Category Archives: Cloud Storage

Cloud Services, Cloud Storage, Cloud Technology

SoftNAS Helps Solve Enterprise Storage Problems

SoftNAS, a leading software company that provides storage software to protect critical data across all types of clouds, announced today that their new solution for on-site, hybrid and public cloud storage management, called the SoftNAS Cloud File Gateway, is available. It aims to manage the high expenses behind baking up data and time required to archive and retrieve older data. SoftNAS Cloud File Gateway allows on-site and hybrid cloud storage systems to exist as a unified, shared file system to maximize savings and flexibility. The software is ideal for enterprises due to its local caching and S3 object storage connectivity.

 

Research done by Markets and Research show that the cloud storage market should grow by about 54% in the next four years. The amount of data being collected and stored is also expected to double every 18 months. SoftNAS is trying to transform how IT is delivered, making data available wherever customers need it in a timely manner without adding too much cost and infrastructure. Their new software allows companies to do just that.

 

SoftNAS Cloud File Gateway overcomes the singular gateway problem facing many companies by combining three things. First is access to on-site and private storage. Second is access to public cloud storage. Lastly is a unified shared system with NAS features via NSF and CIFS/SMB. These allow customers that want a traditional file system as well as the ability to use S3 compatible storage to reasonably implement their wishes.

 

data_center_cloud_migration

 

Businesses struggle with backups that cause restrictions due to time, space and hardware. Any NFS or CIFS compatible backup tool can be used to store high-speed backups using the Cloud File Gateway onto local storage, S3 compatible object storage and iSCSI SANs. Along with the newly released SoftNAS Cloud version 3.3, backups can happen up to 10 times faster and archival use can be up to 5 times faster.

 

The SoftNAS software is the perfect compliment to VMware Virtual SAN with the requisite NAS features, unified storage and CIFS/SMB with Active Directory integration. It extends the VMware to include highly durable storage up to 26 petabytes of secure off-site storage. SoftNAS extends the virtual SAN storage, Offers a full NAS filer feature set and Access to patent pending Hybrid HA tunneling provides non-stop Cloud HA across datacenters with block replication, automatic failover and seamless HA storage between a premise-based VMware data center and vCloud Air.

 

They also provide a complete software-defined storage solution for private, hybrid and public clouds that is easy to download, install and run on existing VMware vSphere host with a feature set that includes encrypted and highly durable storage, SSD caching, accessible via standard protocols, no special hardware required, transforms VMware into a comprehensive storage solution and multi-user capable for service providers.

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Aaron Levie, Box, Cloud Storage, M&A, News & Analysis, Ross McKegney, Verold

Box eyes retail manufacturers, engineering, construction firms with Verold acquisition

Box is looking to bolster its pitch to niche verticals

Box is looking to bolster its pitch to niche verticals

Box has acquired Verold, a Toronto-based 3D modelling and WebGL specialist, in a bid to bolster its appeal to retail manufacturers, engineering and construction firms.

Verold, which was founded in 2010, offers WebGL-based 3D modelling technology that lets users preview and edit 3D content without much computational overhead.

As part of the acquisition Box will move to integrate Verold’s technology into its platform. Verold’s teams with also become Box employees.

“At Verold, we believe interactive 3D web content has the power to transform a wide range of industries and applications, from manufacturing to ecommerce, and we believe the tools to build the 3D web should be broadly accessible,” said Ross McKegney, chief executive officer of Verold.

“Box’s incredible success in building an enterprise content platform that already reaches 45,000 businesses presents a one-of-a-kind opportunity for us to bring the future of 3D content to millions of people around the world. We’re thrilled to be joining Box and can’t wait to get started,” McKegney said.

The cloud-based storage incumbent said the acquisition would enhance its ability to provide more solutions specifically tailored to various industries. Last year the company launched Box for Industries, a collection of Box offerings tailored to a range of niche verticals.

Box chief executive Aaron Levie discussed some of the drivers for the acquisition on the company’s blog, and hinted at where the next Box for Industries solutions might appear: “We’re finding that nearly every industry is experiencing information-driven transformation in unique ways, and the acquisition of Verold will allow us to go even farther than ever imagined.”

“Take for example a commercial construction contractor, faced with the challenge of collaborating on multiple projects at once with partners and contractors, or previewing detailed design drawings when in the field. Or an athletic wear retailer tasked with delivering the latest product design iterations across geographically dispersed teams. Being able to perform these workflows, right from a web browser, without having to download any additional software is a game-changing proposition in many industries,” he said.

