PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

VMware users -- come on in!

We're getting ready to release another build of our Beta softrware that works with VMware. We've made some more openings if any of you VMware users out there want to take a peek. If you're interested, send an email to [email protected] with your user information, and we should be able to get you in.

Will PerfectDisk save the subprime mortgage crisis?

Will PerfectDisk save the subprime mortgage crisis? That may be too much to ask, but one man with his eye closely on the situation is probably sleeping better knowing that several thousand of his agency's servers are now running faster and with complete free space consolidation.

               

Happy Holidays!

As the year closes out, the entire Raxco Software family would like to thank all of you who have made our progress possible.

Thank you and best wishes for the holiday season and new year.

Joe

                  

Affordable luxury -- introducing new server pricing

Presumably there will always be the debate about whether one can or should use Microsoft's built-in defragmenters, freeware, or third-party software for a price. As a defrag vendor, you know where we stand on that issue, and millions of consumers and many of the world's largest companies would vouch for it as well. This post is not for that debate.

If you've decided to spend money on a defragger, there's also a difference of philosophy as to how much you should spend. I've written about that before as well, and we lay out our differences.

So our philospohy is to provide the best technology we can at a fair price. No nickel and diming, no gauging, no charging extra for a large drive or for full capabilities. A free management console.

A few years ago PerfectDisk Professional sold for $44.00, admittedly an odd price. So we lowered to a more "normal-looking" price of $39.99. One product for PCs, no matter how big your drives were, all functions turned on. We preferred this price to another vendor's also-normal, but more expensive $49.

A few months ago we started a promotion to sell PerfectDisk Server at just $99, instead of the already lower price (than the competition) of $239.99 - full function, no extra charges even for multi-terabyte drives that even the other vendor's premium product could not touch.

Now, as of today, we make this $99 server pricing permanent. Never pay more than $100 to defragment a server's drives, no matter how big or how ugly. We're not going to give our software away, but we're making it more affordable. Top quality and affordable prices have helped make this Raxco Software's best year ever. And with a new product and more, we're determined to keep the momentum going.

$99 -- now.

             

Looks or personality...or both

While we've always taken great pride in the defragmentation job that PerfectDisk does, we know it helps to look good too. And we know we can always get better and there's always room for improvement. So we've set about making improvements to the user interface, from the moment the application is launched, to a modern interface with new visual displays. Add to that look, engine improvements, enhanced and new capabilities based on user requests, and you have what we believe is our best yet.

Architectural giant Louis Sullivan told us that form follows function. PerfectDisk user Andy Collins tells us we now have "a 5-star interface to match the 5-star product."

Coming soon.

                        

              

Virtual becomes reality with PerfectDisk and VMware

The leading brand in the hot virtualization category is VMware, with over 20,000 customers worldwide. That's why we teamed with VMware and began discussions with them earlier this year. The result - automation of the VMware virtual environment so that hosts and guests achieve and maintain optimal performance, with reduced storage requirements. VMware Workstation, VMware Server.

Two leaders. PerfectDisk. VMware. Coming soon.

            

Out with our way. Out with their way. It's time for your way.

You know we like our way. AutoPilot scheduling, which gives you flexibility and complete control. That control piece is important, and it's a big reason that some of the world's largest organizations are running PerfectDisk. For all the talk about the restrictions of scheduling, there are many data centers where that control is critical - and mandatory. It's automation, with control not relinquished.

But just in case your definition of "automatic" means no scheduling and just defragmenting when your machine is idle, you can have that if you'd rather. They're your systems, so you can choose.

Coming soon.

          

The wait is almost over

It's coming. It's not quite ready yet, but it's getting close. Some previewers' comments:

• "...best so far..."
• "...vast improvements..."
• "...you've unleashed the beast..."
• "terrific"
• "wow"
• "pimped"

What is it and what is in it? Stay tuned.

            

Vista - what went wrong?

Joe Wilcox of eWeek recently dove into a host of reasons why Vista has been a disappointment for Microsoft with his blog on "What Went Wrong with Windows Vista?" Despite a handful of dissenters, most of the blog's comments agree with Joe's assessment. He gives 10 reasons why the Vista OS failed to "WOW" consumers or businesses. You can check out the entire post here.

We found some interesting parallels to the defrag market. For example, Joe's Reason #10 is "Too many versions." I agree with this for Vista...and for a defragmenter. That's why we believe you shouldn't need a price sheet to rival an NFL offensive playbook when purchasing a disk defragger. And that's why we don't have special versions and different pricing (i.e. more expensive) to support large drives, complex environments, and a full-featured product. We try not to give the buyer "unnecessary buying complexity," as Joe acutely points out that Microsoft did with Vista.

Joe's Reason #7 is the "WOW went away," referring to Microsoft's initial Vista advertising campaign. We've seen some (or actually one) in the defrag space try to wow with more than is really there. But as the Hocus-pocus posts pointed out, today's consumers and business people are too smart to be fooled with a bunch of hype.

We'll continue to do our best to keep things straightforward and without unnecessary complexity.

            

Grand slam breakfast time - what's on your servers?

Just a quick note on some recent news. After taking a long hard look, the Dennys restaurant chain, with over $2 billion in sales, came to the conclusion that there was really only one possiblity for their server defragmentation needs - PerfectDisk. Read about it here.

Price, performance, and productivty gains with PerfectDisk - sounds like a grand slam to me.