Zerowait SimplStor – Affordable Disaster Prevention

Over the years I have advocated that organizations embrace a Disaster Prevention model instead of a Disaster Recovery model. Using server load balancers and some multiple MX records it is relatively easy to create a high availability web presence. Creating a high availability solution for the critical data behind the firewall is also getting easier as disk capacity and network bandwidth increase. Using legacy high availability equipment provides an easy second tier solution and based on the response of our customers, Zerowait’s SimplStor is a great tier three solution for tape replacement.

The European division of EMC has a pdf available that illustrates the issues surrounding Disaster Preparedness.

Across Europe, 49% of companies are obligated by either insurance policies or regulatory requirements to have a disaster recovery plan. However, with the right backup and disaster recovery approach, companies can achieve cost-savings from insurers. Just over a quarter of the organisations surveyed were offered reduced premiums by their insurance provider depending on their IT systems backup/disaster recovery strategy.

Unraveling tape: 40% still depend on tape
but majority are looking to replace it
The research found that businesses are spending, on average, 10% of their IT budgets on backup and recovery, and 29% of businesses do not feel they are spending enough. For backup and disaster recovery purposes, 40% of companies still rely on tape, with an average annual cost of €74,000 on transporting, storing, testing and replacing tapes. Where tape is used for disaster recovery purposes, 10% still have an employee take home a copy of the backup tapes with them.

Overall, 80% of organisations using tape are looking to move beyond it, with the top reasons cited as:

Speed of restoration 39%
Faster backups 33%
Lack of durability 26%

EMC has done a service to the industry with this report, and it highlights the costs and problems very well. If you think the costs of an EMC solution exceed your budget I hope you will consider Zerowait’s solutions. We can provide your organization an affordable alternative for your Disaster Recovery plan in Europe, Australia, or the USA.

SC11 - NetApp Transferable License specials

This week I was at the Supercomputer show in Seattle visiting with our customers and friends. I ran into people Zerowait has been doing business with all over the show floor and it was hard to walk down an aisle without bumping into someone I knew. Repeatedly, I heard about how our customers and friends were having a hard time coping with expanding storage requirements and shrinking storage budgets.

Based on the conversations I had at the show on Tuesday, I emailed back to our office and the marketing department created a special based on the transferable licensed filers that we have available, and distributed it on Wednesday. The customer response to the specials has been enthusiastic and many of our customers want expedited delivery and installation.

If you are looking for an affordable NetApp Filer with transferable licenses please call one of our international offices to discuss you exact configuration requirements and the delivery schedule you require. Whether your company is forecasting a great 2012 or looking at how to muddle through, Zerowait can help your organization get the enterprise class NetApp storage you need at a price your management can't ignore.

Three cheers for an affordable three tiers

The path to a successful storage archive solution should not start with a Root Cause Analysis. Looking back and pointing fingers is often the easiest path to take, but reviewing your storage strategy and current infrastructure may reveal a very easy and affordable data protection strategy. Archiving to tape is a great solution but it is not a 100% solution; tapes get lost, data gets corrupted and often there is an expensive time lapse between a discovery of data loss and its recovery. Keeping all of your data on tier (1) arrays is expensive and does not make sense for rarely accessed data. Thanks to our customers’ requests for an affordable end to end solution, Zerowait now has a complete storage solution for customers who love their Filers and are looking to get rid of their tape headaches.

Many of our NetApp customers would like to use NetApp equipment as their tier (2) storage, since it allows them to use the same interface and tools on their tier (1) storage, minimizing management issues, but the cost of new systems is too high to make this work. For these customers Zerowait provides readily available off-lease NetApp systems with transferable licenses to build affordable tier (2) storage solutions. Many customers locate these systems in remote back-up sites, and our customers snap mirror updates between their Tier (1) NetApp systems and off lease NetApp tier (2) systems to achieve a reliable archive strategy.

