Be clever: Chop up your cloud data

The best way to keep your data safe is to chop it up 16 ways and toss it into the cloud for storage.

That may sound odd, even counterintuitive, but it works, says Chris Gladwin, CEO of Cleversafe Inc. of Chicago.

He asks you to liken Cleversafe's data storage virtualization technology to the IP protocol, which supplanted the telcos tried and true circuit switching networks for data communications.

"We're packet switching for storage," Gladwin says.

When I first encountered Cleversafe back in 2006, it was first getting on its feet as a startup. Tomorrow it will ship its second generation of appliances use up to 50% less power, run 33% faster and cost 12% less. That's progress.

Using Cleversafe's storage dispersal technology protects your data because even though it splits your information into 16 discrete pieces and puts it into 16 separate places, it only needs 10 of those 16 slices to reconstruct all your data. This makes it ideal for disaster recovery scenarios. That's good.

What's better is that if a hacker cracks into your data storage system, he only gets to 1/16th of your data and is unable to piece it together. He'd have to hack into 16 different places to assemble all of it into meaningful information, making Cleversafe all but hacker proof.

So, if storage security and availability is a concern, take a peek at Cleversafe's new Slicestor 2000, starting at $9,996 and its sister appliances, and start throwing your data around your network for safety.