Over the last few years Zerowait’s growth has been fueled by the recommendations and referrals of our customers. This week I was talking to a customer who first contacted us many years ago based on a referral. Like so many network and storage managers he is trying to solve a series of storage infrastructure problems that have accumulated over time due to network and software changes. Each budget cycle he has to choose which service and support packages he can afford within his operations budget, and which items will have to forego support. Some items will be replaced with capital budget items, but those are getting harder to justify and the procurement cycles seem to be getting longer. As everyone in the business understands, providing high availability is difficult under a restricted budget.
Zerowait’s affordable service and support for his NetApp equipment helps stretch his budget to keep other parts of his critical infrastructure under maintenance contracts, but some of the support contract pricing provided by the OEM’s is truly outrageous. His current problem is that they depend on a tape library which was built by an OEM that was purchased by a bigger company, which was then purchased by an even bigger company, and now support pricing has gone through the roof. The latest support quote for his library is more than the original purchase price! Archiving is a requirement, but there is no way to fit that quote into the department’s budget. I suggested that he consider a SimplStor solution to replace the tape library.
SimplStor solves his current tape library support cost problems, and he understands that using open source software means he won’t get locked into the proprietary software support cost spiral that he is constantly fighting with his other storage vendors. We are solving his tape library support problem today, and eliminating a costly software support contract from future budgets.
That’s one reason why our customers keep recommending us.
