Storage Networks Get Energized

Storage companies are putting a lot of energy these days into landing customers that find and sell, well, energy.

Whether its gas and oil exploration or energy utilities, storage companies are in hot pursuit. Over the last week we’ve seen NAS companies Panasas Inc. and ExaGrid Systems launch products aimed at energy companies, and software startup OuterBay Technologies Inc. forge an OEM deal that will help it sell to energy utilities. (See Panasas: Lab Rat No More, ExaGrid Launches NAS DPS, and Peace Software to Offer OuterBay ILM.)

The NAS angle is no surprise. Since energy exploration projects call for data-intensive software applications, they look to NAS vendors. This isn’t new; NAS moved into the energy vertical years ago (see NAS Goes Mainstream). But a couple of factors are energizing the pairing of NAS and energy.

First off, energy companies are increasingly moving to digitized mapping, which calls for lots of file-oriented storage. At the same time, NAS vendors are offering clustered file systems that enable their solutions to work in remote locations, while linked to central offices.

NAS and energy haven't always been an explosive match. Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) is one of the most successful storage vendors in the energy market, but getting into that market a few years back took some re-engineering (see NetApp Oils Up in Oslo and NetApp's Got Gas).“We had to modify our products for energy companies,” NetApp product marketing manager Rod Matthews says. “Our systems then scaled to 1.5 terabytes. These guys had files that big. We had to scale to 96 terabytes.”

Gas exploration companies use applications such as GeoFrame and ProMax to crunch seismic data. To handle files that run several terabytes, systems need to be optimized to perform a high number of sequential reads. The files often have a high-dollar value as well, so reliability is key.

Houston Energy LP network administrator Paul Davis, whose firm is an EMC customer, sums it up like this: "A guy might be prospecting in GeoFrame for months, and he might find data that leads to an oil well. If he loses that, he loses a lot of work, not to mention a prospect. That makes a geoscientist real unhappy. There’s the potential for millions of dollars.” (See Houston Energy.)

Exploration companies face a lot of the same challenges as digital media companies, which also deal with large files. That’s the major reason why NAS vendors such as BlueArc Corp. and Isilon Systems, which have had success in digital media, are widening their nets to take in energy companies (see Isilon Ices Cool $15.5M and BlueArc Wallows in $47M Haul).

“They face the exact same problems as we see in the digital video market,” Isilon marketing VP Brett Goodwin says.Energy utilities have their own unique challenges, as well, hence OuterBay’s OEM deal with Peace Software, a developer specializing in applications for the utilities market, specifically water, electric, and gas companies (see Peace Software to Offer OuterBay ILM). Peace will adapt OuterBay's ILM products to fit into solutions for its customers the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, and Australia.

According to OuterBay CEO Michael Howard, this fits his company's strategy of working with vertical suppliers in specific markets to fit its database-integrated archiving functions into business applications. Besides Peace, OuterBay has OEM agreements with EMC, NEC Corp. (Nasdaq: NIPNY; Tokyo: 6701), and Sybase Inc., which span financial services and manufacturing applications (see EMC Puts OuterBay Inside, Sybase Integrates OuterBay, and Peace Software to Offer OuterBay ILM).

Howard echoes the NAS players about the sheer scale required to deal with energy utilities. "You're not dealing with thousands of retailers. Within each company you have three million users," he says. Additionally, tight regulations make utilities good prospects for OuterBay's wares.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch