LONG ISLANDER NAMED "CHANNEL CHIEF"

Melville-based FalconStor's VP of Sales earns top honors from Everything Channel

(Long Island, N.Y.) FalconStor's vice president of North American sales was named a 2010 Channel Chief by the Everything Channel's CRN. As a leader in creative effective channel programs for IT solution providers, Petty and FalconStor helps companies nationwide protect their data and server infrastructures.

Some of FalconStor's clients in the New York area include Grey Healthcare Group, one of the world's top five healthcare communications companies and Maxim Group, LLC. Maxim Group is a full-service financial institution headquartered in New York, with their DR data center based on Long Island.

We congratulate fellow Long Islander Wendy Petty on the Channel Chief award, and would like to use the opportunity to explore secure data storage solutions for small to medium size businesses (SMB). FalconStor's Vice President of Enterprise Solutions Chris Poelker took a few minutes to answer our questions about data security and storage. “There are new, innovative products available for small businesses to save money over traditional approaches [to data storage], while providing much more stringent service levels for disaster recovery,” Poelker says.

Local Disasters Put Our Minds on Data Recover

Although reports say many companies are cutting costs on technology in these challenging times, businesses of every size should continue investing in secure data storage. The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, along with school fires closer to home in Riverhead and West Babylon, may open SMB owners' eyes on its importance.

Poelker noted that 9/11 had a large impact on DR awareness, but technology has changed a lot and solutions have become even more affordable since 2001. For business owners who started thinking about data recovery after the terrorist attacks, it may be time to revisit DR solutions. And, as this economy has created an influx of entrepreneurs and new business owners, it's never too soon for start-ups to think about data recovery. “Many NY-based small business owners are still spinning the wheel and hoping their number does not come up,” Poelker says. “I'm sure if you took a survey, most are still using traditional methods such as offsite tape shipping, which may not help if a real DR issue arises.”

Data Storage “in the Cloud”

Poelker wants Long Island business owners to know: “The ability to provide security is a must, but you don't need to break the bank or hire expensive consultants in order to get it done.”

He cites inexpensive off-the-shelf solutions for small business owners, such as, small, appliance-based virtual tape libraries which can encrypt backup data, including existing physical tapes. Poelker explains: “Instead of shipping unsecure tapes offsite for storage, you can simply replicate encrypted data to a cloud service provider.” He urges business owners to keep it simple.

Storing data “in the cloud” (that is, on the Internet), through Software-as-a-Service providers, keeps costs low for SMBs and permits access from anywhere in the world through secure channels. FalconStor offers storage virtualization as one of its services, which is a key aspect that enables data to be placed anywhere securely. “[This aspect of our business] enables our SaaS and cloud solution partners to provide extremely cost-effective solutions for internal or external data services on a cost-per-gigabyte basis,” Poelker says.

Need to Learn More about Data Recovery?

It's important to note that FalconStor does not offer data storage and recovery solutions to end users, but, instead, partners with top OEM providers such as Sun/Oracle, IBM, EMC, Pillar Data, HDS, 3PAR, Xiotech and Nexsan. “FalconStor partners with industry leaders such as MicroSoft, Oracle, Symantec and VMware in order to assure data is always provisioned and protected as efficiently as possible to enable small business to have peace of mind and save money,” Poelker says.

Poelker, who is passionate about the topic of data storage, security and recovery, will talk more about these important, but often neglected, aspects of running a business on this Wednesday's BlogTalk Radio show Technical Tidbits with Debbie Mahler. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/technicaltidbits

What are you doing to protect your important company data in the event of a local or national disaster?

Dawn Allcot

March 02, 2010 12:40 AM Eastern

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