Who is ExaGrid?

ExaGrid is the best disaster recovery and disk backup software you’ve never seen.

ExaGrid systems sole product, ExaGrid is a revolutionary data Deduplication software that is lifting the burden of DR plans and backup solutions off the weary shoulders of IT directors all around.

In a nutshell, ExaGrid sits behind existing backup plans and instead of backing up every piece of information every day, ExaGrid only stores unique data, making small footprints on the disk, and effectively reducing prices. Deduplication is a commodity that enables you to use disk instead of tape, and makes data back-up more efficient. In addition to providing this service, ExaGrid provides back-up on disks at the cost of a back-up on tape that is easy to manage, install, and support.

ExaGrid provides companies with a short backup window that allows them to spend minimal time away from production. ExaGrid also gives companies reliable backups and lightening quick system restores. With overall company data growing thirty percent a year, back-up and disaster recovery plans cannot continue to be ignored. Without these two plans properly implemented, years of data can be lost in the event of a catastrophic technological failure; this would not if ExaGrid is on the job

ExaGrid allows writes data strait to disk at its fastest possible speed. Once this is completed, the Deduplication is done, minimizing down time and maximizing company efficiency.

To learn more about this exciting technology, check out www.exagrid.com. If you are interested in implementing ExaGrid solutions, contact me at jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com

Joe Carretta

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Big News on the Search Front

Let me begin this blog by saying that it is not my intent to mention Microsoft in every blog. This blog was created in order to keep a tab on the latest and greatest on the technology front.

Having stated this, I now present to you (surprisingly) Microsoft, in the headlines again today after penning a monster deal with the lesser known player in the search party game, Yahoo.

Front page on the NY Times website this morning was the headline announcing the Microsoft-Yahoo pact. The agreement differs from last year’s deal, where Microsoft bid $47.5 million to buy Yahoo. That hostile offer was ultimately rejected by Yahoo, and its collapse and the uncertain aftermath for the Web company led to a management change and the replacement of its co-founder Jerry Yang by Carol Bartz, an outsider who is now Yahoo’s chief executive the Times article said.

Under the pact, Microsoft will provide the underlying search technology on Yahoo’s popular Web sites. The deal provides a lift for Microsoft’s recent overhaul of its search engine, renamed Bing, which has won praise and favorable reviews, after years of falling further and further behind Google with updates to Windows Live, and Windows 7.

For Yahoo, the move furthers the strategy under Ms. Bartz to focus the company on its strengths as a producer of Web media sites, from finance to sports, as a marketer and a leader in on-line display advertising that accompanies published Web sites. The terms of the 10-year agreement call for Microsoft to license Yahoo’s search technologies, and Yahoo will initially receive a lucrative 88 percent of search-generated ad revenue.

Aside from the interior logistics of the deal, the merge is setting the stage for a showdown between megalith Google, who currently controls over 80% of the search engine market, and Microsoft/Yahoo who now co-own the remaining share.

The deal gives Microsoft a chance to show off its new search engine prodigy child Bing. Despite good reviews and a genius marketing, Bing has not attracted many big time advertisers simply because Google dominates the majority of the search engine traffic. By tripling its usage through the alliance with Yahoo, Microsoft has a better shot at luring more advertisers, which, in turn, helps the company increase the revenue it earns from searches.

As with most Microsoft initiatives, this one can only be analyzed in time. Taking on Google is like trying to build a snow man in Mexico, but Microsoft’s newfound drive to conquer every market they can makes me think back to an adage coined (after translation) by Kevin Garnett after winning an NBA championship, “Anything is Possible”.

Go get em’ Microhoo

Joe Carretta

Microsoft at IT Again

One cannot argue with the fact that this summer has belonged to one brand; Microsoft.

With the releases of BING, HyperV (Microsoft’s virtualization software, all of which can be read about here), and a revamped ad campaign against Apple (The controversial “PC hunters” spot which caused backlash from apple execs).

Microsoft has kept itself in the news, and on the hunt for new business opportunities. With Gates stepping down supposedly by the end of the summer, Microsoft seems to be attempting to brand itself as “in” and shedding the glasses and plaid sports jacket image embodied by Mr. Gates.

Microsoft’s latest venture involves following the way of apple and opening a chain of retail stores, with execs saying spots adjacent to their competitors will not be shied away from.

