Cloud Hosting

October 17, 2012

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Everyone is moving to the cloud these days, and Microsoft is no exception. Of course, theyve been in the cloud for some time now with their Azure infrastructure, but yesterday the Redmond company took their offerings one step further, opening up opportunities for a new kind of customer. In addition to offering a cloud-based platform with Azure, Microsoft now plans to persuade large enterprises to store their data in the cloud, thanks to their latest acquisition: StorSimple.

Microsoft announced the deal yesterday without disclosing any financial details, saying they wanted to help customers more efficiently embrace hybrid cloud computing.

Customers faced with explosive growth in data are looking to the cloud to help them store, manage and archive that data, explained Michael Park, corporate vice president of servers and tools at Microsoft in the press release.

But, to be effective, cloud storage needs to integrate with ITs current investments. StorSimples approach helps customers seamlessly integrate on-premises storage with cloud storage through intelligent automation and management.

The 3-year old StorSimple began shipping their racks to customers this spring. StorSimples approach to cloud storage is a simple one. Customers buy the racks and backup all of their data to them, leaving the primary copy onsite. These racks then automatically archive the data and send a copy to the cloud, not only creating a redundant backup but also moving this backup offsite. Therefore, in the case of disaster, its very likely a company will still have complete access to their data.

Mike Volpi, an investor with Index Ventures, has been working as an advisor to StorSimple since the beginning. He explains StorSimples operation to Venture Beat this way: The StorSimple device sits in between the cloud storage infrastructure and its applications, and makes it look like they are talking to a local disk.

While in the cloud, StorSimple works with several other cloud-based services, such as Amazon, Google, Rackspace and even Microsofts Azure. According to StorSimple, bringing their technology and hardware to Microsofts team made sense, considering their customers choices in cloud services.

Most StorSimple customers are mainstream IT organizations that have chosen Windows Azure as their primary cloud. We are excited to continue to work with Microsoft and bring the combined benefits of StorSimple and Windows Azure to customers around the world, said Ursheet Parikh, co-founder and CEO, StorSimple in the press release.

See the article here:
Microsoft Acquires Leader In Cloud-integrated Storage