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Four out-of-the-box reasons to dedupe: notes from the road

Posted At : January 27, 2010 10:11 AM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Deduplication

 

January is a tough way to start a year.  I have taken my Christmas decorations down, the Browns didn’t make the Super Bowl again this year, its cold, and the days are still too short.  It isn’t all bad though, as I’ve just returned from a 2-week hiatus of regional sales meetings across the USA. I’ve presented to and heard from Spectra sales reps in Washington D.C., San Antonio, Denver and Orlando.  I have always enjoyed going to regional meetings, especially the afterhours part of it.  I don’t just mean hitting a bar, but often the informal conversations with the Sales Reps and Systems Engineers can be great.
 
Between the insight I’ve gained from the field and the recent press coverage on various deduplication offerings, it felt like the right time to get into blogging gear and summarize a few out-of the box reasons why you should dedupe.  By now, we all understand deduplication, data reduction and its typical associated benefits and savings.
 
1.       All of your friends and neighbors can’t be wrong. Said another way, everybody’s doing it. Of course, Mom always asked about everybody jumping off bridges, but let’s not go there.  Dedupe isn’t new and scary anymore. It is now widely adopted across all major vertical industries, in big and small corporations, private organizations, etc. It’s become so embraced, your mom may actually be deduping. (Is she running Windows Home Server?) Ask her.
 
2.       The kinks are gone. This is tightly integrated with #1. Dedupe has been around long enough and integrated in every kind of environment imaginable. IT JUST WORKS.
 
3.       The economy. Dedupe isn’t just spending less than traditional disk when you buy it.  Operational savings last its whole life, and we have seen how OpEx can affect business during a bad economy.  Dedupe can help with space, support as well as power and cooling costs.
 
4.       It has stuck. A lot of technology with the hype that dedupe has seen fizzle out quickly.  It just can’t be as good as everyone says.  But with dedupe the technology is simply brilliant. The hype is over. It’s tried and true. Dedupe is here to stay.
 
My two weeks of travel talking to nearly our entire sales force got me more than some much needed frequent fly miles.  I got to hear about the current challenges our customers were facing.  Some things will never change, and tight budgets and backup windows are always on the list.  I heard a lot about organizations struggling with remote sites, multiple environments and tape integration. (Yes, people still wonder about getting some data on tape.)  Spectra nTier addresses all of these needs, plus some.
 
But don’t just take it from me. Check out this nTier Deduplication product review that was recently covered by InfoStor magazine: Lab Review: Data deduplication for real tape.

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On the eleventh day...

Posted At : December 23, 2009 12:13 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Deduplication

 

The end is almost here.  We are so close that it once I finish writing this, I am on the road to New Mexico! There aren’t too many rivers or a lot of woods, but I will go over the mountains and through the pass to my parent’s house. 
 
 
The winter storm will make the 500 mile drive all the more fun, but I have done it many times before.
 
 
I doubt I am the only one that is taking the same Christmas trip they have taken before this week. We do a lot of things over and over again: 
 
Workout (once the New Year hits)
 
 
pay bills
 
 
do laundry
 
 
and run backups. 
 
Deduplication reduces the cost and space of doing multiple backups. It is having a big (or small depending on how you look at it) impact for data protection.  Being able to store 10, 20 or even more backups in the space of a one on disk is hard to ignore.  I wish I could dedupe other things, like the 500 miles I am about to drive.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

11 to 1 Deduplication
10 Tapes in a TeraPack
9 Site Replications
8 Spectra Archive Files
7 /24 Support
6 T680’s
5 Tapes without Pain!
4 Global Spare Drives,
3 Encryption Keys,
2 Spectra Certified Tapes,
and a large frosty beer.

