to determine what type of cloud storage is best for you.

The best apps to share files have played a pivotal role in businesses worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic started. These platforms are often the best cloud storage solutions too, and file sharing facilities are particularly important to the best cloud storage for business.

File sharing has a big impact on staff and employee interactions and overall efficiency, and given that so many now work from home full- or part-time, cross-collaboration between homes and offices is more important than ever. In this vein, it's absolutely key for any business to utilise a service that safely, securely, quickly, and easily handles remote data transfers at a high level and frequency.

In our guide below, we reviewed, evaluated, and ranked the best apps to share files, to help you or your business to identify and choose the right file-sharing solution for your needs.

The 3 best apps to share files securely available

• Egnyte: top-level security and synchronisation
  Egnyte's business-focussed platform offers scalable pricing and enterprise-level security, as well as desktop syncing and integration with Microsoft Outlook. It's the best file-sharing app for businesses looking to secure their file transfers.
• SpiderOak: zero-knowledge, encrypted file-sharing
  SpiderOak's zero-knowledge architecture ensures that even the provider cannot access your data, and this makes it a top choice. Other tools include backup and restore process encryption, while an accessible interface gives it a user-friendly boost.
• pCloud: scalable, secure cloud storage
  pCloud is the best choice for security, as all business accounts come with end-to-end encryption on an unlimited number of files. Competitive plans include 1TB per user, and users can be added or removed as necessary, with a straightforward app and great file sharing enabling link sharing and custom access privileges.

The best apps to share files securely, compared

The best apps to share files available right now

Egnyte

An excellent option for businesses

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £16.35 a month per employee (Business)
• Free tier/trial: 15 days
• Security specialty: MFA
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows

REASONS TO BUY

• Intuitive web app
• Perfect for businesses

REASONS TO AVOID

• No options for individuals

Egnyte pitches itself as a business-only platform, and it excels in fulfilling this brief. Its scalable pricing system starts at £16.35 a month per employee for 1TB of online support, before jumping up to Enterprise Lite and Enterprise levels that require contacting sales.

What it lacks in editing functionality, it makes up for in enterprise-level security, desktop syncing, and Microsoft Outlook integration. A gold standard choice for businesses of all kinds.

Read our comprehensive Egnyte review.

SpiderOak ONE

A safe and easy way to back up files

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £4.90 a month (150GB Plan)
• Free tier/trial: 21 days, no card required
• Security speciality: Zero-knowledge encryption
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Fedora

REASONS TO BUY

• Gold-standard security

REASONS TO AVOID

• Mobile functionality
• No two-factor authentication

SpiderOak has long had a “No Knowledge” approach to data management, meaning that it can’t access any of your information. Other strengths include encryption during the backup and restore processes and an incredibly accessible interface design.

SpiderOak has a few obvious weaknesses. The mobile app, for example, can be buggy, and there is no way to edit a document at the same time as someone else.

Read our full SpiderOak review.

pCloud

Safe, easy to use, but no editing capabilities

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £4.99 a month (Premium)
• Free tier/trial: 10GB
• Security speciality: TLS/SSL encryption
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux

REASONS TO BUY

• Generous pricing
• Additional encryption available

REASONS TO AVOID

• No editing options

pCloud’s security capabilities are impressive, but can be expanded further for £4.99 a month to include encryption during transfers.

Its pricing structure is also impressive, offering a generous 10GB for free, 500GB for £4.99 a month, or 500GB for a one-off fee of £175. If utilised for long enough, the latter deal could be incredibly cost effective. Collaborators beware though, pCloud has one main weakness—a dearth of any real-time editing options.

Read our comprehensive pCloud review.

Dropbox

The cloud platform’s app is reliable and simply designed

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £7.99 (Plus)
• Free tier/trial: 2GB
• Security speciality: File splitting during encryption
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, Windows

REASONS TO BUY

• Attractive user interface
• Different tiers depending on your needs

REASONS TO AVOID

• Some security blind-spots

Dropbox has a strong security capability, utilising 256-bit encryption when files aren’t in transit, as well as SSL/TSL transfer tunnels when they are. This is encouraging, as the sleek file-sharing platform has previously come under criticism for its data privacy. Of some concern, for example, is how they reserve the right to view any data on their servers.

