CommVault® Systems

CommVault Takes a Single Pass at the Big Data Management Problem

2012-04-30T13:15:00Z

It's no secret that 'Big Data' is becoming a 'Big Problem' for organizations from a data and storage management perspective. However what organizations may fail to realize is that the best way to solve their Big Data problems is NOT by mindlessly throwing more resources at them. Rather it is to look at Big Data more strategically and then tackle the data management problems it creates in one fell swoop using software like CommVault® Simpana® and its OnePass technology.

The current and forecasted growth of Big Data in organizations is well documented. New forces such as manual and machine-generated data and lengthening regulatory requirements are only part of what is contributing to organizations having to create and maintain ever larger data stores. Additionally, organizations are pulling in and having to manage data across multiple sources such as scalable file systems, desktops, laptops and public and private clouds, just to name a few, which is resulting in an expanding digital universe that they need to manage ever more efficiently.

If that is not enough, the policies that many organizations have in place are at best poorly administered resulting in them retaining much more data and for longer periods of time than needed. Companies further aggrevate the situation by creating multiple silos of duplicate data through their use of separate archiving and backup software products. Reasons like these are why one analyst firm recently forecast that digital archive capacity would nearly quadruple between now and 2015.

So while it appears data growth is inevitable, organizations can take steps now to control this data growth to limit Big Data's impact on them. Three steps they should consider taking immediately are:

Start to view data and storage management from a strategic perspective in order to reduce silos and duplicate processes
Make hardware and software acquisitions in light of these more strategic objectives
Implement a central data management platform to deliver on them

While most organizations would agree in principle with these three steps, identifying and then implementing the right data management platform to manage their growing data stores may be tricky.

On one end of the spectrum are products that take a federated approach to data management. Vendors provide separate software products to deliver a full complement of data managements features (archive, backup, reporting, search and data movement.) However the vendors only offer "one product" in the sense that they are available from one vendor. Beyond that, they have their own agents, catalogs and data stores so they do not fully address the challenges of managing Big Data.

Conversely, on the other end of the spectrum, are products that only deliver on one or a couple of these features. These then require organizations to acquire multiple products to deliver on the data management features they want. This approach also usually results in them aggravating data management problems by again creating different catalogs, data stores and policy engines.

This is where CommVault Simpana software has and continues to differentiate itself. It delivers the core data management features that companies want in a single product while enabling them to centrally administer this data without the pitfalls that other approaches can create.

Key ways that CommVault software differentiates itself include:

OnePass technology. To archive, backup, report or search data stores, data first has to be scanned. Other software applications may have to complete this scan for each operation - i.e. scan, backup, scan, archive, scan, report. This is especially troublesome in the era of Big Data as each scan could potentially take days.

Simpana 9 eliminates this concern with its OnePass feature that provides a single, consolidated agent that indexes and catalogs file data once. This single catalog is then shared, accessed and used by each of Simpana software's archiving, backup, reporting and search components which eliminates the time and effort needed to manage, move and access data stored for archive and backup processes.

Single data store. It is common for archive software to have its own data store and backup software to have its own data store, sometimes even if both archive and backup software are obtained from the same vendor. Simpana eliminates this redundancy by storing all managed data across backup and archive in a single, scalable, hardware-independent virtual repository called the ContentStore.

Using its shared catalog and single ContentStore, Simpana software both controls and tracks what data resides where. So a file will reside on primary storage and be backed up until the policy to move it to archive storage kicks in where it is retained according to the user's needs. It no longer consumes primary storage or contributes to the time and resources required to protect the production file system and all copies of the file are searchable, whether they were created for either process. Its embedded, global deduplication feature further contributes to reducing the size of data stores by recognizing like chunks of data across different processes and only storing them once.

Single policy engine. Organizations that use and implement data management software typically expect to take on a more proactive role in the management of their data. For example, if they no longer need certain files, they may delete them. However, the gap most data management software leaves is that all the copies of these files that may reside in archives and backups are probably not automatically deleted.

Simpana software closes this data management gap by using a single policy engine that references its catalog to track where all data is located - whether in an archive or in a backup. For example, delete and purge can take place with OnePass technology archive operations such that when a user or application deletes a stub, OnePass can, via policy, remove the file from the archive or keep it for an extended period of time. This allows archived files to be removed from the archive without having to delete an entire job or data set..

Optimized data placement on storage media. Organizations have more storage tiers than ever before from which to choose - cloud, tape and multiple tiers of disk, just to name a few. However getting the right data on the right tier at the right time using multiple data management products and processes is just about impossible.

Simpana 9 again addresses this concern. Using a single product, files in archive, backup and production storage can be managed across multiple tiers of storage including the aforementioned cloud, tape and tiers of disk. By simply setting policies in Simpana software, it can then dynamically and automatically move data to any of these various tiers of storage, still retrievable and accessible at any time.

Throwing more "cheap" storage capacity at the Big Data challenge is really no solution at all if growing data stores are to remain accessible, searchable, understandable and manageable. No matter how "cheap" storage is or becomes, the growth of Big Data is far outpacing the time and resources needed to protect and manage it so eventually the cost of NOT managing Big Data will bite every organization.