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On the ninth day

Posted At : December 21, 2009 5:00 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Disaster Recovery, Disk Backup, Deduplication

The big day is getting closer, and I am really busy.  I even multitask lunch, doing a little gift shopping around noon.  It is amazing how many other people had the same idea.  Today I went out and got my parents an external hard drive.  (If you know my parents, please don’t tell them.)  Like everyone else, digital pictures and other media are becoming important to them, and I want to make sure they have a backup they can take out of the house.  (In this case to some one else’s home)  While it might not be the most fun gift, it should be very practical, and if their 5 year old computer crashes, they will be able to get the important stuff back.  (you can guess what I will be setting up over the weekend).

 

We all know how important it is to protect our data, both at home and at work.  Of course a USB hard drive won’t do it at work, there is too much data, we want multiple copies and it isn't very automated.  That is why so many of the conversations we have these days with customers about deduplication include replication.  Quickly getting remote site backups back to a central location automatically is a great stress reliever.  Your company may not need to protect pictures of my nephews, but your data may be almost as important. 

 

nTier Deduplication supports multi-site replication doing the hard work of getting the data off site for you.  Now you can spend more time looking for the perfect gift.  (I like car parts my self.)

 

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me;

 

9 Site replication

8 Spectra Archive Files

7 /24 Support

6 T680’s

5 Tapes without Pain!

4 Global Spare Drives,

3 Encryption Keys,

2 Spectra Certified Tapes,

and a large frosty beer.

 

 

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On the seventh day....

Posted At : December 17, 2009 3:01 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Tape Backup, Disk Backup, Product Support, Deduplication

Day seven brings us closer to the big day.  I can feel the excitement build.  And build is the right word, because in addition to roasting chestnuts, eating cookies and singing carols, we have the presents to deal with. I am sure you are in better shape than I am, and already have everything bought.  How many toys did you get with the dreaded "some assembly required?"  Wouldn't it be great if there was 7/24 support to assemble these little nuggets of fun and excitement?  (Here's a tip, many toy companies have opened support centers for just such an emergency.  Though I doubt the are open on Christmas Eve.)  This car looks especially fun!

Fortunately, if you are giving the give of Spectra this holiday season, we have you covered.  Help is always just a phone call away, even on Christmas Eve.  In fact, often times you won't even have to call, as our call home feature will do it for you!  If only that Transformer toy could do that.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

7 / 24 Support

6 T680’s 

5 Tapes without Pain! 

4 Global Spare Drives,

3 Encryption Keys,

2 Spectra Certified Tapes,

and a large frosty beer.

 

 

 

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On the second day...

Posted At : December 10, 2009 2:35 PM | Posted By : Jon Hiles
Related Categories: Tape Backup, Archive, Disaster Recovery, Disk Backup, Deduplication

Tape houses nearly 70% of the world’s data. That being the case, what could be more useful to a storage admin than receiving media for Christmas? Certified Media from Spectra Logic, no less! Coupled with Spectra’s Media Lifecycle Management in every Spectra library, Spectra Certified Media helps ensure your backups complete successfully and your archived data is safe and healthy.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me;
2 Spectra Certified Tapes
and a large frosty beer.

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On the first day...

Posted At : December 9, 2009 1:26 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Tape Backup, Disk Backup, Deduplication

As we approach the holidays, it seemed like a fun idea to do the 12 Days of Christmas - Spectra Style. Look for an update everyday from the blog team. 

 
Data protection is one of the little noticed battlefields in IT. The least glamorous part of IT touches everything from front line applications to security to networking and of course storage. If everything works perfectly, no one knows you are there. Without a doubt, this Holiday Season, backup administrators and storage guys deserve a nice cold beverage.
 
 

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a large frosty beer.

 

If you find yourself in the area, I have some Boulder Beer in the fridge.

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Dedupe to Tape - a Qualified Maybe

Posted At : October 28, 2009 10:35 AM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Disk Backup, Backup Software, Deduplication

Dedupe, Dedupe, Dedupe....  In the last few weeks, every time I look online, someone is talking about dedupe.   New models, customer testimonials or new places to use dedupe.   Everyone sees the value in dedupe when looking at backup to disk, but where else can we use it?  Some talk about dedupe on primary disk storage, I would love to dedupe hills when riding my bike, I am sure Captain Kirk would like to dedupe the Tribbles and I think we would all love to find a way to dedupe our bills.  At the same time, I don't want to dedupe everything - I already don't go on as many dates as I would like.  What about deduping backups to tape? 


