Zerowait Corporation

They all use Zerowait’s SimplStor products for their fast growing data storage requirements.  Storage is growing across all business sectors in response to regulatory requirements and the data retention policies that continue to blossom. These companies all recognize the value of our SimplStor products and  enterprise storage services.

Our customers recognize that storage can be easily tiered to help them manage their growing storage costs. Using SimplStor our customers can contain storage costs and maintain their high availability service levels that their corporations require.

SimplStor delivers.

Whether you choose Red Hat or Fedora for the O/S –  SimplStor provides reliable, well known architecture. High quality off the shelf hardware means low acquisition costs. And SimplSupport, our integrated monitoring and notification utility, means tier one support, to ensure the reliability you require, while keeping support costs in line. And this simple low cost solution still fits up to 90TB in 4U. SimplStor is the solution to the ever increasing requirements for data retention.

There was an article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about NetApp and the problems they are having in the Federal space.

“By ROLFE WINKLER

Tech investors must be hoping the sector is merely suffering a case of the debt-ceiling sniffles. Unfortunately it may have caught recessionitis.

When storage company NetApp said Wednesday that sales hit a wall in July, it was just the latest to blame the federal government, a huge buyer of tech gear, for slowing sales. Other companies that have cited a stingy Uncle Sam for slower growth include Dell, Cisco Systems, network equipment-makers Brocade Communications and Blue Coat Systems. Hewlett-Packard also cited weak public-sector spending as a reason for its poor outlook.
[Techherd]

Some think of NetApp as a canary in the proverbial coal mine since, in August 2007, the company surprised investors by warning of a broad slowdown in orders among big business customers. The recession began a few months later.

Notably, at that time NetApp said that the strongest parts of its business were with the U.S. federal government, as well as Germany and Northern Europe. But this time the public sector, never mind Europe, isn’t offering a backstop. Even if business customers have so far held to spending plans, William Blair analyst Jason Ader worries that government austerity will cause ripple effects on private investment as the economy slows.

The federal government isn’t the only one cutting back on tech spending. NetApp also said the financial services sector, another huge consumer of tech gear, was broadly weak. That is likely bad news for other tech firms for whom finance companies are key buyers.

NetApp cited the debt ceiling as a reason for the slowdown. So some might argue that because the crisis was resolved, growth will bounce back quickly. The Congressional supercommittee now tasked with deficit reduction might have something to say about that.”

NetApp’s hardware service and support prices remain high, and we think that is the main reason that more and more Federal NetApp Filers are being put under Zerowait Support.

I’ve noted in recent posts the increasing interest in as a replacement/complement for expensive tape backup systems. At only $20,000 for a base 68TB system, SimplStor makes disk to disk backup a viable alternative to tape. Using SimplStor as a nearstore device, you reduce your backup windows, reduce the number of cartridges you need since your dailies will now be on disk, and unless you need a very old copy, greatly reduce the time and effort to do a restore. Factor in the reduced cost of administration now that far less tape work is being done, and SimplStor quickly pays for itself.

Our staff is putting together a paper on the costs of tape backup, and the early numbers are pretty frightening. It can easily run more than $40,000 per year in admin and consumables to backup less than 10TB of data. Purchasing a SimplStor system vs all those tape cartridges will put money back in your budget, while reducing the complexity and time involved in properly backing up your data.

Now, thanks to our leasing partner, we can make SimplStor even more affordable. You can lease our 68TB SimplStor server for less than $10 per TB per month (SSC-36-68 server, $637.76 per month, 36 month term, $1 buy out). Make it a 250TB system and the cost drops to less than $7.50 per TB per month (1 x SSC-36-68 server, 2 x SSA 45-90 add-on shelves, 248TB, $1857.84 per month, 36 month term, $1 buy out).

As a business owner I am acutely aware of how much it costs to run a business, and that it costs more to hire employees and provide them the benefits they deserve than it used to. Since a lot of our customers are in the Financial and Medical sectors of the economy discussions on the implications of Dodd Frank and the effects of the new medical rules and mandates on the costs of doing business are increasing. I often hear that our customers are being caught between allocating budget money for productive purposes or for mandated regulatory compliance.

