The 20 Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors Of The 2014 Cloud 100
Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors For 2014
The volumes of data collected and stored by businesses is rapidly growing -- and so is the cost of storing all that data. So businesses are increasingly looking to the cloud as an enterprise data repository.
That's prodding IT companies, both new and established, to develop cloud-based products and services for inexpensively storing and sharing data.
Here's a look at the coolest cloud storage companies to make this year's Cloud 100 list.
Acronis
CEO: Serguei Beloussov
As the complex data requirements of enterprises increase, Acronis, with its flagship Backup & Recovery 11.5 system, protects data at both the file and system levels in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. It added Active Directory support in 2013.
Artisan Infrastructure
CEO: Brian Hierholzer
Cloud solution providers can look to Artisan Infrastructure to provide wholesale data backup and disaster recovery capabilities on an on-demand, pay-as-you-grow basis. Its Cornerstone Virtual Private Data Center (vPDC) platform provides a secure, multitenant, and highly available infrastructure platform.
Asigra
CEO: David Farajun
Asigra's Cloud Backup platform offers backup and recovery features and emphasizes a strong program for solution providers, MSPs and telcos. The company in 2013 made cloud DR waves by starting to charge for restores, not backups.
Attunity
CEO: Shimon Alon
Attunity provides data access, sharing and distribution across heterogeneous enterprise platforms and the cloud, with capabilities like data and enterprise file replication, managed file transfer and cloud data delivery. Many customers of bankrupt Nirvanix's cloud used Attunity to migrate data.
BUMI
President: Jennifer Walzer
BUMI, a.k.a. Backup My Info!, provides managed online backup and recovery solutions for SMBs. Partners can acquire BUMI technology as software to create a private backup and recovery cloud, a solution using BUMI's data centers or a hybrid solution.
Carbonite
CEO: David Friend
Carbonite offers a full range of business cloud backup and recovery services. Recent additions to the line include a HIPAA-compliant business service, as well as solutions for protecting data in databases and in live applications like Exchange, SQL and Oracle.
Caringo
CEO: Mark Goros
Caringo helps businesses build private clouds that provide tiered storage. Its flagship CAStor software, a unified object storage operating system that acts as a scalable foundation for cloud storage apps, was updated in 2013 with Amazon S3 API support.
Cobalt Iron
CEO: Richard Spurlock
Cobalt Iron offers a suite of data protection and recovery services. Its Cobalt Iron Data Protection Portfolio can be installed on-premise with Cobalt Iron Vault appliances and/or in public or private clouds, or as part of a hosted solution.
Ctera Networks
CEO: Liran Eshel
Ctera Networks' cloud storage platform combines software and cloud gateways to provide secure cloud storage services with on-premise appliances. The platform was updated in 2013 with per-tenant service-level agreement policies, improved platform support for backup of virtual servers, and expanded scalability.
eFolder
CEO: Kevin Hoffman
eFolder relies on the channel to offer open, data protection services and integrate its technology and cloud infrastructure with best-in-breed technology from other vendors, including StorageCraft ShadowProtect and Dell AppAssure. eFolder in 2013 acquired cloud file sync technology provider Anchor.
EVault
President, General Manager: Terry Cunningham
EVault, owned by Seagate Technology, offers enterprise-class, cloud-based storage with its EVault Cloud-Connected Services Platform, which lets ISVs send data to the cloud and offer their software as a service. In early 2014, the company unveiled EVault Backup Services for Windows Azure.
Intronis
CEO: Rick Faulk
Intronis' cloud backup and recovery services let MSPs provide local and online backup, data security, and on-demand recovery. Intronis in late 2013 expanded its VMware backup and recovery capabilities and added the ability to create and update recovery VMs in a cluster.
Mezeo Software
President, CEO: Steve Lesem
Mezeo Software provides cloud storage services via its MezeoCloud platform, which enables implementation of public, private or hybrid cloud storage in conjunction with such partners as eFolder and Artisan Infrastructure. Channel partners can brand MezeoCloud as their own cloud storage solutions.
Nasuni
CEO: Andres Rodriguez
Nasuni serves distributed enterprises by combining on-premise hardware, cloud storage and an integrated service. The company in early 2014 unveiled what it called the industry's first cloud-integrated auditing capability for compliance reviews, adding to other recent innovations such as cloud mirroring.
Panzura
CEO: Randy Chou
The Panzura Global Cloud Storage System leverages high-performance, secure Internet technology to create a unified global file system, allowing data to be managed centrally yet remain accessible from anywhere. Its technology was often used to migrate data from bankrupt Nirvanix's storage cloud.
Pro Softnet
CEO: Raghu Kulkarni
Pro Softnet provides the IBackup small business cloud backup and recovery service. That service in late 2013 was given a new disaster recovery capability, one-touch backup and restore for iOS and Android devices, and built-in integration for MS-SQL, Exchange and SharePoint.
SugarSync
CEO: Mike Grossman
SugarSync lets businesses access, sync and share folders and files from any device and any platform with automated backup. The company finally exited its startup mode by moving away from providing service for free and instead adopting a pay-for-service model.
Symform
CEO: Mark Ashida
Symform protects a customer's data by splitting it into tiny blocks, encrypting those blocks, and then spreading them across excess capacity on multiple customers' local storage. Customers who provide local storage capacity that's twice their cloud capacity get the service free.
TwinStrata
CEO: Nicos Vekiarides
The TwinStrata CloudArray technology claims to provide cloud storage with the availability, performance, and security of local storage. CloudArray supports all file and operating systems with elastic capacity, in-cloud snapshots, dynamic caching, automated policies, AES256 encryption, and continuous data access.
Zetta.net
CEO: Ali Jenab
Zetta DataProtect is an enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery solution for SMBs, enterprises and MSPs. It offers integrated local, offsite and remote office backup, archiving, and disaster recovery with SSAE-16 audited, geo-dispersed data centers, encryption and built-in WAN traffic optimization.