Data Backup Digest

Iron Mountain, solution provider for records management, data backup recovery and document management, have recently unveiled their latest project. Iron Cloud is a cloud storage service designed for long-term storage, with their aim to safely store your past, present and future data.

Traditionally, data backups were made with onsite storage systems. However, many businesses are finding them unsuitable for today’s large data needs. They don’t provide great scalability, cost control, or flexibility. On top of that, legislation is changing on some countries regarding data retention requirements. As such, many are turning to cloud solutions to combat these challenges.

Using its partnership with Dell EMC’s Virtustream enterprise cloud technology, Iron Cloud is a cloud storage back up service targeted at enterprises. Hosted on the Iron Mountain underground data centres, it’s a step similar to what competitors Vertais Technolgoies and Commvault are establishing.

It’s a train that has already left the station when it comes to data centre capacity, but Iron Mountain are keen not to get left behind. As part of their new venture, Iron Mountain plans to open a new data centre in Virginia within the next two months. They already have several other centres in various American states.

Iron Cloud is a hybrid data management system which mixes cloud storage with the physical – the latter is how Iron Mountain got their start, so their specialism tows both lines. They understand that some data needs to remain physical due to its sensitive nature, while other parts can be moved into the cloud. They refer to this as the data sprawl and part of the Iron Cloud package includes automation tools to handle this.

The system gives the choice to store data on block storage for those with speedy connections or object storage for those looking for something cheaper. The latter is based on the Amazon Simple Storage Service API.

A shuttle service is included so that customers can put their data on an appliance which is then shipped back and stored on the cloud. The appliance will be used for the first full backup, with incremental backups following through the cloud. This is perfect for businesses that already have huge amounts of data that would be unfeasible to bulk upload to the cloud.

“In the next four to five years, we will go deeper into these areas,” said Eli Almog, senior vice president for Iron Mountain, speaking about Iron Cloud’s aim to provide disaster recovery, data analytics, data federation and compliance. “We are moving into a more strategic direction. This is a full-scale implementation where the goal is to leverage our assets and customers that we have today.”

Iron Cloud promises rapid access, at anytime from anywhere, to your cloud archive, along with enterprise-class SLAs, a fully managed service for migrations, encryption with geo-redundant replication, and full scalability adaptability.

Businesses need to have consistent billing and this is something that Iron Mountain understand. As such, Iron Cloud offers a predictable cost model with security that scales depending on the business size, meaning that the monthly bills are easier to manage.

Iron Cloud already has 35 customers, but that number is sure to grow as businesses turn to a reliable provider to cater for their storage needs.