Strategic Alliance Between Geminare and Microsoft

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Geminare, Inc., in the Recovery as a Service (RaaS) industry, announced a strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. whereby Geminare will deliver its RaaS Solution Suite through the Windows Azure cloud.

Geminare enables the transition of premises-based software to cloud-enabled solutions through its patented Cloud CORE Platform, a multi-tiered service delivery vehicle that is the foundation of its RaaS data protection suite.

Beginning with a scheduled 2012 release of its Cloud Storage Assurance (CSA) email and file archiving service, Geminare will provide access to its RaaS data protection suite within the Windows Azure Marketplace, rendering it available through the Microsoft Partner Network community.

"To serve our mutual customers, strategic leaders in emerging markets are creating innovative solutions on Windows Azure. One such leader is Geminare, which is widely acknowledged as a leader in the RaaS market. Its rich portfolio, coupled with the strengths and reach of Windows Azure, represents enormous potential for customers and is a welcome addition to the Windows Azure partner community," said Walid Abu-Hadba, Corporate Vice President, Developer and Platform Evangelism, at Microsoft Corp. "We are proud to have this alliance with Geminare."

According to Gartner, "By 2014, 30 percent of midsize companies will have adopted recovery-in-the-cloud, also known as recovery-as-a-service (RaaS), to support IT operations recovery, up from just over 1 percent today."

"RaaS has been hailed as a ‘killer’ app for DR in the Cloud, but the true ‘killer’ app stems from rapidly enabling the global partner community to provide RaaS solutions to their customers, easily and efficiently," John Morency, Gartner’s Research Vice President covering the management of disaster recovery and IT resiliency, stated. "The Geminare and Microsoft Strategic Alliance does just that. Geminare’s RaaS portfolio delivered from the Windows Azure cloud eliminates the barriers to entry to the emerging RaaS market for resellers worldwide, setting the stage for the explosive growth we project."

Joshua Geist, Geminare’s CEO, said: "Geminare is ecstatic to have been chosen by Microsoft for Recovery as a Service enablement on the Windows Azure cloud. There is no better cloud provider than Microsoft to optimize the power of RaaS through its comprehensive cloud strategy, massive partner network and best-in-class technology and market experience."

Geist added: "This alliance delivers the foundation through which RaaS can scale to the market penetration levels projected by Gartner and beyond."

"The public cloud marketplace has exploded virtually overnight, offering businesses the choice of low-cost compute and storage services never before seen in the industry and signalling a shift in the underlying requirements for the delivery and support infrastructure," Geist continued. "However, in order for businesses to truly capitalize on this evolution, there is a need for access to a wide range of applications and services which provide businesses with direct support and functionality."

RaaS will be delivered through the global Windows Azure marketplace as a highlighted solution and will allow OEM channel partners to offer Windows Azure-backed RaaS solutions directly to their customers and partners. Cloud CORE platform delivers the provisioning, billing, licensing, support and management capabilities for the RaaS suite from a single hosted platform, allowing partners to enter the RaaS market.
 
Geminare has allowed companies such as CA Technologies, OpSource, Arrow, Iron Mountain, CenturyLink, Hosting .com, Bell, Allstream, Ingram Micro, LexisNexis, Long View Systems and others to enter the RaaS market with their own suite of data protection Cloud offerings.