Start-Up Maxta Debuts Software-Only Enterprise Storage Solution for Virtual Data Center

Based in Sunnyvale, CA, Maxta, Inc. unveiled a virtualization-centric storage platform that eliminates the need for external storage arrays and simplifies IT, while delivering cost savings.

The new software platform enables the convergence of compute and storage on standard servers leveraging server-side flash and disk drives to optimize performance and capacity. It supports all server virtualization capabilities that depend on shared storage and delivers enterprise data services, capacity optimization and scale-out of storage and performance.

“The complexities and high costs of traditional enterprise storage are magnified in the virtual data center,” said Yoram Novick, founder and CEO, Maxta. “After being told repeatedly that expensive storage arrays are the only way to support enterprise applications in virtualized environments, IT organizations finally have an alternative to storage arrays that reduces complexity and cost. Maxta has broken the code for integrating storage and compute into a converged virtual data center.”

The Maxta Storage Platform (MxSP) is a hypervisor-agnostic implementation of enterprise storage. It integrates with server virtualization at all levels from user interface to data management, while supporting all possible deployments of virtual data centers, including private, public and hybrid clouds. Through its software-only solution, Maxta turns standard servers into a converged compute and storage solution. This results in simplicity, economics and availability over decades-old external storage arrays.

According to Mark Peters, senior analyst at ESG, “Maxta offers all the critical features that enterprise users are typically demanding of the storage infrastructure in their virtualized environments. But, rather than being just another rack or cabinet based storage system, the Maxta solution can essentially be seen as a server-based storage app; as such it’s a perfect fit for an increasingly converged, and yet heterogeneous, world where easy to deploy and use software management is crucial from both operational and economic viewpoints.”

MxSP delivers snapshot and clone technology. It supports an unlimited number of VM-level snapshots and zero copy clones instantly without performance degradation, providing data protection without impacting production applications and instant provisioning of new VMs using VM templates. VM-level replication provides fast and affordable HA and DR.

MxSP is optimized to utilize flash performance and HDD capacity, eliminating the need for IT administrators to make difficult tradeoffs between performance and cost. It leverages any combination of magnetic disk drives and flash technology – including SATA, SAS and PCIe attached – to deliver performance and capacity at an attractive price for virtualized workloads.

Cost is further reduced by eliminating power, cooling and floorspace expenses of storage arrays. MxSP employs capacity optimization capabilities like thin provisioning, inline compression and de-duplication to reduce the data footprint, improving effective storage capacity and reducing cost. It provides the ability to scale compute and storage independently on-demand, one standard server at a time without having to over-provision resources. Additionally, it co-exists with other storage solutions providing investment protection for customers.

“We have been deploying Maxta in our data center and remote offices for quite some time. Maxta provided all the enterprise storage capabilites that we need without purchasing a storage array,” said Soumitra Ghosh, director of IT, Driscoll Strawberry Associates, Inc. “We appreciate the ease of installation and simplicity of operation that Maxta is delivering by completely integrating our virtualized servers as well as the rich set of VM level features.”

“Maxta enabled our test and development teams to self-deploy and manage VMs accelerating time to market of applications and increased storage performance by 50% over our iSCSI array,” said Michael Leland, virtual infrastructure manager, VSS Monitoring Inc., a Danaher company (a Fortune 200 company). “From an IT perspective, it has also reduced the amount of time I spend on mundane, day to day storage management tasks.”

“Maxta is all about software eating the storage array and profoundly changing the cost and complexity characteristics of the virtual data center,” said Peter Levine, partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “Creating a full-feature storage array through software alone has been one of the holy grails of the storage industry. Maxta is fundamentally changing the storage landscape.”

Maxta was founded by experienced entrepreneur Novick. He previously founded Topio, provider of platform-agnostic enterprise data replication solutions and served as Topio CEO from its inception until it was acquired by NetApp.

Maxta has raised $10 million from Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth-stage funding to new technology companies.