Exablox Completes Beta Program in Spiceworks

Exablox Corp. has completed an exclusive beta program for its OneBlox storage solution in Spiceworks, Inc., the vertical network for IT.

OneBlox is a scale-out object-based appliance accessible with Server Message Block and CIFS network protocols for organizations of all sizes. As part of a Spiceworks SpicePanel engagement, Exablox tested and refined its OneBlox solution with a hand-selected group of experienced storage and IT professionals. As a result of the engagement, Exablox beta customers now have more than a half petabyte of storage deployed on OneBlox.

Exablox recently emerged from stealth, and is delivering its patent pending architecture to solve businesses’ common storage pain points: complicated installation, cumbersome storage management, lack of data security and forklift upgrades. Without the shackles of legacy storage architecture, Exablox’s approach combines the OneBlox appliance with OneSystem, a multi-tenant cloud-based management service. With OneBlox, companies now have an affordable storage solution with integrated enterprise features, including inline deduplication, CDP, and zero configuration storage expansion.

According to Spiceworks’ recently published 1H 2013 State of SMB IT survey of more than 1,000 IT professionals around the world, SMBs spend $192,000 each year on the latest technology products and services. While budgets have increased, SMB IT professionals and IT departments are still resource constrained, putting technologies with enterprise functionality and reasonable price points in a position to help SMB organizations.

"OneBlox is a best-in-breed storage solution that solves today’s most common storage obstacles, delivering enterprise storage and software starting at under $10,000," said Douglas Brockett, CEO, Exablox. "SpicePanel participants provided real world testing of OneBlox prior to our April launch, which validated our enterprise features and helped our development team identify and resolve any potential issues. We look forward to continuing our work with Spiceworks to both better serve our customers and further grow Exablox’s presence in the market."

SpicePanels are virtual focus and testing groups comprised of hand-picked IT professionals that fit vendors’ desired profiles, including technology expertise, company size, product needs, industry, or other criteria. Custom engagements provide vendors with real-time community feedback and can be conducted as focus groups, beta test environments or product trials. SpicePanels include a group of engaged IT professionals who regularly write product reviews and share their experiences with peers in the Spiceworks Community.

"Spiceworks is an ideal launching pad for innovative technology companies like Exablox who are looking for a real-time environment to test their latest products and services," said Jay Hallberg, co-founder and VP marketing, Spiceworks. "SpicePanels help technology companies quickly build and test their offerings in a more social way by giving IT professionals a voice and the opportunity to shape the products and services they need the most."