Unlike on-premises physical storage, customers purchase cloud storage capacity from a cloud provider who owns, manages, and operates the storage resources. Cloud providers offer storage capacity as a service with a utility pricing model and global availability. Cloud storage providers also have security tools that limit access to these resources to authorized users. The cloud providers are also responsible for managing storage capacity, availability, security, and compliance. The main advantages of cloud storage services are that they can be up in minutes with no upfront investments, scale on-demand, and are available anywhere 24/7/365. As enterprises increasingly rely on cloud storage, it is good to know that all one needs to do is acquire the required cloud storage services and start using them immediately. While cloud storage is simple to purchase, and starting using, having a solid strategy in mind to include tiers, egress fees, network requirements and so forth is essential to a cloud storage plan.