In 2008 the Small Business Administration published a study  on the cost of compliance with federal regulations:

http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs371tot.pdf

“The portion of regulatory costs that falls initially on businesses was $8,086 per employee in 2008. Small businesses, defined as firms employing fewer than 20 employees, bear the largest burden of federal regulations. As of 2008, small businesses face an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, which is 36 percent higher than the regulatory cost facing large firms (defined as firms with 500 or more employees).”

Note that these numbers do not include the cost to meet state, county and municipal regulations and rules.

In these sectors with ever increasing costs, everyone recognizes it’s getting harder to hire and maintain a great staff to maintain their high availability networks and storage infrastructures. We’ve heard from our customers that our low cost systems and support release budget dollars to pay staff and meet the ever increasing costs of maintaining each employee. Now, a growing number of customers are outsourcing their storage administration tasks to Zerowait, avoiding the regulatory burden and costs of hiring additional employees while continuing to provide the data access their customers require.

No matter how the global economy changes there are always going to be reasons for organizations to economize. Zerowait is focused on providing the services and products our customers need  at prices that enable them to reach their goals.

For most of this week I was visiting clients in North Carolina.  Almost all of the clients I met have an expanding storage requirement but a shrinking budget. The chill of austerity has  finally hit storage budgets.

Zerowait offers our customers several solutions that help them maintain their current storage and add additional storage even in these difficult economic times.

1)  Several of the customers I met this week  are using their R200’s, FAS3020’s and FAs3050’s for archiving and are not looking to upgrade, additionally they  can’t afford NetApp’s support contracts – which might not even be available after the end of the year fro some systems.  Zerowait’s Next Business Day hardware support contracts for NetApp Filers start at just $1500.00/yr and are a viable  alternative for customers who are happy with their 32 bit NetApp storage infrastructure.

2) Transferable licenses are a great way to get the NetApp  features you need at a price you can afford. Many clients I met with have taken advantage of Transferable Licensed Systems to get the NetApp systems and storage they need at a price that they can afford. Zerowait has a large variety of Transferable Licensed systems available, call our offices in Europe, USA, or Australia if you need an affordable NetApp storage solution  quickly.

3) Zerowait’s new SimplStor product line is quickly gaining attention from storage administrators around the world. SimplStor starts at just $20K for 68TB and easily expands to a Petabyte.

If your company is struggling with your storage requirements under a tight budget, Zerowait is the answer!

Sydney, Australia  July 25, 2011

Fuel VFX has added Zerowait’s SimplStor NAS archive to its storage architecture. Using proprietary tiering software developed in house by Fuel VFX, volumes on the 4U, 68TB unit provide nearline access for scripts and a library of film assets. In addition, the SimplStor is used to provide nearstore volumes, reducing the time of the backup window for Flame suites (now disk to disk), with the tape library now attached to the SimplStor. Dylan Penhale, Chief Technical Officer, said: “We knew SimplStor offered excellent value and density, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by its performance. Transfers have been faster than we expected, offering better performance for our users and helping to further shrink our backup windows. ”

Laurence Jones, Managing Director of Zerowait Pty, added: “Fuel VFX is the first of the Australian Digital Effects companies to install SimplStor, but based on conversations we have had with others in this community we know requirements for low cost high capacity disk archive are pressing everyone in media creation. SimplStor’s price/density ratio, with tier one support, makes it an ideal solution for these applications.” Added Mike Linett, President of Zerowait: “We began working with Fuel VFX over a year ago on their Tier One NetApp Storage. With the opening of our Sydney office, they realized we were committed to providing outstanding service in Australia, and their purchase of SimplStor shows their confidence in our ability to provide business critical support.”

SimplStor offers easily extensible NAS disk archive storage for less than the cost of tape. Combined with off lease NetApp systems, enterprise class support and offices in the US, Europe and Australia, Zerowait offers customers worldwide the cost saving solutions they need to meet today’s shrinking IT budgets.