The sooner organizations view Big Data strategically, the sooner that they can take the steps necessary to manage it in a cost effective, efficient and timely manner. However this will only occur by putting in place a data management solution that can centrally manage and consolidate their growing file systems with a single integrated tool and a single data repository to complement it. Using CommVault Simpana software with its ContentStore, OnePass technology, embedded deduplication, single policy engine and ability to optimize data placement will enable organizations to do exactly that.

CommVault Strengthens Its Case for being the Enterprise One-Stop-Shop for Managing Physical and Virtual Backup and Recovery

2012-02-21T11:00:00Z

Today's defining characteristics of enterprise backup software are not whether they support VMware backups or use VMware's APIs for Data Protection (VADP). Those features should be a given. The new hallmarks of enterprise backup software are how well they manage physical and virtual environments from a single console and accelerate and simplify virtual machine (VM) restores. It is these enhancements that users will find natively included with CommVault® Simpana® 9.

Even two or three years ago it was unusual to find enterprise backup software solutions providing extensive support for VMware environments. Yes, you could install their agents on individual VMs and run client backups in the traditional sense, but, even then, many began to see this approach was flawed.

The ability of VMware-only backup software products to leverage VMware VADP and do transparent backup and recovery of VMware VMs became their distinguishing feature and led to heightened interest in these products. But as organizations of all sizes look to consolidate physical and virtual backups using a single product, this VMware-only backup functionality is turning into an Achilles Heel.

Support for VMware VADP is now standard fare on many enterprise backup software products and no longer the differentiator it once was. If anything, enterprise backup software providers have turned the tables on these VMware-only backup software products. The features included in Service Pack 4 (SP4) of CommVault Simpana 9 exemplify this transformation that is occurring. Consider:

Consolidates and centralizes the management of the backup and recovery of both physical and virtual environments. VMware-only backup solutions are for the most part blind to the physical servers that exist in organizations today and will persist for some time to come. Further, as more VMs host production applications, the responsibilities as to who should protect these VMs are shifting in one of two directions.

Using the existing central backup team to do both virtual and physical backup is one direction that organizations potentially take. However this team is looking to use one tool where possible to do both types of backups.

The other possibility is that as organizations consolidate backup, server and storage administrators, these individuals now need to take on both physical and virtual backups. Here again, they are likely to prefer using all-in-one backup solution as opposed to disparate application specific backup tools.

In this respect, CommVault Simpana has a decided edge over purpose-built VM backup tools as it protects physical environments. Further, it has even leapfrogged many of these purpose-built VM backup tools in its ability to protect VMs as evidenced by its #1 ranking in DCIG's most recent Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide.

Extends recovery capabilities to VMware administrators with vCenter Server plug-in. SP4 includes a vCenter Server plug-in so VMware administrators can do a self-service restore of a VM directly from the vCenter Server console as the screen shot below illustrates. This minimizes or eliminates the need for VMware administrators to go through the regular process of contacting the help desk or backup team to do a restore which helps to bring recovery times down to a couple of minutes.

The granularity of the recovery is at the discretion of the VMware administrator. It may be a more holistic recovery when the admin recovers the entire VMDK file. Alternatively the admin may drill down into the VM itself and recover a specific file. By default, CommVault enables both though backup admins can disable the ability to do granular file recoveries within VMs if they so desire.

Leverages CommVault's deep security integration with AD for role based recoveries. Enabling VMware administrators to do recoveries is desirable only inasmuch as organizations can control who can perform the recoveries of specific VMs and their data. To ensure VMware administrators can only recover VMs which they are authorized to see, CommVault's vCenter Server plug-in ties back into an organization's active directory (AD) or LDAP implementation.

This feature ensures VMware admins can only see the VMs and the data within these VMs that they are authorized to access. Further, they cannot even see other VMs that they do not have permission to restore.

The beauty of this approach is each VMware admin's restore permissions are taken directly from a company's existing security policies within AD so there is not additional setup or configuration required to put this functionality into place.

The edge that VMware-only backup software products once had over enterprise backup software products has eroded and may now even be completely gone. Instead what we see emerging is a widening gulf between enterprise backup software products and the VMware-only backup software products that sought to replace them.

As products like CommVault Simpana bridge the physical-virtual backup and recovery management gap while also expediting, simplifying and securing VM recoveries, the arguments for using separate backup products for physical and virtual environments are dissipating. If anything, the arguments for using CommVault Simpana 9 to manage both physical and virtual backup and recovery become more compelling with each major and minor release that CommVault puts out.

CommVault Breaks Storage Array Snapshot Glass Ceiling with IntelliSnap Connect Program

2012-01-24T13:30:00Z

Today there are more open system arrays with more features from more vendors from which organizations may choose. Yet what is emerging as an obstacle to organizations considering some of these arrays as viable options is their inability to leverage these snapshot capabilities. That obstacle may be short-lived thanks in part to the CommVault IntelliSnap Connect Program.

