Storage Innovators Scality, Coraid, Crossroads and WhipTail Scrutinize 200TB Amazon Cloud Storage Use Case

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Nov 30, 2011 –The hard costs of storing data in a private cloud have long proved elusive to IT managers.  On Thursday December 1st, a panel at the very first CloudBeat will examine different storage technologies as they relate to particular use cases – so that we might finally “Understand the True Cost of Storage.”


Scality logoThe panel’s expert participants include Scality CEO, Jérôme Lecat who recently made the controversial, although research-backed claim that private cloud storage is cheaper than public for capacity over 100TB. The other panelists include executives from Coraid, Crossroads, and WhipTail Technologies. Representing venture capitalist investment of over US $100 million, these storage innovators will dissect a use case from DNAnexus, a DNA data management and analysis platform – currently using Amazon S3 storage.

Guest Andrew Reichman, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, Inc., will moderate the panel, entitled “Understanding the True Cost of Storage” as the panelists debate which cloud storage approach is the most cost effective for a specific use case.

According to Forrester Research, Inc., in the report “File Storage Costs Less in the Cloud than In-House” (August 25 2011), Reichman wrote, “Quick storage comparisons don’t measure storage costs effectively. […] An accurate comparison requires a more detailed model.” This Forrester report, along with Lecat’s views on the total cost of ownership of cloud storage, formed part of the inspiration behind the CloudBeat panel session.

Where/When/Who:
“Understanding the True Cost of Storage” will take place in CloudBeat Salon 4 at Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City, California on December 1st from 11:15am to 12:10pm. Panelists include Jérôme Lecat, CEO, Scality; Kevin Brown, CEO, Coraid; David Cerf, Executive VP of Business & Corporate Development, Crossroads; Dan Crain, CEO, WhipTail Technologies; and Andreas Sundquist, CEO & Co-Founder of DNAnexus, a DNA data management and analysis platform. 

Panel Debate:
Innovation Unveiled:  The panel will explain how the different storage vendors represented cover the whole scope of storage in innovative and cost-effective ways. The vendors will each have just 60 seconds to present and position their products.

Use Case: Andreas Sundquist of DNAnexus will expose his cost for Amazon storage and computing and present DNAnexus’ use case.  Sundquist will also share under what circumstances he would move to a Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud model.

Best Fit:  Each vendor will present a use case of one of his company’s own customers, highlighting the best fit use cases for their respective solutions.

Jérôme Lecat, CEO, Scality, said, “People tend to think that you need to go to a large established player to have the full spectrum of storage, but our panel session will be a chance to see the senior executives of some of the most heavily invested storage startups explain how the combination of their products cover all storage use cases.”

With a dizzying number of storage options available, it is often difficult to determine which storage technology would be most effective while providing lowest total cost of ownership for a particular situation. Aided by real numbers on the cost of storage, the panelists will get past the hype to answer the difficult questions and identify situations in which their technologies would or would not be best.

For more information, please visit http://venturebeat.com/events/cloudbeat2011/, http://www.scality.com/, or follow Scality on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Scality.

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