Dropbox makes up for these doubts in other areas, however. Its mobile app and interface are intuitive and attractive, and a selection of pricing levels allows you to only pay for the file space you really need.

Read our full Dropbox review, and our Dropbox Business review.

Box

Dropbox’s rival has ample space and good security features

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £8 a month (Personal Pro)
• Free tier/trial: 10GB
• Security speciality: 2FA
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows

REASONS TO BUY

• Third-party integrations
• Excellent security

REASONS TO AVOID

• Slightly confusing design
• Can be expensive

Box has been around for a while, and has had time to add to its features and functionality. Integrating it with your macOS, for example, is easy���it appears alongside other folders in the Finder. It also one-ups Dropbox with end-to-end encryption and more space on its free tier.

One drawback is its slightly unclear layout, but that’s easily overcome after a few hours’ use, and its pricing is competitive.

Read our Box for Business review.

Microsoft OneDrive

Meagre free option, but Microsoft nails everything else

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £1.99 a month (OneDrive Standalone)
• Free tier/trial: 5GB
• Security speciality: Files individually encrypted
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows

REASONS TO BUY

• Ideal for collaboration
• Elegant mobile app

REASONS TO AVOID

• macOS app needs work
• Limited free storage

Microsoft was arguably slow off the mark to launch a file-sharing and cloud host, but it was worth the wait. The OneDrive mobile apps, for example, work seamlessly and are elegantly designed, while the desktop version makes files you didn’t even upload accessible.

All the editing and sharing options we’ve come to expect are available too, making teamwork easy. One disappointment for OneDrive is its macOS client app, which feels a touch clunky.

Read our Microsoft OneDrive review.

Resilio

High security and impressive performance

SPECIFICATIONS

• Lowest-priced plan: £48.96 (Sync Home)
• Free tier/trial: None
• Security speciality: Zero-knowledge encryption
• Operating systems: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux

REASONS TO BUY

• No maximum on data

REASONS TO AVOID

• Only paid users can send files

Resilio gains many benefits from its use of the BitTorrent Protocol, such as enhanced transfer times and the ability for peer-to-peer communication—so long as you and the receiver are both online.

In terms of security, Resilio claims that it cannot access your data, and neither can third parties. The service also offers several one-off payment tiers, including £48.96 and £81.65 for individual and family use respectively, and you can store as many files and as much data as you require.

How secure is cloud storage?

The best secure cloud storage provides leading security and encryption, even though it theoretically is not as secure as local storage. Stable and highly secure cloud storage for business in turn must give your sensitive and integral company data the utmost protection.

When looking for secure storage, ensure your chosen provider offers either end-to-end encryption or zero-knowledge architecture. Respectively, these mean services are either essentially hack-proof, or that not even their own employees are able to access your files, including even if law enforcement compels them or the form to do so.

If these aren't an option, look for in-transit and at-rest encryption. In this case, your data is indecipherable even if a cybercriminal intercepted it from the provider. Storage as a service (StaaS) organisations provide their storage from highly-secure data centres, which are protected 24/7 by security features such as biometric entry authorisation and frequent auditing.

Finally, look for additional tools like 2FA, which offers you added security on top of what the providers have undertaken behind the scenes. It's perfectly natural to have data security concerns, but the best cloud storage providers offer strong tools that are right on the cutting-edge.

What file-sharing features can cloud storage offer?

The majority of cloud storage providers offering business services are StaaS businesses, providing customers with collaborative tools and seamless digital workflows. These help to facilitate and grow collaboration and productivity across a business.

With hybrid working across remote and office-based staff now more entrenched in the modern business world, these elements are particularly important. These providers also utilise cloud sync technology, which allows edits to documents to be visible immediately across all connected devices and to all users with the requisite access.

