Big Data Storage Provider Cleversafe Intros Partner Program

Big data storage vendor Cleversafe recently launched its Elevate Partner Program to help partners deliver scalable and secure solutions to their customers.

The Elevate Partner Program joins Cleversafe's Solutions Network and Service Partners offerings and differentiates itself with a tailored online portal where MSPs, VARs, GSIs, OEMs and system integrators can receive the latest information on Cleversafe's technology, as well as materials for initiating conversations with potential customers. Cleversafe is exclusively pursuing partners that have an expertise in distributed applications, cloud, big data analytics, data security and networking.

"It's a program for enabling channel partners to deliver technology to their customers and clients," said Russ Kennedy, vice president of product strategy marketing and customer solutions at Cleversafe. "It's geared toward enabling them to grow and to get into the object storage business and cloud storage business with some unique technology that delivers differentiation, enhancements and security."

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Justin Mescher, CTO of Cleversafe partner Integrated Data Storage, commends the Elevate Partner Program for enabling IDS to set up one-on-one meetings with Cleversafe executives.

"What I like is the attention we get," said Mescher. "We're getting together, talking strategically about where IDS is going as a business, how they can support us in our cloud and support our customers."

Cleversafe reaps the benefits as well, taking partners' feedback about their customers' needs back to its engineers.

"Being in that strategic relationship with [Cleversafe] really helps our business because we know exactly where they stand," said Mescher. "It also helps their business because it gets them great insight into what the industry is exactly looking for."

The Elevate Partner Program includes three elements of hands-on training. Sales training is offered for partners to understand the technology and how to configure it. For those involved in engineering, there is an administration course, which guides them on how to use and administrate the system and educate clients, said Kennedy. The third course relates to support in maintaining the system and technical support and services.

"In each of these training courses are selections of labs so you get a chance to play with the system, get hands-on, if you will, and learn how the system operates," said Kennedy. "You set up your own configurations and your own systems so you get a real in-depth understanding of how the technology works and how to deploy it."

Cleversafe hopes to reach new customers in locations and industries in which it currently doesn't have a presence, said Kennedy.

"We are very hopeful it will grow Cleversafe's business in front of new prospects including customers, marketplaces, geographies and new segments that we're not currently [in] today," he said.

NEXT: Information Dispersal Offers Cost-Effective, Reliable Solution

Current CEO Christopher Gladwin founded Chicago-based Cleversafe in December 2004. According to Cleversafe's Kennedy, the company is the first to bring information dispersal to the market for enterprise storage systems. He believes it is a more cost-effective and reliable technique than traditional storage methods.

"Information dispersal is the core of our technology. It's essentially a more enhanced way to store data and information," said Kennedy. "You only have to store one copy of it, if you will. You get the levels of reliability and availability of the data as if you're making multiple copies."

Cleversafe's customers include the federal government, healthcare organizations, and communication, media and entertainment companies -- and each must deal with large amounts of data. According to Kennedy, these big data customers use multiple petabytes of data for images, videos and large unstructured content.

"[These industries] have a lot of digital assets that they use, and [they] rely on their storage system to store those assets reliably," he said. "Healthcare is a good use case for us; they store medical images, X-rays and MRIs. With a lot of data, they need a system that can scale to an appropriate level and won't cost them an arm and a leg."

IDS' Mescher said that in industries with valuable data, there is no choice but to retain all of the data, whether it is required for regulatory reasons or simply because of its value. That's where Cleversafe steps in, keeping the total cost of ownership low to store and protect important data.

"At some point you have to store it, locally protect it, remotely protect it, back it up, and you're creating multiple copies of data," said Mescher. "Cleversafe technology allows you to store the data in a way where all the copies are basically kept in one logical unit and you don't have to continue to buy storage for all these different copies."

Mescher believes Cleversafe's technology and Elevate Partner Program are especially progressive for the industry since there is less of a concentration on hardware and more on how to deal with data.

"Cleversafe is doing things there that nobody else is doing," said Mescher. "Part of the value is how their software works, and the bigger part of the value is the way the company operates. They are constantly tailoring their road map for what their partners and customers are looking for."

PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2013