Cleversafe Delivers New Features To Deploy And Manage Cloud Storage

CHICAGO, June 29. Cleversafe Inc., the leader in resilient storage solutions ideally suited for storage clouds and massive digital archives, announced the latest release of Cleversafe software version 2.1. The latest release delivers on the key requirements necessary for service providers to easily manage cloud storage as part of their overall service offerings while providing new flexible deployment options for customers.

For service providers that need tightly integrated software solutions for cloud storage, Cleversafe software delivers the foundation for superior cloud services with the flexibility necessary to offer a multitude of services for customers today. Key new features include the following:
  --  Advanced APIs: Integration with existing service provider systems
      through enhanced API enabling billing systems, CRM solutions, and
      management consoles to easily integrate with Cleversafe Dispersed
      Storage systems. Additional API enhancements include vault usage
      metrics, storage container auditing and SNMP event alerts for
      at-a-glance system diagnostics on the health of their storage system.
  --  Enhanced Security: Active Directory authentication with service
      providers' systems for customer access as well as service provider
      administrator permissions for the management system.
  --  Verifiable Performance: Cleversafe's ObjectOMeter tests performance
      related to the client SDK to ensure throughput of data and information
      within the cloud independent of network performance and application
      layers.
      
With this new release, Cleversafe also now offers customers more flexible deployment options, including bundled Cleversafe Dispersed Storage hardware and Cleversafe 2.1 software. These new bundles allow customers to pay-as-they-grow instead of locking them into a cost-prohibitive large upfront capital investment. Additionally, by utilizing industry standard hardware platforms, customers can feel confident that their Dispersed Storage network operates seamlessly with their existing IT infrastructure.

Cleversafe software is java-based and accessible through standard interfaces, making it a viable option for customers that need a highly secure, highly portable solution for their storage needs. Cleversafe also leverages industry standard components such as Intel x86 processors and Seagate SATA drives for easy integration with existing data center infrastructures. Cleversafe software also continues to solve the problems of traditional perimeter security - which does not work in a virtualized or public cloud infrastructure. Customers value the approach of how securing the confidentiality of data shifts from securing the perimeter to transforming data into unrecognizable slides which have been proven to be inherently secure.

"Service providers have taken center stage in cloud storage deployments in supplying reliable, cost-efficient IT storage and services. Our goal with Cleversafe 2.1 is to provide rock-solid security that can overcome multiple simultaneous failures and the ability to meet the demanding SLAs expected in cloud storage deployments," said Chris Gladwin, CEO of Cleversafe. "And, with the new functionality we're now offering that underscore ease-of-use, flexibility and cost-control, customers can leverage our software with Cleversafe Dispersed Storage solutions or with certified third-party storage solutions depending on their needs."

As part of the strategy to offer customers more flexibility in configuring their Dispersed Storage network, Cleversafe now offers three separate software licenses (street pricing shown):
  --  Accesser 2.1- dispersed storage router, per CPU socket, $4,200
  --  Slicestor 2.1 - storage nodes, per spindle pricing
      --  4 spindle license $3,800
      --  12 spindle license $10,200
  --  Manager 2.1 - management system, per CPU socket, $7,000Starting price for a configuration for 64 TB raw capacity (based on using 2 TB drives) is $43,400 for software licenses only, and $73,000 for bundled hardware and software, both at street pricing. Pricing includes a Manager appliance, two Accesser routers, and eight Slicestor storage nodes. "Organizations continue to seek reliable, secure, and efficient ways to store their data," said Noemi Greyzdorf, Research Manager, Storage Software, IDC. "Cleversafe delivers scalability, security, and adherence to SLAs in the data center. It also arms service providers with expanded integration capabilities offering ease of use and key insight into system health."

Cleversafe's Dispersed Storage technology has been in the market for more than two years, seamlessly and securely divides data into slices, and then disperses them to multiple storage nodes typically across three or four data centers. Each individual slice is unrecognizable as data and therefore inherently secure, whereas a defined threshold of slices can be used to bit-perfectly recreate the original data. This approach replaces costly replication with only a 30-60 percent storage expansion and yet has even higher availability than four replicated copies.