Cloud Storage Considerations for Preventing Vendor Lock-in

D.

Structured storage is designed, maintained, and implemented by a cloud service provider as part of a PaaS offering.

It is specific to that cloud provider and the way they have opted to implement systems, so special care is required to ensure that applications are not designed in a way that will lock the cloud customer into a specific cloud provider with that dependency.

Unstructured storage for auxiliary files would not lock a customer into a specific provider.

With volume and object storage, because the cloud customer maintains their own systems with IaaS, moving and replicating to a different cloud provider would be very easy.

The correct answer is B. Object storage.

Object storage is a type of cloud storage where data is stored as objects that contain both the data and the metadata that describes the data. Unlike file storage or block storage, which organize data into hierarchies of files or blocks, object storage allows for a flat address space, which enables more efficient and scalable storage of unstructured data such as images, videos, audio files, and documents.

One of the main benefits of object storage is that it can reduce costs by eliminating the need for complex hierarchical file systems and providing better storage efficiency. However, because object storage is designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data, it is less suitable for structured data such as databases, which require strict consistency and access controls.

Vendor lock-in is a situation where a customer becomes dependent on a particular cloud provider's proprietary technologies, making it difficult or costly to switch to another provider or to bring data back in-house. Object storage, in particular, requires special consideration on the part of the cloud customer to ensure they do not program themselves into a vendor lock-in situation.

Object storage services from different cloud providers can differ in terms of APIs, data formats, metadata handling, and access controls. To avoid vendor lock-in, cloud customers should choose object storage services that are based on open standards, such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. This enables the customer to switch between providers or use a hybrid or multi-cloud approach without having to modify their applications or data formats.

In addition, customers should also consider using data management tools that are compatible with multiple cloud providers, such as Kubernetes, Terraform, or CloudFormation, to ensure their applications and infrastructure are portable across different clouds.

In summary, object storage requires special consideration on the part of the cloud customer to ensure they do not program themselves into a vendor lock-in situation. Choosing object storage services based on open standards and using data management tools that are compatible with multiple cloud providers can help mitigate this risk.