Sphere 3D Corp. has announced SnapCLOUD™, its new cloud integrated virtual storage platform, designed to deliver fully-featured enterprise NAS functionality in the cloud.

"Explosive data growth across the enterprise and a demand for anywhere, anytime access is creating a new set of challenges for data protection, management and mobility. While many IT organizations want to embrace the cloud, 90% of the organizations we surveyed have policies in place that restrict certain types of data from being stored in a third-party cloud. These organizations are looking for hybrid cloud solutions to fit these needs, rather than adopting multiple point products," said Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. "With SnapCLOUD as part of its portfolio of software defined storage solutions, Sphere 3D appears to be addressing customers' needs to be able to centrally manage and deliver all of their enterprise data, regardless of whether it is on premise, in the cloud, or which device employees prefer to use for work."

Built on Sphere 3D's proprietary, powerful, and simple to use GuardianOS® software architecture, SnapCLOUD extends the flexibility and options for customers to obtain unlimited storage in the cloud while maintaining full compatibility with existing SnapServer® and SnapScale® enterprise storage deployments. This interoperability between on premise and cloud deployments makes it possible for current SnapServer customers to have a SnapCLOUD instance integrated into their current infrastructure in minutes, enabling hybrid cloud models almost instantaneously. 

"Sphere 3D's SnapCLOUD is built on an award-winning platform that is field proven in data center deployments worldwide, and has been trusted by customers to store and protect their data for over a decade," said Eric Kelly, CEO Sphere 3D. "Whether customers require a public, private or hybrid cloud model, the ability to address their needs for data growth, high-availability, back-up, and disaster recovery has never been easier."

SnapCLOUD supports critical performance and capacity features like high performance snapshots, replication, and block and file-level access. With the SnapCLOUD built-in sync and share functionality, customers also get data access anywhere, anytime on any device without the need for additional third-party subscriptions. Customers will be able to purchase up to 32TB of SnapCLOUD storage per image in the Microsoft® Azure™ Marketplace by purchasing 1GB increments on a pay-for-use basis.

In addition, Sphere 3D's Snap Server Manager™ ("SSM"), the web-based data management orchestration tool for SnapServer and SnapScale appliances, has been expanded to manage SnapCLOUD instances. SSM now allow customers to centrally manage their entire physical and virtual enterprise storage infrastructure whether local or in the cloud.

This article was originally posted “Sphere 3D Introduces SnapCLOUD™ Virtual Enterprise Storage Platform for Microsoft Azure Cloud” from Cloud Strategy Magazine.