14 DAY TRIAL // Joyent, a Sausalito, California-based startup offering cloud-related services, has announced it sold two of its hosting services, BingoDisk and Strongspace, to ExpanDrive, a company that specializes in SFTP mounting products, saying it will now focus more on cloud services and web applications. The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
“We’re excited to announce that Joyent has sold Bingodisk and Strongspace to ExpanDrive – providers of “Ridiculously Simple Online Storage.” We’re confident that with ExpanDrive our Strongspace and Bingodisk customers will experience an increased focus and enhanced customer service, in short, they’ll be happier with the service ExpandDrive can offer. We’ve known the folks at ExpanDrive for a long time now, and we’re sure that they will provide you all with a great service,” Joyent wrote on the company blog.
The services will be taken over by ExpanDrive starting August 17 but normal operations will not be affected and the users shouldn't notice the transition in any way. Users have until September 30 to retrieve their files if they don't want to go on with the new owners. Additionally, Strongspace won't be available to new customers, except by invitation only, as the existing customers are transferred. Strongspace was launched in 2005 as an online storage solution allowing users to access their files remotely using standard protocols like SFTP, a network protocol offering a secure way to transfer data specifically designed for larger files, and rsync. The service is powered by a Solaris platform using ZFS, Solaris' open-source file system.
ExpanDrive offers SFTP mounting services for Windows and Mac allowing users to access files stored remotely using a native interface by having the file servers mounted as regular drives. However, so far, the company didn't offer any hosting solution, with the products merely providing the interface between the user's server and the operating system. With the acquisitions the company hopes to offer a full package bundling hosting with the client software.