Ask any VMware administrator what the implications are of using a non-certified storage solution in their VMware environment and they shudder to think of the consequences if they call VMware support. But identifying a unified storage solution that is also VMware Certified is more complex than small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) may expect. It is for this reason that SMEs should look to storage solutions like the RELDATA 9240i where VMware Certification is not only a given; they may even be able to add VMware Certification for other non-certified storage in their environment.

No one wants to pay more for less, yet that was exactly the situation that Delta Dental of Colorado was facing as it looked to upgrade its FC SAN to meet new application requirements. Further, new iSCSI SAN alternatives were not that much better as they had some of the same inflexibility and software licensing issues as the company’s FC SAN. It was only when Delta Dental brought in the RELDATA 9240i that it found a solution that gave it more for less.

Data migrations are viewed as problematic by almost every size organization with administrative overhead, cost, downtime and risk among the problems most commonly cited in executing on them. For mid-sized organizations, these issues are compounded as they have the same challenges as larger organizations but fewer resources with which to perform them. This is why the RELDATA 9240i, that delivers block and file data migrations on a single unified storage platform, may just be the answer that mid-sized organizations seek.

Data is the lifeblood of any organization and, in the last decade, increasing emphasis has been placed on protecting that data so organizations can recover the information that they need in the time frame they need it. Replication is now rapidly emerging as a viable form of data protection even for midsize organizations because of its lower costs, faster recovery times and the level of protection that it provides. However the process of selecting the right replication solution for the different data types that organizations need to protect is anything but an intuitive exercise.

Anyone wonder why storage virtualization is still growing relatively slowly while server virtualization platforms like VMware have gone on a tear? If so, a look at the licensing strategies that these two respective virtualization technologies have adopted provides some insight into why.

It is commonly suspected that midsize organizations have the same priorities as their enterprise counterparts especially when it comes to managing their IT infrastructures. However a study released a few months ago removed whatever doubt may have existed as it revealed that the majority of midsize businesses place a premium on improving efficiency and increasing employee productivity. So today’s announcement from RELDATA that it is releasing a private storage cloud offering that addresses those exact concerns for these size businesses could not be more appropriately timed.