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 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.