In his recent Computerworld blog, Chris Poelker discusses the ongoing backup war between tape and disk. He highlights the discrepancies between how chief financial officers (CFOs) and IT managers understand backup and disaster recovery (DR). CFOs look to the least expensive method, while IT managers push for the strongest solutions that ensure the smooth operation, recovery and security of the data and applications that keep businesses running. In the end, the CFO tends to win the argument, so it is clear that cost is at the forefront of this decision. Therefore Chris chooses to focus the disk-versus-tape battle on price and performance, rather than on the technical aspects. In his web research, Chris found that tape tends to be a better option for smaller IT shops, where performance requirements are lower. For those larger organizations with higher performance and capacity requirements, disk-based solutions with deduplication are a better choice. Of…

At Data Center World this year, I was given the honor of speaking on a subject FalconStor knows very well, data center resilience and disaster recovery. As I expected, there was a great turnout. Many of the questions and comments that I received during my session are those that I get everywhere I speak: Are there any solutions that can help me protect my mixed environment in an automated fashion? or I know I need to test my disaster recovery plan, but its too difficult. What this tells me is that FalconStor has the ability to solve a problem that is very common in the data center. Now my time at Data Center World was not all work. I had the chance to roam the floors and really get to see all that goes into managing and running a data center. I was amazed at companies like No Limit Software,…

Its true smaller amounts of data are just more manageble, easier to store and deal with. Sometimes its not until things hit critical mass that we see the light. To help guide you to the light, we recently teamed up with International Data Group (IDG) Research to conduct a survey about backup and optimizing business data. We polled information technology (IT) managers at compainies of various sizes and from different industries. What we found out was not surprising. The majority of these businesses had already deployed solutions to deal with the expansive rise of digital information. We also saw that companies with the biggest data explosion and relatively deeper pockets have adopted the technology and paved the way for the rest of the market, which is growing rapidly. The other interesting thing was that the majority of respondents had already achieved faster backups, quicker recovery, and improved efficiency all around.…

As a leading player in the data protection industry, weve drawn our share of competitive fire in the form of misinformation designed to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about FalconStors technology. In this continuation to the first blog on this topic, I address two more questionable claims our competitors have circulated regarding the FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP) solution. Competitive claim #3: FalconStor CDP creates complex disk management issues. For every server protected, an individual journal and snapshot space must be created and sized appropriately. Also, as FalconStor CDP captures every data change, the journal space is particularly subject to growth issues from sudden spikes in application utilization. Reality: Once installed, FalconStor CDP automates everything based on the set policies to meet your business requirements. Journal and snapshot space sizing and expansion occur via your original policy. FalconStor CDP also virtualizes any vendor disk into a pool to be…

In Chris Poelkers latest Computerworld blog post, he explains how to leverage backups for useful information. If youre a backup guy, you are probably eagerly waiting to learn how. Chris points out that the combination of disk-based backup with data deduplication results in a single source of all of the valuable data in an organization the perfect source for data mining. Armed with the right tools, the backup team can analyze all types of useful information that can benefit the organization. In addition, the business value is captivating, since the data is already there and the storage cost has already been paid. The deduplication repository includes a single instance of all the data, as well as an index of what is being stored and how many copies are being backed up. Chris makes the prediction that data mining may become a standard feature of backup in the near future.…

It is 2013 Business Continuity Awareness Week. From March 18 to 22 the Business Continuity Institute will raise awareness about the importance of business continuity. Disasters can strike at anytime, whether they stem from natural disasters, human errors or malicious attacks. And with tornado season descending upon us, we want to offer some quick tips to prepare your data center. Tornado season typically runs from March through May, but tornadoes can occur at anytime. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), about 1,200 tornadoes strike the United States each year. Below are a few simple tips to keep in mind to prepare your data center this tornado season: Identify critical servers and resources that need to be available in the event that a tornado wipes out power to the data center. Create a disaster recovery response team and ensure that every member knows his/her responsibility for validating the…

As a leading player in the data protection industry, weve drawn our share of competitive fire in the form of misinformation designed to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about FalconStors technology. This is the first of two blogs providing full disclosure on the more outrageous misleading statements regarding the FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP) solution. Competitive claim #1: FalconStor CDP provides inconsistent data, which can be a problem when recovering a CDP-based database image, as there is no ability to freeze data and capture a consistent image of an application. The benefit of continuous data protection (CDP) to capture every write is not needed unless the user is a financial institution. Realistically, most users use near CDP mode to capture data at regular intervals. Reality: FalconStor CDP moves backup from the traditional bulk data movement to a service-oriented data protection model with recovery point objectives (RPO) of zero data…

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2013, we see a few strong trends taking hold in the way small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) approach storage and data recovery (DR). Here, we detail the top eight: 1. Storage arrays and solid-state disk (SSD) are growing in popularity. Were seeing more hybrid combinations of SSD and conventional disks as users embrace the dramatic performance benefits SSD delivers for backup appliances. 2. End users are adopting storage virtualization. The motivation for this trend has everything to do with efficiency. SMBs are seeking better ways to maximize their existing storage assets and repurpose them for backup and disaster recovery needs. 3. Fibre Channel (FC) drives are beginning to disappear. With the broad adoption of 6 Gbps SAS drives, expensive FC drives are being replaced with SAS and SATA disks. And 4Gb and 8Gb FC is being replaced by 16Gb FC,…

In Chris Poelkers latest Computerworld blog, he outlines five simple steps that will make a major impact when improving your companys bottom line by just evaluating your IT infrastructure. Chriss post explains why deduplicating data backups, fixing networks and WAN bandwidths, optimizing servers with virtualization, and controlling business continuity and disaster recovery are so important to IT environments. Step 1: Dedupe your backup environment. Backup is the biggest headache facing most organizations. Make sure the solution you choose integrates with any existing tape backup environment and enables you to automate tape for long-term archives AFTER data is replicated offsite. Step 2: Fix your network. Invest in solutions that replicate data with maximum efficiency for DR and enable server-less, LAN-free backups to remove backup traffic from the network. Step 3: Optimize servers and applications. Virtualization can put an organization ahead of its peers in terms of cost reduction and consolidation. Step…

Recently, VP of Enterprise Solutions Chris Poelker authored a blog post for Computerworld on optimizing IT in 2013. He states that CIOs must embrace change to drive operational efficiencies and adopt proven technologies and in turn these changes will reduce costs. Chris challenges CIOs to act now and begin creating strategies based on what their businesses need. The post features a great checklist of the following questions that IT managers should be asking themselves as they prepare their enterprises environments for 2013: 1. Does the solution simplify or automate operations? 2. Can we leverage the solution across platforms and applications? 3. Does the solution take advantage of existing assets? 4. Can the solution enhance existing policies and procedures? 5. Can we procure the solution based strictly on the savings it provides? These questions will help IT managers first perform an internal assessment to analyze costs and find areas where to…