Symform Announces Cooperative Storage Exchange

Symform, Inc. announced the first Cooperative Storage Exchange, available via reseller partners worldwide.

The Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud works on the principle that each local computer contributes inexpensive local storage in exchange for cloud-based storage. This data protection solution is 10 times cheaper and 10 times faster than traditional online storage solutions. Unfortunately, bandwidth availability constraints prevent some SMBs from fully participating in the Symform solution.

Starting immediately, Symform is enabling its reseller partners to sell their excess local storage to those customers who are unable to contribute. Partners, in effect, become ‘micro data centers’ that are distributed around the world. The storage trading isn’t done directly; instead one side is selling excess storage to the Symform cloud while the other is purchasing it as needed. This approach will allow SMBs and their MSPs with bandwidth or other constraints to participate in the Cooperative Storage Cloud while allowing those customers who have excess capacity to monetize their infrastructure.

"Symform turned the backup model upside down and created a game-changer for the industry," said Marc Ross CTO for IT Foresight. "This creates an important new offering and revenue opportunity for MSPs with sufficient IT infrastructure. A key principle for IT Foresight has always been to find ways to bring enterprise class approaches and architectures to the SMB space via an affordable, secure and scalable solution or service mix. For the backup and recovery space, Symform makes this possible today."

"Our reseller partners and their SMB customers are the cloud so this is a natural and exciting next step in our evolution," said Kevin Brown, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Symform. "MSPs can now monetize their IT infrastructure in a global marketplace like never before. They save money for their customers, facilitate a global, distributed storage system, and earn additional profits. Talk about making an MSP smile."

Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud:
The Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud enables small businesses to implement a backup and disaster recovery solution that is more secure, ten times cheaper, and ten times faster than traditional online backup services. The company was founded on the realization that millions of small businesses have computers with an excess of inexpensive storage capacity, power running 24×7, and unlimited Internet bandwidth – especially nights and weekends. The Symform team has developed software that aggregates this relatively unreliable and un-trusted capacity over the Internet and transforms it into a secure and reliable global storage system. The heart of Symform’s software is a proprietary technology called RAID-96.