The next tier for many customers has been tape, but quite a few of our customers have decided that they are tired of the warehousing headaches and rush delivery costs of their tape archives and want to reduce their tape costs and frustrations. They are replacing all or most of their tape with Zerowait’s SimplStor for tier (3) archival storage. Using NetApp’s tools, our customers can mirror their data between NetApp filers in multiple locations and then copy the data to a SimplStor tier (3) archive using standard software tools. SimplStor costs about the same as tape, but provides instant access when there is the requirement for a quick restoration of data.

Zerowait‘s customers around the world are able to satisfy their requirements for an affordable high reliability storage strategy. Our customers have embraced a strategy of data tiering strategy using new NetApp equipment for tier (1) highly accessed data, off lease Filers for tier (2) and remote mirrors, and SimplStor for tier (3) archival storage requirements. If you have chosen NetApp for your tier (1) storage, why not use transferable licensed NetApp equipment your tier (2) storage? It is an obvious cost effective solution. Our customers in the Animation, Science and Petrochemical business helped us design SimplStor and now are our biggest customers for the product. They knew they needed a reliable tier (3) solution and they recognized that Zerowait could provide the enterprise support they required. Thanks to our customers‘ ideas Zerowait now provides high reliability hardware, service and support for all three tiers of enterprise data. Please contact us if you want to discuss how Zerowait can provide your organization outstanding Quality of Service at a reasonable price.

November Storage Clearance

Many of our customers are at the end of their budget cycle and asked us to help them get the storage they need at a price they can afford before the new year. We put together these specials to help our customers weather the economic storms. It certainly seems that whether the economy is going up or down storage demand continues to grow.

Zerowait will be attending the Super Computer Show in Seattle next week. We will be visiting with many of our Animation and Big Science customers. We hope to see you there.

Zerowait begins building a channel organization

Wilmington, DE (PRWEB) November 01, 2011

Zerowait Hires Lauren Lueders as Director of North American Channel Sales -Increasing Demand for Low Cost Archive Prompts Move into channel

"Our reseller partners need to be able to offer their customers total solutions that help solve critical business needs. Cost and support are two of the most critical components, and SimplStor delivers"

Zerowait today announced the appointment of Lauren Lueders as Director of North American Channel Sales, responsible for creating and rolling out channel sales for the SimplStor product line in the US and Canada. With extensive experience gained over the last 17 years bringing new and exciting storage products to market, Lauren last worked with Syncsort developing their South Central territory. Prior to Syncsort, Lauren worked with Pillar Data Systems, Dell, EqualLogic and Avnet in various channel sales management roles.

Mike Linett, President of Zerowait said, “We are very excited to have Lauren join our management team; her mission is to create a SimplStor channel that will provide excellent earnings for our partners and outstanding value to their customers. SimplStor’s combination of open source/off the shelf low cost storage with tier one support offers our customers tremendous value. SimplStor's growth in the marketplace has been steady and strong since we introduced the product line in 2010. To better service all of our customer requests for SimplStor Lauren will be building the SimplStor channel from the ground up with select partners offering the highest levels of integrity and customer service."

Ms. Lueders added, “Over the past two decades I have worked closely with reseller partners helping them build profitable storage practices with solid product offerings. I joined SimplStor because I saw a tremendous need for low cost archival storage solutions that still provide Tier one, world class service. In today’s economy, organizations are being forced to do so much more with so much less, and storage requirements continue to grow exponentially. Our reseller partners need to be able to offer their customers total solutions that help solve critical business needs. Cost and support are two of the most critical components, and SimplStor delivers.”

About Zerowait: Headquartered in Wilmington, Del., USA, and with offices around the world, Zerowait is the worldwide leader in independent service and support of NetApp filers. Zerowait solutions include off-lease fully licensed NetApp systems and the new Zerowait SimplStor line of single-name space archive storage. Storage administrators throughout the world rely on Zerowait to provide affordable solutions to the skyrocketing costs of data storage. http://www.zerowait.com