In turn, such providers also offer important administrative features and tools, which cover access management and system usage auditing. Such tools can range from 2FA all the way to roles-based permissions.

Further reading on cloud storage

Learn more about cloud storage in our comparison pitting cloud storage vs local storage; our discussion on how you can start reducing cloud storage costs; and our buying guides evaluating the best free cloud storage, and the best cloud storage for photos.

Sync is a well-rounded provider of cloud storage services, which offers full end-to-end encryption to secure all your stored data.

Sync.com review: Snapshot

It may not do anything significantly unique to set itself apart from the competition, but Sync is still one of the best cloud storage solutions for those looking for secure storage on a budget.

Unlike similar security-focused cloud storage options, Sync tries to strike a balance between features and security. It offers zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption for all your data, but also boasts some decent file sharing and collaboration features.

However, Sync isn’t the best platform for teams. In fact, there aren’t many third-party integrations to speak of. Still, the platform does offer some basic multi-user functionalities, letting you invite other users to view and edit the synced folders from your devices.

In our Sync.com review, we found that this is a platform that doesn’t do anything too differently. But while it may not have the most unique selling proposition in the bunch, it still does a decent job of balancing security with collaboration and may offer a less walled-off alternative to services like SpiderOak and Tresorit.

Score: 3.5/5

Read on for the full Sync.com review.

Sync's competitors

Sync.com: Key features

Sync is a security-focused cloud storage service that also offers team collaboration and file-sharing options for those who need it. Its primary selling point is the zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption that it offers, which help it compete with the best secure cloud storage and best encrypted cloud storage providers.

While it doesn’t allow any third-party integrations to speak of, the service does come with good mobile and desktop apps, which make the process of making changes to files and synchronizing them with the cloud in real time that much easier. Here, we take a look at some of the key features offered by Sync.

As the name suggests, Sync is primarily a file synchronization service. It allows you to download a client application on your desktop, smartphone, or other device and use it to synchronize a single folder from your device with the cloud. Any files you include within the folder will be uploaded to the cloud in real time, offering you complete peace of mind in case of a data breach.

Sync stores away all previous versions of your files every time you make changes to them. Previous versions are stored for up to 30 days on free accounts. If you pay for a premium account, you can store unlimited previous versions of your files for as long as you want. What’s more, the previous file versions don’t count towards your total storage limit, whether on a free or premium account.

It claims to offer zero-knowledge encryption, which means not even its employees can access the files you store using the service. Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest, meaning that only you (or anyone you share access with) will be able to view or edit your files at any given time. Connections are encrypted using AES-256, RSA-2048, and TLS, so there is no way to read what’s in your files without the encryption keys.

Sync offers file and folder sharing features for all data stored on the platform, meaning that you can control who has access to your content. There are a lot of advanced sharing options available too, such as the ability to set passwords to restrict access to shared files and create shareable links that expire after a set period.

If you sign up for a team or business account with Sync, you also get complete compliance with a range of privacy laws, including HIPAA, GDPR, and PIPEDA.

Sync.com: What’s new in 2022?

As a cloud-based storage provider, Sync is constantly undergoing developmental updates that make its desktop and mobile apps, as well as its web-based user interface, more convenient and user friendly. In particular, Sync is working towards fixing the lack of third-party integrations within its service.

Since 2020, Sync supports basic integration with Microsoft 365. If you access the Sync web panel, you will find an option called "Edit in Office" next to all Office-compatible documents. This option lets you live-edit your documents using Microsoft 365 web apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Any changes you make using these apps are automatically synced across all versions of that file on all your Sync-enabled devices. As of 2022, Sync is also planning a Slack integration.

Sync.com: Pricing

Sync offers a storage space of 5GB to all new users for free. Those requiring premium features and more storage can always upgrade to one of its four premium plans: two for individual users and two others for teams. The team plans come with additional administrative tools and priority support that’s lacking in the solo plans. All plans are priced per month but billed annually, meaning that you have to pay for at least twelve months at a time.

