WD Expands Its SMB Storage Product Portfolio With Arkeia Software Solutions

WD, a Western Digital company, announced an expansion of its product portfolio addressing small- and medium-sized businesses with the addition of network backup software and appliances from Arkeia Software, Inc., a privately held data protection company based in Carlsbad, Calif., recently acquired by WD. WD also announced that the Arkeia Network Backup version 10.0 software, for which a release candidate was delivered in Dec. 2012, becomes generally available (http://www.arkeia.com/new-in-v100) today.

“Arkeia’s products expand WD’s growing product portfolio of solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s Branded and CE products. “SMB organizations are managing ever-growing volumes of critical business data, which need to be stored, shared and secured. Our easy-to-manage small storage server, WD Sentinel™ DX4000, provides backup and storage centralization capabilities for small businesses and workgroups, while Arkeia’s network backup software provides a more feature-rich data-protection solution for larger SMB customers.”

Arkeia’s software, appliances and virtual appliances back up data to disk, tape and cloud storage. The company’s patented Progressive Deduplication™ technology speeds hybrid-cloud backup by reducing the bandwidth necessary to replicate backup sets over wide area networks. Arkeia sells its products worldwide through resellers and managed service providers.

    

The acquisition was completed through a merger transaction, encompassing all of the employees, technology and products of Arkeia. Arkeia will be integrated into WD’s Branded Products SMB unit and the products initially will retain the Arkeia name. WD will support all Arkeia customers on current maintenance and plans to retain both Arkeia’s software and appliance product lines. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Joining WD gives the Arkeia team a great opportunity to accelerate adoption of Arkeia’s innovative technologies and products,” said Bill Evans, senior director of worldwide software marketing at WD and former CEO of Arkeia Software. “The Arkeia team is delighted to be a part of WD. WD has chosen an ideal moment to invest in this critical product category as backup-to-disk solutions accelerate their displacement of backup-to-tape. WD’s financial strength, engineering excellence and organizational discipline will take Arkeia’s products and customers to the next level.”

Arkeia Network Backup v10.0 General Availability

Arkeia Network Backup v10.0 enables hybrid cloud backups by allowing administrators to combine physical media and Internet transport to replicate backup sets to or from remote cloud storage. Leveraging Arkeia’s advanced Progressive Deduplication technology; Arkeia Network Backup v10.0 permits SMB organizations to protect large data volumes in the cloud without incurring high monthly bandwidth charges. By allowing large backup sets to be moved on physical media and small backup sets to be sent over the wire, Arkeia makes it practical to replicate backup sets from a LAN to remote cloud storage for an inexpensive, tape-free alternative to off-site backup and recovery. More information can be found at: www.wd.com and www.arkeia.com.

Epson Philippines Invites You To "Think Smart"

Epson Philippines Corporation (EPC) is inviting the public to “think smart” and share their ingenious tips for a chance to win exciting prizes.

Epson recently launched the Think: TANK! contest through its Facebook page (facebook.com/EpsonPhilippines). The contest invites Epson Facebook followers to submit Think: TANK! tips that focus on how to do things faster, easier, more efficient, or in a more practical way.

“Since Epson is all about providing energy-saving, high precision technologies through products that exceed the expectations of our customers, we wanted a fun and interesting contest that reflects the Epson way of thinking: smart, efficient, and always seeking improvement,” says Donna V. Ferro, Epson GM for Marketing Communications and PR.

The public can visit Epson Philippines’ Facebook page and download the templates provided in order to join the contest.  Each week, the person who submits the best Think: TANK! tip will win an Epson L110 ink tank system printer.  At the end of the contest, the best tip among the five weekly winners will win an iPad Mini (32GB, wi-fi).

“We believe Filipinos are especially talented in finding ways how to make things easier, faster, or more economical – we’re street smart. And since this is a contest on a social media platform, the popularity of the tip – most likes or most shares – would also be part of the criteria,” added Ferro.

The title of the contest alludes to Epson’s current flagship inkjet printer line – the new L-Series genuine ink tank system printers.  Epson’s first-in-the-world product has changed the landscape of high-volume printing in the Philippines by providing the lowest possible cost to the end-user.  The new L-Series printers offer an incredible value at PhP295 per bottle with a yield of 4,000 pages (black).

With such affordable consumables (inks), customers can use genuine Epson inks and enjoy exceptionally high-quality prints without worrying about costs.

Ed Lantin Portraying Luminiscence Exhibit at the Ayala Museum

Canada based Filipino artist Edgardo “Ed” Lantin presented 21 portraits of Filipinos and Fil-Canadians who have become the bedrock upon which he constructs fascinating glimpses of the possibilities of portrait painting in the Postmodern age in “Portraying Luminescence,” which is on view until January 30 at the Artist Space of Ayala Museum in  Makati City.

I had the opportunity to pass by the exhibit and was immediately amazed by the life-like images portrayed in  the exhibit of this multi awarded expatriate artist's paintings. It was an added reward to see the real life people behind the paintings which visited his exhibit as well.