Zerowait Corporation

Need immediate technical support? We can help!

Over the last month we have been working with a customer that had a member of their networking and Linux storage team suddenly leave their company. This left them shorthanded and without a clear path to pick up the pieces of the nationwide migration project they were working on. Our engineering team has been working with the customer for over 10 years, and offered to help them while they try to fill the position. They readily accepted our offer.

Via numerous Zoom calls with the customer’s technical team, we have been identifying and working through their storage, networking, and security issues. Our engineers are experienced technical experts in their specialties, and they work diligently to solve problems, document their work, and make certain that our customer understands how to monitor and maintain the solution when we turn over the work.

Even after the hand-off, our team remains at your service. Whether it’s answering questions or providing further guidance, we are always ready to assist. Our goal is to be there for you, especially when you are shorthanded, and to assist your new employee to come up to speed as smoothly as possible.

To provide our customers with outstanding NetApp and SimplStor hardware solutions our team is required to be experts in networking, storage and security. If you need technical help with an unexpected problem, please give us a call at +1 302-996-9408 or email us at sales@zerowait.com.

Cool, Competent, Committed!

External threats, aging infrastructures, personnel changes and limited budgets all affect your team’s ability to find a solution to an unexpected problem. Zerowait’s team will listen to your problem and tell you whether we can fix it, or not. Our engineers focus on finding you a reliable solution quickly, which sometimes takes the commitment to work an all-nighter.

Over the last few months, we have been working with a customer who had a misconfigured storage device that affected their inventory and operations systems. This customer ships out thousands of orders per day and these systems are critical to their business. Over the last couple of years, the customer experienced rapid business growth, network configuration changes, and infrastructure upgrades. Since the staff was also changing during all this, documentation was incomplete.

Our engineering team helped them create a list of the issues and interconnections between them and worked with the customer to prioritize the application of solutions. Creating the list and priorities also helped build documentation that can be referenced in future when troubleshooting. During this process we uncovered that the root cause was from legacy configurations, which were corrected. We also included reporting tools to help them avoid similar problems in the future.

Zerowait’s team is committed to providing reliable long-term solutions to our customers. We know what has worked in the past and can mine our database of solutions that we have provided from our over three decades of solving networking, infrastructure, and data storage problems to help resolve your issues.

If you are looking for an engineering services company that will solve your problems today and provide long-term reliable solutions the Zerowait team may have the talent and experience, you are looking for. Please contact us if you are looking for a reliable engineering solutions provider. Give us a call at +1 302-996-9408 or email us at sales@zerowait.com.

Can You Fix It? Yes, We Can!

When your team encounters a problem that affects your ability to store and access your critical data, there is a good chance that Zerowait has already solved a similar problem. We will listen to your situation and provide an honest, straightforward recommendation to fix the issue.

For example, last month I was in Virginia talking to a customer about networking and permissions problems that were affecting their global network, storage, and operations efficiency. Prior to my visit, our engineers and the customer had several months of conversations to uncover the root causes of the problem and help them devise a solution.

The customer experienced a rapid series of personnel changes, a departmental restructuring of architectural responsibility, and some hardware changes. While working through this, a roadblock occurred with permissions. They had a workaround, but it was not as secure as they would like.

While onsite, I reviewed a solution that our engineering team recommended, part of which entailed a few specialized appliances we could build for them over the next few months. Change does not have to be painful. Our team works hard to provide pain-free solutions that make things easier, and our customers tell us that they appreciate our approach.

Zerowait’s team has been solving network and data storage problems for over three decades. Based on our experience working with organizations like ours, we will listen to your concerns and provide you with the best options.

If you would like to meet for a conference call, in person meeting or a lunch meeting please contact us using the information below.

Zerowait Has the Answer!

As it usually does, economic history seems to be repeating itself, but is it just me, or are these inflationary changes happening faster—in internet time—than in the 1970s? Plus, the effects have rapidly gone global, and we see this clearly in business. The costs of electricity and fuel intersect with the costs of delivery of parts and inventory and the costs of running a data center or even just a few servers. Every business is affected and needs to make difficult decisions about how to cut costs, without affecting customer services and delivered quality. Inflation is like fighting a war: it requires rapid innovation in processes to adapt to changing economic battlefields. Zerowait provides the tools and talent to help you change direction quickly, if needed, to help you overcome the economic hurdles that affect your network and storage infrastructure.

It is inevitable that AI and robotics will be adopted to increase productivity and to reduce workplace accidents and risks. With the increase in automation there will be an increase in data storage and interconnectivity. The growth of AI will require more storage on site for rapid AI analysis and decision making, and necessitate better data security and encryption to protect data assets in local and remote data centers.

Our customers and friends at the NAB convention recognize that beating the war on inflation while also tackling crazy rapid technology changes will be a long and difficult effort. And they know they can depend on Zerowait to help them implement proven strategies and tactics that will provide them with the tools to win both the battles and the war. If you are looking for ways to win your battles give us a call at +1 302-996-9408 or email us at sales@zerowait.com.

Rentals go beyond swing gear for OS upgrades, however. Anytime there is a complex data migration, deploying temporary storage can help the process be more efficient and affordable. For example, a customer might be decommissioning their filer, and the controller fails prior to them moving the data to a new system. A timely, short-term rental of a similar controller can allow them to perform the move efficiently and then simply return the controller to us. Rentals range from complete NetApp systems to those for individual components: shelves, cards, and controllers. The period of rental is typically 1 month to 6 months depending on the complexity of the process and the amount of data being transferred.

