Have you ever checked out those too-good-to-be-true vacation deals advertised online? They usually include a great price on an airline ticket and three or four nights in a nice hotel. But among other gotchas, the return departure times are inconvenient, there’s a three hour stop over and you have to fly on Puddle Jumper Airlines. People are so excited about the getaway, they don’t pay much attention to the getting home. It’s human nature.

Data managers can easily fall into the same trap. Looking for a faster, more efficient backup solution is only half the story. You also need to restore data quickly and easily too. That may not be as easy as you think. Consider the following when evaluating a backup solution:

A lot of backup solutions can only restore data through the same port that was used to back it up. Even if you have several completely idle ports, your restore job will wait until the specific port that backed up the data you need is available. Consider a backup solution that lets you backup and restore from any available port.

If you are asking your VTL to complete a large-volume enterprise backup within your backup window and deduplicate it, and restore some portion of it within your lifetime, you better be able to run more than one node at a time. Be sure that your backup solution can apply all available processing power where it’s needed.

All deduplication technologies replace duplicate data with pointers to a single copy. To restore data, they have to use the pointers to reassemble the data you need. If your data is scattered all over your disk, and if it is only using one node, reassembly may take a lot longer than you think. Consider a backup solution that keeps the most recent (and not coincidently the most likely to be restored) backup intact and deduplicates the old stuff.

Bottom line. Getting your data backed up is only half the challenge. Before you choose a backup solution, don’t forget to plan the return trip.

If you want a good summer scare fest, don’t bother with the latest Batman movie. Just read the headlines. Oil prices are up. Stock market is down. The mortgage crisis is crippling global banks. And let’s not forget global warming.

That’s why I couldn’t resist the urge to ask for a little free advice from a friend who is a financial planner. I just wanted to know if I should cash out the kids’ college fund and invest in ocean-front property in Vermont. Or maybe buy a few shares of the latest solar-powered car technology. And selfishly, will I be older than rocks before I can afford to retire?

Her answer was simple. First, think long-term. What are you trying to accomplish? College tuitions? Early retirement? Second, do your homework. Make sure your IRA, 401K, college funds etc. are diversified and in well-proven funds. Don’t fall for fads or hype. Third, if an investment scheme sounds outlandish. It is.

I supressed a yawn and continued my questioning. But, what about the headlines? Shouldn’t I be scared? Aren’t they trustworthy?

Headlines, she countered, are for ratings and readership. Imagine what the news would sound like if every commentator gave the same advice that she did? Boring. That’s not to say that news stories aren’t factual. But you have a responsibility to put them into context and understand the bigger picture.

In the storage industry, headlines, vendor hype, even analyst sound bites can be pretty scary too. They’ll have you convinced that if you don’t dump all your physical tape, virtualize everything that moves in your data center and deduplicate, deduplicate, deduplicate, your data center will explode before your eyes.

Worst of all, they don’t have time or column space for in-depth analysis. You have to a pay an analyst or a consultant for that. They just pick one feature or functionality in a given technology and go to town on it. They tell you that everyone everywhere needs the deduplication feature or functionality du jour and anyone using a different method or technology will suffer dire consequences.

SEPATON has been on the positive side of all this, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain. But don’t spend hours down in the weeds comparing deduplication ratios that are each calculated with a different methodology, digging into the benefits of inline vs concurrent vs post process; and decyphering the relative speed of capacity recycling in isolation.

At the end of the day, you are better off applying my friend’s advice.

Think big picture. Everyone wants to store backup data in less space, but what technology has the most positive business impact? Lower labor costs? Less capital expense? More end-user productivity? Investment protection? SLAs on operational performance

Think longer term. What will your data center look like in a year? Two years? Five years. Are you focusing on automating more manual functions? Managing data in a more integrated way? Providing more end user access? Higher levels of availability? Lower cost per GB stored? Evaluate whether your deduplication technology will be a step in that direction or be a future “rip and replace”.

Do your homework. Don’t get bogged down in the minutae, but understand the fundamentals and facts about how different technologies move you toward your end game.

Don’t panic. Forget the hype. When the dust settles there are only a few technologies that can do the heavy lifting needed to protect and deduplicate data at the enterprise scale.

Do you have any good advice to add to this list? Let us know.

I just returned from Symantec Vision, held June 9-13 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The weather wasn’t the only thing that was hot (some days topped out at nearly 110 degrees), but all the buzz was around data deduplication. In addition to SEPATON (with DeltaStor), there were no fewer than seven other vendors exhibiting under the deduplication banner. However, the focus of this buzz was on the larger “data center class” customers, where the following deduplication themes were highlighted:

• Simplicity of management
• “Scale As You Grow” grid concepts
• Availability of data

These are clearly points that SEPATON wholeheartedly agrees with. Naturally, Symantec was heavily promoting their branded technologies, but it’s interesting to note their intended direction, and compare that with what SEPATON has been advocating for years.

Lets’ see:

• Simplicity of management? Check. Our just-released v5.0 software (S2100-ES2 VTL, Site², and DeltaStor) sports increased levels of automation, wizards, and simple “click management” that is all presented through a single management pane.
• “Scale As You Grow” Grid? Check. Our very first products included grid technology, and we strongly leverage that ability with DeltaStor to simplify scaling out deduplication. The difference is we can make guarantees around performance, availability and recoverability of data that are difficult or impossible with a software-only play.
• Availability of data? Check. Combined with our fully-redundant hardware plant along with end-to-end integrity checks in the software, we can provide a compelling data availability solution.
  

The biggest difference that I noted: SEPATON’s software is available today, and much of what Symantec was preaching was part of their “Vision and Roadmap” presentation.

If you were there, let us know what you thought!