I was walking through the data center the other day when I heard one of my colleagues, MJ “Scream”, “I wish I had some ‘Morphine’”. Well, I have to say I was “Speechless”. I walked over to where MJ was standing, near the tape library, and when I asked him what was wrong, he replied “there was another backup tape ’Jam‘.” MJ told me he had been “Working Day and Night” on a major backup… Read more »

Okay, so the dust it taking more time to settle on the whole EMC / DDUP / NTAP saga, so given this may go on for a while, let's try to shed some light on 'why' EMC would want this technology.

It's simple really, and it's analogues to the auto industry and hence the reference to the title of this piece. Rather than drone on about what 'Who killed the electric car?' I'll just tell… Read more »

Well, now that the dust has settled and all of the predictions have been made regarding NetApp's acquisition of Data Domain, it is really time to talk about two topics that have a great deal to do with data deduplication. The first is backup and the second is capacity optimization (which leverages data deduplication technology).

Backup

"Everyone hates backup." "Tape is unreliable." "Tape is dead." "Archive first, then backup." "Do more with less." "It's not… Read more »

The hardest thing to change inside IT is not technology, it is process! I say this because all too often there are technologies available that provide a far superior solution to a complex IT problem, however, this new technology may not fit into your existing business process. Need proof? Let's take data protection as an example. Did you know that VTLs (virtual tape libraries) and data deduplication technologies came out at the exact same point… Read more »

I often joke w/ customers that when my friends were growing up they would dream of being a professional baseball player or a rock star and I used to dream of becoming a data protection technologist. Recently I read something very profound in Chuck Hollis’s internal EMC blog. Chuck said, "Decide what you're passionate about ...and write about it... it is hard to write about stuff you don't care about." I am passionate about data… Read more »