Entries categorized under “Disk Based Backup”

A little over two (2) years ago I did an interview with ExaGrid System's CEO Bill Andrews about the same time that EMC and NetApp were engaged in a bidding war over Data Domain. In that interview Andrews expressed concern about EMC winning the battle for Data Domain and how that might negatively impact ExaGrid. But as EMC and ExaGrid both respectively announced overwhelmingly positive numbers this week, it turns out that EMC's acquisition of Data Domain has served both companies well. (read more)

The big news out of IDC is that in December 2011 it upped its forecast as to how quickly it expects the purpose built backup appliance (PBBA) market to grow in the years to come. But this heightened revenue forecast provides a glimpse into why enterprises are selecting PBBAs and which providers they are choosing. Among these reasons, it appears clear that enterprises view PBBAs as an effective solution to address their backup challenges with EMC their top choice as it already holds a big lead in the PBBA market and is poised to extend it further going forward. (read more)

Implementing and then managing DR is still no "gimme." It requires that SMBs select a solution that offers the right five features so they can successfully execute on a DR initiative in their environment for 2012 and beyond. (read more)

Choosing the right cloud-based archiving and backup solution may well be one of the most important - and difficult - decisions facing small and midsize organizations in 2012. However a recent acquisition by Imation should contribute to easing which solution organizations should choose in 2012. This acquisition did more than give Imation a cloud-based backup offering. It put Imation among an elite class of providers that offer both local and cloud-based data backup, recovery and archiving options from a single solution. (read more)

Choosing the right cloud-based archiving and backup solution may well be one of the most important - and difficult - decisions facing small and midsize organizations in 2012. However a recent acquisition by Imation should contribute to easing which solution organizations should choose in 2012. This acquisition did more than give Imation a cloud-based backup offering. It put Imation among an elite class of providers that offer both local and cloud-based data backup, recovery and archiving options from a single solution. (read more)

About a month ago I started to put some thought and research into what might emerge as the top trends of 2012 by keeping a notebook next to my keyboard so as ideas struck me I could jot them down. Now as I look at the four trends that made today's short list, they ended up being on the surface ones that I hear, write and talk about every day. (read more)

Before DCIG announces its top three blog entries of 2011 tomorrow, this year we thought we would do something different and take a look at some other blog entries that garnered a great deal of attention throughout 2011 but not quite enough to reach the Top 10. That being the case, an honorable mention for these blog entries was in order. Further, what is notable about these entries is that, with the exception of one, they were all published in 2011. (read more)

"Dedupe everywhere" is becoming a guiding principle in how enterprises now strategically look to deploy data deduplication into their organizations. But it is now recognized that these organizations need a common mechanism to deduplicate data throughout their environment to optimally manage and scale it. It is in this context that HP recently announced its new StoreOnce B6200 Backup System along with a number of StoreOnce feature enhancements as HP takes its deduplication story further into the enterprise. (read more)

Using the "cloud" for backup is the primary context in which people think about the cloud when asked about it. Yet if forced to list what features an "enterprise cloud-based backup provider" offers, it is questionable if one could do so. So as DCIG prepares to release its inaugural Buyer's Guide in 2012 on Enterprise Cloud-based Backup products, one of its first tasks was to define what constitutes an "enterprise cloud-based backup" offering. (read more)

In the last few years, the need for backup software to support VMware has become almost a must-have for any backup solution to remain relevant in the years to come. The need for organizations to back up both physical and virtual machines means that addressing data protection has become increasingly complex. This is why the new Revinetix RevOS 4.0 provides an all-in-one solution to bridge the physical-virtual gap that other backup software solutions may not accomplish without increasing complexity. (read more)

Looking back at the two fall VMworld 2011 conferences, there were more sessions available on how organizations could protect their VMware environments than many could probably attend in a month. Further, each of these sessions presented a number of backup and recovery tips that left organizations the task of sorting through and then prioritizing which ones to implement. Among these tips presented, three emerged that every shop should look to adopt regardless of how they move forward with the protection of their VMware infrastructure as a whole. (read more)

Deduplicating, disk-based backup appliances are now part of almost every organization's data protection conversation. But this does not mean every organization should approach or view them in the same context. While many companies may want strictly a "backup target that does deduplication" that works with their existing backup software, there is an equally large contingent of companies that want a backup appliance that possesses features that enable them to build out a more comprehensive data protection strategy. (read more)

EMC has seen that organizations spend approximately $4 billion annually on backup and recovery software yet still struggle to fully realize the full value of this investment. To close this gap EMC has done a substantial amount of work over the last couple of years to integrate its Avamar, NetWorker and Data Domain solutions. The end result is new flexibility for its channel partners to configure these individual products in various combinations so they may be deployed and function as a single, logical solution in small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). (read more)

