Palo Alto startup Gridstore announced a Windows XP Embedded-based technology described as combining "the simplicity, convenience and affordability of network-attached storage (NAS) with the scalability, performance and reliability of enterprise storage." The NASg (Network Attached Storage Grid) unites distributed NAS devices via a single management console, according to the company.

Gridstore claims that while reliable, scalable NAS products are available, these tend to be proprietary, require specialized management expertise, and are so expensive that only enterprise customers can afford them. At the same time, entry-level NAS devices, favored by SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses), lead to storage sprawl, get maxed out quickly, and add multiple points of failure, the company adds.

Touting its NASg technology as filling a gap between these existing approaches, Gridstore says the product includes a management console, plus multiple Windows XP Embedded devices known as NASg Storage Blocks. Storage Block pricing starts at approximately $300 for a device including 1GB of RAM, an Intel Atom processor, and 1TB of storage. The console, meanwhile, snaps into Microsoft's Windows Management Framework, and is used to virtualize NASg volumes over multiple storage blocks, according to the company.

To end users and applications, NASg volumes appear as standard Windows network shares, with drive letters, says Gridstore. When a client writes a file to a NASg volume, NAGs performs the following, according to the company:

• Calculates the desired level of redundancy, where the number of redundant storage nodes is a subset of the total number of storage nodes in a volume
• Slices the file into fragments equal to the number of storage nodes in the volume
• Writes the slices in parallel to the overall grid

When a file is requested from a NASg volume, the process is reversed, as slices are recombined into the requested data, adds Gridstone. The company says its technology uses redundancy calculations similar to the ones employed by RAID, and provides a similar level of reliability, while adding an overhead of just 20 to 30 percent.

An example of how a client retrieves a file from the NASg grid
Source: Gridstore

OUR VERDICT: If it works well, this could be a truly disruptive technology

Thanks to the NASg technology, none of the Storage Blocks is a critical point of failure. says Gridstore. Performance increases as more Storage Blocks are installed, the company adds, because each device provides 1 Gb/sec. of parallel network bandwidth. It's claimed that a grid of just 25 Storage Blocks can provide the same processing power as a multi-million dollar SAN (storage area network).

In an article for our sister publication Channel Insider, Steve Wexler cites IDC figures showing that storage consumption is growing at more than 60 percent per year, meaning that small businesses need to double their storage every 12 to 18 months. Since 95 percent of file requests are for data that is fewer than 30 days old, new NAS devices instantly get maxed out, he adds.

"Once it maxes out, you need to go and buy another system, and quite often you leave unused capacity on the existing resources," Wexler quotes Kelly Murphy, Gridstore's co-founder and CEO as saying. NASg entirely eliminates this problem, and will cost about a third as much as a comparable NAS solution, Murphy is said to have added.

Further information

According to Gridstore, its NASg technology is available now for beta testing by MSPs (managed service providers), with a full rollout expected to take place late in the first quarter of next year. NASg storage Storage Blocks will cost approximately $300 with 1TB of storage or $400 with 2TB, the company adds.

Wexler's Channel Insider article suggests that Gridstore's software -- priced at around $800 for the management console -- will work with existing Windows-based NAS devices as well as the NASg Storage Blocks. Unix and Linux capabilities will be added in the future, the article adds. For more details, see Channel Insider, here.

For an overview of the NASg technology, see the Gridstore website, here.

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