How to Get Cloud-Defined Storage Without Buying New Storage Arrays

… September.

A group of ex-3PAR executives founded Nebulon, which came out of stealth mode on June 23.

An MSP’s Take

Marc Pratt, sales manager for U.K. and South Africa-based MSP and reseller SYSDBA, said he sees promise in Nebulon.

SYSDBA’s Marc Pratt

“It’s an alternative for customers who have seen the promise of HCI but have been disappointed with it,” said Pratt. “Being able to manage storage from the cloud creates new opportunities for partners. This creates services that monitor and maintain storage for customers in ways that have not been possible with traditional storage.”

The Nebulon technology provides some enterprise SAN features, without the architectural penalties in products from competitors, said Pratt.

“With Nebulon you get the cloud storage solution, but have the compute thrown in for good measure,” he said. “It’s a compelling value proposition. Startups that address real-world issues are exciting. We think we can solve real customer problems and carve out a very special niche.”

An Interesting Approach, Say Analysts

Camberley Bates, an analyst with Evaluator Group, said Nebulon is talking an interesting approach to help customers with cloud-defined storage.

Evaluator Group’s Camberley Bates

“Key to their go-to-market will be through their server OEMs,” she said. “I do not expect customers to crack open a server to add the services processing unit PCIe cards.”

For customers, lower data storage costs and better performance are the values in Nebulon’s approach.

“I believe we will see this adopted into the newer NoSQL database environments and used for data analytics apps. There are others, but think this is the first entry,” said Bates.

Analyst Stuart Miniman of Wikibon Research said bringing the cloud operating model to the data center is not new.

“For a long time, private clouds haven’t met the operational simplicity and flexibility of public clouds they are measured against. Solutions like Nebulon provide services and management of cloud storage in the flexible deployment of a server-based solution.”

This provides an easy transition for the channel, starting with HPE ProLiant and Supermicro servers, he said. Nebulon can provide a comprehensive on-premises storage solution without the complexity of a legacy storage array.

“It’s another step to enable storage with less dependence on expensive hardware platforms that are challenging to deploy and maintain,” Miniman explained.