Posted by Bill Hobbib on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 @ 09:49 PM
We are conducting an industry survey this week to hear your insights and experiences around data backup, deduplication, and virtualization, and we'd like to invite readers of this blog to participate. The online survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and your individual answers will remain completely anonymous.
Go directly to the survey now via this link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bvv_2f8sXTtkg11wvSAq4S8A_3d_3d
This short survey asks for your perspectives on topics including tape vs disk backup and recovery, data deduplication, and virtualization. We've been impressed by the overwhelming number of responses since the survey opened on Monday, and look forward to hearing your voice as well.
The survey closes 6pm EDT this Friday, August 28, and we will post a report of the results to the blog shortly after the responses are compiled.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Posted by Bill Hobbib on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 @ 02:37 PM
The article published about data deduplication on Forbes.com, "A Better Way to Store Data" is a good opportunity for me to write this first blog post as VP of Marketing at ExaGrid.
The issues with tape backup that Bill mentions in the article ("Backups fail. Restores fail. It's probably the dirtiest job left in IT, but there has been no way to solve it") and the significant value of disk backup with deduplication brings are among many things that make ExaGrid a great company in an exciting space.
I invite you to consider the analogy made in the article between old VCRs with VHS tapes and DVDs. How many of those reading this post still use VHS tapes for viewing movies at home? And how many of you moved to DVDs or DVRs, even before your old VCR died? Tape libraries, like the old VHS tapes, represent "old technology that's well past its limits." Just like DVD players have reached a price/performance level that for most people has made them a no-brainer versus VCRs, we're now at the inflection point where disk with deduplication costs about the same as tape. Given the advantages of faster backups and restores, greater reliability, ease-of-use, scalability, and cost parity, it should be a simple decision to move to disk. Do you agree?
I'll look forward to sharing thoughts and perspectives on the backup marketplace in the near future. Please feel free to comment below or drop me an email bhobbib (at) exagrid (dot) com if there are topics you would like to see us discuss.