This article on channelregister.uk said Microsoft is keen to push its Surface and Windows 7 technologies, as well as other pushes from this summer by featuring them both prominently in the proposed store plans.

Microsoft has also tagged onto Apple’s Genius Bar concept, though the jury appears to still be out on what moniker to use. Answer Bar, Guru Bar and Windows Bar all feature in the Apple presentation.

In February Microsoft hired Wal-Mart veteran David Porter to head up its retail push. According to, CNET Microsoft will tentatively dip its toe into the feet-on-street market by opening up several stores, some of which will be on Apple’s doorstep, later this year.

The move bodes well for Microsoft, but I am remaining skeptical. Whereas Apple has fun hands on gadgets like the iPhone, the iPod, and serves customers in an amazing technologically savvy store with a “Genies Bar”, Microsoft offers more mundane products. For some reason I just cant see people getting excited to go into the Microsoft store and play with the new features on MS Word, or see how great some new Microsoft software is. Not only will they not understand the complexities of the upgrades, but they will not attain the same thrill from playing with overpriced little white boxes that do everything but brush your teeth and make you breakfast (an iPhone was being referred to there).

Being a proud PC user, I would love to see Microsoft succeed here, and they very well could since they do have some exciting new products, and are (I think) successfully appealing themselves to younger generations such as my own.

Only the future will tell how Microsoft does; my prediction is not quite as popular as the Apple store, but a big step in the right direction for the evolving computer giant.

Joe Carretta

VM Ware Conference at the Javits

Yesterday, I was able to attend the VMware conference at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The event brought affiliate vendors such as Compellent, together with prospective and current clients. The event provided a showcase for VMware’s latest application, VSphere, as well as VMware’s entire line-up of virtualization and cloud computing software.

VMware vSphere is the market leading virtualization solution that allows you to turn your infrastructure into an efficient and flexible internal cloud, enabling users to decrease capital and operating costs, run a greener datacenter and reduce your energy costs, control your application services levels with advanced availability and security features and streamline IT operations and improve flexibility.

VMware manufacturers have developed virtualization applications that are amazingly easy for the end user to navigate and operate. The user experience can be readily customized and businesses can save on the costs of training employees – VMware can be used immediately without the need to teach employees on how to use the application. In the end, the Virtual Desktop application is specifically designed to increase the capabilities of existing computers with little to no interruption in a business’s work flow and productivity.

On the cloud computing front, VMware is able to transform your IT infrastructure into a private cloud—a pool of virtualized resources within a data center, or internal cloud, federated on-demand to external clouds—delivering IT infrastructure as an easily accessible service. This cloud model enables IT to best align the service level agreement and the infrastructure to the needs of the business and the applications. This gives IT the cost savings seen from external clouds, with the security, compatibility and control needed for the enterprise.

VMware shows immediate return on investment, and is a perfect fit for any company who is tired of being bogged down with constant IT problems. VMware solutions allow your company to stay productive round the clock, and always be ready to close when opportunity calls.

For more information on VMware, see our website, or contact me at jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com

Microsoft Putting the Pressure on VM Ware

On Monday, Microsoft made a surprising move by submitting a driver source code for inclusion in the Linux kernel under a GPLv2 license, networkworld.com reported. Microsoft said the move will foster more open source on Windows and help the vendor offer a consistent set of virtualization, management and administrative tools to support mixed virtualized infrastructure.

According to an ITnews.com article reported By allowing greater ability to run Linux on the Hyper-V virtualization platform, Microsoft is making a compelling case that it could be the virtualization vendor of choice for consolidation of Windows and Linux applications, says Gartner analyst George Weiss.

The move is a direct shot at VMware, the market leader in virtualization. Virtualization can dramatically improve the efficiency and availability of resources and applications in your organization by removing the old “one server, one application” model and placing it all on an automated datacenter, built on a VMware virtualization platform. lets you respond to market dynamics faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Microsoft's big Linux push Monday involved the submission of driver source code for inclusion in the Linux Kernel, which will provide the hooks for any distribution of Linux to run on Windows Server 2008 and its Hyper-V hypervisor technology. Hyper-V's support of Linux-based guest operating systems was previously limited to several versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Microsoft provided integration components and technical support to customers who wanted to run SUSE Linux.

