A San Francisco storage technology company has claimed that it has
combined an efficient, global file storage service with a business
model well suited for the existing economic climate.
Scale Eight's Global Storage Service gives customers the ability to
store and retrieve files securely, either through a Web browser or
from an access device that appears to a network administrator as a
local drive with unlimited capacity.
The service frees customers from having to worry about data backup
and disaster recovery routines while simplifying file storage
within a business network.
"What [the service] allows customers to do is aggregate their
storage across multiple data centres and into one virtual storage
utility," explained Patrick Rogers, the vice-president of product
management and business.
Companies wanting to integrate NAS (Network Attached Storage)
products for file serving tasks can use Scale Eight's service to
provide both local and global file serving without worrying about
how the NAS system works with storage area networks, or any other
block storage network, said Rogers.
Customers install Scale Eight's 1U (1.75-inch) rack-mounted Global
Storage port appliance at a point on the Network File System. The
port then provides the gateway to Scale Eight's four global storage
centres.
Scale Eight's Global File System offers a single file system image
to users accessing files from either the network or from remote Web
browsers. Every file stored is mirrored across at least two storage
centres, Rogers said.
"It's a wholly different architecture. We've applied parallel
system design to storage so we can handle millions of transactions
a day," said Rogers.
By concentrating solely on file serving, Scale Eight not only has a
sharper focus for its customers, but a leaner infrastructure for
itself, says Tony Prigmore, a senior analyst with the Enterprise
Storage Group.
"Scale Eight is focused on file, not block data. Rather than try
and offer a service for every aspect [of users' needs], they focus
on file storage only, which is good. It's a big, giant market.
They're looking at only half the storage equation, which is a
massive component of business," explains Prigmore.
"Scale Eight is saying that we don't need more than four data
centres. A lot of these storage service providers have 25 data
centers; Scale Eight needs four," he added.
Regardless of what many in the industry claim will be an infinite
demand for storage going forward, Prigmore said that the same
fundamental rules of business apply to the storage market.
Pricing for Scale Eight's Global Storage Service starts at $30
(£21.45) per managed, mirrored gigabyte per month. Plans start at
300GB per month, according to Scale Eight officials.