EMC has promised to release a product to suppliers which will allow them to build a private cloud which has all the advantages of a public cloud.
Project Nile will introduce machines in the first half of next year, which is much earlier than was planned. The boxes were shown off at VNX product launch in Milan yesterday (pictured).
Jeremy Burton is Executive Vice President, Product Operations and Marketing at EMC said that the kit is based around EMC’s VIPR software and the VNX hardware. It is designed to stop EMC and its partners losing business to public cloud products.
EMC expects Nile to be will be the first commercially-available complete, Web-scale storage infrastructure for the data centre..
It allows customers to choose storage for files, databases or the Web and receive a complete system within 48 hours.
Nile fills a gap in the mid-range market. Currently customers will buy into a public cloud because they need flexibility and cost. However this kit allows them to set up a private cloud operation in their own data centre much cheaper.
This is an easier sale in the EU where many companies are worried about public cloud offerings allowing their data to be stolen by US spies. The EU has already been muttering that public cloud data should not leave the EU forcing those who want to comply into expensive private cloud structures.
Nile effectively kills off the need for medium and large corporations to need to look at public cloud offerings which typically come from Amazon or Microsoft.
It also makes it a very attractive package for EMC’s Channel partners who want to sell cloud operations in easy packages rather than lose business to Amazon or Vole..
The price of the systems, which can be customised to deal with files, objects or blocks and set up to prioritise capacity or performance, is yet to be announced. However the figures being bandied about at the product announcement were as low as five cents a gigabyte.
Burton said the new range of products will cost customers 40 percent to 60 percent less than public cloud options, although given that the product has not hit the shops yet that could just be wishful thinking.
