Falconstor is a maker of backup and recovery solutions that wants to transform the way enterprises handle their data, as chief executive Jim McNeil explains during a recent interview with Wikibon’s Dave Vellante (see the full interview below).

In the last couple of years FalconStor has done a bit of recovery of its own. Founder and former CEO Reijane Huai got involved in a haunting investigation, which keeps rearing its head, even in the company’s most recent earnings report. But McNeil is anxious to move on, a goal he says will soon be realized, and Falcon’s fiscal performance indicates he has been making positive headway.  In 2011 the backup appliance maker beat Wall Street expectations, and is now sitting on a solid $30 million with no debt, according to its CEO.

More interesting, however, is what FalconStor and its management has in mind from a longer-term, competitive stand point. The company used to generate 50 percent of its revenue from OEM contracts with other vendors, and now this percentage is steadily shrinking as it’s striving towards a branded model. And the premise behind that is fairly unique.

McNeil’s point of view on data centers is that they simply cannot operate for a long duration without sufficient upgrades. And it’s up to hardware vendors to provide the tools needed for that operation, including the means to avoid shutting down a company’s IT infrastructure.  FalconStor is offering the technology to migrate data without shutting down the apps, and is bringing this concept to the next stage using existing industry knowledge and expertise.