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

About Fuel VFX
Fuel was founded in 2000 with a vision to create a creatively-driven, innovative visual effects studio that could inspire both clients and crew. Fuel offers full-service visual effects, CG animation, design and post-production services, including a unique and dedicated colour-grading suite. Fuel also boasts a senior, international technical team to help solve complex sequences. Feature film credits include COWBOYS & ALIENS, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, THOR, IRON MAN 2, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, THE SPIRIT, THE TREE and AUSTRALIA. Commercial clients include agencies M&C Saatchi, Publicis Mojo, DDB, Clemenger BBDO and Production Companies Good Oil, Plaza, Photoplay, 8 Commercials and The Feds. Following Fuel’s work on THE SPIRIT, the company has continued its work with the legendary Frank Miller on commercials for Gucci fragrances via RSA London. Other credits include commercials for clients such as Toyota, Heineken, Johnson & Johnson, Sony, McDonald’s, BMW, Nissan, Wrigley’s, Canon and Visa. http://www.fuelvfx.com

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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8644036.htm

I was in Illinois last week visiting with several of our customers and while in Chicago I was parked next to the new Marilyn Monroe Statue.   There certainly were a lot of admirers of the statue.

We do a lot of NetApp support business in and around Chicago,  and I got to  visit with a lot of customers in just a few days.  Many of our customers are looking for alternatives to NetApp because they don’t have the budgets   anymore to afford the upgrade path that NetApp’s sales folks are suggesting to them.

With budgets tight, many customers don’t want to upgrade to NetApp’s 64 bit storage solutions but want to maintain their 32 bit storage.  Their storage equipment is highly reliable and with Zerowait’s support it remains much more affordable to maintain their legacy NetApp systems than to upgrade and replace them.

I also had several good meetings with customers about our SimplStor storage products. I heard the same type of issues that I heard in Boston a couple of weeks ago about the costs of keeping LTO tape libraries running. Several of the customers I talked to like our SimplStor solutions and think it is the right answer for the times.

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.

I was visiting customers in the New York and Boston areas last week and we were discussing their plans for their storage infrastructure in 2012.  We discussed the usual complaints about the high cost of proprietary hardware and software used to manage and maintain their growing storage requirements. But I also heard a lot about  and the high cost of tape and archive tape storage.

When visiting with customers it is pretty common to hear complements about  how Zerowait’s independent NetApp  service and support perfectly fill in the gaps that NetApp leaves with their legacy support policies.  NetApp is focused on building and selling new products, and Zerowait concentrates on supporting legacy NetApp equipment. Our business has grown internationally by concentrating on providing storage value into this High Availability niche market.

Last week a majority of the customers that I saw mentioned that they were considering our SimplStor as a complementary storage archive to their LTO tape investments. As I listened to our customers I heard a common theme that Iron Mountain was charging a lot for tape storage.  It seems that the point may have been reached where tape storage cost and the SimplStor starting price of $20K for 68TB  makes SimplStor as a  disk archive a complementary solution to archiving tape. According to one customer I met their ROI for using our SimplStor as a tape replacement was less than 6 months due to the prices of tape library maintenance, cost of tape, and  the cost of remote tape storage.

As the overall economy remains in the doldrums many of our customers are looking for affordable alternatives for their secondary and tertiary storage requirements.  And it looks like Zerowait has the right solutions for a growing community of enterprise storage users.

We are getting ready for the SEG show in September in San Antonio. Last year’s show was really great and we met a lot of our customers there and also learned a lot about the  Oil and Gas business.

The Oil and Gas sector of our business has been growing steadily over the years, and  it was one of the many reasons that we opened our office in Texas.  Folks in the Oil and Gas business need affordable storage, and often in very large amounts, which is why they like our affordable support options for their NetApp legacy equipment.  Our SimplStor archival product is  also doing well in this sector.

If  you are making plans to go to the SEG show and are in the data storage business, I hope you will stop by to visit our booth.  We will be introducing some new products there!