by Buurst Staff | News Releases
Greg Pellegrino Senior Director of Product Management and Architecture; Bryon Thomas named VP of Marketing and Lisa Waldman named VP of Sales
Houston, TX (Oct. 2, 2014) – SoftNAS™, the #1 Best-Selling NAS in the Cloud, today announced the addition of several storage industry veterans to its management team, including Greg Pellegrino as Senior Director of Product Management and Architecture, Bryon Thomas as Vice President of Marketing, and Lisa Waldman as Vice President of Sales. The company expanded its team to meet increased demand from enterprises worldwide that want to securely and reliably operate mission-critical IT systems and applications in the public, private and hybrid clouds.
“When it comes to IT infrastructure, enterprise IT departments are at a pivot point in the data center and increasingly turning to software-defined storage and cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service,” said SoftNAS CEO and founder Rick Braddy. “SoftNAS is trusted by hundreds of organizations to protect their business data in the cloud in a way that is both enterprise-strong and cloud-simple. We look forward to seeing continued growth as companies adopt and embrace cloud storage due to its on-demand ease and economies of scale.”
Pellegrino has 25 years of experience in several areas of computer technology and software systems, and has spent most of his career in various aspects of creating enterprise storage products. He has a dozen granted patents, having made strong technical contributions in the evolution of enterprise storage, including design and architecture of early converged storage products. Pellegrino previously served at Pivot 3, focused on the virtual desktop and video surveillance markets. At SoftNAS, he will work with the product team to determine overall product roadmap and strategy, as well as overseeing the product’s architecture and our patent portfolio moving forward.
Thomas has more than 20 years of experience in technology sales and marketing and spent 12 years with Citrix in various executive roles, most recently leading the Worldwide Services Marketing team that was responsible for $1.1 billion in revenue. Prior to joining Citrix, Thomas, held a variety of executive roles with Redback Networks (acquired by Ericsson) and Alcatel-Lucent in the Caribbean and Latin America region. He will oversee SoftNAS’ marketing communications, public relations, product marketing and demand-generation programs.
Waldman is an entrepreneurial sales leader, bringing more than 15 years of experience with high growth technology firms. She joins SoftNAS from GreenBytes, where she focused on early sales and marketing development, primarily around on the integration of Greenbytes Virtual Storage Appliance Solutions via OEM partnerships, the sales channel and Fortune 1000 organizations. Waldman has also held sales positions at Centrix Software, Desktone, Softricity and Citrix.
About SoftNAS
SoftNAS LLC is a leading storage software company that provides agile storage software that protects mission-critical data in the cloud. SoftNAS believes that storage can be both powerful and frictionless, providing customers with the enterprise-grade NAS storage capabilities required to safely and reliably operate mission-critical IT systems and applications in the cloud. SoftNAS supports the most popular private, public and hybrid cloud computing platforms, including Amazon AWS® and VMware®. Learn more at www.softnas.com.
by Buurst Staff | News Releases
Provider of the Best-Selling NAS in the Cloud Adds Several Fortune 500 Customers, Releases Major Software Update and Announces Program for Managed Hosting Providers
HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwired – Aug 19, 2014) – SoftNAS™, the #1 Best-Selling NAS in the Cloud, today announced that it has achieved 50 percent average sustained revenue growth per month during the first half of 2014. The company has grown its customer base to nearly 250 enterprise organizations across 12 countries, including several Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, GE Oil and Gas, and Netflix.
UBS AG surveyed 101 CIOs in the U.S. and Europe and found that more than half will gradually move some critical data to a public cloud; a third of respondents plan to move to a public cloud as quickly as possible.
“The tectonic plates of the datacenter are shifting,” said Simon Robinson, research vice president, 451 Research. “While the adoption of cloud-based IT has been largely experimental to this point, the infrastructure and tools that enable cloud storage and infrastructure-as-a-service are maturing rapidly. Our research suggests that this is leading enterprises to increasingly turn to public, private and hybrid clouds for their mission-critical data and applications.”
SoftNAS has seen increased customer demand from enterprises across multiple industry verticals, particularly those in data-intensive fields such as video production/editing/storage, publishing and government. In the first half of the year, companies including McGraw Hill, Purdue University, TheStreet.com, and the University of California Irvine have selected SoftNAS to protect their mission-critical data in the cloud.
“The biggest fear that enterprises have today is to lose control of their data, and SoftNAS is uniquely able to offer a no-compromise safety net that ensures non-stop business operations,” said SoftNAS CEO and founder Rick Braddy. “Our customers depend on SoftNAS to ensure their data is safe and available 100 percent of the time, and our tremendous growth this year underscores that trust.”
Product innovation and functionality
The company has released Version 3 of its SoftNAS/Enterprise™ product, an upgrade that incorporates features designed for ease-of-use, performance enhancement and data protection.