Testing Sync.com

To better benchmark Sync against its competitors, we analysed its upload speeds, which are a key factor in terms of cloud storage, as well as its file sharing and collaborative features.

How fast is Sync?

A proper speed test is crucial to determining the worth of any cloud storage service. Without it, you have no way of knowing if the provider is reliable. To conduct our test, we used an 80Mbps broadband connection (79.49Mbps download, 32.01Mbps upload) to upload a 568MB video to Sync.com.

It took six minutes and 50 seconds to upload the entire video. Comparatively, Google Drive took 10 minutes and 15 seconds to upload the same video. Note that upload speeds are likely to change considerably depending on the quality of your internet connection.

How do you share files or collaborate with Sync?

The easiest way to grant someone access to a file on Sync is to create a shareable link. This can be pasted into emails, shared across social media, or displayed on a website. For this test, we followed the steps detailed in the provider’s knowledge base to create a shareable link to the earlier video and access it from another device.

We are pleased to report that the link-sharing feature works as advertised and without any hiccoughs. Advanced users will find that there is a range of options to further restrict access to your shared files, such as by setting up a password or making links expire after a set time. However, these features are only available on a premium account.

As opposed to sharing a single file, you can also make entire folders available to other members of your team by inviting them to view, edit, and collaborate on them. Each shared folder is synced across all devices that belong to every member of your team.

Alternatives to Sync.com

There are a lot of cloud storage providers in the market, but not all of them are equally security conscious. In fact, you can count on one hand the number of providers that offer zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption, with two of the most popular being SpiderOak and Tresorit.

SpiderOak isn’t the most feature-rich cloud storage platform, and doesn’t offer any significant team collaboration features to speak of. File sharing is possible, but only at the most basic level. SpiderOak is also very expensive: plans range from £4.80 for the 150GB plan to £23.20 for 5TB of storage a month. However, the company does make good on its zero-knowledge data claim, and offers full end-to-end encryption in transit and at rest.

Tresorit is yet another security-focused cloud storage solution that seriously lags behind in its support for teams. It does support file versioning and recovery, as well as file sharing with the option for setting passwords and expiration dates on links. Plans are much costlier, however, starting at £10 for 500GB of storage for single users and ending in £19.20 per user a month with “scalable storage” for Enterprise users.

If you are looking for a truly secure cloud storage provider with file sharing and team collaboration features, offered at generous yearly prices, Sync might be your only option. Other providers do what it does, but not without making significant compromises or charging much higher prices.

Sync.com: The verdict

On the surface, Sync feels like an unremarkable cloud storage service with run-of-the-mill features. But if you look closer, you might find a decent offering with uncompromised security and generous prices. It may not have the most appealing collaborative elements, but it still manages to outshine those offered by any comparable security-conscious storage provider.

Sync did really well across our speed tests, clocking in at less than seven minutes for a 568MB upload on an average broadband connection, compared to a full 10 minutes from Google Drive. Sync’s interface is also very simple and easy to use, making it the perfect choice for beginners who may not have used a cloud storage service before.

In the end, however, Sync’s greatest asset is its promise of zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption. The platform is also fully compatible with the norms and regulations set forth by HIPAA, GDPR, and PIPEDA.

If you are looking for a good cloud storage solution that offers gold-standard security at accessible prices, Sync might be the platform of choice for you.

Further reading on cloud storage

Learn more about cloud storage in our comparison pitting cloud storage vs local storage; our discussion on how you can start reducing cloud storage costs; and our buying guides evaluating the best free cloud storage, and the best cloud storage for photos.

Storj is a decentralised cloud storage platform. The service cuts your files into 80 pieces, and then distributes those pieces across a global server network. In our Storj review, we’ll cover everything you need to know to decide if this is the best cloud storage service for you.

Storj review: Snapshot

Storj gives new users up to 150GB of free storage, which is extremely generous. Pricing for paid users is variable based on the amount of storage space and bandwidth you use, but is cheap compared to most traditional cloud storage providers.