Over the last 25+ years of working with NetApp equipment we have developed a set of processes and checklists to create safe plans for our customers that want to move their data. We recognize that each move is unique, and the requirements for data security and prevention of data loss are of paramount concern. For example, after a migration, we can sanitize the decommissioned drives and provide a report that provides customers with documentation of the results. We can do this at the customer’s location or in our facilities.

If you are considering moving your data to a new system, or location, and are looking for a short-term hardware rental and engineering assistance to help the move go smoothly please give us a call at +1 302-996-9408 or email us at sales@zerowait.com.

Flourishing Pear Tree

Cautionary Tale: Prune Vines Early!

If you are looking for answers to your enterprise storage problems, and you are looking for a company that has deep knowledge on implementing, managing, migrating and upgrading critical storage architectures, give us a call at +1 302-996-9408 or email us at sales@zerowait.com.

Foreflight Image: Objectionable, Near Youngstown Ohio

SURVEY SAYS…?

Customers and I have been talking lately about their struggles with their big vendors. “You can’t be fired for going with IBM!” has morphed into “Is there anyone there who cares about service?”

One non-inconsequential switch/firewall vendor, Juniper, has come under fire from CISA for not keeping up with required security patches, CVE notices, and customer updates. Customers are finding out about potential serious vulnerabilities from the news. Even if they don’t have Juniper products in their own, local infrastructures, what about their cloud providers? Seems like inquiring minds would like to know. Sadly, Juniper is not alone in not being exactly forthcoming to their customers.

As a pilot, I also follow aviation closely: Boeing Quality Control, anyone? I mean, we just completed our Annual (intensive) inspection on our RV-10 and found/fixed some small, non-critical issues with the brakes; but with Boeing, we’re talking about missing or loose bolts on their rudders, and door plugs that are not bolted on. Does anyone look?

It hit even closer to home last weekend when I was on a flight from PHL to DFW. We boarded one plane, then we were told that we would have to deplane so they could change the tire. Okay. A tire. Couldn’t take that long, you’d think. Instead, after an hour passed, we were taken to board another plane. Then, we taxied out only to be informed that there was a stuck valve, and we taxied back to the terminal. Another hour waiting at least, and finally we were on our way. I was given an extra package of 2 cookies with my coffee. Livin’ large. When I landed, my wife, who’d been tracking us on FlightAware, said, “How come the plane only went to 20,000 feet the whole way instead of the 30K plus usual flight level?” I said it could have been more favorable winds lower down, but inside I wondered if that valve was an air pressure valve and that is why we stayed lower than usual. The flight arrived safely at DFW–only about 4 hours late! The next day, when presented with a survey as to how I rated my flight, I demurred.

I did answer one survey about 6 months ago, for one of our long-time service vendors. On it, I provided examples over the previous year where their sales and service teams had misled us. About two weeks ago someone called us from their “customer satisfaction” team. He told me how concerned the company was and how they were going to address the issues I pointed out in my survey. He said someone would call me right away to discuss the issues we were having. Still nothing. I don’t expect anything. Meanwhile, I won’t recommend them any more to my friends with similar businesses.

How do these companies expect to build a long-term relationship with their customers when they can’t even provide a reliable service, keep an appointment, or provide references about their businesses? I suspect they don’t care. It’s all about today and the next sale.

I can assure you that if you call Zerowait about a problem we will respond quickly and follow up to make sure that the problem is solved. If you call us for a storage hardware solution, we will build you a solution that fits your requirements and provides long term, reliable service.

Do you need assistance with data storage? Please contact us at +1 302-996-9408 or by email at sales@zerowait.com.

Zerowait’s SimplStor® Video Vault is designed to provide the simplicity, flexibility and performance you need. With Linux/XFS or Windows Server (2019 or 2022), and robust 8GB hardware RAID with cache and battery backup, this solution offers the capacity you need at a price you can afford. Plus, our expert team has developed a list of storage managment best practices and a set of diagnostic and phone-home tools to solve many of the problems of fast-growth such as that encountered with NVR across a complex organization.

Zerowait’s SimplStor systems are known for long-term reliability and support. In the field since 2010, SimplStor systems typically have a service life of well over 5 years. If you are looking for long-term quality, service and support, Zerowait is your answer.

We look forward to working with you in 2024. Please contact us at +1 302-996-9408 or by email at sales@zerowait.com.

It looks like 2024 is going to be an interesting year,  many of our clients are looking for ways to save money on their storage  infrastructure this year.

Our current list of  transferable licensed filers is up. If you are looking to increase your storage, and want to save a bit of money you will be interested in the January 2024 list.

What does your 2024 storage infrastructure budget look like? Transferable Licensed Filers can help you meet your goals and stay within your budget.  Please give us a call or drop us an email if you want more information on these systems.

We look forward to working with you in 2024. Please contact us at +1 302-996-9408 or by email at sales@zerowait.com.

I was talking with one of our customers and he said, “This reminds me of New Coke”.

Time will tell, but it seems to us that, based on customer comments and the SimplStor storage systems we have been building in 2023, quite a few CentOS and RHEL customers aren’t happy with this change in direction.

For example, we are doing a hardware refresh for a customer with a lot of older SimplStor servers. They were on paid RHEL with XFS. The new units, though? Windows Server 2019. Other customers have had us rebuild their CENTOS Linux ZFS SimplStor servers with Windows Server 2019. That is a niche that I never expected.

What does your 2024 storage road map look like? We will help you plan the route that gets you to your destination with fewer hassles. Give us a call or drop us an email.

We look forward to working with you in 2024. Please contact us at +1 302-996-9408 or by email at sales@zerowait.com.