Version 3 includes:
- SoftNAS/Enterprise™ — All SoftNAS Filer features, and includes the SoftNAS Unlimited Data Plan for up to 16 petabytes of NAS Filer storage management. Includes SNAP HA® automatic failover
- Up to 300 percent performance improvement with latest Linux kernel and ZFS on Linux updates, provides more IOPS and throughput for I/O intensive workloads
- Active Directory Integration Wizard — configures active directory in seven mouse clicks, providing simple, easy configuration and integration with Active Directory for granular access control using Windows ACLs
- Administrator Applet for StorageCenter™ — configure monitoring thresholds, email notifications, login session timeout, logging levels and other settings
- SAMBA v 4.1 with SMB3 protocol support for faster I/O and Windows 7/8 compatibility
- New NFS Version 4 UI module simplifies NFS configuration and set up
- vCloud Hybrid Service support
- CentOS 6.5 updates to latest operating system version and security updates
Corporate initiatives and growth
Additionally, SoftNAS has created a program that enables managed hosting providers to leverage their existing investments in VMware infrastructure to offer multi-tenant NAS filers, such as SoftNAS, to their customers.
The company has also created a board of advisors to provide counsel on corporate strategy and direction. Members include Roger A. Ramsey, managing partner of Ramjet Capital Ltd; Scott Herren, SVP of finance for of CITRIX Systems; and Pete Jarvis, vice president of strategy at Tidal Scale.
To meet its growing customer demand, SoftNAS is actively recruiting for positions in engineering, marketing and sales.
About SoftNAS
SoftNAS LLC is a leading storage software company that provides agile storage software that protects mission-critical data in the cloud. SoftNAS believes that storage can be both powerful and frictionless, providing customers with the enterprise-grade NAS storage capabilities required to safely and reliably operate mission-critical IT systems and applications in the cloud. SoftNAS supports the most popular private, public and hybrid cloud computing platforms, including Amazon AWS® and VMware®. Learn more atwww.softnas.com
by Buurst Staff | Latest News, News Releases
This morning’s press releases announced version 3 of SoftNAS and a glimpse of what we will be showing at VMworld next week.
Growing Demand for Secure Cloud Storage Drives 50% Average Monthly Revenue Growth for SoftNAS in H1 of 2014
The first half of 2014 marked continued record growth for our company, with the addition of hundreds of customers, including many recognized household names. The move to the cloud is certainly afoot for businesses of all sizes, and we are delighted to play a role in helping businesses protect their data and keep applications operational 24 x 7. SoftNAS continues to work closely with Amazon and AWS customers, supporting the cloud movement that’s underway in our industry today.
Today we also announced and released SoftNAS, version 3 – the fastest, most functional and highest quality product we have ever shipped. Version 3 is a software upgrade for existing SoftNAS customers. Version 3 features up to 300% faster performance due to optimizations and tuning, delivering more IOPS and throughput. It also features a new Active Directory wizard for easy integration with AD and granular access control for Windows shares (detailed Windows share attributes are now supported). Read more
SoftNAS 3 Ushers in New Era of Software-defined Storage for VMware Customers
Today we also released support for vCloud Hybrid Service, VMware’s public cloud platform. SoftNAS is the first and only NAS software product available for vCloud Hybrid Service. In addition, we announced support for what we are calling “Hybrid HA(tm)” – the ability to provide non-stop NAS storage between VMware data centers and vCloud Hybrid Service. Hybrid HA uses patent-pending technology that combines the power of premise-based virtualization with cloud computing in a way never before seen in our industry.
SoftNAS Helps VMware® Customers Extend IT Investments to Incorporate Powerful Cloud Storage, Backup and DR Capabilities
We have also invested in certifying SoftNAS V3 (by our QA team) for production use with other VMware tools to provide the most comprehensive software-defined storage solution available for VMware and vCHS. Check out these solutions briefs for more details and some block diagram overviews of what we will be showing at VMworld:
SoftNAS and vCloud Hybrid Service
SoftNAS is now a Unified Cloud NAS Filer for VSAN
Faster backups that take up to 33% less space with SoftNAS and VMware Data Protection
For more details on what’s new in version 3, read the Release Notes here.
Learn more about SoftNAS
See us in booth #801 at VMworld 2014!
by Buurst Staff | News Releases
SoftNAS runs as a virtual NAS appliance on VMware ESXi and the SoftNAS VM is allocated clustered storage. Storage volumes are allocated from storage pools and shared as NFS exports and VIDS/SMD shared.
