Manufacturing companies have a notorious need to store large files and provide access from multiple offices, all on a restricted budget. In a world where manufacturing production is king, capital expenses are laser-focused on tools and equipment, leaving IT to strategically minimize capital investment while delivering enterprise-class IT operations. And, as with all enterprise organizations, data is the nucleus of the business — everything from CAD files to sales orders is critical to core business operations. Combine that with the average manufacturing firm having multiple offices and teams spread across numerous countries (or continents) and you have a real data storage conundrum. How is a manufacturing company supposed to cost-effectively store and protect large amounts of data while also making it available where and when it needs to be?
The cloud has emerged as a tool for data storage that provides the cost-effective and scalable data storage that manufacturing companies need. However, security and performance concerns often prevent organizations from widely adopting this powerful technology. In addition, cloud storage is not optimized for storing primary data that needs to be accessed and shared frequently. The cloud is more commonly used for archive or backup data due to low performance and accessibility challenges.
However, there is a solution for manufacturing firms to realize the scalability and efficiency benefits of cloud storage without sacrificing security or control. Storage Infrastructure as a Service (SIaaS) is an emerging model to use cloud storage as a component to deliver a consolidated, uniform and feature-rich data storage solution. SIaaS combines the local-performance of an on-premises storage controller with the flexibility of cloud storage. The aim is to seamlessly integrate SIaaS into any IT environment. To protect data stored in the service, it is secured with military-grade encryption while in transit and at rest — preventing any unauthorized user for accessing data. One unique advantage of SIaaS versus cloud storage includes the ability to store active data and access it from any location with the same performance level of traditional storage systems. Leveraging SIaaS, organizations are able to streamline and reduce costs, maximize the value of IT resources, improve end-user productivity and maintain business agility.