Srikanth
Public cloud has surely opened the technology to a larger audience than ever so that storage options are aplenty. However, the various complexities that entail cloud storage have kept the interested people at bay which needs to be addressed immediately to tap on the huge customer base. IBM has realized that sooner than others and they are quickly up for a fix with their Flex service so as to catch the fish quicker than the others.
IBM’s new model on storage pricing makes the usage even simpler with the service intelligible to everyone which makes them unique in the crowd of public cloud enterprises. It has decided to introduce the innovation called Cloud Object Storage Flex in a few weeks so that the new customers coming in every moment can join in easily. It also has attracted the attention from a certain set of customers whose storage demands shift continuously and hence, requires a flexible payment process and structure.
The various options for cloud storage
Public cloud is expanding every day and will soon outgrow all other cloud services given the demand so obviously you need to make it simple to reach a larger audience who may not be tech-savvy but still require the cloud service. Data becomes expensive when you use it frequently over the cloud and it is really cheap if it is there all the time and hardly accessed. However, this is only applicable to those who know what the applications of concern will demand.
But, customers are there, and in good numbers too, who hardly knows when and how data is needed and that can put them in a spot of bother because they took a certain cloud storage plan that allows a limited number of accesses. Upgrading becomes necessity and unnecessary headache in this process, more so if the need emerges at the eleventh hour. This is precisely where Flex comes in.
What Flex does?
Flex removes the guesswork required from the users to gauge a possible number of accesses and makes it much flatter with their tier structure. So, the tier structure of pricing exists but it is much easier to understand and pay than ever before. It will also have a ceiling price for number of retrievals so you can easily shift that without changing the entire plan.
The most fascinating aspect of cloud is that the more movement the data undergoes, the more expensive it becomes. Flex has realized that sooner than others and hence, it has upped the upfront cost more to make amends with shifting data movement needs. So, there is a clear balance observed in this process with a little tweak on the basic structure. The variables are cut short and the users can now select a single tier and rest assured, he or she need not change after a certain interval again and again.
What are the price estimates for the users?
As of now, per month you may need to pay around 9 dollars per TB with 29 dollars as maximum for retrieval of similar amount of data. There are other charges for a series of requests such as POST, COPY, PUT etc. and GET requests too. However, they are nominal to say the least and that simplifies the process to a whole new level. It is also cheaper than the current storage system IBM offers which is a real deal for every user out there.
IBM claims that it is cheaper than its competitors by a good margin and such sentiments are echoed by other tech giants concerned with it. They consider it to be a reasonable simplification of the pricing which will attract a lot of customers even if it is not as cheap as IBM claims. Final pricing will be out very soon and that will give a better perspective of the scenario. They also predict a quick copying of the price charts by the others given that public cloud is a hot business prospect.
