Data storage is fast becoming one of the most vital parts of business in the modern digital world, but not every company has the resources to handle a massive storage array. To help fill this void, a number of companies now offer storage as a service, allowing their clients to buy what they need, as they need it, without the overhead.

To help explore the world of storage as a service, Dave Vellante and David Floyer of theCUBE, from the SilconANGLE Media team, spoke with Nelson Nahum, CEO of Zadara Storage, Inc. at the VMworld 2015 conference.

Nahum explained that storage as a service brings about a certain change of mind in the client and in the provider. For the customer, it allows them to focus on their business instead of investing in boxes. Meanwhile, the service provider has to consider the customer’s needs every day, since they rely on the customer renewing the service.

Getting under the hood

Storage as a service works by delivering software that allows the customer to access a Cloud storage solution. In the case of Zadara Storage, this is a multi-tenant Cloud system that separates the tenants and gives them their own management tools. The customer then pays for the amount and type of data storage they use.

Because the workloads are separated, the clients can use specific types of storage to meet their needs, like flash for critical applications or spinning disk for archival use.

Carving out a market niche

Zadara Storage stands out from other storage providers in its offerings because it gives customers full management control of their storage, including the kind of drives, which applications run, and the type of storage itself. Along with this, it can offer very large volumes to customers.

Positioning itself in the storage market has taken some work, however. To provide storage as a service, the company had to develop technology for effective remote management. The result has given it two strong advantages, though. Working remotely, it can service the customer without a force of people out in the field. It can also investigate and solve problems in minutes by remote.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE