#convergent.io

#SuryaRay #Surya As we muddle our way to a software-defined infrastructure that is capable of handling scale-out web deployments with the click of mouse or the swipe of a finger on a graphical user interface, more and more startups are coming out of the woodwork. Jeda Networks is another one. The Newport Beach, Calif.-based company has raised an undisclosed sum from US Venture Partners and Miramar Venture Partners to build what it dubs the software defined storage network. I’m not going to call it that, not only because I’m sick unto death of software defined storage, software defined security networks and the software defined data center, but also because it doesn’t really help people understand what Jeda purports to do. The company, which was founded by executives hailing from Emulex, wants to take virtualized networks and use the abstraction to help push data to storage without worrying exactly what machine it ends up on or what path it takes to get there. Unlike traditional storage area networks, where information is shunted off to some distant hard drive in a specialized array, the next generation of storage is abstracted much like our servers and eventually our networks. When virtualization hit servers it untethered computing from the applications running on the processors, which allowed for flexibility, but also caused a bit of a mess for all of the physical infrastructure attached to the servers. One might run 10 different virtual machines on a physical server, but those 10 virtual machines were stuck sharing the same networking cables and access to storage. It’s almost like being able to house 10 people in a home, but still only have two bathrooms. Those bathrooms are going to get crowded and cause delays in getting those 10 people out the door if they all need to leave by 8 in the morning. Adding more bathrooms isn’t the solution for the scaled out world, because who wants to buy even more equipment for demand that’s only happening for an hour a day? The solution on the networking side was to create an abstraction layer and then to allocate resources via software. In the bathroom example, it would be like reserving your neighbors extra guest bathroom during the 7 AM to 8 AM time frame simply by clicking a button. On the storage side, the solution is to pool all the available memory and storage resources available to a server and create pools of storage that any virtual machine on the network can write to. Startups like ScaleIO and Convergent.io are aiming at this market while larger firms such as Fusion-io, Microsoft and even VMware in half-hearted way, are all saying that they can create pools of storage. So back to Jeda and its ambitions. Essentially it wants to build a controller for storage networks that enables this pooling, and sees the ability to replace a storage area network as one of the so-called killer apps for software defined networks. Once a network is virtualized, you can use the Jeda Networks controller to also direct data to the optimal storage option. Other companies do this via the hypervisor or some still-secret method, but Jeda is building a controller. For existing networks that aren’t yet virtualized it offers an application as well. The company plans to offer its product in the first half of this year. So far, 2013 is shaping up to be a crucial one for storage and software defined networking. Wonder when we’ll see the first billion-dollar software-defined storage acquisition? Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro: Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial. * The promise of SDNs in the enterprise * Cloud and data third-quarter 2012 * Takeaways from the second quarter in cloud and data http://dlvr.it/2z01BM @suryaray

#SuryaRay #Surya ScaleIO, a startup offering software-defined storage software, raised $12 million in Series A funding from Greylock Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and undisclosed private investors. The two-year-old startup will use the money to expand the sales and support of its existing software product. ScaleIO joins other startups that have launched in the latter half of the year hoping to create pools of storage that can be used by any application in a virtualized environment. Those startups include Nutanix and Covergent.io. Fusion-io has a software product in this space as well. The idea behind this growing number of products is to help address the problems that virtualization has caused for the storage market by making a storage area network (SAN) look more like direct attached storage. In traditional networks someone would configure a server to point to a SAN but these products take advantage of the ever-growing use of SSDs in the data center and overlay software on top to make a more flexible pool of storage. Most of these products, including ScaleIO’s, also let organizations tie in their existing hard disks and SANs into this pool of storage as well. The result is that IT organizations can take advantage of fast RAM or nearby flash-based SSDs for applications that need a lot of speed. They can also stitch together several nearby SSDs or RAM to scale out as needed while still using existing storage infrastructure comprised of hard drives as well. ScaleIO also touts that its software can move storage resources around even if a node in its pool goes dark like for example, if a systems administrator shuts down the server. That’s a good indication that the team here recognizes that while the virtual servers in a cloud may be ephemeral but underneath it all are physical machines that must be taken into account. That’s a good understanding to have when you’re building out software that is designed to create an abstraction layer to manage physical devices. ScaleIO’s team has worked at a huge number of scaled-out storage companies including IBM, Topio (acquired by NetApp), NetApp, LSI, and Xtremio (acquired by EMC). The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup already has 24 pilot customers and five customers in production including SAP and Colt (a Fidelity company). _Feature photo courtesy of Flickr user getinet_ http://dlvr.it/2ZpGtj @suryaray

#SuryaRay #Surya Convergent.io has raised a $10 million Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz. The startup, which was founded in October last year, has a team of storage and virtualization experts, and plans to build a product that will help customers better use their existing storage resources in virtualized environments. Ramana Jonnala, co-founder and CEO of Convergent.io epxlains that virtualization has led to companies using a lot more storage, experiencing latency and also confusion about what information is stored where. The aim of Convergent.io is to build a product (is it a system? software? Jonnala won’t say) that virtualizes and then adds intelligence to storage networks and ensures that the right storage is used for the job. This could mean sending archives to slower hard drives but real-time transactions to faster SSDs, all based on policies the customer sets. But none of this is real yet, and frankly, software defined anything is the marketing phrase du jour. Storage is just now getting in on the hype. Just yesterday I reported on Nutanix, which raised a $33 million third round for its software-defined storage appliance. That’s not to say that storage in virtualized or webscale environments doesn’t need a little innovation, but just that in Convergent.io’s case Jonnala isn’t saying what that innovation is until next summer when he expects to release the first product. The funding will help him hire the right people to meet that deadline. Convergent.io currently has 16 employees and expects to hire more engineers thanks to this round. Jonnala is a veteran of XenSource and Veritas and is working with Co-founders Andrew Warfield and Keir Fraser who also worked at XenSource. --- http://dlvr.it/22jxSy @suryaray