The recently published DCIG 2012 Midrange Array Buyer's Guide took an exhaustive look at over 50 enterprise midrange arrays and the features available on them. But when DCIG specifically examines how many arrays offered some type of snapshot feature, it found that 93% of enterprise midrange arrays did so. Yet what is not so prevalent is the ability of third party software to effectively manage these snapshots.

Snapshot support in backup software becomes critical as organizations virtualize their server infrastructures using VMware and then host virtualized machines (VMs) on open systems arrays. As this occurs organizations tend to want to leverage the array's snapshot feature to move the overhead associated with backup and recovery from the ESX server to the array.

Making this transition is only possible if an organization's backup software integrates with and can manage the array's snapshots. This requirement to integrate with the array snapshot shortens the potential list of arrays that organizations may use significantly. Most enterprise backup software products only support snapshot features from market leaders such as Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM and NetApp.

The introduction of the IntelliSnap Connect Program from CommVault enables other open systems array providers to break through this glass ceiling and become viable alternatives to these market leaders. Here is how the program works:

Storage providers initially sign an agreement with CommVault to gain access to a software development kit (SDK) and an API. As part of the agreement, it either pays a qualification fee or provides a working array with relevant snapshot software to CommVault for qualification.
CommVault works with the storage provider to ensure the vendor is doing the proper testing and software development so that its snapshot software may be managed by CommVault® Simpana® and its Snap Protect technology.
When the snapshot qualification testing and validation are complete, a co-branded data sheet, configuration guide and press release is issued.

The viability of this program is evident out of the gate. As of today, CommVault users may now manage the snapshot features on 9 of the 10 top enterprise storage system arrays including the likes of Dell Compellent and Dell PowerVault MD lines of storage.

Further, XIO and emerging storage provider Nimble Storage are currently working through the IntelliSnap program and expect to announce in the near future that CommVault Simpana can manage the snapshot feature on their storage arrays, too.

There are also two other highly desirable aspects about this program.

Gives organizations more open system array options from which to choose. High performance storage systems are an emerging class of storage often deployed in conjunction with VDI and server virtualization implementations. While many of these provide snapshot functionality, because these storage systems are offered by emerging providers, their snapshot feature is not supported by any enterprise backup software. This delays or even precludes the adoption of these storage systems by the organization.

The IntelliSnap Connect program gives them a road map to get this qualification that both storage providers and end users covet. Normally providers have to wait until they have sufficient market share before the backup software provider makes it a priority to qualify their snapshot feature with their backup software.

Now using CommVault storage providers can avoid the uncertainty of waiting until they achieve market momentum while getting the backup software qualifications and certifications that their enterprise customer want and expect to offer.

Facilitates the transition to CommVault Simpana for protecting their virtualized environment. Taking advantage of the snapshot functionality on open system arrays clearly requires that organizations transition to using CommVault Simpana if they are not already doing so. But the uncertainty normally associated with transitioning to a new backup software solution is greatly minimized as now the principal concern is the integration that exists between CommVault and the array as opposed to installing backup agents on each server operating system.

The introduction of server virtualization is creating fundamental changes in how data centers operate and in which storage solutions they choose. Among these changes, hosting VMs on next generation storage arrays and then using their snapshot feature as the primary way to do backups and recoveries is chief among them. However to do this effectively requires a high level integration between the backup software and each array's snapshot feature.

CommVault Simpana's ability to integrate with and manage array snapshots contributed to achieving its #1 ranking in the DCIG 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide. DCIG also found it to manage the largest number of open systems array snapshots in the DCIG 2011 Midrange Array Snapshot Software Buyer's Guide. Now CommVault builds on that legacy with its IntelliSnap Connect Program that breaks through the glass ceiling that has been inadvertently created over the last few years.

By giving any storage provider the ability to certify its snapshot feature with CommVault Simpana, organizations have new freedom to choose from more open systems arrays. This gives them access to the open systems arrays with the performance they need and the next generation backup and recovery options they want.

Archiving, Business Continuity and DR Should be Part of Every Organization's Cloud-based Backup Strategy

2011-12-06T13:30:00Z

"The Cloud" is used in many contexts today though organizations most often associate it with "backup, business continuity, disaster recovery and archiving," in that order. This puts the onus on organizations to select a solution that does more than just "backup" and which is why they should look for cloud service providers (CSPs) that use CommVault® Simpana® software to meet these emerging cloud-based expectations.

When organizations think of the "Cloud," 76% first and foremost think "backup" according to a recent InformationWeek Analytics poll. But it is also noteworthy that they associate the "Cloud" with business continuity (70%), disaster recovery (70%) and file archiving (68%) purposes as well.

So organizations have to think of both the "Cloud" and those providing cloud services in a broader context than just backup. As such they need to select a solution - and a provider - that delivers on this broader set of requirements. This is why Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) that use CommVault Simpana are well positioned to meet these new requirements that organization either now or in the near future are going to expect the cloud to offer.

Consider:

Backup comes first. Organizations first and foremost want to solve their backup pain across both their physical and virtual environments with their cloud-based solution which CommVault provides. CommVault supports all enterprise operating system platforms (physical and virtual,) provides deduplication to minimize data stores and then encrypts data prior to storing it in the cloud to preserve the integrity of the client data.

