SCIENCE

Internap Network Services Corporation has announced the launch of Internap XIPCloud Storage, a new public cloud storage service in its beta stage. A natural evolution of Internap's existing colocation, connectivity, CDN and managed hosting services, Internap XIPCloud Storage extends the range of outsourced IT services the company provides to global enterprises – from small businesses to multi-national corporations. Internap XIPCloud Storage relies on the company's proven Performance IP technology and provides a high-availability solution backed by a 100% Service Level Agreement (SLA).

"Internap XIPCloud Storage takes our performance offering to the next level. We can now deliver reliable, scalable storage that can be provisioned in an instant, operating at the speed of business," said Scott Hrastar, senior vice president of technology at Internap. "Our public cloud storage service will leverage the proven benefits of the OpenStack platform combined with our own global footprint and high-performance connectivity."

Internap XIPCloud Storage is based on OpenStack, an open technology platform developed by an international community to promote interoperability and eliminate vendor "lock-in." The new service will utilize OpenStack's Object Storage software, designed to enable a highly- scalable and redundant public cloud solution that can store petabytes of data. Customers can also leverage third-party tools that allow them to move content in and out of storage without requiring any development work on their end.

"Internap's adoption of OpenStack Object Storage is a key win for the community and brings OpenStack one step closer to becoming the de-facto industry standard," said Jonathan Bryce, chairman of the OpenStack Project Oversight Committee. "The vision of federation across public clouds, enabled by a common platform, will give cloud providers running OpenStack a competitive advantage and greatly benefit the end users of cloud computing by ending cloud lock-in."

Internap XIPCloud Storage features self-provisioning capabilities that allow customers to log into a web portal and purchase storage capacity and network bandwidth as needed, with the ability to quickly and easily scale services up or down.