As companies increasingly turn to virtualization for their computing needs, the transition is also spurring innovation in data storage solutions. While there is a lot of buzz around flash memory, there are still many improvements being made around traditional disk-based data storage that add value when cost matters more than performance.

“People are frustrated with a lot of the the legacy approaches, whether it’s on the backup software side or the backup storage side. … I see more activity of customers looking for alternatives to what their running today than in all of history,” said Marc Crespi, vice president of sales and engineering at ExaGrid Systems Inc., a disk-based backup hardware company. 

Crespi spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at this year’s VeeamOn event in New Orleans, Louisiana. (* Disclosure below)

Legacy backup woes

One of the problems with the legacy way of procuring data storage solutions is the antiquated approach of product end-of-life in which vendors force customers to upgrade to the latest solution, Crespi explained.

“You’re re-buying your backup solution just to tread water before you even think about expansion, so we said that problem needs to be eliminated entirely,” Crespi said. “We show them that you can start with the footprint you need and then expand infinitely. We never make you re-buy what you already own.”

Another issue with older tape-based data solutions, as well backwards-compatible solutions, is that they lack support for the latest software stacks on top of them.

“When you make disk backup look like tape, you lock yourself into the Fred Flintstone era of backup. You can’t take advantage of any of the advanced features in that software,” Crespi stated. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VeeamOn 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VeeamOn 2017. Neither Veeam Software Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE