Managed hosted service provider Hosted Solutions is upgrading its Stratus Cloud Storage service, based on the EMC Atmos platform, with larger capacity, enhanced replication features, and easier access for customers.
Hosted Solutions' Stratus Cloud Storage now utilizes CloudArray virtual appliances from Natick, Maine-based TwinStrata for improved access and performance of applications accessing data through the service.
Jeff Kramer, vice president of technology at Raleigh, N.C.-based Hosted Solutions, said that the combination of EMC's Atmos cloud-based storage arrays and TwinStrata's CloudArray appliances has allowed his company to build a hybrid storage service.
"Stratus Cloud Storage is accessible by public clouds, private clouds, and co-located dedicated managed customers," Kramer said. "It provides on-demand capacity for the storage, distribution, and retrieval of data from any location and at any time."
The CloudArray appliances are virtual appliances which allow customers to access data on the EMC Atmos arrays, and are accessed by customers via a drive letter the same as any storage device, Kramer said.
"A lot of customers like to write to a drive letter," he said. "If they need an API, that's another level of development for them."
Hosted Solutions' cloud-based storage provides capacity which grows and shrinks as needed, Kramer said. It provides enterprise-grade security, as well as a 99.9-percent uptime service-level agreement. It also allows management of the storage based on customers' corporate policies, he said.
Hosted Solutions currently has five data centers spread between Boston, Raleigh, and Charlotte, N.C. About 40 percent of the company's revenue comes from co-located and dedicated customers, 59 percent from managed services, and 1 percent from cloud-based customers. "But the cloud is the fastest-growing part of our business," Kramer said.
Base price for the company's cloud storage offering starts at 30 cents per GB per month, which gives the customer two copies of its data, Kramer said.
The company is currently in the process of rolling out a reseller program, and expects to have details by year-end, he said.
