Entries categorized under “Data Protection”

Identifying who the "best" individual is to handle backup and recovery within an organization has always been at best a crapshoot. The choice usually came down to some arbitrary evaluation of a person's education, experience, knowledge, skills and their willingness to perform the task which had mixed results. The customer education services, certification program and online learning portal now available from CommVault trains and equips individuals to perform backup and recovery so this task of identifying the "right" person to do the job is a far more quantifiable and defensible process than ever before. (read more)

It can sound so easy to back up to the cloud. Just plug in a backup appliance and it does all of the work. While there is an element of truth to that, there are certain steps organizations should take to ensure they are getting the results they expect when implementing a backup appliance that backs up to the cloud. In this third and final segment of my interview series with STORServer's Jarrett Potts, we discuss best practices for backing up to the cloud and recommend some steps that organizations should take to maximize backup and recovery times while minimizing costs. (read more)

O'Reilly School of Technology does what many organizations now do when daily backing up its production data: it uses array-based snapshots on its NAS filer. However its internal policies call for it to copy each set of weekly or monthly array-based snapshots to another storage media (disk or tape) for long term data retention and offsite protection. (read more)

Identifying a virtual machine backup software solution that delivers on the intangible new features that a small and midsized enterprise (SME) needs to backup and recover its virtualized environment is easier said than done. The DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide identified and evaluated over 20 virtual server backup solutions with more than 150 different features. The trick for SMEs is to identify which of these 150 features match their specific needs and then select a backup software solution that delivers on them. (read more)

Just because a backup appliance can back up and recover data to the cloud does not mean they all do so equally well. Further complicating the decision process, some companies back up to their own private cloud while others opt to back up and recover from public clouds. In this second part of my interview series with STORServer's Jarrett Potts, we examine how backup to public and private clouds differ and what features a backup appliance needs to offer to meet these different requirements. (read more)

Backup and the cloud are becoming increasingly linked as they solve two issues that have plagued organizations for years: automating the movement of data offsite and providing a cost-effective means to store it there. But just because one can back up to the cloud does not mean all solutions do so equally well. In this first part of an interview series with STORServer's Jarrett Potts, we examine what specific features a solution needs to offer to effectively back up to the cloud as well as how the solution needs to be constructed. (read more)

Large enterprises are feeling the pressure of Big Data in every way possible. They have more data to store, more information to access and less time than ever to back it up, secure it and then recover it. It is in this area of backup and recovery that enterprises need better options to protect their data while also alleviating mounting security concerns. The Sepaton S2100-ES3 2925 with its new V7.0 software provides them with the match they want. (read more)

As almost seems customary with any release of the DCIG Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide, it more so than any other Buyer's Guide that DCIG produces elicits a number of responses from third parties. We are grateful that most of this commentary was quite civil and, in a couple of cases, actually helped to reinforce the points that DCIG makes either in the Guide or in other DCIG blog entries. However there are few of these comments that I wanted to respond to and add a few of my own thoughts. (read more)

Ready or not, here comes the cloud and, for many organizations, backup to the cloud is squarely in their sights. However backup to the cloud does not mean they should abandon the best of what today's localized backup processes have to offer. By instead taking a hybrid approach to cloud backup such as what Western Digital (WD®) offers, they can get on a secure path to storing data in the cloud without breaking either their backup processes or their budget. (read more)

The line between archive and backup data stores has always been a little fuzzy from the viewpoint of end users. How these respective data stores should be deployed and managed from a theoretical standpoint were always fairly clear cut even though in reality they often ended up on the same backend storage pool. The growth of unstructured data stores is changing that. However it is only altering how these processes will be managed going forward even as their data continues to cohabit next to one another. (read more)

DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of its DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 100 features on 22 different backup software solutions from 18 different backup software providers. This Buyer's Guide provides the critical information that all size organizations need when selecting backup software that is specifically tuned to protect virtualized environments. (read more)

Using a network attached disk storage appliance as a backup target is more appealing than ever to small and midsized businesses (SMBs). These appliances are economical. They are easy to buy and deploy. They have high storage capacities. They are available everywhere. (read more)

As recently as a few years nearly every backup software product licensed its software based upon criteria such as the number of servers protected and what applications their backup agents needed to protect. But with the rise of virtual machines (VMs) and the complexity that approach to licensing created, most have now switched - or at least offer as an option - the ability to do either capacity-based or socket-based backup licensing. As licensing is sometimes the issue that determines which product gets selected to perform backup in your environment, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each. (read more)