The move comes just one month after Box’s latest acquisition. It recently purchased Subspace, a mobile security startup, for an undisclosed sum.

Amazon AWS, Cloud Storage

Amazon Cloud’s Unlimited Storage Plans

Amazon recently announced two unlimited storage plans for its cloud-based storage service Amazon Cloud Drive. The plan focuses on two points. The first is for those who want to store an unlimited amount of photos, called the Unlimited Photos Plan, which costs $11.99 per year. The second is called the Unlimited Everything Plan that costs $59.99 per year. There is also a free three-month trial, but at around $5 per month it is a great deal no matter how much or how little storage you actually will use.

 

amazon cloud drive logo

 

Previously, Amazon offered 5 GB of cloud storage for free and a tiered price structure for anything more. The most storage offered was 1TB for $500 per year. The new plan completely crushes these plans. Amazon has not said whether it will allow those on the 5GB free plan to stay that way or upgrade them to the lowest tier of the new plans, though the old plans are most likely going to be obsolete in the near future.

 

The Amazon Cloud Drive, unlike some other drive services, does not have proper desktop sync software. This means you have to manually select the files and folders you want to upload and then manually download them when you add them to another device through the cloud. It does, however, have an automatic photo backup apps for iOS and Android.

 

In comparison of the Amazon Cloud Drive:

  • Dropbox charges $10 for 1TB per month with 2GB available for free
  • Google charges $9.99 per month for 1TB and $299 for 30TB with 15GB free
  • Apple charges $19.99 per month for 1TB with 5GB free
  • Microsoft charges $6.99 per month for 1TB ad 15GB free

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Cloud Services, Cloud Storage, Google

Nearline: Google’s Low-Cost Cloud Storage Service For Cold Data

Google is launching a new cloud storage service that is expected to change how many companies of any size view online storage. Google Cloud Storage Nearline allows businesses to store data they or their customers do not often need, and for a low cost of $0.01 per gigabyte at rest.

 

Unlike other cloud storage services where it can take very long to retrieve your data, Google promises that on Nearline your data will be available in only three seconds. They believe the gap between the cost of online and offline storage must decrease according to their director of product management for the Cloud Platform team, Tom Kershaw.

 

Businesses may need or want to keep all of their records for as long as possible. Once they have been moved offline however, it becomes difficult to quickly find the desired record. Google is hoping to blue the line between cold storage and online storage so that businesses do not have to delete or move their files to more complicated storage locations.

 

The low cost of this storage service, which is competitive with Glacier by Amazon, is due to the fact that Google is able to host all of its data on a single system, regardless of location. This is unusual for a cloud storage service because historically, service providers have built two separate systems. The hardest thing about offline storage is transferring the data between these two systems.

 

Nearline uses the same system as the rest of Google’s storage products, including the same encryption and security features. They also share API’s with the standard storage service. It is expected that early adopters of this service will use it primarily for photo, video and document storage.

 

In order to reach a broader market, Google has partnered with many storage companies, most notable Iron Mountain. This partnership will allow users to send in their hard drives and have the securely uploaded onto Nearline.

iron mtn

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Cloud Services, Cloud Storage

IBM’s Comprehensive Cloud Initiative

IBM announced earlier that it’s new initiative aims to help customers manage the hybrid cloud world. The hybrid cloud describes a mixed environment that includes a combination of public and private cloud resources as well as on-premise data centers.

 

Angel Diaz, the VP of cloud architecture and technology at IBM, says that the main idea is to make it as simple as possible to manage resources across a range of cloud platforms and types. Between public and private clouds, data centers and cloud to cloud will ideally behave as a single infrastructure, no matter where these are located.

 

IBM is trying to address an issue that every company faces at some point during their switch to using the cloud as most companies have a hybrid of cloud computing types. They are finding it difficult to access information from different sources. Diaz has said that there are three main problem areas. First, there needs to be a way to integrate data with the company’s systems. Second, they want to make it easier to access the data regardless of location or platform. Lastly, delivery of data to the device and location it is needed even if bits of information are on different platforms.

 

Along with these problems, IBM has announced several ways to solve these problems. The first solution involves container technology. IBM has partnered with Docker to create IBM-defined Dockerized containers for enterprises. These containers are designed to work no matter if the applications are on location or in the cloud, and to integrate processes like security, governance and a system of records.

