What is a Cloud Storage Gateway?

Definition of Cloud Storage Gateway

Cloud storage gateway is software or hardware based network device that provides connectivity and protocol translation service between the cloud storage service provider and the local application at customer’s end.  It enables the transfer of data between different non compatible protocols and data security and compression services.

Cloud storage gateway is also known as cloud storage controller and cloud storage appliance.

Brief Description of Cloud Storage Gateway

Cloud storage gateway is primarily designed to provide interoperability between different data protocols used in a cloud based client/server architecture. It works by enabling the REST and SOAP-based client end data storage API’s to work and interoperate with iSCSI, Fiber Channel and other protocols utilized at cloud storage server system.

Cloud storage gateway is generally implemented as software gateway. It provides the following services;

• Transfer and retrieval of data to and from the remote cloud storage servers
• Data compression that enables fast transfer of data
• Data Version management
• Run-time encryption to ensure the security of data being transmitted.