There has been some fun and exciting conversation about dedupe to tape in the last few days.  I started reading this latest flourish of conversation at Storage Soup.  As someone that's evening plans got deduped, I had plenty of time to poke around online.  It all seems to have started with W. Curtis Preston's comments that dedupe to tape has its place.  Of course, others jumped in, disagreeing.  I have been paying attention to the CommVault feature, and learning what I can about it for a while now.   CommVault was my first gig out of the Air Force, so I have a soft spot for them.  I also think the make good software, so while I never really thought the idea of dedupe to tape was a good one, I kept an open mind about their implementation.

 
Should an organization dedupe to tape?  It seems that everyone writing about it this week agrees that the answer is no if they want to recover from that copy of the data.  That certainly makes sense to me, and is in line with what I have told people for a couple of years now when they have asked what I thought.  Curtis' comment makes a lot of sense:
 
"They recommend it for a very specific user case: the tapes you know you're making that you never plan to restore from"  
 
After 10 years on the vendor side of backup and storage, I have been in a lot of data centers all over the country.  My idle curiosity often gets the best of me, and I ask - what's on those tapes on the wall?  It became a pretty typical refrain - "We have no idea, they have been here longer than anyone in the shop."  We really do have backups we never think we will need to recover; we just store them because we have to.  Overall, this speaks to process problems and using backup for something it isn't designed for. (Why don't more organizations actually start archiving?)  That is a conversation for a different blog entry.  
 
When I work with an account team and customer to architect a data protection scheme, I always think worst case.  Today, when we backup most of data to disk first, recovery from tape most likely means you are having a bad day.  50 tape swaps for a server recovery would make that a very bad day.  At that moment no one will feel better that they saved a couple hundred bucks on tapes six months ago. 
 
It seems the ideal application for deduped tape would be:
 
o    Large amount of data – LTO-4 is big; LTO-5 will be huge.  If you are not filling lots of these tapes, there does not seem to be any benefit
o    Archived for a long time - if your retention period is only a few months, the savings in media won't be that great, as you would get to recycle your tapes.
o    Expect very, very few recoveries from tape copy
o    Expect no large recoveries from tape copy
o    Will never have to bring tapes in from off site location for recovery
 
So, would I dedupe to tape? I don’t think so, but then I would hope my retention policies would not include long term retention with almost no expectation of recovery. I think some organizations will see great benefits from dedupe to tape, and others will not.  If I found myself in that situation would I? Yes. Ultimatly, I think the value in the dedupe to tape conversation with many organizations is it will force them to think about the process that creates all those old copies of data. That kind of review can always lead to better data protection.
 
Follow me at www.Twitter.com/3pedal.

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As someone that loves things to make noise

Posted At : October 2, 2009 2:06 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Deduplication

 

As someone that loves things to make noise, and go fast, I am always on the hunt for “more”.  Unfortunately, more can be expensive.  I am always looking for ways to make my toys faster, stronger, and of course cooler.  The problem is it normally costs a lot to get just a little improvement.  Whenever I stumble across “free” performance in a product, I feel like I have just won something.  It seemed appropriate to me that while I was on a flight coming home from indulging in one of my passions last week at the Reno Air Races (the fastest motorsport in the world) Spectra Logic  announced some new nTier Deduplication models that are all about more – more performance, more capacity and more value.
 
riff raff 2009.JPG
 
The first thing most people notice about the new nTier v160 and v320 is how they fit our model lineup.  They do fit in nicely between the  nTier Classic models, addressing the needs of customers that fell in the gap between them, although that really does not tell the whole story.  Based on the nTier 500 chassis, the v160 and v320 carry with them the blistering performance of 500MB/s backup speeds.  When looking at competing models, they offer more capacity, and the best part is—wait for it— they cost a lot LESS.  In one case, less than half the price of a popular competing box.  I wish I could find that in a car part.
 
