News

posted on 13 June 2008 16:36

Symantec is going to provide a cloud storage platform for business users sold through ISPs, telcos and managed service providers, and called Symantec Secure Scalable Storage - S4 for short.

It is based on Symantec's existing Storage Foundation Scalable File Server  - there is a downloable data sheet on that web page - which has a NAS 'personality' added to the Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File Server.

S4 will be used as the file storage facility for Symantec's own Protection Network with a storage facility in-the-cloud offered under a storage as a service (SaaS) arrangement to business. It will complement the Norton SwapDrive-based SaaS offering for consumers  and both will probably use the same S4 backend eventually.

In both cases users will have web access to their online files.

S4 will be offered as a cloud storage service platform to be installed as the basis for ISPs and telco's and MSP's own cloud storage offerings.

The details of how the Scalable File Server will morph into S4 are unclear with the ideas above revealed at a Veritas Cluster Server roadmap session at the Symantec Vision event on June 16th.

Many storage hardware and software providers now have a cloud storage platform in development which is also a highly scalable file storage platform. Just a few examples include: EMC - InfiniPlex/Maui/Mozy/Fortress; HP -ExDS9100; IBM - DIV; Isilon; NetApp - ONTAP GX; Symantec with S4; and more will emerge.

There are also new entrants to the storage market riding the cloud storage wave: Amazon with S3; Google; Nirvanix with its SDN; Parascale; and others.

There is even a hard drive supplier diversifying into cloud storage: Seagate with EVault.

Could this be a case of too many suppliers chasing too few customers?

Whether Symantec's S3 is actually one up on Amazon's S3 remains to be seen but the likelihood is that Symantec will be more enterprise-focussed with Amazon targeting consumers and smaller businesses.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}