At today’s TechCrunch Cloud Computing Roundtable event, a new storage company called Diomede launched in private beta with the goal of offering low cost cloud-based storage that is also very energy efficient. The basic premise behind the service is that not all data in the cloud needs to be immediately available, but that most people still pay for the immediate access anyway. While most data centers have their servers and disk drives operating 24/7 with near-immediate access, Diomede allows customers to designate files that they don’t need instant access to, and places them either as ‘nearline’ or ‘offline’. These files have an access time of five minutes or four hours, respectively, but cost only 1/12 as much as standard cloud providers to store and take as little as 1/60th the amount of energy. If you’d like to try it out, go to this page and enter the invite code ‘tcrunch’.
The service offers a full API to developers, and also allows them to view metrics like the power consumption of each individual file. Possible applications include allowing developers to set their redundant file backups (which rarely need to be quickly accessed) to ‘offline’, where they can be stored at only a fraction of the normal cost.
Deomede is the latest venture from Steve Iverson, who was CEO of MediaMax, a file storage company with a tumultuous history that closed its doors last year. While the company had its issues, it’s unclear if they can be attributed to Iverson or were primarily related to engineering blunders and investors.
We are entering the most exciting era of computing now. I will kep watching this space with great interest.
lol 5 years till terminator comes true
freefreebiefinder.com/
I wonder if Steve will bulk import data locked up at Nirvanix of the customers of his former companies – MediaMax/StreamLoad/TheLinkup so they can be retrieved again thru Diomede
It’s be nice if they supplied even a tiny bit of information on what makes it “green.” What is their offline storage system?
Im guessing the electricity they use isnt green haha.
yeah, it’s “green” shit. I hate companies using the word “green” so they can score some marketing buzzz.
with this economy; things like this will die; people want real/good products and services….not fake marketing.
This is cool.
Interesting! I mean competition will only have benefits for us (lower prices), the consumers and what Diomede is trying to achieve is nice regarding the environment. Let’s see if they will be able to do it because on today’s market it’s very hard to change some ideas (e.g. IPv4 vs. IPv6) and there will be customers that prefer to have their HDD running for 24×7 and have permanent access to their files.
Good article and thanks for the news!
This is awesome. Now I can backup all my images..
> Shawzi
It’s not, but we do our best to make our infrastructure as efficient as possible. For the power that we do use, we purchase carbon offsets (already included in the cost of the storage), so Diomede Storage has a zero carbon footprint.
http://www.carb...ee_partner/1336
Does anyone remember the episode regarding carbon offsets in King of the Hill where instead of planting the agreed upon trees, the guy just took everyone to another forest.
Carbon offsets are bullshit. There’s no way to verify the offsets are actually being honored.
Yes. I agree with that. Here i India some comapnies misue the carbon credit system and earn loads of money. There should be a full proof way of doin it, in the future.
Mr. Iverson, I’m glad you stopped by.
How about restoring our lost data?
So many companies in this space have gone down; how can consumers or small businesses trust anyone, except for perhaps software that use more (longterm) reliable partner like Amazon or rackspace clouds?
nice!
Erm… will they also regularly lose masses of user data like streamload and mediamx did?
How do we join the beta? Anyone have keys?
> Erco
> How do we join the beta? Anyone have keys?
Beta site password is: tcrunch
If they had a processing cloud (like EC2 etc.) and provide very quick access to the storage through that, i would love them sooo much.
At least this idea has a clear purpose and does differentiate itself to a certain degree. Although the carbon credit system is a little laughable to a resource management economist in most real world applications, I do not fault that on the firm and it’s more sensible than trying to market the fact you and your firm planted some trees. There is no question that the majority of stored data in cloud format probably doesn’t need anywhere near instant access. I am still checking the security of these firms/computing style at justaskgemalto.
nice!
Be sure to actually check the TERMS OF SERVICE when you sign up! Without a doubt, it will include a disclaimer that the company IS NOT LIABLE for any lost data. How “cheap” is cheap, when you are unable to retrieve your data? If the company uses words like “SAFE” and “SECURE” in reference to your data, then surely they should be held legally responsible for that data. Iverson has left the wreckage/remnants of THREE similar companies behind him…while keeping customer fees that should rightfully have been returned. Doubtless there are many, many old customers out there who feel that it is their duty to inform the rest of the public of this man’s unethical business practices. Ditto for Harr, Hood, and the rest.
27*7 is the requirment of today.
It’s not, but we do our best to make our infrastructure as efficient as possible. For the power that we do use, we purchase carbon offsets (already included in the cost of the storage), so Diomede Storage has a zero carbon footprint.
Carbon offsets are bullshit. There’s no way to verify the offsets are actually being honored.