Unified Data Storage provider IceWEB (News - Alert), a company that provides building blocks for cloud storage networks, will soon unveil a high-end IceWEB storage platform that will allow for multiple performance tiers of storage in a single platform.

Thanks to this new innovation, cloud service providers will now be able to support multiple applications and services in a single, cost effective platform, as well as provision database and virtual machines from the performance tier and backup services from a capacity tier, according to company officials. Moreover, IceWEB customers can apply solid-state disk drive to the performance tier to create a hybrid storage pool.

Last year, the networked cloud storage market reportedly rose to $17.55 billion, according to International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)) estimates. Of that market, a growing segment is at the high-end as new business information increases 50 percent every year.

"The recent announcements of our IceWEB 6000-HA (High Availability) and 6000-HB (Hybrid) Unified Storage Platforms are major steps to meet the emerging needs of these high-performance cloud-driven customers," said John R. Signorello, IceWEB CEO, in statement. "And, our recent solid state drive announcements, hybrid array technology and new expansion disk shelves are all part of our master plan to increase share in this fast growing high performance market."

Earlier this summer, Promark Technology enlisted the help of IceWEB and deployed the IceWEB 3000HP (High Performance) Unified Storage Platform. IceWEB Storage System configurations offer in-line data de-duplication, compression and thin provisioning for unparalleled storage efficiency rates. This high-performance unified storage system offers one platform for file and block data of all kinds, is easy to install, and provides built-in, all-inclusive storage management features, according to company officials.

In related industry news, MedPlast, a provider of thermoplastic medical device, recently became the latest company to turn to StorSimple, the leading provider of enterprise cloud storage for Windows and VMware infrastructures.

When MedPlast took notice that its existing backup targets were becoming full and backup windows were growing excessively long, MedPlast began to direct its attention toward the cloud and cloud storage offerings. Its extensive search process brought it to StorSimple and, ultimately, MedPlast selected StorSimple for VMware ready cloud storage on Amazon S3.

“When you talk about primary storage and backup, it is one of the most critical parts of your infrastructure and you really need to have confidence in your solution,” said Dan Streufert, IT director for MedPlast. “We looked at all of the vendors in this space and I spent a lot of time analyzing the capabilities and the pros and cons of each one.”

“It was apparent that StorSimple has the most fully baked solution,” he added. “They have the most enterprise class product and organization. As soon as you open the box with the StorSimple device you can tell it’s an enterprise class, robust, purpose-built device.”

Want to learn more about cloud communications? Then be sure to attend the Cloud Communications Summit, collocated with TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The Cloud Communications Summit will address a growing need of businesses to integrate and leverage cloud based communications applications, process enhancement techniques, and network based communications interfaces and architectures. To register, click here.