As we've discussed in Send in the Cloud: A limited series to help you develop a cloud storage strategy, the Cloud - and by extension Cloud Storage - offers numerous benefits. But they don’t come without risks.

Whether it’s long term archiving, online backup, live web content or other content delivery, whatever the use-case for cloud storage in your business, the potential should be weighed against the possible downsides. I know it sounds corny (and probably dates me) but to paraphrase the Joni Mitchell song, if you take a balanced look at both sides of the cloud the net result will help you determine if Cloud Storage yields a possible and better alternative to the status quo or your company’s traditional course of action.

In our final instalment in this series next week I’ll offer an extensive checklist of considerations for you to use when looking for a Cloud Storage service. For now, let's consider a selection of the high level promises and pitfalls of Cloud.

Financial and operating flexibility VS total cost of ownership (TCO)

Whether the cost savings that cloud technology and service providers alike claim are attainable is too complex to calculate and grasp. Whatever the promise of TCO, it is certain that renting infrastructure capacity through the Cloud via a pay-per-use model eliminates the need for upfront capital investments and provides the financial and operating flexibility many organizations seek. The challenge (and associated risk) is that increased consumption of cloud capacity may reach a point where the overall cost and complexity to manage the cloud reaches a state where the financial case is harder to make.

Rapid scalability VS control

Cloud storage provides unlimited and available capacity for an organization to consume as it needs to grow. If such growth is pursued in an uncontrollable fashion, both storage volumes and costs may surpass the original intentions and budget of the initiative this service was originally designed for. While cloud storage may be the most suitable and cost effective storage alternative you have for the particular application, it is not free. An extreme use of a cheap service will have an impact on your bottom line; therefore planning and controls are required.

Accessibility VS Security, Privacy and Compliance

Cloud storage is predominantly an Internet-accessible and device-independent service that delivers unsurpassed accessibility to the applications (or devices) that store or consume the data.

Depending on the infrastructure supporting the cloud service, and the mechanisms to support protection of the data both in transport and at rest (e.g. encryption or obfuscation), it may be exposed to unlawful access.

Depending on the location of the cloud storage service or the provider's jurisdiction of incorporation, your data may be subject to regulations that are not in line with your responsibilities to your stakeholders, including employees, customers and the Canadian law (mostly privacy law).

Flexibility VS Freedom

I would argue that one of the most promising traits of Cloud is flexibility. The flexibility to consume as much service as needed and easily upload data to a storage cloud service is what makes it so appealing.

Users should, however, realize that in some cases the systems supporting the service are mostly designed with one thing in mind: to to get you in, not to get you out. Data objects that are added to the cloud service either on a gradual basis or through one time bulk migrations does not mean they are easily extracted and migrated off the cloud service when you expect to exercise your data freedom. Lock-in should be a real risk worth considering.

I hope this gave you a taste of both perspectives and that you'll come back to read the complete list of Cloud Storage considerations.

Shawn Myron is the director of products and services for TELUS hosting and data centres.

Questions about the cloud and whether it's right for your company? Ask them here via comment.