Customers access Google Cloud Storage through a restful API and the service is available in both the U.S. Launched in 2010, Google Cloud Storage is the underlying storage service for the company's other cloud products and services, including Google App Engine - the application development platform - Google Compute Engine, and BigQuery, which are cloud-based virtual machines and a big data analysis tool, respectively. More AT&T Synaptic Cloud Storage information. Customers using AT&T's VPN service are freed from ingress and egress charges when using the company's cloud service. AT&T Synaptic already spans multiple regions, which customers can choose to take advantage of, with plans by AT&T to expand the service globally, with Europe being the next stop. Still, AT&T claims it has recorded double-digit growth in its service, with several billion objects stored in its cloud. Gartner says this has been focused mostly on small and midsized businesses though. This creates an opportunity for AT&T to sell into the strong EMC customer base, and gives customers hybrid cloud capabilities with a leading storage vendor. More information on Amazon Web Service's cloud storage options.ĪT&T's Synaptic cloud storage service is aligned closely with EMC's Atmos storage service, which is used as an on-premise storage system. With services geared to specific vertical industries, most notably the federal government agencies with its GovCloud service, it has a wide breadth and depth of cloud storage features and services. AWS is an innovative company that continues to release products and services to round out its already-market leading position though. While it has a tool to link on-premise data to its cloud, named AWS Storage Gateway, the ability to create hybrid storage architectures that span both on-premise storage options and AWS's cloud is still largely a work in progress, Gartner says. MORE AWS: Is the cloud the right place for your data warehouse?ĪWS has challenges though, Gartner notes. More recently, at its first-ever user conference, AWS announced Redshift, a cloud-based data warehousing service. Earlier this year AWS announced Glacier, a long-term, low-cost archival storage services. It's been an early and aggressive player in the market and its services drive offerings from competitors, Gartner says, while its pricing is the "industry reference point." Its Simple Storage Service (S3) is the basic object storage, while Elastic Block Storage is for storage volumes. Like many other aspects of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services is considered a market leader in cloud storage. MORE 2013 PREDICTIONS: Growing confidence in cloud security RELATED: Gartner: Cloud storage viable option, but proceed carefullyĢ013 PREDICTIONS: OpenStack backers hope 2013 is the year of adoption