Digital preservation and cloud storage difference
Answers
Cloud Computing is a term that encompasses a wide range of use cases and implementation models. In essence, a computing ‘cloud’ is a large shared pool of computing resources including data storage. When someone needs additional computing power, they are simply able to check this out of the pool without much (often any) manual effort on the part of the IT team, which reduces costs and significantly shortens the time needed to start using new computing resources. Most of these ‘clouds’ are run on the public Internet by well-known companies like Amazon and Google. Some larger organisations have also found value in running private clouds inside their own data centres, where similar economies of scale begin to apply.
Cloud computing and digital preservation
Cloud computing can offer several benefits:
The flexibility of the cloud allows relatively rapid and low-cost testing and piloting of emerging service providers.
There are already some pilot activities with these cloud services and opportunities for shared learning across the community;
There is now much greater flexibility and more options in deployment of cloud storage services and therefore greater relevance to archival repositories compared to earlier years (see Public, Community, Private and Hybrid clouds);
There are potential cost savings from easier procurement and economies of scale, particularly for smaller repositories. These are important at a time of financial pressures;
Cloud services can provide easy, automated replication to multiple locations essential for business recovery planning and access to professionally managed digital storage; in addition, the specialists can add access to other dedicated tools, procedures, workflow and service agreements, tailored for digital preservation requirements.