Dive Brief:

• Amazon and Microsoft — currently the leading cloud providers — both introduced tools designed to help businesses improve how they store enterprise data in their clouds this week.

• Amazon announced the S3 Transfer Utility for iOS, while Microsoft announced that Windows 10 client machines can now be backed up using the Azure Backup service. 

• Both tools address scalable capacity, low operating costs and ease of use.

Dive Insight:

Experts have said the new tools demonstrate how cloud-based storage is becoming more mature and offering more flexibility.

Amazon and Microsoft are likely focusing on cloud storage because they recognize many smaller businesses don't have the expertise to build and maintain backup and disaster recovery systems themselves. The introduction of the new tools also demonstrates that cloud storage is becoming more mainstream, and CIOs can’t ignore it.

"Burying your head in the sand isn't a strategy,” said Simon Robinson, research vice president at 451 Research. “It's about enfranchising development groups and devop teams to use cloud services in a way that satisfies business requirements.”