Lady Backup started this series by highlighting a Webcast that provided 3 steps to backup transformation.  If you missed it, you can watch it on demand here.

But I  think that still might not be enough to convince you to take action.  Being a frugal lady myself, the second part to making backup transformation real is the financial benefits.  It’s possible to quantify both your operational costs savings as well as soft costs in management time (people time) associated with your current backup infrastructure. Continue Reading

Lady Backup didn’t place any bets during Euro 2012, which is probably a good thing because I would have lost on my prediction for the finals.   One of the things I really admire about European football is the country loyalty.   But as everyone other than Spain found out, loyal fans aren’t enough to win.  You need the right ingredient of skill and teamwork – all of which Spain handily demonstrated.

Luckily when it comes to selecting your backup vendor, you don’t have to take chances on guessing who the winning team is.   The clear winner is EMC, according to IDC’s latest market share report on Continue Reading

Lady Backup wonders if the concept of backup transformation is understood?  I know backup administrators feel the pains ….  Getting jammed tapes out of drives.  Restarting failed backup jobs.  Physically moving tapes from Point A to Point B…. I know backup administrators get it.

But I wonder if the higher level managers understand why there needs to be a sense of urgency around backup transformation?   Let’s face it – data growth is stressing old backup processes.  And as we all feel every day of our lives, Continue Reading

Lady Backup has spent the last 3 weeks in 3 different desert regions.  It’s been glorious – sunny and 38C or hotter.

Here in Las Vegas for EMC World, the analogy was made to rain water in the desert and backup capacity.  Rainwater vaporizes almost instantly when it hits scorching pavement, never really quenching the Earth.  Similarly, no matter how much backup capacity added it is dwarfed by ever-growing data volumes.  I wish I could take credit for the analogy (as you know I love analogies… the crazier the better.  For example, see yesterday’s blog post).  No, this analogy came from Pat Gelsinger, president and COO of EMC’s Information Infrastructure Products.

We can’t do much to help the rainfall situation in the desert but we have good news for parched data centers around the world.  First, we introduced the new Data Domain DD990.  This new high-end purpose built backup appliance is 6x faster and offers 3x more capacity than the competition.

While speed and capacity matter to keep up with the vastness of the digital universe, we’ve made some other enhancements with the DD990.  For example, we’ve made enhancements with the Data Integrity Architecture, which gives you peace of mind by Continue Reading

Lady Backup is a fan of tattoos.  Sure some can be tacky, but on the whole they are amazing works of art.  Check out this tattoo (temporary) that I got at EMC World this week… it takes up most of my forearm.

In real life, any good tattoo artist will draw the tattoo on paper to create a stencil.  Then he or she will use a pen to draw the design on your body before getting out the needle and ink.  This way you know what it looks Continue Reading

Lady Backup has a thing for cars.  The faster the better.  I am not as much of a motorcycle girl.  I probably would have a different view had I not badly burned my leg on a motorcycle when I was a teenager.

But it doesn’t really matter – no chance I will win the Harley Davidson motorcycle give away at the EMC Backup and Recovery stand here at EMC World.   Continue Reading

This week EMC announced the findings of its research into the state of Disaster Recovery readiness amongst businesses in a number of countries in the Middle East, Turkey and Morocco.

The study reveals a significant disconnect between the ‘suffering’ that businesses in the region are currently enduring and the strategies they have adopted to alleviate the pain. Almost two-thirds of all organisations surveyed (64%) have experienced data loss and/or systems downtime in the Continue Reading

Lady Backup is a bit of a “to do” list-keeper.  If it’s not on my list of things to do then it doesn’t get done.  And any time I’m feeling very stressed, I put together a list of things to do.  Sadly, this approach includes both my personal and professional life.   There is also a sense of accomplishment, at least to me, from crossing things off the list.

 I am conscious that at times I’m so focused on crossing things off my list do that I sometimes miss the bigger picture – especially at times of uncertainty or change.  I get comfort from the list, knowing that I can still control some things. 

I wonder if my “list of things to do” sounds familiar to a backup administrator.  Crossing off – the list backup jobs completed or that day’s media management tasks.  Adding to the list – failed recoveries or backups jobs that need to be restarted.  The list can get quite long – so much so that it might be hard to take your eyes off the list of things to do.  

In this context, backup transformation sounds like a nice thing to have but doesn’t eliminate the list of things to do.  The balance between tactical (i.e. getting things done) and strategic (i.e. how to better get things done) is a universal challenge that transcends industries and job functions.  Likewise how to back up more data faster and to Continue Reading

As a Product Marketing Manager, it’s very hard sometimes to give each product in a portfolio equal airtime. Different products whether software or hardware develop at different paces. Why am I saying this? Well it’s sort of what has happened to EMC Networker.

For many quarters EMC have quietly been taking share in the Data Protection Market as a whole, and a big part of this is our software solutions and how they provide the glue around our well established hardware offerings. Networker, for instance, has for a long time been providing the policy management for directing backups in the world largest organisations to a second level of storage or tape. It is now however driving backup redesign Continue Reading

Lady Backup’s favorite book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Published in 1957, this is a deep piece of work – both literally and figuratively. At 1,168 pages, it’s little wonder that there are so many different interpretations across political, social, and religious spectrums. I promise this won’t become a full book report, but I want to share a dialog that resonates with me:

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders—what would you tell him to do?”

“I…don’t know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?”

“To shrug.”

This passage reinforces for me the ideals Rand writes about regarding the uncompromising pursuit of innovation and the intense drive to be competitive.

But if the weight of antiquated systems, process and technology weigh you down, then it’s impossible to look forward. It’s impossible to do better than you are doing today if the weight of today’s world is pressing down on you.

What has me thinking about this is a new analyst study documenting cost savings generated from backup transformation. Not surprising, Continue Reading