CommVault does archiving as well. Once backup is in place, cloud-based archiving will likely follow closely on its heels. Using CommVault organizations natively have access to its archiving feature and can start using it when they are ready for minimal extra cost or without needing to deploy a second solution.

Connectors to multiple cloud storage providers. It may seem a stretch to think of CSPs using cloud storage from other cloud providers to augment or complement their in-house storage. But not every cloud storage provider is going offer a cloud-based backup service as cloud storage providers like Amazon S3, Mezeo and Nirvanix have no plans to do so.

A CSP that uses cloud storage from these providers may actually be a more affordable and practical option than if they had to build their own storage solution to store all of their client's data. By using CommVault's Cloud Connector feature both CSPs and their clients have the flexibility to store data with any of these providers as each one has differing availability and performance requirements. In this way, CSPs can extend to their clients the freedom to choose the back-end cloud storage infrastructure that most closely aligns with their specific needs.

Build business continuity and disaster recovery services on top of CommVault. Most organizations are minimally equipped to recover from any a kind disaster should one occur. However using CommVault for cloud-based backup, both CSPs and organizations can affordably build out a business continuity and disaster recovery solution using existing cloud storage solutions. CommVault CSPs, such as IT-Lifeline, Inc., are already using CommVault in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build out affordable, practical and scalable business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for their clients in the cloud.

The most common path that organizations are taking to get into the "The Cloud" and that CSPs are offering to their clients is cloud-based backup. But once in "The Cloud," organizations are not looking to go on cruise control. They are looking for "The Cloud" to also deliver other services such as archiving, business continuity and disaster recovery that they cannot adequately deliver on their own today.

So it behooves CSPs and organizations alike to select a cloud-based backup solution that delivers more than just backup. While backup is certainly critical and the first feature that organizations will likely look for CSPs to deliver, by selecting a CSP that uses CommVault Simpana they will get more than the ability to backup to "The Cloud." They will lay the foundation to get access to all of the cloud services that they will eventually expect the "Cloud" to deliver.

CommVault VMware Channel Focus Program Puts SMBs on Road to Virtual Stability

2011-08-29T12:00:00Z

The realization is starting to set in. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) acknowledge that using VMware they can consolidate their server infrastructures, optimize their hardware resources and expedite the deployment of new applications. But putting in place solutions that virtualize, protect and manage this burgeoning infrastructure is anything but a straight forward exercise. If is for this reason that CommVault is introducing a new reference architecture and VMware channel program to help SMBs accelerate and simplify the backup, management and recovery of data even as they deploy VMware in their environments.

The adoption rate of server virtualization by SMBs continues its upward trajectory. According to Gartner in 2009 only about 28% of SMBs had adopted server virtualization but by 2012 that percentage should flip-flop with 75% of SMBs expected to have adopted server virtualization.

Being a little more than halfway through 2011 it is logical to conclude that the number of SMBs is somewhere in the middle of that journey with approximately 50% having deployed server virtualization and using it daily. It is as this shift occurs that they are coming to the realization that not only is the traditional way of doing backup changing but that VMware creates an entire new paradigm as to how they should architect their infrastructure.

For example, here are just some of the new data management and protection challenges that VMware creates:

More data to backup. VMware makes it easier to create and host more virtual machines (VMs) on a single server. These additional VMs mean more data to backup.
Fewer physical server resources to dedicate to backup. Putting more VMs on a single physical machine creates more pressure to complete backups faster while at the same time using less server resources.
More backup options. Backup software providers have not been standing still as SMB adoption rates for VMware have accelerated. But there are now so many options to protect their virtual environment, how does an SMB know it is getting the right solution for their environment and, if they implement it, will it scale across their environment?

It is for these reasons that CommVault today announces its new VMware channel-enablement program. The foundation of the program is based on the CommVault® Simpana® software which includes all of Simpana's features (archiving, backup, data management, recover, search, SnapProtect(TM), deduplication) that SMBs are likely to need.

To make Simpana attractive to SMBs, CommVault is including all of these features for $25,000. This price covers 3 TBs of data on primary storage with the option for SMBs to extend the license to manage and protect additional data at $7,000 per TB.

Since this program is targeted at SMBs, the Simpana license only supports Windows and Linux out of the box. However it does include the option to economically add in some specific features an SMB may need (such as support for a UNIX OS or specific database) and a roadmap to upgrade to the full featured version of Simpana should that ever be a requirement.

The impetus behind the VMware channel focus program is that CommVault recognizes that just offering its Simpana software with all of its features at this price point is still insufficient. If SMBs really want to take advantage of all of the options that Simpana software provides for backup, data management and recovery in virtual environments, they need an infrastructure in place that works with Simpana.

This is where CommVault's new VMware channel focus program comes into play. SMBs are more apt to take advantage of all of Simpana's capabilities if they already have an infrastructure in place that is supported by Simpana. Further, since many SMBs are putting in place new infrastructures (storage specifically) to support their new VMware deployments, now is an ideal time for CommVault to partner with storage providers.

It is as SMBs deploy new storage systems they can simultaneously implement a data management and protection solution that can take advantage of advanced features such as snapshots that these storage systems offer.

