Many organizations move data to the cloud for scalability, durability and lower costs. Months later, some discover their data has become harder to restore, reuse or move. In his article for the September/October 2026 issue of Storage magazine, Nikolay Fesliyski, Product Manager at Tiger Technology, explains the gap between moving data to the cloud and actually being able to use it. Here are the key points.
Why does moving data to object storage create problems?
Most hyperscale cloud storage, including Amazon S3 and Azure Blob Storage, is built on object storage. Many applications and workflows were designed for file storage, where one part of a file can be changed while the rest stays intact. An object is a self-contained unit identified by a key, and it is typically replaced as a whole when it changes. Fesliyski explains that this mismatch often causes problems months after the migration. Restores can become slow, data can get locked into a vendor's format, and some tools can no longer access the data.
What are the hidden costs of cloud gateways and duplicate copies?
Proprietary cloud gateways repackage data into their own format, so restores and provider changes can depend on one vendor's software. Keeping separate file and object copies reduces vendor lock-in but creates an ongoing job of keeping both versions aligned. AI raises the stakes, because an AI tool can only work with data it can reach, in a form it can use. What used to be an infrastructure issue for IT teams is becoming a wider business problem.
How can hybrid cloud storage keep data usable?
According to Fesliyski, the organizations that avoid this bottleneck check before migrating whether their data will remain usable in the cloud. Tiger Technology's hybrid approach lets file-based applications and cloud-native services work with the same underlying data, without proprietary formats or unnecessary duplicate copies. Before moving data, he advises organizations to understand where it will live and in what form. They should also know how easily future applications could access, move or use it.
"Files and objects are both right for what they do. The problem starts when an organisation needs the advantages of both at once."
Nikolay Fesliyski, Product Manager, Tiger Technology
Read the full article on Storage magazine: Whose Rules Is Your Data Living By?