I’ve written a lot on object storage lately and some weeks ago I published an article about object storage platforms and gateways. This time I would like to write a few words on one of those gateways. This is one of the many that you can find out there but the interesting thing is that it comes with some services built on top of it.
Twinstrata CloudArray
Twinstrata is developing a storage appliance (also sold in the VSA form) called CloudArray. In practice, it maintains a local cache of most accessed data while saving them on an object storage backend. It supports 25 different backend platforms (hence all the most important ones) and SMB or iSCSI protocols on the frontend.
This is not a tier 1 storage but it is good for primary storage in SMEs and branch offices or for secondary storage purposes. I won’t detail technicalities, the web site is full of documentation, but it is interesting to notice that there are all the features that you can expect from a modern storage solution (snapshots, bandwidth control, data reduction mechanisms and so on) and it is also compatible with VMware. You can find a free trial version here!
Disaster Recovery (as a Service)
One interesting aspect of this kind of solution is that your data are replicated in a remote site (the CSP) and it could be considered the foundation for basic DR projects.
The appliance maintains nothing important locally: in case of a disaster you can configure a new appliance, access your data on the cloud and restart your application from elsewhere!
Twinstrata is doing even more! They have just announced a new DRaaS (DR as a Service). If necessary, they copy the data hosted in the cloud to a SoftLayer Datacenter where you can spin up your VMs, and you pay only for the time needed to restore your primary site! Also in this case you can find all the documentation on their website. The bad news is that, at the moment, the service will be available only in US (I hope we will see something in the EU at a later time)
Bottom line
Twinstrata is one of those brilliant examples of gateways to the object storage that can easily create new business opportunities for resellers (CSPs/VARs) as well as building interesting solutions for end users.
It’s quite interesting to note how Twinstrata has built its new DRaaS, not only the service itself but also the ease of adoption for the end user and the price model: very attractive for the SMB! The kind of customer that can’t afford DR in any other way.
Last but not least, I love it because it confirms that object storage is cool! 😉
