Dallas-based SoftLayer came out with a heartfelt news announcement on Valentine's Day. The seven-year-old company, which started out as a Web hoster but now is into cloud services, revealed the worldwide availability of SoftLayer Object Storage.
This is a redundant and highly scalable cloud storage service that allows users to store, search and retrieve data across the Internet, with optional CDN connectivity, or across SoftLayer's global private network.
Although young in years, SoftLayer claims to be the largest privately owned hosting company in the world. It provides global, on-demand data center and hosting services from world-class data centers in Amsterdam; Dallas; Houston; San Jose, Calif.; Seattle; Singapore; and Washington, D.C., with network "points of presence" nationwide. A point of presence (POP) is an access point from one place to the rest of the Internet.
Based on OpenStack object storage, SoftLayer's Object Storage incorporates additional features that include integrated indexing and search, rich metadata, CDN support and integration into SoftLayer's management toolset.
A primary benefit of object-based storage is the role it can play in automating and streamlining data storage in cloud computing environments, particularly suited to managing and archiving large quantities of static information, such as virtual machine images, graphic files and email. SoftLayer adds a metadata system for describing, categorizing and indexing objects, and full search functionality for greater flexibility in object retrieval.
Key features include integrated indexing and search; a worldwide storage fabric; redundant architecture; flexible data distribution; consumption-based pricing; and a management toolkit that includes mobile applications, and a RESTful API that provides full range of human or machine access.
SoftLayer Object Storage is available now, with prices starting at 12 cents per gigabyte plus outbound network utilization. The Station says check it out.