What is QuantaStor?
QuantaStor is an iSCSI Storage System Platform (SSP) for use with commodity 64bit hardware. What this means is that you can take just about any server and convert it into an enterprise class iSCSI storage system using the QuantaStor SSP software.
The primary goal behind QuantaStor was to make a storage system that's both powerful yet be truly easy to use. As such we've engineered out as much of the unnecessary complexity that storage system manufacturers commonly burden administrators with by following the famous adage "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.". Much of this increased efficiency and ease of use is readily understood once you have QuantaStor installed and you begin using the QuantaStor Manager web 2.0 based management interface via your web browser.
How is it unique from other SANs?
QuantaStor has a number of powerful features like thin-provisioning, compression, and massive snapshot scalability that you'll find on other enterprise level storage systems, but what makes it truly unique about QuantaStor is it's support for storage clouds. With storage clouds you gain the ability to allocate what is essentially a virtual storage system within the storage system so that groups of users can all share the same hardware. So rather than having to purchase new hardware for a new project, you can just allocate a storage cloud in your existing hardware, place a quota on it and then delegate the management of that cloud to some set of users and you're done. When cloud users and cloud administrators login to the system they can only view and manage resources within their associated cloud(s) and all other resources are protected and secured away. In short, this enables multi-tenancy within the storage system. QuantaStor also has one of the most advanced web 2.0 management interfaces on market which we call QuantaStor Manager. With QuantaStor Manager there is no software to install, you just point your web browser at the storage system and you'll be presented with the login dialog nearly instantly. Since it's based on a AJAX/Web2.0 foundation there are no page refreshes it just works and responds like a native desktop application.
How is it sold?
QuantaStor is sold as both software and hardware, and there is also a Free/Community Edition which supports up to 2TB of disk. The other product editions of the SSP software are all licensed on a per-terabyte basis and can be purchased directly from our web site whereas the hardware is available only through resellers.
QuantaStor is built on top of Ubuntu Server as it's core OS and this gives you the power to customize the SSP in unique ways that are not possible with other storage systems. Though you do not need to ever login to the system console except at initial installation and for some upgrades, the use of Ubuntu Linux underneath allows us to leverage the powerful tools and a security envelope that comes with the Ubuntu platform that simplifies upgrades and maintenance of the system saving you time and energy.
