Netscape alums tackle cloud storage

A new cloud storage vendor is entering the market, promising an enterprise-class file system with snapshots, replication, and other features designed to simplify adoption for existing users and applications.

Zetta, founded in 2007 by veterans of Netscape, has US$11 million in funding and is coming out of stealth mode Monday with Enterprise Cloud Storage, a Web-based storage platform that will compete against Amazon's Simple Storage Service and a growing number of cloud vendors. Zetta's goal was to build a Web-based storage system that would be accepted by enterprise IT professionals for storing primary data.

"Data growth rates are staggering. In businesses you see growth rates of 40 to 60 percent year over year," says CEO Jeff Treuhaft, a Zetta cofounder and formerly one of Netscape's first employees. Another Zetta cofounder is Lou Montulli, an early Netscape employee who invented Web cookies.

Zetta's not yet ready for prime time -- its system has been live with more than 20 beta customers since January and a full commercial launch is not expected until the third quarter. But Zetta claims it will offer enterprises better availability and security than existing cloud storage platforms. Zetta encrypts data at rest, and has built a system that can withstand multiple hardware and network failures without losing data, the company says.

Zetta has also written its own file system that will look and act like other file systems customers are accustomed to. Zetta has not yet announced what kind of service-level agreements it will offer, but Treuhaft promised they will be "very aggressive" with escalating penalties. Prices will be set at a maximum of 25 cents per gigabyte per month, according to Treuhaft.

"Targeted towards mid- to large enterprises with large and growing primary data storage needs, Zetta Enterprise Cloud Storage is the new, optimal online home for unstructured data such as active file archives, home directories, media storage for online distribution, and data warehouse extensions," the company says in a press release.

Zetta's main data center is in San Jose, and the others the company is using have not been disclosed.

Zetta has $11 million in funding from Sigma Partners, Foundation Capital and several angel investors. The name "zetta" refers to a numerical prefix denoting a "1" followed by 21 zeroes.

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