Out of the gate the VMware channel program provides a reference architecture that illustrates how CommVault is deployed as part of a larger server and storage deployment for a VMware environment. This architecture provides much needed guidance to SMBs as to how to configure their newly virtualized environment so it does more than support than newly virtualized applications but also puts SMBs in a position where they can manage, protect and recover them day 1.

It should also be noted that SMBs are not the only ones who can benefit from this new reference architecture that CommVault is now offering for VMware channel partners. CommVault has been thinking about the challenges of deploying scalable virtual infrastructure solutions for the enterprise with reference architectures for this space as well. For this market segment CommVault has developed its VIRAL program (VMware Reference Achitecture Leaders) which you can read more about in more detail in a CommVault blog entry.

SMBs realize that going forward they need to virtualize their environment. But they are also coming to the realization that they need to manage, protect and recover the data they put into that environment and that the right time to implement that data management and protection strategy is the same time that they put their new virtual infrastructure in place. This new CommVault VMware channel focus program gives them the ability and confidence to do so at a price that is within their means.

NetApp CommVault OEM Relationship Harnesses the Power of Snapshots in Physical and Virtual Environments

2011-05-31T12:00:00Z

Backup redesign continues to be one of the hottest topics among end users for three years running with blog entries on that topic on DCIG's website consistently being among the most read. The problem is that many backup redesign offerings turn out to be just a rehash of the way backup has always been done which is inadequate when it comes to protecting growing virtual server environments. Today's announcement regarding the new CommVault and NetApp OEM relationship changes that by providing enterprises a better method to harness the power of snapshots to better protect their growing virtual and traditional physical environments.

Over the last few years a number of new VM backup solutions and/or features have emerged that take advantage of new virtual server operating system features that provide much faster backup and recovery techniques. Among these image-based backups using VMware's change block tracking (CBT) and source-based data deduplication have emerged as the two most prominent and successful ways to accomplish this.

But a potential problem with either of these approaches is that they still rely on computer resources on the physical vSphere or Hyper-V host t to complete the backup of VMs it hosts. While these techniques help to reduce the overhead on these hosts, they still consume some compute cycles and network bandwidth.

Further, some level of application knowledge may be required to appropriately schedule the backups of individual VMs so these backups do not negatively impact the performance of other applications or backups of VMs running on that host.

So as more enterprises look to host hundreds, thousands or even potentially tens of thousands of VMs in their environments as some already do, there is a fundamental need to redesign how VMs are protected. New techniques should enable them to be done:

Automatically
More quickly
Non-disruptively
Non-intrusively
Off-host

Storage array-based snapshot and replication technology has often been viewed as the natural evolution of host-based backups (VM or otherwise.) Unfortunately to date it has been too costly and difficult to implement. Backup software did not do a good job of supporting storage array snapshot features, storage administrators did not want to get in the data protection business and, in those instances where integration between backup software and storage array snapshots did exist, backup software and storage array licensing costs precluded its adoption.

Today's announcement regarding the new partnership between CommVault and NetApp does more than provide the broader architecture that is needed for the backup and management of VM backups and recoveries to succeed in today's enterprise virtualized environments. It also overcomes the historical objections associated with using backup software and storage array-based snapshots as well.

The crux of today's announcement is that NetApp and CommVault have entered into a global OEM relationship whereby NetApp can directly sell SnapProtect to integrate into virtual and physical environments through a single common data management platform for data stored on the NetApp Array. But the value of this relationship stems from how enterprises can now take advantage of the two leading products in snapshot technology and efficient array replication (NetApp) and storage-array snapshot management technology (CommVault.)

In a 2011 Midrange Array Snapshot Software Buyer's Guide that DCIG recently completed, NetApp achieved the highest score in storage array snapshot functionality. Harnessing that functionality is, however, easier said than done if the backup software is not capable of managing it.

By NetApp now partnering and reselling CommVault and its SnapProtect™ feature, enterprises can take full advantage of NetApp's Snapshot®, SnapMirror® and SnapVault® features through CommVault's interface. For example, CommVault can schedule and manage:

NetApp Snapshots of individual VMs in the same way as other backups. CommVault SnapProtect's heightened integration with NetApp's Snapshot enables enterprises to get all of the features that they normally expect when doing backups. Restores of individual files, data classification and snapshot managementare donein the same way as the management of any other backup copy residing on disk or tape.

NetApp SnapVault which only copies of block of data that have changed since the backup.SnapVault enables to backups to be scheduled and taken more frequently so there are more restore points while minimizing the amount of storage capacity consumed. Using CommVaultorganizations can also schedule how frequently SnapVault copies are taken and how long they are retained.

NetApp SnapMirror to facilitate the offsite movement of data and application recovery.Managing the movement of data offsite and then managing data and application recoveries once data is offsite remains an Achilles' heel in many backup redesigns. But by CommVault natively managing SnapMirror, organizations can both take advantage of SnapMirror's thin replication capabilities and bring the management of that replicated data and the recovery of the application data under Simpana's control.