With another major move, Microsoft is continuing its full frontal assault on… everyone. Between Windows Vista, the PC Hunter Ad’s (which caused backlash over at Apple), BING (read our previous blog posting to get your BING game up), and now a move into the virtualization market in an attempt to overtake VMware with Hyper-V.

While VMware still has the superior product, they cannot lay back and watch the Microsoft machine to step on their toes. As any growing technology company, VMware cannot be satisfied with their current market stronghold. They must evolve along with the industry, and offer new and innovative services at competitive prices before they are pushed out the door by hungry competitors gunning for a slice of the virtualization pie.

To learn more about virtualization, and why your company should be running on virtualized servers, check out The TNS information page further detailing the countless benefits offered by virtualization.

Away Wii Go?

Nintendo Wii has revolutionized the video game industry. By taking a once passive experience and thrusting the player into the game not only mentally but physically, Wii has opened a whole new demographic to market their product.

For those of you unaware, Wii is all about motion. Instead of hitting x and watching your player hit a home run, you actually have to wave the remote around like a bat and hit it out yourself. Great game for little kids right? Wrong.

Wii has brought about Wii fitness, attracting middle aged moms not too keen on exercise, and decided not to stoop that ball of Wii remotes and wires from rolling. Nintendo now has guitars, steering wheels, microphones, guns, ax’s, and classical instruments and just came out with a car light that allow you to play Wii on the go; now that is a scary thought

Nintendo has lost control of the runaway Wii train. With gadgets ranging from upsurd to just plain dangerous, Wii has taken a great idea (bringing youth off the couch but not away from their product) and placed anyone within striking distance of a Wii and an excited youth (or adult) is danger. Below is an excerpt from a list compiled by Tracy John over at wired.com (check them out for the item images) with some signs of a Nintendo led apocalypse.

1) Wii-Bowl

2) Wii Boxing Gloves

3) Wii Dual Glow light Sabers

4) Classical Instrument Set

5) Wii 8 in 1 Action weapons Bundle

6) Wii Car Light

Check out the article here, complete with images and some non-Nintendo products sure to bring chaos to a living room near you.

Joe Carretta

Lets Get Virtual

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this blog entry, I have complied information from the website of a TNS affiliate, VMware. In order to understand why virtualization is such a hot topic today, you first must understand exactly what it is, how it’s done, and why it is so hot right now like Derek Zoolander

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people compute. Today’s powerful x86 computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system and a single application. This leaves most machines vastly underutilized. Virtualization lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine, sharing the resources of that single computer across multiple environments. Different virtual machines can run different operating systems and multiple applications on the same physical computer. While others are leaping aboard the virtualization bandwagon now, VMware is the market leader in virtualization. Our technology is production-proven, used by more than 130,000 customers, including 100% of the Fortune 100. The VMware virtualization platform is built on a business-ready architecture. VMware virtualization works by inserting a thin layer of software directly on the computer hardware or on a host operating system. This contains a virtual machine monitor or “hypervisor” that allocates hardware resources dynamically and transparently. Multiple operating systems run concurrently on a single physical computer and share hardware resources with each other. By encapsulating an entire machine, including CPU, memory, operating system, and network devices, a virtual machine is completely compatible with all standard x86 operating systems, applications, and device drivers. You can safely run several operating systems and applications at the same time on a single computer, with each having access to the resources it needs when it

This is why virtualization is picking up speed. It not only presents immediate ROI for company executives by recouping energy costs, but allows information to flow more efficiently and be accessed whenever an employee needs it. Instead of running all applications on individual servers and crossing figures that one doesn’t crash, a virtualized server can run multiple applications and eliminates worry for IT managers.

A recent NY Times article discussed PrimaCloud, a cloud computing and storage product that offers a service-level agreement that it claims delivers 99.99 reliability (that means it can go down 53 minutes each year). The article reported that PrimaCloud said it will save $1 million by virtualizing its network and will spend 50 percent less to deliver its high reliability cloud. The company has installed boxes from Xsigo Systems that sit between the servers and switches and create a cloud through which the network traffic from the virtual machines loaded on the servers is routed. The network can handle traffic destined for other servers or for the storage network without requiring separate cables.

Virtualization is one of the many services offenders by The TNS Group. A full section of our website is devoted to virtualization. If seeing immediate return on investment, lowering energy costs, and allowing your business to run like the well oiled machine it is sound intriguing to you; check out our website and learn more about virtualizing your business. You will not be let down.

Joe Carretta