It started with an idea: reliable, elastic and inexpensive storage. The question was what is the best way to provide it? After what seemed like years of evaluating different options we decided to use ParaScale as the basis of our cloud storage infrastructure. From an engineers’ perspective playing with new technologies can be fun, but designing and building something useful is a lot more interesting. It seems like we just finished selecting ParaScale, and yet we are already a few days into beta!

Cloud Storage sounds cool, but what can you really use it for? Some of the ways I’m already using it:
• Backups. I am now backing up my laptop up to the cloud.
• Sharing. I can quickly, easily and securely share documents and other files with coworkers, family and friends.
• Freeing up space. I have moved rarely used but important files to the cloud. Old photos, archived email, music that is no longer finding its way into my playlists, etc.

Those are just the ways I’m using it personally. As a business user and hosting engineer I’m even more excited about the possible use cases. I’m constantly in need of more storage for backups, snapshots, disc images, logs, etc. I’m often in need of a secure, central place to store files that I can access from anywhere. What makes VISI Cloud Storage especially nice for me in these use cases is that it is in the same data center as the servers I’m working with! Not having to go out over the Internet makes my transfers faster and more secure.

I’m excited about the possibilities for this product. You can discover more for yourself by becoming a beta tester.

Thanks again to all who attended Cloud VISION this past Wednesday! The Metropolitan was nearly bursting at the seams with all of the Business Executives and IT Directors who attended. After a breakfast of bacon, sausage, and eggs, Chris Howard of Burton Group kicked off the morning with a keynote on the topic of “Cloud Computing as a Business Advantage”. Jason Baker, CTO at VISI, gave the second keynote of the morning which included a live demonstration of the ReliaCloud platform.

Enjoy the videos below, and feel free to share them with your colleagues.

Chris Howard (1/6)

Chris Howard (2/6)

Chris Howard (3/6)

Chris Howard (4/6)

Chris Howard (5/6)

Chris Howard (6/6)

Jason Baker (1/5)

Jason Baker (2/5)

Jason Baker (3/5)

Jason Baker (4/5)

Jason Baker (5/5)

Thanks to all who attended our cloud computing event yesterday. A big thanks to Chris Howard with Burton Group and everyone from VISI who helped put on the event!

If you missed the seminar or would like to view the presentations again, you can download PDFs of the slides. Also, Jason Baker with VISI will be giving his cloud computing presentation (including a live demo!) again on November 4th, 2009 at 12:00pm CST. The webinar will be 60 minutes in length. You can register online at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/223681226.

We will be posting videos from the event shortly.

Chris Howard, Burton Group - PDF

Jason Baker, VISI - PDF

Thanks to all who attended our webinar on cloud storage presented by Jason Baker. For those of you unable to make it, some of the highlights included Jason’s characteristics of cloud storage, various use cases, cloud storage trends and a description of VISI’s forthcoming cloud storage product. The PowerPoint presentation is now available to download in PDF form. Please feel free to leave a comment regarding your thoughts on the webinar, or topics you’d like to see covered in future webinars.

After performing in-depth testing including acquiring and testing competitive products, VISI has recently announced their using ParaScale’s software to enable our cloud storage service. Their software will allow us to create a flexible cloud storage product with multiple access methods: API, drive mounts and HTTP.

We look forward to your feedback as we finalize cloud storage.  Our cloud storage beta launch will begin later this month with the general availability release in October.

We also still have seats available at our free cloud computing breakfast seminar (Cloud VISION) which will be happening next month at the Metropolitan in Minneapolis. It is not too late to reserve your seat for beta testing or Cloud VISION.

I am thrilled to be involved with something that will radically change the way storage is purchased and provisioned.   I’ve been working with a team of VISI hosting and network engineers for the last couple months – and I’m really starting to see the results.  We’re getting very close to announcing the availability of our new Cloud Storage product.

What is cloud storage?  Cloud storage allows users the ability to scale their platforms up and down as their needs change.  This allows you to essentially ‘pay-as-you-go’ –  changing the amount of data stored on a day to day basis as needed… or  remaining static.    Cloud storage provides elastic storage for a wide variety of use cases and can be accessed via standard drive mounts, http and API protocols.

Next Wednesday (September 2nd), VISI will host a free webinar on Cloud Storage which will provide you with ample information on this new technology as well as inform you on ways to leverage our cloud storage platform. Our chief technology officer and cloud expert, Jason Baker, will lead the webinar. You can register online to reserve a virtual seat.

We will begin beta testing cloud storage in mid-September.  If you’re interested in volunteering to help us test our new product, it’s not too late to sign up.  We’d love to hear your valuable feedback to help make our launch in October as successful as possible.