Author: jeromeandjames

As small and midsize businesses (SMBs) take a look at the worsening economic crisis and begin to understand how it impacts them, reality is starting to set in. A recent survey reports that nearly 80 percent of SMBs are not convinced the U.S. government’s $700 billion financial bailout will help them. Furthermore, SMBs’ purchasing power is being drastically altered, which will undoubtedly cause ripple effects throughout the economy. Case in point, the reluctance and abrupt spending halt of SMBs has impacted SAP — causing SAP’s third-quarter earnings to tank. This has already prompted SAP to implement financial help and discounts on its software that is explicitly intended for SMBs.

The statement that “data growth is continuing at an exponential rate” rarely ever conveys the exact location of the data that is growing so fast. But it just so happens that a consensus of industry analysts agree the majority of this rapidly growing pool of corporate data (up to 60 percent) now resides at remote corporate offices. While more companies now recognize that the data created and stored at remote sites is vital to their ongoing success, protecting it presents a unique set of challenges. Of these challenges, moving backup data over corporate WANs is one of greatest.

Too often one of the requirements in the enterprise data protection equation for corporate remote and branch offices (ROBOs) is “rip-and-replace.” While this approach is fine for dealing with aging hardware and software, it ignores the majority of scenarios where ROBOs have hardware or software that they can’t afford to replace but are being asked to rip out anyway in favor of OEMs’ latest solution. ROBOs are just as apt to want a “bolt-on” solution that enables adding new technology to their environment while continuing to use what’s already in place. The latter scenario is what Overland Storage’s announcement of its REO Compass is designed to provide.