Mezeo Offers Fast Track to Cloud-Based Storage

Company:

Headquarters: Houston

Technology Sector: Storage

Key Product: Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform

Year Founded: 2008

Number of Channel Partners: four MSPs in the U.S., plus three hosting partners worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Managed Service Providers

Why You Should Care: The online storage market is growing fast, and is a good way for any MSP to add to its existing business. Mezeo is one of a number of software developers offering a turnkey or near-turnkey technology to get into the business quickly.

The Lowdown: Mezeo Software wants to make it easy for MSPs to become "cloud storage" providers with software that lets IT hosters, SaaS providers, MSPs, telcos, and ISPs provide multiple cloud-based offerings to their customers and reseller networks.

Mezeo President and CEO Steve Lesem defines "cloud storage" as storage that is accessed through Web services APIs via a network.

The key phrase in that definition, Lesem said, is "Web services APIs," in particular representational state transfer (REST) APIs that allow compatibility with a variety of access methods and which reduce the need to maintain session state, which lets multiple servers access the same resources.

"Cloud storage does not need to be persistent," he said. "It doesn't need to be on at all times. But it does need to be scalable, and available on a pay-for-use basis."

Because of its APIs and use of industry standards, Mezeo provides clients for a wide variety of devices that could use cloud storage, including Apple iPhones, RIM BlackBerries, Microsoft Windows devices and Web 2.0 devices, Lesem said.

The Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform is aimed at IT hosting companies that deploy server, storage and load-balancing infrastructure in a shared hosted environment, Lesem said. Hosting companies who adopt the software can then offer online storage services to other service providers or solution providers on a white-label basis.

Mezeo is focused on signing up large hosting companies who have typically invested millions of dollars in their infrastructures and who can provide the service through their partners, said Nick Futter, manager of channel programs for the company.

"We're rolling out an affiliate program where we recruit MSPs and present them to our hosting customers," Futter said. "Because we have hosters ready to go, an MSP can be ready to offer the service within a few days or a few weeks."