Wouldn’t it be nice to control data services like fleet management, automated software updates, predictive maintenance and faster troubleshooting? Nebulon, a Bay Area startup that emerged from stealth mode this week with an API-based approach designed to democratize enterprise-class storage, sure does. 

David Scott, Nebulon’s executive chairman and former CEO of 3PAR – the utility storage specialist acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2010 for $2.35 billion – co-founded the cloud-defined storage startup in 2018 with Siamak Nazari, Sean Etaati and Craig Nunes, all of whom were early employees at 3PAR.

The startup’s cloud-defined storage method provides on-premises, server-based data storage using customers' server hardware, each of which is equipped with a Nebulon Services Processing Unit (SPU), and a secure multi-cloud based control plane called Nebulon ON.  Nunes, who is COO of Nebulon, explained that Nebulon ON brings the cloud to data that can’t move to the cloud because of a service level mismatch, financial constraint, or governance and compliance issues.

Because this approach runs on commodity drives and servers, there is no need for additional server software that would otherwise consume CPU and memory resources to run applications, thereby reducing overall storage costs. Instead, resource allocation is managed in the cloud by Nebulon’s SPU, which serves as an array controller that has been “refactored into a PCIe-based device in the style of a GPU,” that installs inside customer application servers and allows users to deploy infrastructure as needed to server groups. 

Nunes said this is similar to a Nest thermostat. 

“Nest provides you a thermostat for your home, and to sell that they have to do a better thermostat than Honeywell. And so they built a wonderful thermostat that can be remotely managed and helps you with tips on saving energy," he explained. “Everything that the thermostat does is actually provided by the Nest cloud. And Nest really is a cloud business, not a thermostat business. We are, in many ways, like Nest but in the data center.” 

Nebulon’s controller is the SPU that sits in the users application server, replacing the redundant array of independent discs (RAID) or fiber channel card that is commonly attached to storage media. According to Nunes, Nebulon’s SPU effectively provides everything needed to replace external arrays. He specifically cited the SPU as a focal point because “we have to show that we can do enterprise-class storage better than the stuff organizations are relying on today, which is typically enterprise-class arrays from Pure Storage, NetApp, and Dell EMC.” 

The startup is going after a market that is trying to get out from underneath the cost of arrays, understands the cloud model, and has looked at hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) but ultimately held back because of operating systems and workloads, Nunes said. 

“With our approach, the entire storage workload data services run on the SPU and you get your entire server for your [virtual machines] and applications.” he added. “So for array-based organizations who've looked at HCI – they want to go, they know that that's the right approach – but have been held back from restrictions around OS or workload. We can actually give them a way forward to choose whatever operating system environment they need."   

Nebulon’s cloud-defined storage service will be available directly through Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Supermicro beginning in September.