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Keeping up with data storage needs is a problem that isn’t easily solved and isn’t cheap. Equus MSP Solutions believes it has the key to the riddle: a cloud in a box.

Equus is partnering with cloud storage service provider Symform and backup software vendor StorageCraft to create “Cloud Box,” an integrated hardware-cloud storage solution that features unlimited offsite storage capacity for a flat rate that starts at $199 per month.

“In the Cloud Box, we’ve created an all-in-one storage, backup and disaster recovery solution that allows for an affordable, true flat-rate offering,” said Frank Gurnee, Equus MSP Solutions vice president of channel sales. “We’re offering a simple, accessible, real-world answer to the frustrations and pricing objections that have plagued the typical backup storage models.”

Cloud Box is an Equus BDR UCA-1 appliance – which is essentially an Intel server with 1 terabyte storage capacity running Windows Server 2008 and StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect backup manager. The appliance is married to Symform’s decentralized cloud storage service, which distributes storage capacity with the communal capacity of the shared network.

“Symform’s cloud storage solution allows the Equus Cloud Box to offer unlimited cloud storage for a low, flat fee,” said Symform CEO Matthew J. Schiltz. “Other cloud storage providers are limited by their data center model. They can’t match Symform’s speed, security, reliability and price.  This is a great hardware solution for channel providers from a world-class system builder.”

The combination of hardware-as-a-service with a cloud-based storage offering is interesting, but the combination of Equus with the decentralized service of Symform is dynamic.

Symform doesn’t actually provide any storage; just the management of data storage in its network of users. It swaps the capacity of users and ensures redundancy, which gives it virtually unlimited capacity at a fraction of the price of conventional data center-centric cloud storage services. The only thing it requires is users who have the capacity to share storage resources with the network.

Equus is delivering capacity. Where many businesses are simply struggling to keep up with storage needs, Equus gives them the immediate resources to meet storage demands and the capacity to enter the Symform network. The hardware-as-a-service model is making it easier for businesses – particularly small businesses – to acquire the hardware on a fixed recurring fee.

The bundling of the Equus hardware and the Symform storage service costs in one fee makes the offering economical and the discreet services costs transparent to the end user.

There are limitations: Cloud Box’s unlimited storage capacity is actually limited to the total capacity of the on-site appliances. If the user has five Cloud Boxes, it has 5 terabytes of Symform storage capacity. If it has one Cloud Box, it has 1 terabyte of Symform capacity. It makes sense considering Symform is a capacity swap service, but by combining the on-site and offsite storage capacity, the end user will always have double the capacity of the physical infrastructure.

This Equus and Symform partnership isn’t revolutionary in the sense that using cloud capacity to augment on-premise storage resources is something many companies are doing already. But packaging it this way will make it easier for solution providers to sell and end users to buy.

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Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.

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