In the last week, I have talked with sales reps, partners and customers about the new nTier models.  The comments remain consistent; the IT industry continues to seek ways to do more with less.  Deduplication can help there, but can be cost prohibitive.  The v160 and v320 help do more with less by providing the superior performance needed, with more capacity at a lower cost.  Backup windows will not grow, and often will shrink when the nTier becomes the initial target.  Automated replication and archive tape creation reduce the man hours needed to manage repetitive backup tasks.  This is more value.
 
I am sure the racers at Reno wish they could find such a deal. It is like JATO for backup!
 

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Dedupe and tape elope

Posted At : August 25, 2009 6:44 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Disk Backup, Deduplication

"Deduplication has made tape irrelevant" ... "Tape Sucks" ... “I'm amazed how fast everyone is abandoning tape.”   The deduplication industry in particular, has been extremely vocal about how it is killing off tape. Fighting the conventional wisdom, Spectra Logic is running full speed ahead as a tape company with solid deduplication offerings. As I sit in a hotel room in Phoenix after another day full of meetings with customers and partners, pondering where to have dinner in Scottsdale, I find it interesting that most people I talk to these days find our deduplication with a true tie to tape a "fresh" approach.
 
Don't get me wrong, deduplication by itself is great, and many companies have been able to go tapeless with it. Given the right combination of data, retention, compliance concerns and several other variables, it is possible to have a great data protection infrastructure without tape. Unfortunately, the real world does not often line up that way. That is why I think Spectra’s unique tie to tape with nTier, just announced this morning, is so important. The reality is that some organizations will never be able to get rid of tape. (I don't care what type of data you are storing or archiving, disk is not a good place to keep static data for 7 years.)   Other organizations at a minimum need tape “here and there”. I will leave it up to my partners in crime to preach the benefits of tape, but rest assured, I am the disk guy— who happens to still believe in tape. 
 
This brings me back to the nTier, and its tie to tape. Most organizations are still using tape for their long term backup and archive storage. Instead of disrupting that, nTier with deduplication fits right in. Now, an organization with multiple remote sites can deploy smaller appliances at each remote site, replicate to the main location, and have long term tape copies created at the central site without any administrator interaction at all. It just does not make sense to ignore the predominate media for backup. 
 
That is how automated data protection should be!
 
 
 

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Searching for the Holy Grail: Pain-Free Backups

Posted At : August 21, 2009 4:09 PM | Posted By : Kevin Dudak
Related Categories: Disk Backup, Deduplication

It is pretty interesting being the "disk guy" at what is thought of as a tape library company.   There is always an opportunity to educate both internally and externally, and that can be fun.  The unfortunate fact is, disk has become way too confusing.  Every vendor has some new spin on disk, with new terms, philosophies and technology, all in the search for the holy grail: pain-free backups.   In the process of trying to solve all this pain, the vendor community may have just created confusion. 

For example, I just had a Systems Engineer in my office talking about sizing deduplication arrays.  A customer thought of deduplication as a type of compression.  It is easy to understand why, after all, most deduplication marketing materials stress deduplication ratios.  If you don't think about it every day, it isn't easy to see that the first backup might get 2:1, the 90th backup might get 500:1 and the system average is 20:1.  Now mix in replication, snapshots, iSCSI, NAS, Fibre Channel, Backup Software, compliance, DR, e-discovery…..  The list seems to be growing.
 
The classic backup pains still exist, and as much as I wish there were, there isn't a “silver bullet” product that solves all the problems.  Of course, deduplication is the hot topic in backup and archive these days. It can be a very powerful tool when used correctly, but the noise that end user organizations must wade through to understand dedupe can be overwhelming.  Does it really need to be this hard?  I would hope not, and when I work with sales and customers, I am trying to make sure it isn't.  But a lot of the damage has been done.
 
In the end, we need to solve the backup problems different organizations have.  As the disk guy, it would be great if they were all solved with disk, but tape and software will also be a large part of the landscape. What are your thoughts on the topic?
 
 

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