Novell Achieves Cloud Control

In a perfect world, the cloud would be just another layer of enterprise computing that IT organizations could easily control. That’s the thinking behind a new offering from Novell that allows IT organizations to control where any given file is stored at any given time.

According to Bill Calero, Novell product manager for data management services, Novell Dynamic File Services allows an organization to define policies to store data based on its relative importance to the business in terms of accessibility. Less important files, for example, might be stored in the cloud while files that are frequently accessed will be on premise in order to maximize investments in storage systems.

Announced this week, Novell Dynamic File Services represents Novell’s first foray into the cloud since being acquired by Attachmate last year. The goal, says Calero, is to give IT organizations maximum control over their files in a way that allows them to play one cloud storage service provider against another.

When it comes right down to it, cloud computing control is going to be determined by the file system. If an IT organization opts to use a cloud computing service that is based on a proprietary file system, it will for all intents and purposes be locked into that provider. If the IT organization opts to retain control of the file system, the cloud storage provider becomes a natural extension of the enterprise that can easily be replaced.

That may not be what every cloud storage service provider wants to hear. But from an IT perspective, retaining control over the extended enterprise is going to be of paramount importance.