WebProNews

Storage demands of modern rich media content drove Nirvanix to create a system that can handle those files, and web applications, better. All it took was the magic question to send Nirvanix CEO Patrick Harr into the explanation we needed: why Nirvanix instead of Amazon's S3?

He had several points of difference ready to roll in discussing Nirvanix, which touts itself as "Internet storage made easy." Unlike the S3 bucket o'storage, Nirvanix supports a true filesystem, and all the usual calls like move and copy one would expect.

User account management for parent/child accounts has been supported. On S3, developers have to build logic on top of the storage system to do these tasks.

Harr said the 256GB storage Nirvanix offers means big media files don't have to be broken up and restitched together. Also, through API calls, developers can provide transcoding of media files.

This way, a piece of content suited for television can be converted on the fly to a format more suited for someone visiting with a mobile phone browser.

Image manipulation services can be performed on photos stored on Nirvanix, like rotation and resizing. Users of the service can do HTTP posts to place images there, which should make it easier for developers to create applications offering that functionality.

Harr also extolled the service level agreement, including 99.9999 percent of uptime and better support. He believes these features, and a dedicated focus on media storage, gives Nirvanix the edge against S3.