[June 21, 2011]

Enterprise Strategy Group Report Finds Symform's Decentralized Architecture More Secure Than Traditional Cloud Storage

Symform, a company that is revolutionizing the cloud storage marketplace by offering the world's safest, fastest, and most cost-effective solution, today announced the results of an Enterprise Strategy Group (News - Alert) (ESG) Lab Validation Report on Symform Cloud Storage. The report busts the myth that secure data protection in the cloud must follow the traditional centralized data center model, in fact ESG verified that the decentralized architecture of Symform Cloud Storage offers businesses of any size a more secure cloud storage alternative.

There are many solutions available to deal with secure data protection, and cloud services are being widely adopted as the next step in the natural evolution of data protection. ESG Lab examined Symform Cloud Storage with a focus on the security and cost benefits derived from this decentralized data protection model versus a traditional centralized data center model used by all other cloud storage providers.

Symform is the first company to break away from the traditional and costly centralized data center cloud storage model. It uses RAID 96 to geographically distribute, encrypt, and shred its data, which makes it innately more secure than the centralized models because it eliminates the single point of failure and attack vulnerability. Its unique design also allows it to maintain a highly scalable data cloud storage network without the high costs associated with building centralized data centers to accommodate massive data growth. This allows Symform to deliver data protection at a fraction of what customers would pay for other cloud storage offerings.

"When you do the analysis, the decentralized Symform solution provides a very secure and durable architecture," said Ginny Roth, Lab Engineer and Analyst of ESG. "We confirmed a strong level of security built into Symform, beginning with the moment data is identified locally for protection to the end nodes where the backed up data resides. Organizations looking for an alternative to the costs and security challenges associated with traditional centralized data centers for data protection will find a strong approach with Symform's Cloud Storae."

During its detailed examination of Symform's approach to secure data protection, ESG found that the decentralized model provides maximum assurances that data cannot be compromised. In the detailed testing process, ESG:

• Set up a Symform data protection environment with just a few simple steps and found backups and restores easy to manage. The "set it and forget it" functionality of backups makes the cost to maintain the solution negligible.
• Confirmed successful encryption of data both on the synchronizing and contributing devices. In addition, the file names themselves had no correlation with the customers they belonged to. Without access to the customer's administrative account, it would be impossible to reassemble the fragments in any meaningful way.
• Observed effective separation of data for multi-tenancy accounts. Access to the meta data store was limited to the Symform Cloud Control web service, providing a secure layer between customers and the database itself.
• Tested the file restore capabilities of the Symform storage cloud by removing a contributing node from the network, and was still able to easily retrieve the requested data.

ESG also found that when organizations look at data storage replacement solutions, the majority of them cite cost as the main concern. In addition, it's difficult to budget for storage growth because it's hard to predict future data growth rates. Symform solves this issue by allowing companies to store unlimited amounts of data without costly per gigabyte charges as data grows.

"Symform's Cloud Storage offers the most secure data protection service at a less expensive price. Businesses are paying too much for what they think is good centralized data protection, but they are paying greater fees for less redundancy and security," said Praerit Garg, president and co-founder of Symform. "The decentralized cloud storage model provides a more secure solution for customers, and ESG's report confirms that Symform has done it."

ESG Lab's expert third-party perspective is based on its own detailed, hands-on testing. The analysts at ESG performed their evaluation of Symform's Cloud Storage using servers located at the company's facilities in Seattle, Washington, that were connected to the company's live cloud service. For more details about the analysis and the research parameters, read the full report available on the Symform website.

About Symform

Symform, a privately held company based in Seattle, has reinvented cloud storage. The patented Symform Storage Cloud protects your data in a way that is faster, cheaper, more secure and reliable than anything traditional cloud storage providers can offer.

Symform, Symform Storage Cloud, the Resilient Storage Architecture, and RAID-96 are trademarks of Symform, Inc. References to other companies and their products acknowledge the trademarks owned by their respective companies and are for reference purposes only.

About Enterprise Strategy Group

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated, full-service IT analyst and business strategy firm, world-renowned for forward-looking market intelligence, analysis, and consulting services that deliver proven, measurable results. Recognized as one of the world's top 10 analyst firms by offering a unique blend of capabilities-including world-class market research, hands-on technical product testing, and expert consulting methodologies such as the ESG Strategy Lifecycle-ESG is relied upon by IT professionals, technology vendors, institutional investors, and the media for actionable IT and business intelligence.

For more information visit www.esg-global.com

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