Remote or cloud-based storage solutions have been around for many years. The pendulum between local on-premises storage (and control) and cloud-based storage services has shifted several times over the course of storage technology development. Storage location and control has changed with the dominance of mainframes, client/server, PC, and the changes in price and capabilities of storage. Cloud technology is the latest iteration of this trend, providing additional cost and capacity options and flexibility for storage users.

As cloud technology takes shape it can be difficult to define the capabilities and benefits of this technology, however, there are two areas of cloud computi...