These multiple integration points between CommVault and NetApp enable enterprises that are looking to implement server virtualization and cloud based infrastructures to seamlessly move the overhead associated with VM backup from the physical servers to the NetApp storage array. Further, these VM snapshots may be left on the NetApp array and used by CommVault as the source for data recovery or copying it off to disk or tape for longer term retention.

But what makes this both affordable and practical for enterprises to implement is that CommVault now has a capacity based licensing model which gives CommVault users get access to ALL Simpana features. So when they deploy CommVault in a NetApp environment, SnapProtect is already part of the solution, not another backup software license that they first have to justify purchasing.

As enterprises virtualize their environments, they also want to redesign their backup infrastructures but have resisted doing so because it was not easy or cost-effective to implement or manage. This new OEM relationship between CommVault and NetApp removes that objection. In so doing it opens the door for enterprises to do more than accelerate their deployment of virtualization. It provides them the tools that they need to facilitate the redesign of their backup infrastructures that support these virtualized environments.

CommVault Simpana Brings Desktop/Laptop Protection to the Forefront in SP2

2011-05-19T10:00:00Z

Desktop and laptop protection has been at most a blip on the radar screen of IT priorities. But with these devices increasingly being used to store more critical enterprise data, organizations are putting new emphasis on backing up data stored on these devices for reasons ranging from increasing productivity to corporate compliance and data security all the way to business intelligence. The desire to help customers meet these needs all on one unified platform with their other data management needs explains why CommVault beefed up its support for desktops and laptops in its recent Service Pack 2 (SP2) release for Simpana® 9.

CommVault Simpana 9 SP2 contains a number of other enhancements that Simpana users will find useful in their environments, especially those that are deploying VMware and expanding their virtualization initiatives with it. For example, SP2 accelerates:

Restores of virtual machines (VMs). No matter where you go or who talk to, all size organizations are moving down or are already well down the path of virtualizing their business-critical and mission critical applications. This is creating new challenges to do more than quickly back them up but also restore them more quickly. CommVault's SP2 release helps address these challenges by giving users new options to restore multiple versions of VMs at the same time so they have more flexibility in selecting which restore point they want to use for a particular application.

Application consistent restores for Microsoft Exchange. In Simpana 9 CommVault had already expanded its SnapProtect capabilities to support the broadest range of midrange array snapshot features in the industry. In SP2, CommVault builds upon that to ensure 100% application consistency of Exchange instances that extends to Exchange log truncation. This extends all of the benefits of snapshot based off-host protection to Exchange mailboxes hosted on VMs to include recovering individual messages or mailboxes residing on VMware VMs.

But in talking with CommVault's Senior VP of Marketing and Business Development, David West, it was evident that CommVault put a great deal of emphasis on enhanced laptop and desktop support in SP2. According to West, the impetus for this came from current and prospective customers who, as part of the RFPs that they are sending out, are requesting that their enterprise backup solution take on more responsibility for the backup and restore of these devices.

It was this increase in customer inquiries that prompted CommVault to develop many of the new features for desktop and laptop protection that SP2 includes. For example, one of the biggest issues surrounding desktop and laptop protection that users complain about is the overhead (CPU and network) associated with running the backup. Who has not run some backup product (online or other) and had to nearly stop everything they were doing as the performance on their desktop and/or laptop significantly degraded until the backup completed?

To help mitigate this performance overhead, CommVault has taken the deduplication technology it has previously developed for the enterprise space and ported it to its desktop and laptop agents. Now as data is being backed up, it first deduplicates the data so only blocks of data that are net new to the environment are sent over the wire and backed up.

Then to further reduce the impact that that backup has on the desktop or laptop, CommVault included a new end-user GUI for desktop and laptops users. This has a couple of new features that users can leverage to help mitigate the impact of backups as well as improve their ability to do recoveries.

To help improve backup performance, end-users can now tweak when they want their data backed up instead of using the corporate default. They can then also tweak what data they want to be backed up (such as only protecting company-related information) and ignore other data that they do not need backed up (such as personal data.)

Second, CommVault also made it possible in SP2 for end-users to do self-service recoveries. Now rather than having to call someone IT to recover a file, they can now pull up a search screen, type in the keywords of files that they are looking for and be presented with a list of options from which they can choose and do a restore on their own. This restore can be done through a browser interface so they can access and restore their files while on the road or even do a restore from a different desktop or laptop.

Using these new throttling and restore features in conjunction with CommVault's deduplication technology should contribute to significantly lessening the impact that backup jobs have on individual desktops and laptops as well as make it easier and faster for them to do restores.

But having these two throttling options available may conceivably raise a few red flags in the eyes of some corporate IT administrators. To effectively do their jobs, they may need to control both when the data is moved and what data on these devices is backed up. So it is important to note that administrators can set policies within CommVault Simpana that grants desktop and laptop users the appropriate level of control over how and when their backups are performed.

As more corporate data has moved closer to the edge the need for enterprise backup software to also move closer to the edge in order to protect it has grown substantially. CommVault Simpana SP2 accomplishes that objective. By giving users new options to backup and restore their data as well as providing IT administrators more options for protecting data and implementing policies, CommVault Simpana gives enterprises the new flexibility they need to effectively protect data at the edge.

