Open Source Storage Relaunches With New Platform

Open Source Storage (OSS), which 13 years ago pioneered the idea of networked storage that uses free and open source software to manage it, will announce three news items on 14 January: that it has reformed and relaunched itself; that it has sold more than 50 million securities to private investors; and that it has refreshed its storage middleware operating system.

San Jose, California-based OSS, founded in 2001, first made traction in its business by signing then-unknown Facebook to handle its storage in 2004. It also counts companies and organisations such as Friendster, Shutterfly, NASA, KPMG, the US Army, and Lockheed Martin among its former and current customers.

Relaunch

Chief executive and founder Eren Niazi told eWEEK that the company reached a point in which it had to re-evaluate its entire business after a major investor pulled out in 2007 when the economy shifted.

“We were doing about $26 million (£16m) in business per year — we were one of the first companies to commercialise open source,” Niazi said. “We did all the architectural design, software design and scalability for Facebook and other companies. We were doing great business, but I lost the company in 2007; now we’re back, and we relaunched the company 19 days ago (in December 2013).”

OSS’s new Niazi 1.618 Middleware System enables OSS customers to expand proprietary data storage by using lower-cost open source IT.

“It will allow you to mount on to Tier 1 storage platforms like NetApp and Oracle, use commodity hardware and an open source file system. But you can still use all the tools you already have,” Niazi said.

OSS reduces the typical costs of data ownership by 30 to 40 percent by replacing licensed software and proprietary hardware with open source software and open standard components, Niazi told eWEEK.

During the past 90 days, OSS was able to relaunch itself by selling more than 50 million private equity shares to investors at a price that Niazi says he cannot disclose. The funding will support product development and hiring as OSS re-enters the data storage market, Niazi said.

Open source transition

“The Niazi 1.618 Middleware System was crucial to our investors,” Niazi said. “Given the dominance of proprietary storage systems, we needed to re-launch with technology that helps companies transition to open source without losing their investment in current data centres. The new middleware system makes this uniquely possible.”

The new middleware System allows companies to mount open source software and open standard components (commodity hardware) to any existing infrastructure. The Niazi 1.168 is the first middleware package to enable enterprises to expand storage with open source technology while continuing to use their current storage filing systems, Niazi said.

“The licensing fees on proprietary storage solutions become outrageous once companies scale,” Niazi said. “OSS and the 1.618 Middleware provide the first real solution for companies that feel trapped between big data initiatives and big storage costs.”

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Originally published on eWeek.