Pillar Data Systems, chairman and CEO Michael Workman, made a special visit to one of his key customers in Canada; Earth Rangers, a charitable organization based in North Toronto that has a mission to inspire children with a lasting passion to build an environmentally friendly future.
Earth Rangers’ building has a goal to become one of the more environmentally friendly structures in the world. Currently, they are 80 per cent of the way there thanks to the Pillar Axiom 600 application aware storage system. This machine was part of a wider solution created by Toronto solution provider Compugen.
The Axiom 600 is part of the data centre and is configured mainly as Fibre Channel, but also includes iSCSI to eliminate extra switches.
This system met the Earth Rangers goal of using less energy, while helping the organization expand its VMware environment.
Pillar Data was founded by Oracle chairman Larry Ellison as market alternative in the storage space. Ellison hired Workman to run the company and since its inception back in 2001, he has been able to grow the business from nothing to a $600 million company.
In this special interview conducted at the Earth Rangers site, Workman discussing the green marketplace, his company’s channel strategy, the impact on the Oracle/Sun deal and his relationship with Ellison.