Analyst Reports Reflect that Backup Software's Transition to Data Management is Under Way

2011-02-16T11:00:00Z

When DCIG released its first ever Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide in December 2010, it created some controversy when it became public that CommVault® Simpana® had achieved the highest score and was ranked #1. But just over a month later when another analyst firm Gartner positioned CommVault in its "Leaders" Quadrant for Enterprise Disk-Based Backup/Recovery, the silence was deafening.

So what changed in the space of 45 days? And what is it about CommVault Simpana that has led it to being positioned so well in the area of backup software by two different analyst firms.

Backup and recovery software has changed a lot in the last decade. As the titles in both DCIG's Buyer's Guide and Gartner's Magic Quadrant suggest, backup of virtual servers and the ability to leverage disk as part of the overall backup and recovery process have become focal points in backup software. This change in backup software's focus has led to complementary technologies such as archiving, deduplication, snapshots and replication becoming more important to the overall backup software offering.

Bringing these additional functions under backup software's purview reflects a broader transition that is occurring in enterprise environments in terms of the role that they expect backup software to fulfill. Whereas enterprises may have once been satisfied with how well backup software copied data from their production storage to tape and then managed it once on tape, enterprises are consciously and unconsciously coming to the conclusion that backup software needs to take on an expanded role beyond just backup.

This expanded role that backup software is assuming should lead to it being more appropriately redefined as data management software. However many enterprises may still be reticent to redefine "backup software" as "data management software" for a couple of reasons.

First, they have budgets for "backup software" not "data management software."
Second, "data management" implies that the administrator has a proactive role in the management of an enterprise's data whereas "backup software" implies a more reactive role.

Nonetheless it is this subtle transition in backup software's role from "doing backup" to "managing data" that offers some insight as to why CommVault Simpana has suddenly started appearing in the #1 position in multiple analyst surveys on backup software.

This is in part attributable to the introduction of disk as a primary backup target. This change from tape to disk has resulted in dramatic increases in the successes of backups and restores, shorter backup windows and less time trouble shooting failed backups. In so doing it has freed individuals once dedicated to just supporting tape-based backups to perform tasks that add more value to the organization.

This is changing the way they need to use backup software which is in turn changing what role that backup software has to fulfill in order to remain relevant in organizations. However since backup software is already omnipresent in most organizations, by taking on the role of data management administrators can now begin to leverage it to manage and understand their organization's data. This gives them the information they need to streamline or consolidate operations, improve storage utilization and identify new ways to reduce costs.

So to thoroughly evaluate how different backup software products compare in this emerging area of data management, analysts have to look at and take into account more than just a few backup software features. In DCIG's case, it looked at over 130 backup software features and broke those features down into a number of categories including Backup, Management, Restore, Support and Technology.

Notably among these five (5) categories it was the "Management" category that had the largest number of features to examine and score. It was also the category in which CommVault Simpana achieved the highest score in the 2011 DCIG Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide as it had the most comprehensive set of features when compared to all of its competitors. Its score in this category in large part led to CommVault achieving the #1 overall score and ranking in the DCIG Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide.

Gartner's results appeared to support DCIG's conclusions. In looking at the write-up that Gartner did on CommVault in its Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Disk-Based Backup/Recovery, it made some of the same observations.

Gartner commented that CommVault has sustained its growth "with a perceived edge in ease of use and fewer scripting requirements as compared with other enterprise backup solutions." Gartner also remarked that CommVault "offers snapshot capabilities which integrate with a broad number of storage platform solutions to schedule and manage snapshots."

Backup and recovery software is not going away anytime soon but the functionality of enterprise backup software is clearly in period of transition as it shifts its focus from "backup and recovery" to "data management." As this shift occurs, it should come as no surprise that CommVault who architected and developed Simpana to "manage data" as opposed to just "backing it up" is finding new found favor not just with analyst firms and their respective Buyer's Guides and research reports but with enterprise organizations who need and use software to protect, manage and recover their data on a daily basis.

2011 IT Spending Intentions Survey Reveals Majority of CommVault Users Not Fretting Over New IT Demands

2011-01-20T11:00:00Z

A little over a week ago CommVault released the results of a survey of Simpana users on their IT Storage Spending Intentions for 2011. As part of that, CommVault also created a PowerPoint (which I had the opportunity to review) that included more details than its accompanying press release. It was while going over that PowerPoint that I gained some additional insight as to why many of these organizations are able to hold the line on hiring and spending even as they look to introduce needed new features and functionality into their infrastructure.

Before I get into what additional insight the PowerPoint provided, I first wanted to highlight the Top Five IT Storage Spending Intentions for 2011 of CommVault users as revealed by this survey. They were:

Managing data growth
Network and equipment purchases
Disaster recovery
Applications/Software
Data backup and recovery

These points were brought out in CommVault's press release but it was only after looking at the details included in the PowerPoint that I was better able to put these priorities into some context.