As a result of the system being decentralised, you get top-tier security, extreme redundancy against server failures, and ultra-fast download speeds from anywhere in the world. In addition, Storj is fully open-source, which is a plus for security-conscious users.

While Storj does offer a web client for simplified uploading and downloading, the real power of this service lies in its command line interface. Overall, Storj is best suited for programmers who want to make use of the command line controls and won’t be overwhelmed by the service’s complexity.

Score: 4/5

Read on for the full Storj review.

Storj's competitors

How does Storj compare to its main competitors?

Storj: Key features

The first thing to know about Storj is that it uses a fundamentally different method to store your data than most comparable cloud storage services. Instead of taking your files and uploading copies of them to a handful of US-based servers, Storj uses a decentralised storage algorithm.

When you upload a file, Storj splits it into 80 overlapping pieces, and then places each piece on a different server. The company has over 10,000 servers, or “nodes,” spread across 84 different countries. When you want to download or move your files, Storj only needs to access 29 pieces of each file to put the whole thing back together.

There are several advantages to using this decentralised storage scheme. First, your backups are extremely redundant. Storj keeps 80 pieces of each file, but only needs 29 pieces to recover the file. Better yet, those 80 pieces are stored across servers in dozens of different countries. In effect, it’s virtually impossible to lose files that you upload using Storj.

Another advantage to decentralised storage is that you can access files extremely quickly from anywhere in the world. The platform will automatically download pieces of your files from the servers closest to your location, which helps speed up downloads. This is particularly helpful if you need to share large files across a globally distributed team.

Finally, Storj’s decentralised storage system makes your data more secure. Even if a malicious attacker were able to break into one of Storj’s servers, they wouldn’t be able to reconstruct your files without breaking into an additional 28 servers. Even then, all file pieces are encrypted at rest on Storj’s servers, so they’re essentially uncrackable without your encryption key.

Storj also offers end-to-end encryption when you upload files using either Rclone or Storj’s own command line interface. These options both enable you to connect directly to Storj’s server network through a secure gateway. However, Rclone and the command line interface are notably more complicated for non-programmers than Storj’s web client, since you need to write code to initiate uploads and downloads.

Storj: What’s new in 2022?

Storj’s development team is relatively active, and releases updates every few months. Most recently, the team released a Linux installer and created software that can track server downtime. The latter is particularly useful since Storj’s algorithm chooses which servers to send file pieces to based on uptime. This change ensures that your files are being stored on the most reliable servers.

Storj has also added a number of command line functions that enable users to migrate data from traditional cloud storage services to Storj. That’s big news for anyone who already has a lot of data in the cloud, as it makes it much simpler to automate the process of switching to Storj.

We’ve also been happy to see Storj fix some small but irksome issues. For example, it’s now possible to rename individual files. Until recently, it was necessary to reupload a file in order to change its name.

Storj: Pricing

Storj offers up to 150GB of free storage, which is roughly 10 times more than most traditional cloud storage providers. This free storage is subdivided into three projects, with a maximum capacity of 50GB each. In addition, there’s a 150GB limit on your monthly bandwidth usage.

If you need more storage capacity or bandwidth, Storj charges according to the amount you use. Storage costs £3.26 per TB a month, while bandwidth costs £5.71 per TB a month. You can easily keep track of your estimated monthly bill through the web dashboard.

Storj's pricing plans

Testing Storj

To better benchmark Storj against its competitors, we analysed how to use its web client, and investigated its command-line interface, as well as its upload speeds (a key factor in terms of cloud storage) and its file sharing capabilities.

How do you use Storj's web client?

The Storj web client is the simplest way to access Storj, although it does limit the platform’s functionality. With the web client, you can create buckets to store your files, grant access to individual users, and set up encryption keys for server-side encryption.

However, any files you upload using the web client won’t be encrypted before they leave your computer, and you have no control over which servers your file pieces are sent to.

