Gridstore, a provider of enterprise-class network attached storage (NAS) grid solutions, has launched the beta of its new NASg storage platform designed to eliminate the risk, cost and complexity of traditional siloed storage solutions, the company said. Gridstore NASg aggregates the processing power of client systems and performs complex parallel storage processes on existing NAS resources while assuring the reliability required for today’s 24/7 business operations. 

“Today’s small-to-mid-size IT organizations and managed service providers (MSP) are facing storage sprawl that is at critical levels,” said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst, Taneja Group. “This siloed data is complex and costly to manage with a high risk of data loss. Gridstore has developed an innovative approach to consolidate this storage while optimizing efficiency for IT customers and profitability for managed service provider customers. It truly is an innovative and cost-effective approach to solving the storage dilemma.” 

The Gridstore NASg platform combines the simplicity, convenience and affordability of NAS with the scalability, performance and reliability of enterprise-class storage, the company says. As a result, MSPs can provide their SMB customers with a powerful on premise NAS storage grid that eliminates storage sprawl and multiple single points of failure while providing a next-generation storage offering at one third the cost of standalone NAS solutions, according to the company. 

Key benefits of Gridstore NASg include:

•           Unlimited Storage Capacity – NASg virtualizes any number of existing NAS or NASg storage nodes into a single pool of storage. This eliminates the cost and risk of storage sprawl for customers while optimizing existing NAS resources and allows capacity to grow incrementally using low cost NASg storage nodes like building blocks.

•           Unlimited Network Bandwidth – NASg eliminates server network bottlenecks by utilizing parallel IO to the storage nodes. Every storage node adds 1 Gb/s of parallel network bandwidth. As the number of storage nodes increases, each storage node performs less work and the parallel data path to the Gridstore NASg increases.

•           Unlimited Processing Capacity – NASg uniquely harnesses the processing power across a grid of client machines to eliminate server-based processing bottlenecks. As more clients are added to the NASg, more parallel processing power is also added to the grid so processing constraints are never experienced.

•           Unlimited Reliability – By harnessing the parallel processing and IO of a grid, NASg stripes data across many storage nodes so that there is no single point of failure. Any pre-configured number of storage nodes can fail without data loss or downtime. Failed storage nodes are simply replaced with another low cost NASg storage node by attaching one to the network.

•           New Storage Economics – The unique NASg platform aggregates processing power and network bandwidth to spread the workload across a grid of storage nodes. This allows both existing storage resources and low cost NASg storage nodes to be utilized and drastically changes the economics of storage for customers. 

“Our Gridstore NASg solution combines the benefits and simplicity of NAS storage devices with new, innovative features for increased scalability, performance and reliability,” said Kelly Murphy, CEO and co-founder, Gridstore. “This results in an enterprise-class storage solution that cost-efficiently delivers storage with unlimited storage capacity, network bandwidth and processing capacity while assuring the reliability and availability that small and mid-tier businesses require.” 

The cornerstone of Gridstore NASg is the Gridstore NASg Storage Block, an Intel/Microsoft-based storage node that features embedded Windows XP, an Intel Atom core, 1GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of SATA hard disk drives. Pricing for the Gridstore NASg storage platform begins at $800 with individual expansion nodes starting at just $300. 

About Gridstore

Gridstore is an innovation leader in enterprise-class network attached storage grid (NASg) products, according to the company. NASg provides unlimited storage capacity and reliability at a fraction of the cost of traditional storage solutions. NASg is designed for small-to-mid-sized businesses and managed service providers who struggle with the risk, cost and complexity of storage sprawl and who need enterprise class storage without the cost and complexity.  Founded in 2007, Gridstore is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and has development facilities in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, visit: http://www.gridstore.com/.