Racemi - disaster recovery and so much more

I had the chance to speak with Charlie Watt, CTO and founder of Racemi, and his colleague Brian Hoffman, VP of Product Management and Service, today. We discovered that we have some common history and similar views on the real scope of virtualization technology and the impact it can have on an organization's strategic planning and operational strategy.

Here's how the company describes their product, DynaCenter:

At the heart of DynaCenter lies Racemi's patent-pending Dynamic Server Allocation (DSA) technology. DSA virtualizes a server's image so that it can be run from any physical location from a centralized NAS or SAN or from a server's own local storage. Using DSA's templates, you can build out server images and deploy them to available servers as needed. Run an image from centralized storage for instant server provisioning or fail-over. Run an image from the server's local hard drive for maximum performance.

DynaCenter's automated, instant provisioning removes the cost, time, and risk associated with reallocating a server and its surrounding network environment. Your servers are no longer tied to a single application and you can switch a server between multiple images to meet your current needs. With DynaCenter's resource monitoring, you are given a clear picture of your resource allocation and utilization. From the control console you can quickly reallocate under-utilized resources.

DynaCenter can automate resource allocation based upon your configured rules and policies. It ensures that all servers remain optimally loaded by switching idle servers to a busy application or powering them down to conserve electricity. By sensing load conditions throughout the data center and allocating servers appropriately, DynaCenter provides each application with exactly the server capacity it needs, when it needs it, without the predefined limitations of a static server pool. With DynaCenter, the data center can handle increased load with improved reliability using fewer servers.

After reviewing the capabilities of Racemi's DynaCenter, my first question was where the primary focal points were for the company. DynaCenter could easily be thought of as a Datacenter "operating system" rather than just a product having a single purpose. Charlie and Brian agreed that DynaCenter has many uses but, for marketing purposes, the company only speaks about disaster recovery, datacenter relocation, server repurposing and lab management. This seems a reasonable go-to-market strategy when one considers the marketing and sales budget of a small technology company.

If DynaCenter is examined in more detail, however, it clearly could be seen as a competitor to some of the features found products from Cassatt, Dune Technologies or Scalent Systems. This means that the product has many capabilities that are seldom mentioned in Racemi's product literature. Charlie and Brian agreed with that assessment and pointed out that it was better if their customer came to that conclusion themselves after using the product for disaster recovery or lab management. That way, they were more enthusiastic about what DynaCenter could do for them.

It appears to me that the company could also wave the "green computing" flag if they wished. Charlie and Brian agreed but, said that they wanted to stay focused on the primary use cases they've seen at customer sites.

In the end, I found myself impressed with the company, its representatives and the product. I'd much rather speak with folks to know their strengths and stick to them rather than promising the sun and the stars and in the end only "mooning" the market.