Entries categorized under “Managed Service Provider”

Ever since continuous data protection (CDP) was introduced nearly a decade ago, it has largely been a technology looking for a problem to solve. However in the last few years it is finding a home in the most unlikely of places - social media websites. But maybe what is most interesting is that little known R1Soft CDP has emerged as the early and widely recognized leader in this space. (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)

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)

You hear the words and phrases repeated in legal offices, data centers, break rooms, and boardrooms: liability, indemnity, retention, regulators, act of discovery, compliance. The discomforting sound of Information Governance contains echoes of cost, complexity, inconvenience, and potential penalties. (read more)

Everyone asks, "Is tape dead?" Personally, I think that question is ridiculous. There will always be a demand for tape. The better question is, "How is the tape industry evolving to ensure tape remains relevant as a solution to address current technology trends such as "Big Data," "the Cloud" and virtualization?" This is the more pressing question regarding tape's future to which Spectra Logic provided some excellent answers this past week at its first ever analyst and press event. (read more)

Virtualization is sweeping through data centers of all sizes and, as it does, it introduces levels of complexity that organizations are ill-equipped to handle. To mitigate this, reference architectures are emerging as a technique to standardize which hardware and software are deployed, under what circumstances, and how it is managed. (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)

It is no secret that virtualization is changing everything about how organizations think about and manage their data centers. But perhaps one of the more dramatic changes in thinking that still needs to take place is in how they should approach disaster recovery (DR). The odds of this shift in thinking occurring sooner rather than later just got a boost as a result of the announcement of a new replication software solution from a new company called Zerto that emerged from stealth mode this week. (read more)

The recent outage at Amazon Web Services highlights an unpleasant reality of using cloud storage. Many organizations either mistakenly overlook or presume that the cloud storage services that all cloud providers deliver are the same when in fact they are not. (read more)

The recent outage at Amazon Web Services coupled with the news that Iron Mountain is exiting some of its storage cloud lines of business has created quite a stir in the storage industry. But many of the conversations in which I have been involved have centered on how some users have been - consciously or unconsciously - applying enterprise expectations to the services that existing cloud storage providers offer. So the questions becomes, "Who is responsible for creating these unrealisticly high expectations - cloud service providers, users or some combination of both?" (read more)

Having come out of the data center and spent many years now as an analyst, it is difficult for me to get overly excited about any new storage technologies that I see at Storage Networking World (SNW.) While these technologies are most certainly "cool," in the stoic world of storage the odds of them going "hot" are often slim. But at this Spring 2011 SNW, the Nimbus Data Systems S-class and HP Data Protector Instant Recovery look to have above average chances of breaking through. (read more)

In a blog entry earlier this month I examined HP's announcement that it was bringing 3PAR storage servers under the control and management of the HP Matrix Operating Environment. Today I wanted to delve deeper into what that integration should mean to organizations as they need to realize that they can do more than just manage local HP 3PAR storage servers but begin to manage data stored in the cloud (read more)

In the articles, blog entries, case studies and executive white papers that DCIG writes it often uses the terms small and midsize business (SMB,) small and midsize enterprise (SME) and large enterprise. However someone after reading these terms in one of my blog entries called to ask me, "What is the difference between them?" (read more)

As part of the early research process for the DCIG 2011 Scale-Out NAS Buyer's Guide we came to find that trying to do a side-by-side comparison all of the products in the scale-out NAS space was a bit like trying to compare different fruit in a fruit basket. To a certain degree we expected some apples and oranges but we found ourselves with a lot of pineapples, mangos and even an African horned melon or two mixed in. The diversity of how Scale-Out NAS solutions are implemented has provided a unique opportunity for DCIG to step back and re-examine our approach to preparing this Buyer's Guide with a fresh eye. (read more)

Those who have their feet on the ground are always closest to where the action is and few are closer to end-users in regards to their desktop and server virtualization initiatives than VMware resellers. These individuals recently gathered in Orlando, FL, for VMware's annual Partner Exchange in part for training but also to swap stories as to where their customers are in their respective journeys toward virtualizing their environments. What they heard and shared is that customers no longer debate whether or not to deploy virtualization. Rather their customers are trying to figure out just how far down the road they can go. (read more)

As more organizations explore the possibility of moving data into the cloud, the first question they are bound to ask is, "How do we seamlessly move what we already have into the cloud?" No organizations are more concerned with this transparent data movement than service providers and enterprises that have a lot to gain but just as much to lose if problems arise. (read more)

In the last few years more backup software vendors have abandoned traditional methods of software licensing that is based upon the total numbers of applications, CPUs, servers or some combination thereof. Instead they switching to a capacity based software licensing model where users get all of their product's software features and then only pay a monthly or annual fee based upon the total amount of storage capacity consumed. (read more)

Sometimes it is difficult to put a price tag on "peace of mind" especially as it relates to having the confidence that application data can be recovered regardless of the scope of the disaster. But today more IT administrators are finding that elusive peace of mind. One such individual is Bill Ellis, the IT Infrastructure Manager for the Rug Doctor, Inc., whose confidence in his ability to recover data got a huge boost after testing and implementing the FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP) solution. (read more)

The confidence that mid-sized companies exhibit in their ability to successfully recover from disasters is remarkable in light of the lack of evidence that there is to support it. Recent surveys have uncovered that this confidence is often misplaced and may even be setting them up for some nasty surprises down the road. (read more)

SMBs are being confronted with some tough choices right now when it comes to backup and recovery. While most want to use disk as their primary backup target, trying to balance recovery time objectives (RTOs), getting their data offsite and still keeping their costs under control makes this a fine line to walk. However an interesting answer to this problem was jointly presented to me last week at SNW by Imation and BDT Products. (read more)

Back at the end of July I took a look at why traditional backup software approaches are faltering at managed service providers (MSPs) and new solutions such as those from R1Soft are having such success with these providers. Since then I have had an opportunity to speak with GSI Hosting, an MSP in Kansas City, MO, who explained why it opted for R1Soft's Continuous Data Protection instead of a more traditional backup solution. (read more)

The combination of cloud computing, cloud storage, inexpensive hardware, virtualization and heightened user demands for near real time backup and recovery are creating a crisis in traditional backup methodologies. It is a crisis in the sense that there is no way any emerging virtualized data center is going to find that how these backups work and are managed even slightly acceptable in the very near future. This suggests that in 2011 the transformation in backup that many have predicted will occur and it will go well beyond just deduplicating backup data stored to disk. (read more)

Even as interest by small and midsize enterprises (SME) in cloud computing and cloud storage continues to swell, the last thing any SME wants is a solution that introduces more complexity into its environment. Rather solutions are needed that automatically plug into the cloud and take advantage of the features that it offers. (read more)

The bidding war for 3PAR between Dell and HP continued yesterday with 3PAR first announcing that it had reached an agreement to be purchased by Dell for $24.30 a share and then, before the end of the day, HP countered with a $27 per share price offering. This back and forth has captured the attention of many of those who follow storage and even those who do not. But what is puzzling to many is, "What is so interesting about 3PAR that it is prompting Dell and HP to fight over it?" (read more)

Usually everyone waits until the end of the year to talk about trends in the storage industry but being fully in the throes of the dog days of summer here in Omaha, I thought I would use this week's weekly recap blog entry to reflect on some of the trends that are taking place in 2010. In doing so, I looked back to a blog entry that I wrote in January 2010 where I forecast six subtle storage trends for 2010 to see how right (or wrong) I was on my predictions. Turns out I was more right than I anticipated but I have encountered some trends that I did not expect. (read more)