At $30,000 for the 5010 and $50,000 for the 7010, the cost for managing storage via the appliances is comparatively cheap, especially given all they do.
"We've reduced cost dramatically for a certain class of applications by coupling advanced technologies with the ability to have the cloud as a tier in the data centre, as a tier of storage that customers can take advantage of," said chief scientist Joel Christner.
"Our appliance family is deployed directly in the data centre just like a typical storage array is. It's fully redundant with no single point of failure."
The main drawback is that the devices aren't designed for heavy workloads. As Christner explained, the products are for content-heavy workloads, such as collaboration system data, rather than big transactions.
The StorSimple model could catch on across the globe
So businesses won't find a panacea for all their storage and backup woes with StorSimple they will still need other products to manage heavy transactional data movements, whether in-house or over the cloud.
Future gazing
As for the future, the company looks set to expand, not just in terms of size but in terms of the range of environments the StorSimple appliances support. Right now, it's just Microsoft and VMware environments, but expect a few more in the coming months.
It's unlikely any acquisition is imminent and CEO Ursheet Parikh indicated this was the case. It's some way off a public offering too, Parikh said.
In the UK, businesses can order the appliance simply be visiting the StorSimple website. Chief marketing officer Ian Howells told IT Pro StorSimple was in the process of speaking with a number of companies about providing the appliances through the channel.
Verdict
StorSimple is an exciting young company, highlighted by the impressive views over Silicon Valley in its new offices.
Keeping it simple can really pay off and if this start-up sticks to its guns, with a small number of quality core products, it'll do well.
Furthermore, if IT departments recognise the potential savings the all-in-one boxes could bring over expensive arrays from bigger vendors, the StorSimple model could really catch on across the globe.
