ClearSky Offers Multi-Cloud Support for Data Storage

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Since launching its business a few years ago, ClearSky Data continues to expand its as-a-service enterprise storage offering and on Tuesday announced expanded choice for customers offering multi-cloud support for public and private cloud environments in partnership with Cloudian, Google and Virtustream.

ClearSky was already a technology partner ofAmazon Web Services (AWS) for back-end data storage.

A provider of on-demand primary storage with built-in offsite backup and disaster recovery (DR), ClearSky’s new multi-cloud support will help MSP and reseller partners attract a broader client base. The vendor’s current customer base consists of medium and larger-size businesses, primarily in health care, financial services and higher education.

ClearSky Data’s Laz Vekiarides

“It’s time to think beyond ‘cloud’ as a concept and recognize that the multi-cloud realities of today’s environments place pressures on enterprises. As they balance on-premises, public and private cloud demands, our customers know they have a service that embraces cloud, ensures consistency for all data across on-premises, public and private cloud environments, delivers flash performance and helps them achieve their hybrid cloud goals,” said Laz Vekiarides, chief technology officer and co-founder of ClearSky Data.

In selecting AWS, Cloudian, Google and Virtustream as options for back-end cloud environments, ClearSky is mixing it up with private and public cloud for customers.

So, in addition to AWS, “for customers who want to stay on premise[s] but have a private cloud environment that allows them to scale up or scale down as they need, Cloudian is our partner for that type of hybrid solution,” said Courtney Pallotta, vice president of marketing at ClearSky. The Google Cloud platform, which is making inroads into the enterprise, is another offering we can use for a back-end cloud, and the Virtustream Cloud, which is part of Dell EMC, is also a cloud environment like any other.

ClearSky started as a direct sales company, but in May announced its first partner program — The ClearSky Data Partner Acceleration Program, with the goal of helping the vendor deliver better solutions to more customers, Pallotta said.

While not having any numbers about the company’s direct versus indirect business at this point in time, the channel is already delivering a “fair amount” of the company’s business given its short lifespan, and represents a significant piece of the company’s pipeline, according to ClearSky.

“MSPs are getting a clear call from their clients for on-premises-level performance, flexibility and security, but with cloud economics. A hybrid, multi-cloud approach helps them meet that challenge, while leaving the door open to scale,” said Jon Toor, chief marketing officer at Cloudian, an on-premises and hybrid cloud object storage provider. “The combined ClearSky and Cloudian solution arms MSPs with better capabilities and lower costs than public clouds, so they can help move their customers down the path toward their hybrid IT objectives,” he added.