There has been a popular and persistent ask from customers to do more with the data that moves to the cloud via StorSimple. For example, use an Azure service such as Azure Media Services, Azure HDInsight, or Azure Machine Learning to process this data. To date, there was no scalable way to do this. That changes today!

We are excited to announce the private preview of StorSimple Data Transformation- a managed service – that allows you to convert your data of interest from StorSimple format to Azure blobs. This in turn opens the data to the rich ecosystem of various Azure services.

Using StorSimple Data Transformation, files that you put into your StorSimple on-premises volumes will be converted to Azure blobs. Each file will reside as a blob in your storage account. Given that StorSimple is often used for storing media content, we have also provided the option of converting your files directly into media assets in your Media Services account. Now, with a few clicks, you can set up jobs that can move your data in a transparent and seamless way. You can initiate these jobs from the Azure Portal, or you can even integrate the APIs in your code (for example, web jobs or worker roles)

Here is a block diagram of how StorSimple Data Transformation enables this solution:

Our customers are planning on using this service in interesting ways:

• A call center customer uses StorSimple to store the audio recording of all calls. Using StorSimple Data Transformation, they are using Azure Media services to convert call to text, and analyze these calls for silence duration, sentiment and operator performance.
• A customer who uses StorSimple for storing video surveillance feeds plans to use this service for face recognition and redaction using Azure Media services.
• A customer who stores log files on StorSimple wants to use compute in the cloud to analyze these logs

If you are a StorSimple customer who wants to put their data to work in Azure, sign up for the preview. If you are a Media services or HDInsight customer looking to fulfil your on-premises storage needs while trying to use these solutions in Azure, enroll today!