Nirvanix Expands cloud storage scope

Nirvanix is one of many vendors to launch cloud storage services, which allows users to read data over the Internet, and now Nirvanix announces innovations in NAS.

"We want to take cloud storage technology to an enterprise-level environment without changing the user's operating habits," says Jonathan Buckley, chief marketing officer of Nirvanix. We have developed the first cloud storage technology that is fully integrated, downloadable, and configured with NAS gateways and can be run on server devices. ”

The gateway is actually a software agent named Cloudnas that can connect an Intel server or an AMD server as a folder to the Nirvanix storage cloud.

"I might have used the Nirvanix API to connect it to the storage cloud before, unless you're a programmer dedicated to our development and application, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do that," he said. ”

Nirvanix has now virtualized their APIs, which have been encapsulated in Cloudnas software agents.

He said: "IT managers in a very short time to complete the installation of the software, about a few minutes." He also said that Nirvanix will provide users with the software free of charge.

By turning a standard server into a NAS folder, Nirvanix hopes to strengthen its competitive edge with its main rival, Amazon, which uses APIs to connect to S3 services. Nirvanix also claims that its products are another option to replace traditional NAS hardware, such as NetApp and HP.

"This is actually an unrestricted folder," says Buckley. He explains that Cloudnas lets users avoid complex tasks related to storage hardware. "You might have a few petabytes of data, but you don't need to replace more disks, there won't be a lot of high calorie server rooms, and there won't be much data migration every three years." ”

Nirvanix yesterday launched two versions of the Cloudnas software, one for Linux NFS software for Redhat 5 or SuSE 10 systems, and one for CIFS software for Windows Server 2003 and XP systems. Several of the earliest users have now tested the software, and Buckley says the software will be fully marketed by early August.

"The software is free in terms of downloads and usage patterns, but each download has a 200 dollar support fee per month," he said. He explained that Nirvanix would also charge users a 25 cents per month of cloud storage.

Recently, cloud storage vendors such as Parascale, Rpath and CDNetworks have released new products, with CDNetworks signing a storage agreement with Nirvanix this week. However, some analysts cautioned that the technology was not a "universal key".

"With the emergence of sophisticated product systems and enterprise-level applications, I think users will consider deploying applications into storage clouds and running them in their own infrastructure," Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Brian Babineau said in an interview this week. ”

"It will be a phase of ' how much they want to adopt this technology ' for businesses," he said. ”