In the past, organizations sometimes measured a technology’s value by its physical size. Thank God that ship has sailed. Perhaps no new product better illustrates the need to forever abandon that metric than the newly announced StorageCraft OneXafe Solo. Otherwise StorageCraft may have needed a refrigerator box to fully communicate the value that its new OneXafe Solo delivers.
Million Dollar Refrigerator Boxes
My first exposure to organizations measuring a technology’s value by its physical goes back 20 years. At that time, enterprises could spend upwards of a million dollars on a storage array containing 1TB of storage. As the story goes, executives would want to see what that got for their $1M spend.
When they then walked onto the data center floor to look at it, they were shocked. They would see a rack with only two servers and some disk drives in it. Apparently, this visual left them feeling like they had been sold a bill of goods.
To the vendor’s credit, and if this story holds true, it recognized this customer sentiment. To rectify it, the provider began packaging the same amount of hardware in much larger, refrigerator-size boxes. This technique resulted in its customers believing they got a good value for the money spent.
A Sweet Value
Thankfully, times have changed. Otherwise, providers like StorageCraft might still need a refrigerator box to visually communicate the value of its OneXafe Solo.
Even if one only measures the value of the OneXafe Solo by its current physical size, it represents a good value. The Solo’s approximate 4.5” X 4.5″ X 2” physical dimensions compare favorable to a gift size candy box. The candy box comparisons end here.
Unlike a box of candy, an organization can initially obtain the Solo at no charge. Targeted as small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and remote offices, these organizations may only appreciate OneXafe Solo’s value after deployment. Consider:
1. Includes the full StorageCraft ShadowXafe data protection suite of software. ShadowXafe includes all the data protection features these organizations need to protect and recover their data. DCIG ranked StorageCraft as a Top 5 provider of all-in-one disaster-recovery-as-a-service (AIO DRaaS) solutions. Using the OneXafe Solo gives these organizations access to these types of capabilities.
2. Centralized, cloud-based management interface. This feature represents perhaps the coolest and most intriguing feature of the OneXafe Solo. Many products targeted at SMBs typically use an appliance-based management interface. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, it is impractical to deploy and manage dozens, hundreds, or thousands of appliances using it.
The StorageCraft OneSystem addresses those concerns. Based in the StorageCraft cloud, anytime an office installs and connects a Solo to its network, the Solo immediately alerts OneSystem to its presence.
OneSystem then, in turn, notifies a StorageCraft value added reseller (VAR) or managed service provider (MSP) that it is installed. They take it from there. They remotely configure the OneXafe Solo to perform backups and handle all its ongoing management. This alleviates the need of SMBs or remote offices to manage Solos. It simultaneously makes it practical for VARs or MSPs to manage SMB backups as part of their business.
3. No upfront charges. Organizations do not have to make any up-front payment to deploy the OneXafe Solo. Organizations only need to install it, connect it to their network, and provide it with internet access. Only after it is connected and configured for service do monthly charges accrues. Since StorageCraft works exclusively through VARs and MSPs, the Solo charge would come to the organization from one of these providers.
Small Footprint, Enterprise Value
The StorageCraft OneXafe Solo represents a solution whose small physical footprint in no way fully represents the enterprise value it delivers. SMBs and remote offices, and the providers who support these organizations, need:
- Fast and easy hardware setup
- Robust data protection and disaster recovery capabilities
- Low or no upfront costs
- Simple, centralized ongoing software management
The StorageCraft OneXafe Solo hits on all these data points. The OneXafe Solo provides the key features that SMBs and remote offices need to implement data protection and DR in their environments. Simultaneously, the Solo equips VARs and MSPs with the tools and features that they need to confidently and effectively support the Solo after deployment. In so doing, the OneXafe Solo provides immense value for taking up no more space than a box of candy.