SoftNAS for VMware Offers Flexibility, Choice With Support, and Compatibility for All VMware-Compatible Hardware, Cloud Platforms
SoftNAS complements VMware virtual with an extensive NAS feature set, combined with unified storage access via NFS, CIFS/SMB, with Active Directory integration. SoftNAS extends the VMware environment to include highly durable Amazon S3 cloud storage, with additional petabytes of secure off-site cloud storage.
VMware customers can use SoftNAS for VMware to manage primary and secondary storage for private clouds and service providers, and for hybrid clouds with backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
Also, SoftNAS has certified VMware’s vSphere® Data Protection™ Advanced product (VDP), enabling VMware admins to perform data backups, deduplication, and replication both locally and to the cloud faster and more efficiently.
VMware ESXi NAS
SoftNAS VMware NAS supports all VMware-compatible storage media and network hardware and is compatible with all private, public, and hybrid cloud platforms. This flexibility has driven customer interest from industries that often face limited IT capital resources — ranging from small-to-medium businesses, educational institutions, government entities, media/publishing companies, and service providers. It runs as a virtual NAS appliance on VMware ESXi and the SoftNAS VM is allocated clustered storage.
Specific features of SoftNAS Cloud NAS for VMware ESXi include:
- VDP Backup Server support for high-performance on-site and off-site backup storage using any VMware server and storage combination, plus Amazon S3 for off-site cloud storage
- Hybrid HA™ Technology for Non-stop Cloud HA across Datacenters, with block replication, automatic failover, and seamless HA storage across routed data centers and routed networks using VMware vSwitch network virtualization
- VMware Cloud Gateway to Amazon S3 provides near limitless, highly-durable object storage access via NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI for archival, off-site mass storage, and secure backups
- VSAN-based NAS Filer for Private Clouds leverages VSAN as HA storage SAN, adding NAS filer features atop of VSAN for no-compromise software-defined storage and file sharing
- Large-scale Windows Filer with Active Directory supports billions of files for an enterprise-scale file server, VDI user file storage via CIFS/SMB 3 protocol, including CIFS with durable S3 off-site mass storage
- A large-scale NFS Server supports billions of files, videos, and other large-scale file server applications, including durable S3 off-site mass storage
- Simply Powerful™ NAS Filer protects mission-critical data, providing 99.999% availability for VMware hosts and HA clusters by turning VMware hosts into HA storage servers
- Powerful NAS Filer capabilities including RAM cache, SSD cache, scheduled storage snapshots, writable clones, SnapReplicate™ block replication, thin-provisioning, deduplication, compression, dynamic storage pool expansion, and more
- Robust StorageCenter™ web-based administrator interface for IT and VMware administrators — easy to learn and use without training or skills other than VMware
- Non-stop operation with high availability and automatic failover; dual controllers on-premise, dual controllers across premise, and vCHS with Hybrid HA
- SnapReplicate™ block-replication to another VMware data center or Amazon AWS® for real-time off-site backup and disaster recovery scales to billions of files
- Unified NFS v3 and v4 with LDAP, CIFS with Active Directory integration, and iSCSI support
- API and CLI for programmatic administration and DevOps agile cloud infrastructure
“In the cloud, ease of use and flexibility trump complexity. It doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated to reap the benefits of powerful, enterprise-grade storage in the cloud or on-premise,” said Rick Braddy, CEO and founder of SoftNAS. “This latest offering puts the power of software-defined storage in the hands of VMware administrators everywhere, finally giving admins the freedom to leverage the richness of VMware’s many platforms and tools and transform VMware itself into a powerful storage platform.”
To set up a meeting with SoftNAS’ sales team, contact us
About SoftNAS
Buurst SoftNAS is a hybrid cloud data integration product, combining a software-defined, enterprise-class NAS virtual storage appliance, backups, and data movement; and data integration/replication for IT to manage and control data centrally. Customers save time and money while increasing efficiency.
SoftNAS provides customers a unified, integrated way to aggregate, transform, accelerate, protect and store data and to easily create hybrid cloud solutions that bridge islands of data across SaaS, legacy systems, remote offices, factories, IoT, analytics, AI, and machine learning, web services, SQL, NoSQL and the cloud – any kind of data.
SoftNAS works with the most popular public, private, hybrid, and premises-based virtual cloud operating systems, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and VMware vSphere.
by Buurst Staff | Features, Latest News, News Releases
SoftNAS, the #1 NAS in the Cloud, today launched the SoftNAS 2.1 upgrade for SoftNAS on AWS Marketplace and SoftNAS Professional™ on VMware® ESXi.
