{"id":6321,"date":"2013-10-31T15:07:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T22:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2021-08-13T04:04:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T11:04:18","slug":"nirvanix-cloud-storage-shuts-downalternatives-options-and-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/nirvanix-cloud-storage-shuts-downalternatives-options-and-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Nirvanix Cloud Storage Shuts Down: Alternatives, Options, and Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-nirvanix\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2007, Nirvanix saw that cloud storage<\/a> was going to be a major necessity for companies in the future and believed they could differentiate from Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) S3 storage service by focusing on the enterprises that also wanted sales engineers, tech support, and other dedicated services. To pursue this mission, Nirvanix raised $70 million<\/a> from 2007 through 2012 and the company was considered a potential challenger to EMC, NetApp, and Rackspace in addition to Amazon.<\/p>\n

But, on October 1, 2013, Nirvanix filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy<\/a> protection. The company gave customers\u2014some of whom had a petabyte of the only copy of their data stored with them\u2014two weeks\u2019 notice to retrieve their data. Shutdowns are difficult and from what I\u2019ve read, the team at Nirvanix worked hard to help customers get their data back. But for customers faced with finding a new home for petabytes of data, that was a bad day.<\/p>\n

Howard Marks wrote a good overview for Network Computing about what happened: “The Nirvanix Failure: Villains, Heroes and Lessons<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Data Storage Alternatives<\/h2>\n

For Nirvanix customers there are a number of cloud storage options where they can move their corporate data: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Microsoft Azure, IBM SoftLayer, and others.<\/p>\n

Another alternative would be to move the data back in-house. If the data is to be moved in-house, there is a decision of whether to use a vendor (EMC, NetApp, Dell, etc.) or use open-source hardware and software systems.<\/p>\n

(Note: Our service, Backblaze online backup<\/a>, is not an alternative to Nirvanix. We automatically back up laptops and desktops. We do not provide an API to our cloud storage for use by other services and applications.)<\/p>\n

Considering and Choosing Data Storage<\/h3>\n

1. What type of data is it?<\/em><\/p>\n

Primary data or a backup?
\nHow much reliability do you need?
\nHow important is availability\/uptime?
\nHow important is performance?<\/p>\n

The answers to these questions will help determine what type of storage you need and thus drive how expensive your in-house storage will be and potentially how complex the architecture will be.<\/p>\n

2. How much will it cost to store the data in the cloud versus in-house?<\/em><\/p>\n

Nirvanix Cloud Storage was priced at approximately $0.20\/GB\/month. For a customer with one petabyte<\/a> of data, they would be paying:<\/p>\n