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Ceph, which began as the pet project of Dreamhost co-founder Sage Weil, provides block-, object- and POSIX-based storage as part of a single package. Inktank president and COO Bryan Bogensberger says that, despite what's seen as powerful functionality, many companies may have passed on using Ceph because of a lack of professional services and support.

"People were trying to do big things with Ceph, without any more than a couple of guys to go to on a mailing list," Bogensberger says.

Inktank will pursue several development channels beyond end-user services, Bogensberger adds, saying also that the company is close to a deal with a "massive" OEM for the resale of Inktank services. Another potential OEM partnership could see the creation of a dedicated Ceph appliance, he says.

Ceph's inclusion in Ubuntu's new long-term service release, according to Bogensberger, is another factor that could drive user base growth for the storage system.