Shoden Data Systems UK, an innovative provider of server and data storage solutions, today announced that its appointment by Luminex Software, Inc., the developer and provider of the Channel Gateway Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape Products, as Luminex’s reseller for the United Kingdom has been strengthened further by expanding the agreement to cover all of Europe. Shoden, which has already installed Luminex Channel Gateways in several major organisations, including Sainsbury’s UK, has long-standing experience in helping organisations design, implement and manage cost-effective server and data storage environments. This expertise and Shoden’s demonstrated success in installing and supporting the Luminex Channel Gateway solutions for mainframe enterprises were the reasons why Luminex decided to broaden its partner’s geographical reach.

“We are excited to extend our partnership with Shoden to the rest of Europe to deliver our Channel Gateway virtual tape to mainframe users,” says Arthur Tolsma, CEO at Luminex. “Shoden has a deep understanding of the mainframe data centres and their IT administrators’ struggle to meet advanced business requirements with physical mainframe tapes. By leveraging our Channel Gateway products, Shoden can help customers improve tape operations and disaster recovery capabilities while saving power, floor space, and costs.” Luminex decided to entrust Shoden to represent it across the region because the integrator had shown success in selling and supporting the Channel Gateway in the UK; Luminex already has a very broad user base in the US and Shoden will now aim to replicate this success in its target countries. “The Shoden Data Systems UK team includes very experienced IT professionals who stand out thanks to their knowledge and understanding of the mainframe market,” continued Tolsma.

The innovative technologies used in the Luminex Channel Gateways, coupled with EMC|Data Domain’s industry-leading, in-line deduplication (another solution offered by Shoden) and the system integrator’s own QuickRecover management software, result in a unique solution that has been honed and perfected by more than 20 years of technological research and development. This fully customer proven mainframe solution has been successfully installed and is operational in leading companies on six continents. In addition the Luminex/Data Domain/Shoden solution offers the only fully-resilient mainframe deduplication platform currently available. With this solution, mainframe enterprises can replace expensive tape silos and VTLs with the disk-based architectures in the Luminex Channel Gateway, offering remote replication, and rapid recovery from system failures. This allows the mainframe enterprise to eliminate or vastly reduce physical tape, resulting in significant savings in floorspace, utility usage, and cost while improving performance dramatically. Satisfied mainframe end users have been able to reduce their backup data by 95% or more while realizing immediate recovery.

Luminex’s Channel Gateways feature DataStream Intelligence, which creates separate files for user data and meta-data, optimising the data streams to the Data Domain appliance for deduplication. This feature, affording significant cost savings, is offered to all mainframe users, including z/OS, VM, VSE and OS/390 operating systems, to enable better service and offer greater resilience and lower financial overheads.

John Taffinder, CEO of Shoden Data System UK, says “To be appointed Luminex’s strategic reseller in Europe is a tremendous vote of confidence, one that we are very excited to have achieved. As an integrator, we feel that the mainframe market represents an opportunity we cannot ignore because there is a lack of suitable solutions built specifically to improve mainframe backup and recovery. The Luminex Channel Gateway has great potential and with no other vendor offering a truly competitive solution, we are looking forward to rapidly growing our marketshare across Europe.”

About Shoden Data Systems UK
Shoden Data Systems UK is based in London, was founded in 2008, and is part of the Shoden Data Systems (Pty) Ltd group, Africa’s largest independent IT solutions integrator. Shoden Data Systems UK is an innovative provider of best-of-breed data storage solutions to the European market place, with a focus on backup and recovery, and high-performance offerings that meet the needs of enterprise-level organisations. Shoden Data Systems UK is committed to supplying the highest levels of pre and post-sales support, taking full advantage of Shoden’s world-leading infrastructure in Johannesburg, while relying on a local experienced and skilled team. Shoden Data Systems UK solutions are available directly from the company. For further information please contact us on +44 (0) 20 7956 2103 or [email protected].

About LUMINEX SOFTWARE, INC.
LUMINEX is a leading developer and provider of disk-based mainframe virtual tape products and technologies.  LUMINEX Channel Gateways allow mainframe enterprise users around the world to take full advantage of the benefits of Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape to eliminate or reduce physical tape, improve RTO and RPO, lower capital and operating costs and improve data security.  With the LUMINEX Channel Gateways, enterprises can now have a single backup and recovery program for their mainframe and open systems data.  To find out more about LUMINEX and its Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape solutions, visit www.luminex.com.

LUMINEX is headquartered at 871 Marlborough Ave., Riverside, CA  92507, USA and can be contacted at 1-888.LUMINEX or by e-mail at [email protected].

LUMINEX, Channel Gateway, Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape and Datastream Intelligence are trademarks of Luminex Software, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts: Eric Christensen
Luminex Software, Inc.
(951) 781-4100, x-161
[email protected]