Mosso Launches Managed Storage at 15 Cents Per Gigabyte
Two Rackspace veterans are launching a cloud-based storage service that could give Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3) a run for its money. The new service, known as Mosso CloudFS, is in private beta and may be of interest to managed service providers (MSPs) that are formulating storage stategies. Here are some quick details.
More than a file storage system, Mosso’s CloudFS service will support multiple APIs and languages, including .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby and Python, the company says. The goal is to ensure users can “easily store data and run applications in a business-class, standards-based environment,” according to a Mosso press release.
The Good and the Bad
Mosso is the latest example of low-cost storage moving into the cloud — a trend that could empower more managed service providers (MSPs) to embrace and extend third-party storage services.
But on the other hand, MSPs that offer proprietary or self-built storage services could have trouble competing on price over the long haul. Mosso, for instance, plans to charge 15 cents per gigabyte (per month, I assume).
If you’d like to potentially participate in the Moso CloudFS beta, you can inquire here. I first read about the beta on GigaOm.
That’s amazing. This is a perfect example of how must differentiate your services in order to be competitive. 15 cents/gig is going to be incredibly attractive and the key selling point for somebody doing desktop backup.
For somebody doing server or major application backup, reliability, recovery time, etc. are going to be much more important than price.
If our industry doesn’t differentitate on the right points, we won’t be able to make money selling such low cost services.
Mike
http://www.smbitpros.com
http://www.everonit.com
Mike: You’re thoughts are on the mark. Basic data backup is a commodity. But backup services tied to specific apps (Exchange, Notes), databases (SQL Server, Oracle) and needs (contingency planning) should allow more sophisticated MSPs to maintain their premiums over commodity services.
The press — myself included — also has to do a better job of drawing clear lines between low-end consumer services, small business servers, enterprise-class offerings, etc. You typically get what you pay for but it seems like the press (again, myself included) sometimes lumps together all of these backup services rather than breaking them out by sophistication and target markets.
Great call Mike and thanks to Joe for the follow up: It is all about the difference between commodity and service.
I am on record to say that backup is a mature MSP market. I am also on record to say that the winners will win because we can restore stuff – and the losers will offer cheap storage somwhere in the world with no SLA that will disappoint.
You either pay me for a managed service or you take your chance with someone else who you cannot shout at.
Please forgive the repetition: no-one shouts louder than a person who thinks they have lost everything because they do not have a backup that they can rely on……