JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform takes flight for DR, management
New vendor JetStream Software incorporated technology from flash caching developer FlashSoft and worked with VMware on its initial cloud data management releases.
JetStream Software launched today into the cloud data management atmosphere, rolling out products for cloud migration, business continuity and disaster recovery as a service.
The JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform, due later this year, supplies data management across multiple clouds and data centers. The hypervisor-integrated software will complement VMware-based cloud infrastructures provided by VMware Cloud Provider Partners and VMware Cloud on AWS. The platform offers data replication for disaster recovery and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), as well as workload migration to and from cloud service providers.
JetStream's founders are veterans of flash caching software vendor FlashSoft, which SanDisk acquired in 2012 -- four years before Western Digital bought SanDisk and FlashSoft's technology. The JetStream founders are CEO Tom Critser, President Rich Petersen and CTO Serge Shats.
JetStream hopes customers 'Migrate' and 'Accelerate'
The JetStream Software engineering team worked with VMware on the vSphere API for I/O Filtering framework. JetStream applies VMware's I/O Filter API for data replication.
FlashSoft also collaborated with VMware, said Jeff Byrne, senior analyst at Taneja Group in West Dennis, Mass.
"They've got a lot of experience doing this," Byrne said of the JetStream team.
Though the team worked with VMware on its initial releases, Petersen said, JetStream Cross-Cloud is designed to be platform-agnostic.
JetStream Migrate, a component of the JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform, provides data replication for cloud migration, running as an I/O filter in VMware vSphere. It facilitates live migration of enterprise virtual machines and their workloads from on-premises data centers to the cloud, according to the vendor.
"This is all done transparently in the hypervisor stack. It's very nondisruptive," Byrne said. "There's no need to copy the data [or] take snapshots of the data."
Accelerate is another major component of the JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform.
JetStream has adapted the core FlashSoft technology in Accelerate, according to Petersen. As with FlashSoft, JetStream Accelerate uses solid-state memory in servers to reduce storage I/O bottlenecks in VMware, Windows Server and Linux environments. Accelerate, though, supports more large-scale deployments.
Accelerate typically increases virtual computing capacity by two to three times and increases application performance by three to five times, according to JetStream.
While the JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform will include both, Migrate and Accelerate can be purchased on a stand-alone basis.
"It's a fixed-price meal or a la carte," Petersen said.
Migrate is in beta and will be generally available in the second quarter through JetStream cloud service provider partners.
Accelerate is available now, through channel partners and resellers, for VMware vSphere, Hyper-V and Linux KVM environments.
The JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform, expected to launch in the second half of 2018, will have additional data management capabilities for cloud service providers to use internally and in conjunction with enterprise customers, according to the vendor. These capabilities will include cross-cloud business continuity, disaster recovery and DRaaS, workload mobility and resource elasticity.
The JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform provides data management across multiple clouds and data centers.
A strategic deal and the strategy ahead
Long term, they've got a much bigger potential to hit the broader market.
Jeff Byrnesenior analyst, Taneja Group
JetStream Software entered into a strategic partnership with Western Digital (WD). That deal enabled JetStream to retain rights to the FlashSoft intellectual property, keep the team together and transfer partner relationships from WD to JetStream. JetStream will also continue to assist WD in its support obligations to its FlashSoft customers, according to Petersen.
JetStream customers can use any kind of flash from any vendor, Petersen said.
While FlashSoft is still used in data centers, Western Digital does not sell the software any longer. Western Digital has a small ownership stake in JetStream Software.
JetStream has raised a seed round of funding, but hasn't disclosed the details yet, Petersen said. In the coming months, the company plans to transfer beta customers of Migrate over to the production version of the software, and it seeks to demonstrate the benefits of the JetStream Cross-Cloud Platform for disaster recovery and DRaaS.
"Long term, they've got a much bigger potential to hit the broader market," Byrne said.
