Hey guys
Has anyone thought about using cloud storage for archiving case data ?
I know traditionally including myself have relied on tape, optical storage, and hard disk.
Using cloud storage could possibly alleviate the cost of storing lots of case data and the maintenance that goes along with it.
The cons would be can you trust your data being in the cloud, is it very secure, what disaster recovery plan is there, are there data from other companies on the same storage area.
I like to know if folks looked at cloud storage as an alternative for archiving data.
Privacy privacy privacy
I don't think I would ever consider using cloud storage for that simple reason.
Let's say you engage cloud storage service "A" to store your data, he lives in your country so you are familiar with the privacy laws and you are confident that your data will be safe and secure. What you don't know is that his local servers are all full so he's leasing some server space from a contact in India or China on the cheap. Your data is now stored in a country that has different privacy laws and and may well be accessed by all and sundry.
Add to that fact that access is a major issue, if you have GB's of data you need to upload or download there is the downtime to do that, speed is limited to the slowest link in the chain so it could take hours or even days to upload/download the data.
I have been involved in investigations where the cloud hosting service will only give free access to the last 7 days worth of data, then beyond that they charge massive amounts of money to retrieve the data and give you access to it.
While I see the usefulness of cloud storage for personal photos and data that is not sensitive, especially if you want access from any computer…but for sensitive data never under any circumstance will I be using cloud to store it.
My 2cents )
Hey guys
Has anyone thought about using cloud storage for archiving case data ?
I know traditionally including myself have relied on tape, optical storage, and hard disk.Using cloud storage could possibly alleviate the cost of storing lots of case data and the maintenance that goes along with it.
The cons would be can you trust your data being in the cloud, is it very secure, what disaster recovery plan is there, are there data from other companies on the same storage area.
I like to know if folks looked at cloud storage as an alternative for archiving data.
The use of cloud storage for this, or any other activity, really comes down to doing your due diligence, and what's in your contract.
So, consider…what are your requirements? Physical isolation from all other sources? Given your use case, this is highly likely. As such, you'll likely need your own pod or cage. But how can you guarantee that this is the case? You'll have to go to the site, and you'll have to ensure that issues such as maintenance are addressed in your contract.
If you end up going with your own pod/cage, then you're not really using "cloud" storage…you're using hosted storage, in a co-location facility. What are the physical and logical security mechanisms in place? What is required to access the facility? What is required to access your cage? Who has access to your systems? A storage system such as the one you're describing is likely going to be a RAID 10 system…if the system requires drives to be replaced as part of maintenance, what happens to those drives? How are they disposed of?
Also, how are you going to get the case data into "the cloud"? Upload over the network? Do you require a VPN? If so, where does it terminate? Does the VPN terminate at the edge of the cloud provider's network, or at your storage systems? If it terminates at your storage systems, is this a requirement that the provider needs to make architectural changes or take special measures in order to meet?