 

The second solution is something called IBM DataWorks.  This was designed to help developers work with different sets of data by mapping connections between applications and locations to pull the data together in a secure manner automatically. IBM wants to tie this into Watson to provide access to API’s for intelligent use of the data. Diaz said that Watson does not just make sense of the data, but it can also draw correlations and give probability of what is right and what isn’t.

 

Another important piece is BlueMix Local. This allows a way to setup BlueMix, an IBM platform as a service offering, in a way that lets you choose where to store the application’s components. It will allow you to store these components in the public cloud as well as on-premise and cloud sources depending on the individual or company requirements. IBM’s BlueMix is trying to provide visibility, control and application in a seamless manner.

 

IBM is working with multiple companies to solve these cloud issues, and Diaz says it is important for companies to work together to overcome customer frustrations. IBM will continue to team up with other companies to solve these complex issues.

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Backup, Cloud Storage, Featured, recovery, Storage and Information Management

Why Nirvanix Doesn’t Mean the End of Cloud Storage

By Randy Weis, Practice Manager, Virtualization & Data Management

By now everyone is familiar with the Nirvanix fiasco. Now that the dust has settled, I decided to talk about the implications this has had, and will have, on the cloud storage market as well as to highlight some silver linings organizations can take away from the meltdown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtQmGQBWzbc

If you’re looking for more content around storage and information management check out my recent posts “A Guide to Successful Big Data Adoption” as well as “10 Storage Predictions for 2014.”

Do you have questions for Randy about storage & data management? Email us at socialmedia@greenpages.com

Cloud Storage, Computer data storage, Hardware, Seagate, Seagate Technology, Storage

Seagate Kinetic Open Storage Platform: a Promising Distributed Hardware Infrastructure

Seagate Technology hopes to redefine cloud storage infrastructure with the unveiling of its internally developed Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform. A potential leap forward in scale-out storage architectures, the innovative storage platform promises to simplify data management and improve performance and scalability while lowering total cost of ownership of typical cloud infrastructures.

“With the Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform, our internal R&D teams have designed an unique, first-of-its-kind storage architecture to enable cheaper, more scalable object storage solutions that free up IT professionals from having to invest in hardware and software they don’t need—while empowering them with the most innovative storage technology available,” said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer. “This technology optimizes storage solutions for a new era of cloud storage systems, while drastically reducing overall costs.”

The platform leverages Seagate’s expertise in hardware and software storage systems to integrate a new key/value API – which will be open sourced – and Ethernet connected with Seagate hard drive technology. Designed for rapid implementation and deployment in any cloud storage software stack, this technology can be deployed across a portfolio of storage devices enabling system builders and software developers to design new solutions that will deliver against a full array of cloud data center use cases.

Redefining hardware and software capabilities, the platform enables cloud service providers and independent software vendors to optimize scale-out file and object-based storage—simply and effectively. With the Kinetic Open Storage platform, applications can now manage specific features and capabilities and rapidly implement and deploy in any cloud storage software stack. The technology also increases I/O efficiency by removing bottlenecks and optimizing cluster management, data replication, migration, and active archive performance.

Amazon, Amazon AWS, Azure, Cloud Storage, File hosting service, Google, Microsoft, Nirvanix, Storage, Venture Funding

Nirvanix Shutdown: Collateral Damage in Big Players’ Price War?

The sudden shutdown of Nirvanix, an early but recently faltering participant in the “pure-play” Online Storage space dominated by the likes of AWS S3, Microsoft Azure and Google, is in large part a result of downward pressure on prices as the big players continually lower theirs. Amazon, for instance, launched S3 in 2006 and charged $0.15 per gigabyte-month. After many step-wise price cuts S3 is down to $0.095 per gigabyte-month.

Pure online storage is fast becoming the sole province of vendors who either enjoy economies of scale, or who treat their offerings as a loss-leader to get other business (or a combination of both).

Smaller players may have to add value in other ways to survive. Nirvanix was not profitable, and when their latest round of funding came up short it was the last nail in their coffin.

Cloud Storage, Nirvanix, Outage Alert, Storage

Online Storage Provider Nirvanix Reportedly Two Weeks From Shutdown

According to a report today in Information Age:

“US-based cloud storage provider Nirvanix tells employees it has “gone to the wall”, gives customers until the end of the month to move their data elsewhere .”

The company was founded in 2007 after an online storage company called StreamLoad split into consumer and business units. Not longer after, the consumer arm – MediaMax – gave customers one month to relocate their data following a botched migration onto the Nirvanix platform.

(Source)