"Impossible. Nobody can jump this." Enterprise technology buyers and IT administrators who have seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade can relate to how Indy feels as he looks across a great chasm and is asked to step out in faith. But too often these individuals may feel the same way when asked to make an enterprise technology buying decision with little more information than what Indy possessed. (read more)

Today's data centric world can leave small and midsize businesses (SMBs) feeling particularly vulnerable. As their focus tends to be more on providing services and products for their clients and less on protecting the data that they create and use, they can feel a bit overwhelmed when it comes to selecting the right solution to protect their data and recover their business. The new Imation RDX A8 Disk Storage Library is specifically intended to address these concerns that these SMBs possess. (read more)

Today's data centric world can leave small and midsize businesses (SMBs) feeling particularly vulnerable. As their focus tends to be more on providing services and products for their clients and less on protecting the data that they create and use, they can feel a bit overwhelmed when it comes to selecting the right solution to protect their data and recover their business. The new Imation RDX A8 Disk Storage Library is specifically intended to address these concerns that these SMBs possess. (read more)

Today DCIG and SMB Research are pleased to jointly announce the availability of a new, comprehensive DCIG 2011 Midrange Deduplication Appliance Buyer's Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 30 deduplication appliances with starting prices that range from $20,000 to $100,000. This Buyer's Guide gives small, medium and large enterprises the resources they need to assist them in making what is becoming a critical buying decision: selecting a disk-based solution that deduplicates their backup data. (read more)

Continuing (dare I say exploding?) data growth in small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) is forcing these size organizations to confront an issue that was primarily confined to larger organizations: data archiving. Chief among these issues, the question as to what media to store archival data on is one that needs to be answered. While many may assume that tape is best positioned to assume this role, there is a growing body of evidence that disk may be the most appropriate media for SMEs to use when archiving their data. (read more)

The idea that a company - any company - can just "plug-in" a backup solution into their virtual environment and expect it to work sounds far-fetched to any IT administrator accustomed to setting up and configuring backup software. But as more companies move from measuring their IT administrators by how effectively they setup new software to how effectively they manage their virtual machines (VMs), backup solutions by necessity are shifting to 'plug-n-play.' As that transition occurs, Symantec's Backup Exec 3600 exemplifies what enterprises should expect from this emerging class of 'plug-n-play' backup solutions. (read more)

"Yeah, we do that." That's the response many software providers of storage virtualization give when asked if they can offer a specific storage function. But that "Can do" attitude reveals the heart of the problem of these providers: they end up acquiring a "jack of all trades, master of none" reputation. Today FalconStor Software still answers, "Yeah, we do that," but now provides a more well articulated service-oriented data protection story to complement its storage solutions. (read more)

A couple of weeks ago I was getting a briefing on Atempo Live Navigator regarding its deduplication and near-CDP features that are specifically targeted for desktops, laptops and file servers. But since that conversation, it struck me that CDP and near-CDP technologies have been around for years which got me to thinking. Why is it that traditional approaches to backup persist even as arguably better approaches to data protection such as CDP and near-CDP struggle to get traction? (read more)

Buried in IBM's Q4 2010 earnings report were two factoids that reveal the key role that the mainframe continues to play in enterprise environments today - IBM reported a 58% increase in MIPs growth and a 69% increase in mainframe sales. These increases clearly signal that the mainframe is alive and well but it also means that the mainframe continues to generate data that needs to be accessed, protected, stored and recovered in ways unique to the mainframe. It is these specific needs that EMC's new Disk Library for the mainframe, the DLm6000, addresses even as it puts the squeeze on the use of tape in mainframe environments. (read more)

When companies discuss their backup strategy, disk and tape are almost always part of that conversation. But in a recent interview that I did with Matt Jorgensen, the system administrator at Neumont University, we did more than talk about how the value of the Overland Storage's SnapServer N2000 and NEO 2000e in its backup strategy. We also discussed the critical role that the SnapServer N2000 plays in supporting the two different backup products in Neumont's environment. (read more)

Today DCIG, LLC, is pleased to announce the availability of the DCIG 2011 Midrange Array Snapshot Software Buyer's Guide. This Buyer's Guide weights, scores and ranks the snapshot feature from 18 midrange array providers. In this report, special attention is given to how overall snapshot functionality and how well the snapshot feature on each midrange array integrates with specific applications, backup software and operating systems. (read more)

The introduction of the vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) VMware vSphere 4 contributed to making virtual machine (VM) backups easier to accomplish. But vendors are just starting to tap into VADP's restore capabilities. Evidence that is beginning to occur appeared again a couple of weeks ago when EMC announced the ability for Avamar 6.0 to do faster VM recoveries as well as better leverage Avamar's integrated file system to do file level restores from VM image-based backups. (read more)