The VAR Guy

Storage protection vendor FalconStor Software is providing a new level of automation for data recovery. Its latest tool, RecoverTrac, will become a standard feature of FalconStor’s Continuous Data Protector (CDP). Read on for the tech specs …

Cisco Systems is continuing to position itself deeper into the small business space with a new line of Smart Switching appliances designed to get small businesses to “Connect and Secure” their network while also giving Cisco partners the opportunity to sell into — and profit from — the small-business space. Here’s the scoop:

When we last spoke to Wanova in December 2010, the company was touting its new partner program for the Mirage virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software. Now, Mirage is getting a serious facelift with version 2.0. What comes in the new version and what can we expect for partners? Here are the details

Sponsored Blog: Wow, it’s 2011 and where has the time gone? If you’re like me, you hate to make resolutions, but this time of year does make you stop and consider. It’s not just time to take stock of our personal lives, but of our business as well, and then consider where and how to invest in 2011.

It may come as no surprise that a security company is recommending people increase their computers’ levels of protection, but a recent survey by Symantec shows that SMBs aren’t taking security seriously enough. I spoke to Bernard Laroche, senior director of SMB product marketing at Symantec about the findings.

Back in September 2010, we noted that CommVault and Dell had teamed up to build a backup-to-disk solution incorporating the technologies of both companies. Now they’re joining forces again, this time to push “intelligent” data management solutions across all of Dell’s DX Object Store and PowerVault DL platforms. Read on for the details…

F5 Networks has done much to improve the storage game for data centers through its ARX technology, which features intelligent tiering to reduce the time and costs associated with regular backups, especially for large, data-intensive companies. Now the company is extending that functionality to support cloud-based storage.

Data Robotics’ backup solution, dubbed Drobo, might not be a familiar name to some, but after you become acquainted, you certainly won’t forget the name. Drobo has some unique features that make annoying backup solutions easy to maintain. Read on about the new Drobo Pro FS, and the channel opportunities Data Robotics provides…

CommVault, the company known for their data management Simpana Software, has inked a deal with Hitachi Computer Peripherals to distribute said software into Japan. Read on for the brisk brief…

Dell and Symantec continue to build a closer working relationship. The latest example involves Dell and Symantec connecting the dots between the Dell DX Object Storage Solution and Symantec Enterprise Vault 9.0. Here are some quick details.

Last week I spoke about the Citrix app for the iPad, and briskly noted that ClubDrive was the company behind my virtualized experience. Today, I’m blogging about ClubDrive specifically. In case you didn’t know, they specialize in platform agnostic application virtuliazation and hosted IT. I got to chat with ClubDrive Executive VP Byron Attridge about what the company does and some VAR opportunities. Here’s a recap.

Isilon Systems, which specializes in scalable storage, network-attached storage, archiving solutions and storage virtualization, is making some channel partner moves. I spoke with Leonard Iventosch, the channel VP who is building Isilon’s partner program. Here’s his strategy.

Many software companies continue to evangelize data deduplication strategies. The latest example: Symantec says that new versions of the popular Backup Exec and NetBackup, both with a new focus on data deduplication, will arrive February 1. Here’s the scoop.

Amazon Web Services, proprietors of the EC2 cloud, has entered into a partnership with relatively unknown Danish firm ComArchive to provide e-mail archiving in the cloud. The alleged selling point: The solution can be installed, configured, and made ready to go in 10 minutes, ComArchive asserts. Now, for the key questions facing VARs and customers.

Lenovo claims its new Secure Managed Client (SMC) is the “PC industry’s only storage-based fleet management solution.” SMC 2.0 brings increased security and tools, and there’s a lot of them. Here’s the news boiled down and what you need to know.

Linux redefined pricing in the operating system market. Now, Zmanda hopes to apply those same open source pricing pressures in the backup market. Zmanda claims that its backup system costs one-fifth to one-tenth as much as alternatives from Symantec and EMC. But is open source backup — at any price — ready for the enterprise?