Nexenta’s Mission To Save Channel From Storage Mafia

Storage vendor Nexenta has launched a VMware version of its software defined storage service, which it says will help the channel free their clients from the tyranny of “Mafia vendors”.

The Nexenta VSA for VMware Horizon View is a virtual storage appliance that the vendor claims will make the management of virtual desktops so much more efficient that resellers can offer alternatives to NetApps systems at around 15 percent of the price.

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Nexenta founder and CEO Tarkan Maner claimed to be the “Eliot Ness of storage” who will break the stranglehold of the storage “Mafia”.

“There’s a data centre now that’s considering a million dollar investment on a NetApp upgrade. We can do the same job for $150,000,” he claimed .

At VMware 2013, Maner condemned the exploitation of end users by what he describes as “massively expensive storage systems”. Maner called for a “storage spring” to free users from being locked into proprietary hardware.

Software defined storage, he said, will separate the software function from hardware and give service providers a much cheaper alternative to take to customers. By working with any protocol stack, resellers can build specialised storage systems on commodity hardware, rather than the expensive specialised appliances sold by EMC and NetApp, he claimed.

Maner, credited with expanding research at Wyse before it was sold to Dell in April, 2012, claimed software defined storage will be a lucrative market for resellers that train to join Nexenta’s channel.

“Software defined storage is going to be the next big thing in IT for the next 20 years,” claimed Maner. “Data centres have massive overheads in storage. Virtual desktops, the internet of things, video and Big Data are all driving massive storage growth, but the storage channel has been in hock to the big vendors for too long.”