The potential of new product market is huge in cloud storage field

The initial company axcient a combination of storage devices and online backup services, targeting small and medium sized businesses that provide easy, fast storage for small and midsize enterprises while also securely protecting data at remote sites. The company's chief executive, Justin Moore, described the combination as a "hardware plus software as a service," and said the combination would be more than 200 employees, and that data storage and protection would be very attractive to 10-20GB companies.

"The SME market wants more solutions to protect their data, and hopes that the solution won't cost too much," says Moore. The online storage we offer can be used for disaster recovery, and our local storage is available for quick recovery. Our cloud storage is very convenient. Recovery is a hard thing to do, and we've solved this problem with our storage devices. "

Axcient's product channels are distributors and system integrators. Axcient provides a range of devices with different storage capabilities that can be automatically connected to the outbound data center that Axcient operates. Moore says the product portfolio contains a linux-based operating system developed by Axcient that allows users to add new services and functionality more easily, and also provides centralized management. The device can automatically discover PCs and servers on the network, be able to file backup or folder backups, and compress and encrypt data before it is sent to the outbound data center. Specific services for this portfolio also include backup, archiving, disaster recovery, and server continuity (storage devices can save a server image so that the mirror can be run in place of server failure).

Moore says the system does not use proxies and does not require any software to be installed, and users can store multiple copies of data in different sites for greater redundancy. Changes to critical data can be backed up continuously to shorten the backup window. The system works in conjunction with Windows, Linux, and Macs computers. The system is sold through distribution channels and its starting price is less than 100 USD/month. Prices vary depending on the storage capacity of the device and the amount of data that is stored in the outbound storage.

"It's really wise to use a local device for cloud backup," says George Crump, founder of Storage Switzerland. "One of the key features of this product mix is that it leverages an internal storage device so that when a server failure occurs, the storage device can be run as a server." "Most small and midsize enterprises cannot afford redundant servers, so this should be a very popular feature." "

It hosting company The planet has also launched another online storage approach. The planet currently has more than 20,000 global customers, hosted more than 48,000 servers, and hosts 1500多万个 Web sites. The company currently has six data centers and provides server hosting, host hosting, and server leasing services.

Like Axcient, the planet also provides local storage and cloud storage. But the planet's local network-attached storage is in the company's datacenter, and cloud storage is in its remote data center. The planet and Nirvanix collaborate on remote data centers. Nirvanix built a storage network node at the planet's Dallas Remote Data center. The combination of these two companies allows customers to store data in different data centers around the world for greater redundancy and security.

The planet storage and Data Protection Division general manager Rob Walters says the Nirvanix node "provides an inlet ramp for cloud storage." Internal NAS (network-attached storage) delivers superior performance, while the cloud allows us to replicate globally. Customers can also use nodes around the world to reduce latency. "

The Planet

The planet recently set up a hosting business unit and provided a package service. "For us, cloud storage is a natural extension," says Walters. "The planet charges according to capacity and bandwidth. The starting price for the storage fee is: Local node 40 cents GB Month, remote node 25 cents GB Month. The company also gives a calculator on the Web page that customers can use to calculate the cost.

This service will be very attractive to the planet existing customers. Walters says the company is considering providing backup and archiving services to companies that have not yet used the company's managed services.