IBM marks transition for first cloud storage platform

Users of the v1 tech preview are being encouraged to migrate

IBM is closing down its first iteration at cloud object storage - after just over two years.

The cloud is a useful tool, offering high speeds for fast development and storage - but the downside of that speed is evident in IBM's latest decision: turning off a service that it launched in February 2015, because it is obsolete

'Swift-based Object Storage for IBM Spark as a Service' (hereafter abbreviated as SWOS) is a SaaS solution, designed to store unstructured data. IBM refers to the first version as a 'tech preview connector'; it was made a private service in February 2016, when users began migrating to v3.

In an attempt to get users to upgrade to the newest version (a simple case of copying data and updating an app), the firm has said, 'We will now be deleting all existing instances after 30 days i.e. on August 24, 2017. We recommend users to unprovision the Object Storage v1 service and switching to v3, before August 24, 2017. Please copy over any data and point Analytics for Apache Spark applications to use the Object Storage v3 service.'

V3 of IBM's Object Store needs to be superior to its predecessors; Gartner's recent Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Server ranked IBM in the 'Leader' category, marking a firm with a relatively complete vision but low ability to execute on that vision. The research firm said the cloud feature-set 'has not improved significantly since the IBM acquisition [of SoftLayer] in mid-2013; it is SMB-centric, hosting-oriented and missing many cloud IaaS capabilities required by midmarket and enterprise customers.'

Gartner added, 'IBM has, throughout its history in the cloud IaaS business, repeatedly encountered engineering challenges that have negatively impacted its time to market. It has discontinued a previous attempt at a new cloud IaaS offering, an OpenStack-based infrastructure that was offered via the Bluemix portal in a 2016 beta. Customers must thus absorb the risk of an uncertain roadmap. This uncertainty also impacts partners, and therefore the potential ecosystem.'

Update 1/8/17: This article originally incorrectly referred to IBM's Cloud Object Storage; that service is still operating as normal. IBM told us, 'Object storage continues to be a critical and strategic storage service, and it is foundational to the IBM Cloud. IBM is currently making and will continue to make investments in this area and continues to support its customers globally.'