Geo-location: The service backs up data to secondary servers located in the same country as those hosting the primary cloud. Although the whole point of cloud computing, in one sense, is to nullify the significance of the physical location of data, that issue can actually matter a whole lot when it comes to auditory compliance or legal constraints. Ensuring that information is automatically backed up in the same jurisdiction may therefore simplify operations for some enterprises.

Open-source distributed storage: Tier 3 is delivering the service via the Riak CS distributed storage platform, one of a growing number of distributed storage systems for the cloud. Basho Technologies, which created Riak CS, open-sourced the code a few months ago, placing Riak CS in a tight niche that also includes platforms like Ceph and GlusterFS. The collaboration between Basho and Tier 3 in this area is thus notable for those tracking who is likely to win the storage wars as open-source cloud computing evolves.