Lady Backup is a stickler for tidy work, both grammar and formatting.  My employees can vouch for the amount of corrections and comments I make to everything that passes my desk.  So of course dotting every “i” is critical…

But in the case of retailer Arcadia Group, they removed tape in the backup of their IBM i environments.  These systems run the supply chain applications, along with other mission critical applications – in other words they supply the lifeblood data.

Acardia’s IT staff was finding that their tape-based backup 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

Lady Backup has a massive collection of music from all genres.  I have music from the Fabulous 50s through to 2012.  Blues, swing, country, classical, hip-hop, movie soundtracks … you name it and I own it.  But what I don’t own any more is any CDs. 

Before I moved from the US, I ripped every CD that I owned and threw them away.  Many of them were scratched and a few were broken.  The minute I got my MP-3 player (pre-iPod), I couldn’t wait to bin my CD Continue Reading

Lady Backup’s career in IT dates back before the time when there were the Spice Girls. Starting first on the journalist side, she moved to become an industry analyst before moving to the vendor community. Employed by EMC, Lady Backup has years of experience in technology areas beyond backup including information governance, archiving and eDiscovery. American by birth, Lady Backup makes her home in the U.K.

Lady Backup brings you comments and observations on technology and business trends about backup and recovery. She is on a mission to get all of those IT managers out there with backup infrastructure that date back to the release of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” (a song that changed the world ) to think about backup redesign. Hard to believe that was from 1984 – a great year for music. Bruce Springsteen released “Born in the U.S.A” (which for obvious reasons is near and dear to Lady Backup’s heart) and Prince released “Purple Rain.”

But while 1984 might be a great year for music – it isn’t a vintage year for backup technology. Now is the time for your backup make-over. Get with the times and move out that ancient backup tape. Just like the evolution from cassette to CD to MP-4 all made music sound better, so too will disk-based backup make your backup process better. Add deduplication and you can ditch that turntable for an iPod forever.

Think how far Madonna has come – from Like a Virgin to Hard Candy in 2008. Lady Backup thinks that the theme song for all backup administrators should be “4 Minutes.” Madonna and Timbaland sing about saving the world in 4 minutes. Maybe backup isn’t saving the world – but it can save your company. Time is waiting… no hesitation.

Come back and find out more about the mysterious LadyBackup very soon…