Zadara Storage introduces integrated Docker containers and backup to Amazon S3  

Zadara Storage has announced advanced new features for their award-winning Virtual Private Storage Array™ (VPSA™) solution. These new features allow Zadara VPSA users to access the most advanced Enterprise Storage-as-a–Service (STaaS) capabilities available on the market.

Last week, during the annual Zadara Summit, a gathering dedicated to the education of and collaboration among Zadara customers and partners, Zadara management privately announced and demonstrated several key new features. The new Docker-based, Zadara Container Services (ZCS) leverages the modular VPSA architecture to run applications within the storage itself, rather than running code in compute servers. The benefit of this approach is extreme high performance, lower latency, reduced traffic between server and storage, and greater overall efficiency when compared to traditional approaches.

“We are tremendously excited to deploy the Zadara Container Services,” said Bubba Hines, vice president at Signature Tech Studio. “The industry is moving toward a variety of lower latency architectures and we’re delighted, and not at all surprised, that Zadara is extending its leadership this way. There’s great value in running tasks within the VPSA storage environment to take advantage of the low-latency as well as freeing up server resources for other key applications.”

Also announced today is Zadara’s Backup to Amazon S3 (B2S3) feature, an automatic, snapshot-based, continuous, incremental backup from Zadara VPSA storage to low-cost, Amazon S3 object storage. With pent-up demand for enterprise grade backup-and-restore options, Zadara’s Backup to S3 enables a low-cost object storage target, and the flexibility of combining multiple storage vendors in their data storage architecture. In keeping with Zadara’s focus on providing its customers ultimate flexibility, data backed up via B2S3 can be restored to any storage medium from any vendor, including Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS).

In addition, Zadara is now making available two more storage hardware options that its customers can specify for their Zadara VPSA Solutions - 800GB Solid State Disks (SSDs) and 6TB SATA hard disk drives. Zadara was among the first storage service providers to offer 5TB drives several years ago for accounts where SATA-driven cost/performance is desired. Zadara is yet again leading the industry by offering 6TB drives. These state-of-the-art drives offer larger disk capacities, resulting in lower cost and greater configuration flexibility. Each of these new product features reinforce Zadara’s technology leadership and commitment to providing the most advanced Enterprise Storage-as-a-Service offering available in the market.

“Our mission at Zadara Storage is to architect and deliver the industry’s leading enterprise storage-as-a-service,” said Nelson Nahum, CEO at Zadara Storage. “Our VPSA storage has much more functionality than any traditional storage array; yet it provides the same reliability and performance while being delivered in an as-a-service model. Additionally, we have designed our solution to enable full elasticity in all directions ensuring users have the flexibility to increase or decrease capacity and performance as-needed, and therefore, never have to worry about forecasting their future requirements.”

“We’ve watched Zadara for a long time. The company is a pioneer in the Storage-as-a-Service market, and we’re impressed by the way they continually embrace the latest technologies to stay ahead. In such a fast-moving market, standing still is not an option,” said Simon Robinson, research vice president at 451 Research. “An increasing number of users want an as-a-service model to gain flexibility, cost-savings and greater competitive advantage. Zadara’s continual innovation with features like the Zadara Container Services and its approach to enterprise storage as a service has made them an attractive choice for companies of all sizes.”