The good news from an organizational perspective is that when looking for a backup appliance there is a wide range of them from which to choose. That is also the bad news. Having so many choices behooves organizations to first understand their particular needs before selecting a backup appliance. (read more)

Virtual backup appliances (VBAs) are the new hot ticket in backup. Providing an economical alternative to physical backup appliances, they are finding a new home as the preferred solution to backup branch, remote and small offices as well as serving as a replication target. But to fulfill these different roles results in the need for VBAs to take on their own personalities. The new Virtual Backup Software in Eversync 5.1 gives organizations access to a solution they have long sought: simplified backup and replication. (read more)

Backup appliances are going virtual for one very simple reason: organizations want to virtualize all of their applications in their small, branch and remote offices to include their backup software while retaining the ease of deployment that physical backup appliances offer. As this occurs, there are five key factors that they need to keep in mind in order to select the right VBA for them. (read more)

Over the last few years backup appliances have emerged as one of the hottest trends in data protection. Yet with these appliances coming to prominence so quickly and so many of them now available from which organizations may choose, it is easy for us who have been in the storage industry to forget that many are learning about backup appliances for the first time. So today I'd thought I would dedicate a blog entry to explaining just exactly what problems backup appliances solve and then some factors to consider when selecting one. (read more)

As companies of all sizes move from physical environments to ones that are more highly virtualized (or even entirely virtualized,) everything changes. While "how backups are done" is sometimes viewed as the biggest change, monitoring the virtual environment and leveraging the cloud are becoming higher priorities for end users. In this fourth and final blog entry in my interview series with PHD Virtual's CMO Steve Kahan, he discusses how virtualization monitoring and the cloud are impacting the future of backup in general and PHD Virtual specifically. (read more)

Ever since I got involved with IT in general and data storage specifically, the predominant way that organizations manage their data growth is by throwing more storage at the problem. Sure, they pay homage to technologies like archiving, data lifecycle management and storage resource management (SRM) but at the end of the day the "just buy more" principle prevails. Yet as we enter 2013, data management is finally poised to become a data center priority. (read more)

Ask any business owner or IT administrator how much storage they will need in a few years and they will likely hem and haw trying to come up with a reasonable answer. Ask them to share their true feelings and they will in all likelihood respond, "I don't know." The good news is that storage architectures are now available that take the risk out of this uncertainty and that do not require yet another expensive, disruptive and risky forklift upgrade. (read more)

One of the unique aspects about running a blog site that primarily does analysis as opposed to commenting and covering today's news is that the most read blog entries on DCIG's site each year are rarely from the current year. This year was no exception as only one of the Top 5 blog entries written in 2012 made it into the Top 10 of DCIG's most read blog entries of 2012 that I will start to reveal in tomorrow's blog entry. (read more)

Mention the year 2008 or 2009 to almost any person and it almost inevitably elicits a negative reaction in terms of how those years were from a business perspective. However as DCIG renews its annual tradition of reflecting back on what blog entries were most read on its website during the course of 2012, 2008 and 2009 emerged as very good years in terms of DCIG providing content that is still relevant and frequently read in 2012. Today and over the next four (4) business days, I will share what blog entries garnered the most attention on DCIG's website in 2012. (read more)

Backup appliances are rapidly becoming the de facto standard for organizations as a means to quickly and easily solve their backup challenges. But their availability as a turnkey solution creates a new dilemma for organizations: how to appropriately size a backup appliance for their environment with midsized businesses particularly challenged in making this assessment. As it turns out, "1:1" is a good rule of thumb for midsized business to follow to choose the right size backup appliance for them and why new appliances like the EMC Avamar Business Edition are so well suited for their environments. (read more)

User input and feedback are the lifeblood of every software product produced as it is invaluable to understanding what features are working well, which ones are not and what new features are needed to ensure the product remains competitive long term. The struggle organizations face is identifying who their current and prospective users are and then getting this type of critical feedback. In this third blog entry in my continuing interview series with PHD Virtual's CMO Steve Kahan, he discusses how PHD cultivates feedback from its user base to help do backups better going forward. (read more)

This past week I received an email from someone asking for my help in their process of buying a backup appliance. This individual had just downloaded the DCIG 2012 Backup Appliance Buyer's Guide but, due to the number of models included in the Buyer's Guide (over 60), was looking for some recommendations from me as to which one to buy. While I sent this individual a list of backup appliances to look at more closely, it brought to my attention that there are five questions every organization should ask and answer before buying a backup appliance. (read more)