IBM Cloud Object Storage Digital Service for Three Cities in European Union

This article was written on July 11, 2017 by Russ Kennedy on the IBM’s Bluemix blog.

IBM introduces new Cloud Object Storage digital service for the European Union
New EU Cross Region service addresses customer EU data sovereignty and resiliency needs

IBM Corp. continues to drive innovations across its cloud portfolio to spur business transformation for customers around the globe. Cloud Object Storage (COS) is a service in IBM Cloud Platform and helps customers store, manage and leverage unstructured data.

The company expanded its COS Cross Region service into Europe. Now, clients in the European Union can digitally sign up for COS EU Cross Region service and manage their data in the public cloud within Europe. This helps businesses meet their data sovereignty and locality needs by enabling them to keep their data within IBM cloud data centers in the EU.

EU Cross Region service also prepares businesses for DR without downtime or complex data replication. The cross-region service automatically stores data within cloud data centers located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Milan, providing high data availability, security and durability across three regions in the EU.

The new service is available for all customers to use worldwide, and it is simple to order and use via a cloud portal.

Spurring Growth in Europe
New public digital service will be especially helpful to company’s growing customer base in Europe, which includes British data protection services company Silverstring Limited and Danish company any.cloud.

Why IBM COS?
It provides organizations with an innovative, secure and cost-effective way to store and manage data without creating multiple copies. IBM’s SecureSlice technology distributes data slices across storage systems for security and protection. This approach combines encryption, erasure coding and information dispersal of data to multiple locations for protection without complex or expensive copies. The service is continuously available; it can tolerate even catastrophic regional outages without downtime or the need for customer intervention.

To achieve similar dispersed storage on other clouds, customers would have to invoke a ‘replication’ technique to create a second copy of the data in a separate region, which they would have to manage. COS does not require replication techniques or complex configurations, making it fast and efficient to meet cloud storage needs.

Storage Class for Every Workload
COS public cloud services deliver storage and retrieval options to match specific workload demands. Check out recommended use cases for varying data access requirements below.

COS provides a storage class for every workload.

• Standard: for workloads that requires frequent access, including DevOps, analytics, collaboration and active content repositories.
• Vault: for workloads with less frequently accessed data, including backup, data retention and BC.
• Cold Vault: for workloads that require minimum access, including long-term data archive, historical records compliance and long-term digital asset preservation.
• Flex: for workloads with unpredictable or variable data access patterns; protects your budget from unexpected cost fluctuations. For example, the Flex service is suitable for workloads that are ‘hot’ one month and ‘cold’ the next month.

Prices

Resiliency options for every business

• Regional: Data is dispersed and stored automatically in three IBM cloud data centers within a single geographic region providing high data durability and availability. There are no additional charges for leveraging all three data centers. Currently this service is available in US-South (Dallas) region only.
• Cross-Region: Data is dispersed and stored automatically in IBM cloud data centers across three geographic regions, helping ensure BC and data accessibility across multiple regions. There are no additional requirements to make and manage copies of data for regional fault tolerance. The Cross Region service delivers built in business continuance in the event of regional outage without the need for expensive and complex replication methods that other cloud vendors require. This service is available in the U.S. and EU geographies.

Get Started
COS Cross Region service can be accessed digitally through the Bluemix Cloud Platform catalog. To get you up and running quickly, you can test-drive IBM COS, FREE for one year. Use Promo Code: COSFREE at signup and and get up to 25GB/month at no charge, up to 20,000 GET requests/month at no charge, and up to 2,000 PUT requests/month at no charge.(1)

Getting Started Guide

Legal disclaimers:
1. Object Storage Cross Region Free-Tier expires 12 months after initial sign up. Standard rates apply for usage beyond 25GB, 20,000 GET requests per month and 2,000 PUT requests per month. Free-Tier applies a maximum non-refundable monetary credit equivalent to the value of said services against your monthly statement.