Cloud service provider Nirvanix may have inadvertently validated customers’ fears centered around cloud storage. It was reported last week by U.K.-based website Information Age that Nirvanix has told its customers they have two weeks to find another home for their terabytes of data because the company was closing its doors and shutting down its service.
Founded in 2007, San Diego-based cloud storage provider Nirvanix, which targets enterprises with its public, hybrid, and private cloud storage services and usage-based pricing, had raised more than $70 million in venture capital funding, including a $25 million Series C round last May led by Khosla Ventures. Other investors in the company include Mission Ventures, Intel Capital, Valhalla Partners, and Windward Ventures.
As of this writing, there is no information about the closure on the Nirvanix corporate website. However, numerous media and analyst reports say the company has been informing its customers and partners of its impending doom. The company is also reportedly telling its customers and partners that they can no longer replicate their storage or upload any more data to the Nirvanix cloud (probably a good call, all points considered).
Initial reports indicated that customers would have until Sept. 30 to retrieve their data from the cloud service. However, that deadline may have been extended to Oct. 15, giving customers an extra two-week reprieve. But with petabytes of data being hosted for a large number of geographically spread-out companies, the transfer and retrieval of that data will more than likely prove challenging — and that’s assuming everyone will be able to get their complete set of data.