FD Insights Issue 4 | Page 50

The Pros and Cons of
Taking a Managed
Services Approach to
Cloud Storage

Johan Scheepers, Manager of Systems Engineering for CommVault South Africa takes readers
through some of the main issues to consider when considering cloud storage.
o doubt the benefits of moving to the cloud will be
debated long and hard but it’s important to remember
that all organisations that want to hold data in the
cloud and use it for storage, backup and archive will need
to consider a wide range of legal and data management
issues. They will also have to think hard about whether they
want to take a ‘DIY’ or managed services approach to the
entire process. There are many ways to use cloud services,
and the issues around data are some of the most divisive.

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There are clear benefits to working with a managed service
provider: getting a third party to manage data/storage for
you enables you to focus on your core business; Disaster
Recovery including testing is frequently offered as part of a
managed service, and sending long-term, non-critical data
to the cloud instead of keeping it ‘local’ can be a cost-effective solution that eases local backup pain. Backup can be a
huge drain on resource, so employing a dedicated specialist
organisation to do it not only saves you time but increases
the likelihood that it will be executed to a higher standard.
Many C-level managers may like to assume that backup
is already being managed effectively, whether it be in the
cloud or not, and they are often shielded from any hiccups
in normal service. However, it’s increasingly common for
line-of-business or even project owners to make the choice

for a managed service and keeping an eye on this is very
important.
Choosing to go down the managed services route for cloud
storage means it’s possible to significantly mitigate long
term storage costs, provided that some sort of effective
pruning takes place for data that is beyond the scope of
current governance guidelines or law. It means that archive
data will rely upon cloud copies, instead of you having to
manage multiple copies internally.
Outsourcing also enables an organisation to plan for unexpected growth and to counter escalating costs by buying
into a ‘pay per use’ approach to data management and storage; the elastic nature of the cloud means it’s much easier
to scale up and down as required. This also means that
over specification can be eradicated, though tying yourself
to a service long term can have an impact if you unexpectedly grow beyond the target market of that service.
For IT Directors in the public sector – and IT Directors in
general – who are being tasked with saving money without
spending money, the managed services model is potentially the ideal solution. There is no capital expenditure to be
found up front and the impact of IT on the overall budget

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