In a recent interview, Sajai Krishnan, CEO of Parascale made some interesting observations about the needs of the cloud storage marketplace and how the offerings from Parascale met them.

Krishnan gives us his perspective of the cloud storage market and current opportunities in that space, primarily helping service providers build their own cloud storage offering to retain customers who might otherwise look to Amazon S3.

We welcome competition in this space.

While we agree with his assessment of the market, there are four claims that deserve a fact check:

CLAIM #1: “.. in terms of a cloud storage software solution, “pretty much” we are the only game in town”

CLAIM #2: “…yes we do S3-type or REST protocols…”

CLAIM #3: Krishnan claims his focus is on service providers

CLAIM #4: Krishnan states that hosting providers will have to deploy cloud storage solutions to take on Amazon S3 and Google.

While we agree with his assessment of the market, there are four claims that deserve a fact check:

CLAIM #1: ".. in terms of a cloud storage software solution, "pretty much" we are the only game in town"

That depends on how you define the phrase "pretty much." At Mezeo, we have focused on the service provider market from day one. And unlike Parascale, our software is in production with hosting providers - exhibit A: Softlayer. Watch Softlayer CEO Lance Crosby discuss why he chose Mezeo >>

But don't take our word alone. Here's Simon Robinson, Research Director at the 451 Group:

Unlike the myriad other companies tackling this fragmented and nascent market, Mezeo is focusing its efforts on delivering a platform that enables service providers to deploy cloud storage services to their own customers. The company, which was created a year ago, already has engagements with several managed hosting service providers...

As it comes out of the gate with its first raft of cloud storage services, Mezeo simultaneously stresses that it's not another cloud storage services company. This may sound disingenuous, but on closer examination it's clear that there's a big difference between what the likes of ParaScale and EMC Atmos are doing and what Mezeo is offering. Ultimately, Mezeo is pretty much agnostic as to the specific flavor of storage; it's differentiation is its ability to help service providers quickly deploy a range of feature-rich storage services, adding value where none exists today, and utilizing incumbent capabilities where they do exist. With so much of the interest in cloud computing focused on service providers, we think Mezeo has emerged at the right time with a novel platform.

Download the full report at www.mezeo.com

CLAIM #2: "...yes we do S3-type or REST protocols..."

NOT. ParaScale has no REST-style APIs. In fact, it is unclear if ParaScale is using any APIs at all.

CLAIM #3: Krishnan claims his focus is on service providers

Not quite! If we examine ParaScale's pricing model, and listen to what he says, it's the same old CAPEX.

The traditional "Pay-upfront" model is not cloud-friendly, while a "pay-per-use" model is. The major benefit of cloud storage is the economics of "pay-per-use," as we have stressed on this blog earlier.

Pay-up-front or pay-for-capacity (versus  pay-per-use) completely defies the economics of "Cloud Storage" which is all about "pay for use." Asking providers to have a cost model that is not aligned with their revenue model brings into question ParaScale's focus on and understanding of the service provider market.

CLAIM #4: Krishnan states that hosting providers will have to deploy cloud storage solutions to take on Amazon S3 and Google.

There is one point we agree on: hosting providers will indeed have to deploy cloud storage solutions to take on Amazon S3 and Google.

We have been blogging about this from the very beginning. Good to see Krishnan getting on board.

Here's to the competition. As the saying goes, let's stick to "just the facts!"

Read more about this topic at the Cloud Storage Strategy blog>>

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