Parascale Pushes Cloud Software

Startup Parascale claims to have developed a new form of cloud storage, touting a software-based clustered file system that can link hardware from different server vendors into a pool of storage.

We’re a software provider that enables private or public clouds,” says Mike Maxey, Parascale’s director of product management. “As you add or remove nodes to and from the cloud, it will balance capacity.”

Parascale’s clustered file system software works with VMware to link servers from different vendors into a “private storage cloud” within the user's firewall. The vendor is also pushing the technology at service providers looking to compete with Amazon’s S3 offering.

Unlike vendors such as Isilon and BlueArc, which use dedicated hardware, Parascale claims that its software will work with any Intel-based machines running VMware Server software.

The vendor is also touting its software cloud as a more robust offering than the likes of Amazon S3, which recently suffered a high-profile outage.“There’s security concerns that can be mitigated when you build your own internal cloud within your firewall,” says Cameron Bahar, the Parascale CTO. “When you go with S3, you don’t get to pick the form factor of your hardware.”

A private cloud, in contrast, offers users “a better handle” on Quality of Service (QOS), according to the exec.

”You can choose what disk drives and memory you use in tune with your cloud application,” he adds.

Despite all Parascale’s spiel, however, there is no indication of when its software cloud will see the light of day.

Parascale refuses to say when its software will be generally available, although the vendor is currently offering a beta version of its software, which can be downloaded from the Parascale Web site.“Think of it as a beta look at our code – I think it’s a unique event that customers can download a storage cloud within their environment,” says Maxey. Between 10 and 20 users are currently participating in the cloud storage trial, he adds, in addition to five existing beta sites.

The exec also says that Parascale will likely support Microsoft’s Hyper-V offering at some point in the future. “Seeing some of the demand around Hyper-V, I think it’s high probability,” he says. “We’re looking very closely at that.”

Cloud services, which let users store and access data via the Internet, have become increasingly visible over recent months, touted as the silver bullet for users’ hardware and skills limitations.

Even with the current flurry of vendor activity, users have already been warned to approach the technology with caution. Analyst firm Gartner, for example, recently warned users that it could be "many years" before cloud services are fully mature.

For the next couple of years, users considering cloud storage must consider certain key factors before they dive into Internet-based services, according to Gartner.These include finding out how the shift to Web-based storage could affect existing contracts with IT vendors and determining whether the cloud will be robust enough to meet specific business goals.

Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.