Zadara Storage, a developer of storage technology defined by software used to provide Storage as a Service, has added a computing element with the NeoKarm build this week.
NeoKarm technology, acquired from Stratoscale after that company closed its doors in late 2019, provides a cloud system similar to Amazon Web Services which, when combined with hardware and Zadara software, providing on-demand private cloud to fully regulated MSPs with Zadara, said Nelson Nahum, co-founder and CEO of Irvine, Zadara based in Calif.
“Most of our customers are MSPs who use our in-house storage to offer it to clients who pay for usage,” Nahum told CRN. “It’s defined by software. No Capex. They like not to need Capex and they like our flexibility. And they ask us why we don’t offer Compute as a Service. ”
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Zadara, which already provides file, block and material storage along with fully developed block storage, considered that issue for four years but did not have the bandwidth to invest in the necessary development, said Nahum.
However, he said, NeoKarm last year bought Stratoscale intellectual property and repurposed the technology, and late last year Zadara saw the opportunity to partner with NeoKarm to build a complete Cloud-as-a-Service stack. offered.
“NeoKarm offers a 100 percent software product based on Stratoscale technology,” he said. “We have been using it in the same way as our store. We sell everything as a service. We provide the software, the hardware from Supermicro, and manage services as a package. ”
Working together, Zadara and NeoKarm have already made over 20 uses and done very well, Nahum said. However, he said, Zadara felt it was important to acquire NeoKarm rather than continue to partner with the company.
“The NeoKarm IP is very important,” he said. “We want to have this IP as part of Zadara’s IP. And NeoKarm has some really cool ones. [NeoKarm CEO] Simon Grinberg is a great guy. He was vice president of results at Stratoscale and is now vice president of results at Zadara. We’re okay with partnering with Supermicro for their hardware. But we want NeoKarm to be part of Zadara. “
Nahum refused to think why Stratoscale went out of business. However, according to the Israeli-based online news site Calcalist, Stratoscale halted the development of their cloud system similar to AWS because sales were not growing at the pace needed to be in line with the investment the company had to make. Stratoscale had raised about $ 70 million from a few venture capital funds as well as from IT giants Cisco Systems, Intel, Qualcomm and SanDisk.
Zadara itself has raised about $ 60 million in funding, including its last round of $ 25 million about two and a half years ago, Nahum said.
Nahum refused to consider the construction price for NeoKarm. He said Zadara is not yet profitable as it has been aiming to grow its business, including increasing its workforce to around 150 people including those who came with NeoKarm. He said the purchase was funded by money the company already had.
While Zadara will develop software-defined storage, it will not sell that technology as a standalone offering, Nahum said.
“We sell the full cloud,” he said. “Our software-defined storage technology is used to make Storage as a Service. With NeoKarm, we now deliver the entire stack. I don’t think many companies have the full stack we offer. ”
Zadara technology is a peripheral cloud service to deliver full cloud at the customer’s location, Nahum said.
“We generally position the cloud better to run at the edge,” he said. “For example, we work with companies such as Veeam for Backup as a Service. It’s easier to back up where you are than to do them across the country in a public cloud. ”