EMC closes cloud storage offering

EMC reins in its own cloud storage offer

Storage giant EMC has said it will suspend support for use of its Atmos Online cloud storage offering.

The announcement, released as an "*Important Service Notice*" and made via an EMC Cloud Infrastructure Services Team blog post, is effectively warning users to migrate their data now.

Industry experts say that in offering Atmos, EMC had been competing with its partners, which are also offering the service.

EMC originally offered Atmos to partners in late 2008, and launched Atmos Online in May 2009.

"Atmos Online will remain available strictly as a development environment to foster adoption of Atmos technology and Atmos cloud services," the blog said.

"However, EMC will no longer be offering paid subscription or support for Atmos Online services. In addition, we will no longer provide any service level agreement (SLA) or other availability commitment."

EMC is directing customers towards partners offering Atmos-based services, publishing an updated list for firms wishing to continue using Atmos.

The link refers explicitly to three partners – AT&T, Hosted Solutions and Peer 1 Hosting. These companies call their offerings Synaptic Storage as a Service, Stratus Cloud Storage and CloudOne Storage, respectively.

"We strongly encourage you to migrate any critical data or production workloads currently served via Atmos Online to one of our partners offering Atmos-based services," the blog post said.

Finally, the blog post offers an email for customers to contact EMC about concerns, or for advice on migration strategies.