Since we officially launched the Nasuni Filer, we’ve spent some time in this blog explaining the technology and talking about how some of our first customers are using it. For each of these customers, we are delivering storage as a service. We’re not shipping an array of disks or even a small piece of hardware. The Filer delivers a service, and we have been focused from the start on making that experience clear, transparent, and simple.
This is the same reason we’ve set it up with our cloud partners so that our customers don’t have to negotiate rates or secure their own credentials. Nasuni does all this because we want storage as a service to be a hassle-free experience.
On Monday we rolled out our My Account section for customers. These pages are a great reflection of our overall approach to cloud storage, so we thought we’d preview them here to give you a better idea. Through easy-to-understand charts, graphs and tables, customers will be able to clearly see how much storage they’re consuming, how their bill breaks down, what sort of files their copy of the Filer is sending to the cloud, and more.
Take the Overview page below. You have the simple navigation bar on the left, then all the essential information, including current statement, last payment, next bill date, a summary of your storage usage, with a breakdown of how much data is with each provider (the numbers here are just for illustration purposes), and plenty of links to more information:
The screens are sharp and simple – customers won’t find themselves scrolling through endless, mysterious pages of figures and fees. This isn’t your mobile phone bill. Adding or dropping a cloud provider will be easier than switching from HBO to Starz with your cable provider. Even choosing your preferred bill delivery method is simple:
Pages like this will help make the cloud storage experience a painless one for people who aren’t storage or IT geeks, but we are also offering plenty of goodies for this crowd, too. Our personal favorite is the live-updated Usage Details page:
Customers can clearly see file counts and total file volume, plus a complete breakdown. They can explore what kinds of files are going to the cloud, how large they are, and in what numbers. Then they can compare and contrast all of this to identify usage patterns within their company.
Keep in mind, too, that we cannot see any of this data. It is all encrypted before it leaves the customer’s site and it never passes through Nasuni’s servers. All we get are these basic but very useful statistics when the Filer reports back to us.
These usage details in particular are something that storage people have been requesting for years. Well, it’s all here now with the Nasuni Filer. Storage as a service has truly arrived, and we’ve made it simple, clear, and information-rich. We think this is what you should expect from storage. It should be transparent and hassle-free.
Let us know what you think at feedback@nasuni.com and, if you haven’t done so already, download your trial copy of the Filer today.