As more and more data is managed and stored in the cloud, resellers are faced with the growing issue of compatibility between cloud-enabling technology and existing on-premise wares. Riverbed Technology’s latest update to its Whitewater cloud storage appliance hopes to address some of those compatibility issues through expanded support for a growing list of cloud service providers and data protection tools.

The latest version of Whitewater now supports CommVault Simpana, HP Data Protector and Veeam Backup and Replication tools, as well as database-based backup apps Microsoft SQL Server backup and restore and Oracle Recovery Manager. Such support means Whitewater now covers 85 percent of the backup tool market and supports all major backup tool platforms, said Ray Villeneuve, general manager of Whitewater at Riverbed.

“We want to coexist peacefully with existing backup applications,” he said. “We had a lot of direct customer requests – we have a growing installed base … and we prioritized support for these backup apps based on what customers are asking for. Since we have 13,000 customers and growing, that’s a great resource for us.”

Additionally, Whitewater now also offers support for OpenStack, Rackspace Cloud and Windows Azure cloud services, bringing the total number of cloud service providers Whitewater works with to eight.

“We’re basically expanding our ecosystem on both the back end and the front end, addressing customer demands,” Villeneuve said.

The expanded support will be available in Q4 2011, according to Riverbed.

VARs with customers looking at the cloud as an alternative to on-prem data storage, ensuring the cloud services hardware works with existing infrastructure can often mean the difference between winning or losing the customer contract. But as the gateway market expands with offerings from the likes of CTERA/EMC Atmos, StorSimple and Nasuni (to name a few), VARs are now starting to enjoy an embarrassment of riches in cloud storage.