One reason that even programmers might want to use the web client is the dashboard. That’s because it clearly shows how much total storage and bandwidth you’ve used for the month, and it even provides an estimate for how much you’ll be charged at the end of the month.

What's Storj's command-line interface like?

Storj offers an executable that can be accessed from the command line in Windows, Mac, and Linux. The command line offers much more flexibility compared to the web client, although it does require users to be comfortable with basic programming. At a minimum, you’ll need to be able to navigate your computer’s file system through the command line in order to use Storj.

We found that simply uploading and downloading files using the command line is relatively straightforward. Storj offers a very detailed guide to the available commands, complete with examples. In addition, most non-standard processes are controlled by flags, so there are less than a dozen commands in total to remember.

How fast is Storj?

We tested Storj’s speed by uploading and downloading a 1GB file over a 110Mbps internet connection. The upload process took just over 25 minutes, which was relatively fast considering that this process also required breaking the file into 80 pieces, and determining which servers to upload those pieces to.

Downloading that same file was incredibly speedy—it took just one minute and 13 seconds. In fact, Storj’s download speed was among the fastest we’ve ever experienced with a cloud storage service.

What file sharing options does Storj offer?

We also tested out file sharing with Storj, since the ability to work across global teams is one of the main advantages of decentralised cloud storage. Unfortunately, you don’t have many options around sharing if you’re using the web client. You can create a share link, but you can’t set editing permissions, add password protection, or set an expiration date.

However, if you turn to the command line interface, Storj offers a lot more control. You can enter any path to share, which enables you to share individual files or entire folders. In addition, the share command includes flags to control editing permissions or to create a shareable URL to your data. You can also add an expiration time, or even restrict access to a file up until a certain time.

Alternatives to Storj

Storj is somewhat unique among cloud storage providers because of its decentralised storage model. However, it’s worth comparing this platform to pCloud and Microsoft OneDrive, both of which offer strong security and large storage volumes.

Storj narrowly beats out both pCloud and OneDrive when it comes to pricing. You can get 1TB of storage at Storj for as little as £39 a year, but pCloud’s 2TB plan is comparable at £99.99 a year. Microsoft only sells 1TB plans for £79.99 a year. While that might look pricey at first, it’s important to note that Microsoft throws in its full suite of Office 365 apps. In addition, keep in mind that Storj charges for bandwidth, whereas pCloud and Microsoft do not.

The main thing you should consider when choosing between these three platforms is what type of experience you want. Storj is designed for advanced users who are comfortable with programming, and who prefer object-oriented storage over a traditional file system.

pCloud is more suitable if you want to sync files across multiple devices, and want simple sharing and file versioning tools. Microsoft OneDrive has many of the same features that pCloud offers, but the addition of the Office 365 suite makes it best for real-time collaboration.

Storj's features compared to the competition

Storj: The verdict

Storj is a unique cloud storage service that uses decentralisation to offer speed, security, and reliability. With this platform, files are quickly accessible from anywhere in the world, and there’s virtually no chance that data could be hacked or lost. Our testing found that Storj has among the fastest download speeds of any cloud storage provider.

On top of that, Storj is incredibly inexpensive. The platform offers 150GB for free, and charges just £3.26 per terabyte a month after that. That’s a fraction of what most traditional cloud storage providers charge.

The catch to Storj is that it’s more complicated to use and less feature-rich than competitors like pCloud or Microsoft Office. While it’s possible to get by with the Storj web client, most of the platform’s flexibility is derived from its command line interface. We thought the command line interface was relatively straightforward, but it still requires familiarity with programming.

Overall, Storj is a strong option for users with a large amount of data and who are comfortable using the command line. It’s especially useful for globally distributed teams, and for storing sensitive data in the cloud.

Further reading on cloud storage

Learn more about cloud storage in our comparison pitting cloud storage vs local storage; our discussion on how you can start reducing cloud storage costs; and our buying guides evaluating the best free cloud storage, and the best cloud storage for photos.