DreamHost Debuts DreamObjects, an Open Source Cloud Storage Service

Web hosting provider, DreamHost recently decided to get into the cloud storage business with a scalable object storage service aimed at entrepreneurs and developers called DreamObjects. In an effort to stand out amongst popular competitors in this space — Rackspace (News - Alert), Cloud Files and Amazon S3 — DreamObjects offers full compatibility with other popular APIs, causing some excitement among certain open source partners.

This is largely due to the fact that DreamObjects is based on Ceph, an open source, massively scalable distributed storage system. Ceph's architecture offers true storage virtualization and advanced redundancy by way of its CRUSH algorithm which intelligently replicates data across a storage cluster, rebalancing that distributed data to maintain a high level of readability.


Image via Shutterstock

On a less technical level, Ceph can run efficiently on inexpensive hardware, lowering cost per Gigabyte pricing for the DreamObjects service, while of course providing greater flexibility.

"DreamHost is on a mission to give every content creator, entrepreneur and developer the freedom to create on the Internet. We do this by launching and supporting awesomely-engineered, super-flexible, and uber-value web and cloud services, and DreamObjects is definitely in this illustrious category," explained Simon Anderson, CEO of DreamHost, in a statement.

While its claims of greater flexibility are hard to confirm at this stage, DreamHost's claims of reduced pricing is undeniable. DreamObjects features a simple, flat-rate pricing plan of seven cents per Gigabyte of data stored and another seven cents for each Gigabyte transferred. By contrast, Rackspace charges 10 cents per Gigabyte, while Amazon S3 charges up to 12.5 cents per Gigabyte of storage and 12 cents for data-out up to the first 10 Terabytes.

DreamObjects also boasts some interesting partnerships. For example, Intank, a provider of support services for Ceph, has signed on to support DreamHost's endeavour while Canonical's Ubuntu (News - Alert) Linux 12.4 actually powers DreamObjects.

In July, DreamHost partnered with StopTheHacker, in an attempt to reduce the spread of Web malware that infects many websites.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.