Storwize Inc., the only provider of primary storage data compression solutions, today announced it has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program.

Field-tested installations running VMware and Storwize solutions achieve compression ratios between 60 to 80 percent, resulting in reduced CPU, memory, and disk utilization. In addition to simply freeing up primary storage, and delaying the purchase of new hardware, Storwize allows more virtual machines or more instances of ESX Server to run on the same NAS device. VMware users backing up virtual machine disk (VMDK) files will find Storwize data reduction technology similarly shrinks backup loads and backup windows, working throughout the data lifecycle.

Deploying Storwize compression technology is completely transparent to users and can be done on the fly, requiring no workflow changes, no software agents, no drivers and no configuration changes within VMware Infrastructure or the client. When combined with Storwize compression, VMware environments realize further savings in electricity/cooling costs, floor space, and management time – beyond the savings introduced by VMware software alone.

“Storwize is very proud to partner with a company such as VMware that like Storwize, is looking to save users money and resources in data centers. This is one more place Storwize can significantly reduce the capacity at the point of origin and maintain the same data center environment for a number of years without having to change any configuration – even while offering performance improvements. Our shared users relate well to the idea of combining VMware virtualization with real-time storage compression solutions, since the net effect of both innovations is achieving the same or better results with less resources,” said Gal Naor, CEO of Storwize. “Particularly with heavy VMware users the advantages of compression as a data reduction tool are clear and undeniable.”

The VMware TAP program allows Storwize to leverage VMware resources and expertise to deliver enhanced value to shared customers large and small, through a variety of technical and marketing programs. As a Select Partner, Storwize receives benefits such as software for in-house lab testing, and technical training and support.