These companies are starting with a clean slate and piecing together hardware and software in a way that better integrates the storage, virtualization and networking pieces of data centers. Alliances of vendors such as the VCE partnership of VMware, and EMC; HP and VMware; NetApp and VMware; and IBM PureFlex Systems all pull together the same elements. This makes it simpler to deploy, but doesn't streamline the infrastructure itself.

That's where Simplivity comes in with a single device that includes all or part of the features of WAN optimizers, primary storage devices, backup storage devices, and disaster recovery infrastructure. The company says its gear cuts the cost of data-center infrastructure by a half to two-thirds.

OmniCube supports solid-state drives and flash memory. It can be paired to support high availability.

Details about backup scheduling and where copies of data are kept are set per virtual machine by the virtual machine admin. All data is deduplicated and compressed before it is stored in an OmniCube, conserving storage space and maintaining the data in a form that lends itself to efficient transport over networks.

Scale Computing has already talked about its HC3 devices, but may announce when they are available during VMworld. The company's product differs from Simplivity's in that it shoots for smaller-size customers, and will have a lower starting price by virtue of using KVM for rather than licensing virtualization technology from VMware, says Scale's director of channel and public relations Heidi Monroe Kroft.