Two young data protection companies are partnering to provide customers with a service designed for data security.
Paul Lewis, founder and CEO of Calamu Technologies, said the partnership with Wasabi will combine Calamu Protect, a data security platform, with Wasabi's Hot Cloud Storage, a cloud object storage service, to create a data storage vault for data backups. Lewis said pricing is capacity-based, although the pricing model is still being developed.
"We're looking at another option, another solution for our customers to get into a lower-tier, lower-cost provider that we think makes a lot of sense to add to our repertoire," Lewis said.
Partnership for data security
Calamu, which launched in 2020, builds what it refers to as a virtual data harbor by compressing, encrypting and breaking data up into fragments. The fragments are re-encrypted and then scattered across on-premises and cloud locations so that only authorized users can access the data, according to the company.
Should any of the fragments be attacked, Lewis said Calamu Protect can isolate that fragment so that others are not infected. Fragments are also backed up so that if a cloud provider or an on-premises location experiences a service interruption, customers will not be affected.
We can have a complete outage at one or more locations and still have full access to all of the fragments that are necessary to reassemble the data.
Paul LewisFounder and CEO, Calamu
"We can have a complete outage at one or more locations and still have full access to all of the fragments that are necessary to reassemble the data," Lewis said.
Wasabi is a few years older than Calamu, launching its Hot Cloud Storage service in 2017 and billing it as a cheaper alternative to hyperscalers with no egress fees or API charges.
David Boland, vice president of cloud strategy at Wasabi, said his company was drawn to Calamu's data protection strategy of fragmenting data across different storage locations.
"We're both young companies," Boland said. "We're both on the growth path, we've both got the technology that differentiates us."
Boland said Wasabi's stance on egress charges, which have been around since the early 2000s when networks were more expensive, will be incorporated into this partnership. These charges haven't changed much, even though the rest of the architecture has, he said. It was decided not to include the charges as a means of differentiating Wasabi from other companies and for the benefit of the customer.
A good step that raises questions
Henry Baltazar, a research director at 451 Research, said that in these times when ransomware is such a threat, companies are focused on security, and have expressed hesitancy about putting data into cloud-based storage.
"There's a fear of losing control in terms of security of the data," Baltazar said.
He said Calamu's data fragmenting and encryption adds an additional layer of security for cloud storage.
Baltazar said the Calamu-Wasabi partnership is a good step, but he hopes that it continues with other companies joining.
"I'd like to see an extension of this partnership where they will have more players," Baltazar said. "Right now, this is a Calamu-Wasabi partnership, and this could work, but larger [customers] want to have a multi-cloud strategy."
Marc Staimer, president of Dragon Slayer Consulting, said partnerships between vendors is common, but he questioned whether this partnership benefits Calamu more than Wasabi. He said Wasabi has a good reputation and offers reliable, low-cost storage with no egress fees, something other companies have been trying to emulate. Because of this, Staimer said Calamu gains a relationship with one of the fastest-growing storage companies on the market.
"With two companies partnering you typically need value for both -- each will be able to deliver more business to the other than if they were separate," he said.
