VARs Welcome Back iSCSI Guru Matze And His Siafu

John Matze, one of the original developers of the iSCSI protocol whose earlier venture, Okapi Software, was acquired by Overland Storage in 2003, is back with a new startup, San Diego-based Siafu Software.

Siafu is developing low-cost iSCSI appliances that scale upward in performance and capacity as more units are connected together, Matze said. The appliances are built with off-the-shelf hardware using iSCSI target software, which turns standard servers into iSCSI storage appliances. With the new appliances, iSCSI clusters with automatic failover can easily be built, Matze said.

The Siafu iSCSI appliances will come with optional data encryption based on technology from Hifn, a developer of network processing, compression and security technologies. Siafu also plans to release an iSCSI bridge with tape-encryption technology.

John Thome, vice president of Chi, a Cleveland-based solution provider, lauded Siafu’s scalable iSCSI concept. “This is something you can go back to every one of your customers with,” Thome said. “You can mention the recent news stories about tape losses and tell customers you have a solution that is affordable.”

Regarding Matze, Thome said, “As long as I’ve known him, he’s been channel-friendly.”

John Zammett, president of HorizonTek, a solution provider in Huntington, N.Y., agreed. “He’s seen what the channel can do for him and has a history of listening to us,” Zammett said.

Siafu will show the appliances in beta version early next month, with general availability set for June. An entry-level model with 2 Tbytes is expected to list for less than $5,000, and a high-performance model with 7.5 Tbytes will list for $25,000.