News

Centripetal to Provide Data Storage Subscription Service

• By Scott Bekker
• February 28, 2000

The pay-as-you go enterprise storage model got another booster today as a vendor dedicated to the storage service provider (SSP) approach unveiled plans to offer storage at co-location facilities around the country.

The latest entry into the so-called storage utility market is Centripetal Inc. (www.centripetal.com), with a Web site that is little more than a graphic and a dictionary definition. Centripetal says it will offer a Data Services Suite, which will enable Web-centric companies to outsource their data storage needs at co-location facilities on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Co-location enables companies to house their servers in a shared facility with a high-bandwidth Internet connection. The practice enables companies to capitalize on bandwidth discounts and increased availability of mission-critical data.

Centripetal's Data Services Suite will allow companies to pay a monthly fee for storage and enable them to focus on their core competencies rather than on the administrative details of data storage. At the same time, companies can lower their total cost of ownership while improving speed, reliability, scalability, and data security.

Centripetal's Data Services Suite will be available in March. The suite will include:

● Data storage services, SAN-based RAID storage.

● Data backup and recovery services with tape or optical archiving.

● Disaster avoidance, including remote mirroring and clustering of data and servers.

● Global storage management and monitoring.

Centripetal will offer storage utility services through centralized, shared SANs at co-location facilities with direct Internet backbones. The company's first facility in San Diego will have 26 terabytes of SAN-based storage available for lease on a monthly basis. - Isaac Slepner