The upgrade delivers several unique features, including the first patent-pending Elastic HA™ and SNAP HA™ technology. On AWS, Elastic HA uses an enhanced elastic IP address to route NAS client requests (i.e., NFS mounts, Windows CIFS shares and iSCSI block I/O traffic) across a storage cluster of two SoftNAS filers, each with its own controller running within a separate AWS availability zone (AZ). Elastic HA enables non-stop routing of NAS client traffic to the proper SoftNAS controllers, which can be located within the same AZ or across AZ’s. Prior to the introduction of Elastic HA on AWS, it was not possible to create a dual controller configuration that could span AZ’s on AWS for business-critical storage applications and to deliver up to 99.999 percent reliability and seamless automatic failover.
Get more details on Elastic HA for AWS. Elastic HA on VMware also utilizes an enhanced virtual IP address to deliver up to 99.999 percent reliability and seamless automatic failover within approximately 20 seconds.
Get more details on Elastic HA for VMware SoftNAS supports high availability with its new
SNAP HA add-on module, which allows easy HA cluster configuration in less than 2 minutes with just 3 mouse clicks. SNAP HA is the easiest, fastest way to create an HA storage cluster available today. With SNAP HA, premise-based customers running VMware can save up to 70 percent, using COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) servers and SSDs, compared to traditional proprietary NAS appliances, while saving additional money on training for their IT professionals who already know VMware, which are leveraged as the storage platform. High availability and SNAP HA are not available for
SoftNAS Essentials, a low-cost version ideal for high-density applications like video surveillance, film and video editing, and corporate A/V department needs, which necessitate lots of Serial ATA (SATA) storage without the more premium NAS features. Additionally, the 2.1 upgrade includes a cloud computing storage API and CLI, which makes SoftNAS easy to integrate with CloudFormation templates, auto-scaling groups, and other automation systems used by DevOps teams for agile cloud deployment on Amazon Web Services Marketplace. The upgrade also includes added support for NFSv4 Kerberos and LDAP Support, which enables multi-user security access rights to files and directories managed by the SoftNAS filer, and improved NFS and CIFS performance and throughput tuning for enhanced read and write caching to increase IOPS.
SoftNAS 2.1 is the most robust, stable and cost effective storage platform available for the Amazon Web Services platform. SoftNAS is available on an hourly pricing basis. With the addition of CloudFormation templates, SoftNAS provides DevOps teams with a storage platform that’s production-ready, and which can be used to fully simulate production data for use in development and QA staging systems.
SoftNAS Pro 2.1 is a more cost-effective alternative to high-priced, proprietary NAS appliances. Best of all, because it runs on VMware ESXi, IT staff already have the skills, and often the existing hardware, needed to deploy SoftNAS Pro. Simply add some SSD drives, SAS and/or SATA to an existing server and (optionally) an additional storage enclosure, and you have a full-featured, enterprise-grade NAS that delivers the same features at a fraction of the cost.
Read the Release Notes Read the Press Releases Read the SoftNAS HA Guide by Buurst Staff | DevOps, Features, Latest News, News Releases
SoftNAS has released the first cloud computing storage API and CLI for DevOps teams using Amazon’s EC2 and VMware platforms.
SoftNAS adoption on cloud computing platforms, like Amazon Web Services’ EC2 platform, has been steadily accelerating through Q4 2013 and early here in 2014. One of the things we’re seeing more and more are DevOps organizations in larger companies adopting SoftNAS. As a result, more development shops are looking to incorporate SoftNAS into their entire DevOps process – from Development all the way through QA Test and into Production as a common storage platform.
At the same time, DevOps is automating everything possible, including deployment of the IT infrastructure, to create truly “elastic” systems that expand to deal with demand on the fly during peak periods of traffic, then automatically contract down during non-business hours to minimize operating costs. This is the promise of the cloud – get as much capacity as you need, when you need it, and only pay for what you use. At the same time, the ability to quickly spin up a new QA test or development system makes agile development and testing more efficient and less labor-intensive.
Given that shared storage is a key part of the IT infrastructure for cloud computing, a way to include SoftNAS in CloudFormation templates, Auto-scaling groups, and other cloud computing automation systems is critical, especially for Amazon Web Services customers.
To meet these demands of DevOps and cloud computing operators, SoftNAS has introduced the first cloud storage API and CLI for its flagship SoftNAS product line. The API provides access to the same robust storage administration and management functionality provided by the SoftNAS StorageCenter GUI, through REST API calls and a simple command-line interface.
The API and CLI support adding EBS and S3 cloud disk devices to SoftNAS, creating and expanding storage pool capacity on the fly, adding new volumes and making them available as NFS and CIFS shares – without direct human intervention. In fact, 95% of everything that can be done via the StorageCenter GUI can now be accomplished using the API or CLI, as well. And the API and CLI are available across all SoftNAS supported virtualization platforms, including AWS and VMware.
This makes SoftNAS the obvious best choice as the cloud computing storage platform for DevOps teams.
Read more about the API and CLI here
