The main driving forces of cloud data storage are reputable companies such as Amazon and Google that build comprehensive computing infrastructures (Google, 2009). These infrastructures are eliminating the complexity of internal data storage and ultimately reducing the costs of limited networked data centers (Hitachi, 2010). The traditional inefficient model of purchasing servers every time you need to accommodate high usage or growth is now being replaced by Internet-based systems that replicate data centers but without large overheads (Google, 2009). This flexibility helps in the ever-changing business world and its continuous improvement initiatives to remove waste, improve efficiency and ultimately reduce costs. Another key driving force is support for effective business continuity which will again eliminate hardware costs and strain on risk assessment and management. Eliminating these issues can free up valuable time for the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Information Technology (IT) department to implement IT and information management (IM) efficiently and, in due course, reduce costs. Werner Vogles of Amazon of Web Services (Twitter) supports the idea of less hardware because if you have to buy more hardware to start this cloud movement it's not a cloud. This further supports the need to abandon the old procedures of having internal hardware and data storage and instill effectiveness. Cloud data storage is reaching small to medium sized businesses, this is achieved with flexible costs that help manage the data capacity. The more data stored, the lower the price. This is encouraging the strategic side of companies to look closely at this new phenomenon. Since all this is aimed at bringing the enterprise... to the center of the paper... fIBM. (2010). Effective storage management and data protection for cloud computing. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from the Bitpipe website: ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/tiw14056usen/TIW14056USEN.PDFI365. (2010). Cloud Storage: problems and advantages. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from the Bitpipe website: http://viewer.media.bitpipe.com/1112911604_804/1285694435_799/cloud-storage-issues-and-benefits_wp_en_w.pdfhttp://twitter.com/Werner/status/25005220624http: //www.jackofallclouds.com/2010/08/state-of-the-cloud-august-2010/Diversity Ltd. (2010). Revolution, not evolution: How cloud computing differs from traditional IT and why it matters. Retrieved March 22, 2011, from the Bitpipe:CBS Interactive website. (2009). Cloud Computing: the latest buzzword or a look to the future? Retrieved March 23, 2011, from the Bitpipe website:
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