Nirvanix, TwinStrata Launch Cloud Storage Starter Kit

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Unsurprisingly, the news coming out of VMworld 2012 so far is heavily tied into the cloud computing realm. One of the first announcements off the springboard was the launch of a cloud storage starter kit developed by Nirvanix and TwinStrata.

Both cloud storage service businesses, Nirvanix and TwinStrata are combining 50 TB of Nirvanix cloud storage with TwinStrata’s CloudArray to provide a “pre-tested, fully integrated cloud storage starter kit” for $48 per year. The two companies are targeting enterprise customers in search of backup, archiving and global collaboration in one solution. Additionally, the companies have crafted a set of SLAs around the offering…

That’s a lot of cloud-based storage for less than $50 per year, presenting another low-cost solution to rival the recently announced Amazon Glacier, in addition to other cloud archival storage services such as Quantum’s Q-Cloud. Even better for the channel, Nirvanix will be taking the product to market in part through its channel partners. What kind of margins there would be on a $48 cloud storage service I don’t know, but partners are likely best to look at this as a value-add they can tack on to other deals.

“Our customers have been asking for enterprise-grade cloud storage solutions that they can implement easily, affordably and quickly,” said Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata, in a prepared statement.

Nirvanix and TwinStrata are appealing to potential customers on four key pain point solutions in a pre-packaged cloud service — affordability, simplicity, performance and security. It’s difficult to argue affordability, as the price sounds right, and the companies are promising there are no hidden fees that will send the low costs skyrocketing. The service also provides 12 TB of high-performance and dynamic on-site cache to keep response rates equivalent to local performance. Additionally, Nirvanix provides military-grade, multilevel security at the user, data storage and physical data center levels, but the service is also outfitted with TwinStrata’s at-rest and in-flight encryption, local key management and volume access control.