Cloud storage leader StorSimple is just racking up the accolades this month and most recently the leading provider of Enterprise Cloud Storage for Windows and VMware infrastructures was awarded the grand prize for Best of Show in the Product section at the 2011 Interop (News - Alert) Tokyo show, held June 7-10.

StorSimple was acclaimed for its product and cloud storage implementation; automatic tiering technology; deduplication technology; data protection and disaster recovery; and cloud encryption technology.

“Japan is a very demanding market that recognizes and values technical excellence. Receiving this award is a great honor and an acknowledgement of StorSimple as an industry leader both in the U.S. and now internationally,” said Ursheet Parikh, CEO of StorSimple. “This award is a reflection of our commitment to the Japanese market with our support for both global clouds such as Windows Azure and Amazon and local Japanese cloud vendors.”

StorSimple’s Japanese partner and distributor Macnica Networks Corporation nominated the company for the honor. More than 300 companies submitted products and solutions to be considered for the Best of Show Award. After a rigorous evaluation and voting process, the Grand Prize and Special Prize winners were selected by a panel of judges.

“The cloud and its application to data protection and disaster recovery are key issues for every Japanese enterprise today,” said Masanori Murakami director of Macnica Networks Corp. Cloud Business Department.  “Integrating the cloud into on premise applications is now a simple, 10-minute process with StorSimple. This means every Japanese company and regional office has access to cost effective data protection and disaster recovery.”

StorSimple’s enterprise cloud storage appliance dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of traditional data storage by combining a single on-premise appliance with cloud storage to offer tiered primary storage, automatic archiving, data protection and disaster recovery, according to company officials. The StorSimple 5010 and 7010 appliances are the only enterprise cloud storage appliances to pass VMware Ready certification and be certified for Windows Server 2008.

In other company news, the cloud storage company was just honored with the title of Microsoft (News - Alert) BixSpark Partner of the Year. The annual awards pay respect to those Microsoft partners who deliver innovative solutions that directly speak to customer challenges. Today, Microsoft unveiled the winners and finalists of the 2011 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, and StorSimple walked away with a top accolade.

"Microsoft has emerged as one of the leading providers of cloud services to enterprises. We find customers often choose Azure because they expect applications and compute to follow their data and content in the cloud,” Parikh said at the time. “To be honored as the Microsoft BizSpark Partner of the Year indicates the success of the StorSimple solution with Windows Azure, and demonstrates that StorSimple has become the clear leader in Enterprise Cloud Storage.”