First, nearly 50% of the 355 individuals who completed the survey had no plans to increase their budget in 2011 while another 20% still were unsure how their budget for 2011 was going to shake out. In other words, the budget of this 20% could increase, stay the same or even decrease in 2011. Further, a full 80% of those surveyed indicated they either had no plans to increase IT staff levels in 2011 and may even decrease their IT staff.

This is all occurring even as over 60% of the respondents cited managing data growth, disaster recovery and email and file archiving as their most pressing issues in 2011. Under normal circumstances, these conflicting priorities of flat budget and staffing counts with new IT demands would be untenable for most organizations.

In the case of CommVault's users, however, this does not appear to be true. The vast majority of them have no plans to increase their IT budget or staff which could arguably be due to the increased efficiencies and cost reductions that they have seen as a result of using CommVault® Simpana®. By better managing their existing data, it could be interpreted that they are confident that they can meet these new demands with the same or even less IT budget and staff.

Interestingly 60% of those who completed this survey describe themselves as either backup or server administrators who work in environments that have up to 250 physical servers and up to 250 virtual servers. Translated: the majority of individuals managing these environments are also probably IT generalists.

As such, they do not necessarily have advanced training or skills on data management, disaster recovery and email and file archiving. Normally this would stress these folks out as they would be required to purchase and use point solutions and then manage them independently. However this survey suggests that they are still confident that they can deliver on these forthcoming requirements using the features that are already built into Simpana without needing to increase their budgets or staff in order to do so.

Reading between the lines on this survey, CommVault users are like users in any other IT shop. They are being pulled in multiple directions dealing with day-to-day operational requirements of backups, restores, server maintenance and upgrades, performance monitoring and the like. But unlike their counterparts in other shops, they do not appear to be feeling the pressure to increase their budgets or staff even as they watch their data grow or encounter new demands for archiving or near real time disaster recovery solutions.

Instead they appear to recognize that CommVault Simpana provides them with the comprehensive data management solution that they need to solve their existing problems while also giving them the tools and positioning them to solve their next generation of challenges.

It may come across to some that it is somewhat self-serving on CommVault's part that one of the survey's primary conclusions is that a solution like Simpana is well-suited to help organizations confidently meet the challenges that they face today while equipping them to meet future challenges without requiring that they spend more or hire more staff.

But the fact that so many of CommVault's competitors are trying to do exactly what CommVault has already done lends credence to the validity of this survey.CommVault simply did a better job of building a product tailored to meet these competing organizational needs that tomorrow's world demands.

CommVault Elaborates Upon Simpana 9's Enhanced Information Governance Capabilities

2010-12-16T13:30:00Z

Back in October 2010, CommVault introduced Simpana 9 but did so in a two-fold manner. It first announced Simpana 9's core data management features on October 5. Then, a few weeks later on October 19, CommVault introduced Simpana 9's enhanced information governance capabilities. It was during this latter presentation that a number of statements were made by CommVault's Senior Director of Information Access Management, Simon Taylor, about Simpana 9's enhanced information governance capabilities that I asked him to elaborate upon.

One of the statements that Taylor made during his live presentation on October 19th was, "The data mining techniques in Simpana 9 are so unique that we (CommVault) believe our customers are able to find information significantly faster than traditional search approaches." So I followed up with Taylor via email to clarify what he meant by "traditional search approaches" and how CommVault arrived at the conclusion that it was " significantly faster" than traditional search approaches.

Taylor explained in a written response that the nature of searches is very speculative so in order for organizations to improve their ways of mining their existing data repositories they need tools that provide them more intelligent ways to do so. He writes, "It is very important to know what is in information sets in order to be more specific on how you find content."

Taylor points to the Enron example of a few years ago and why that investigation took so long to complete. Among the many records they were reviewing, investigators would come across a few thousand records that appeared to be relevant. However they could not easily understand which records among the thousands were the most important so it took them quite a bit of time to review all of them.

In Taylor's estimation, if the investigators would have had access to software like CommVault® Simpana 9®, it potentially would have simplified their search and substantially sped up their investigation. For instance, using Simpana 9 and its new data mining techniques, among those thousands of records for review if 100 of them contained the phrase "shredding documents" and 250 used the phrase "hide and don't disclose," Simpana 9 could have identified which documents contained both of those phrases.

This technique, which is called "navigation" in Simpana 9, would likely have enabled the investigation to proceed more quickly as it provides a method for doing unstructured data mining. Taylors adds, "That is really what enterprises require today - techniques to jump into data very quickly based on some form of intelligence or some form of meaning based suggestion."

As to how Simpana 9 speeds up searches significantly, he estimates around 6 times faster on average based on CommVault's own internal benchmark. Taylor explains that when customers do search in the context of eDiscovery, the availability of deduplication in Simpana has reduced overall volume of data in customer accounts by 30 - 40% which contributes to them being able to complete searches across their data stores in seconds.

As part of Simpana 9 doing its searches, Taylor also mentioned in his live presentation on October 19th that Simpana 9 can identify "social security and credit card numbers as well as other predefined patterns." In asking Taylor about that comment, he wrote that in Simpana 9 CommVault introduced Entity Modeling in addition to the core capabilities built around its use of the FAST indexing engine.

Entity patterns that Simpana 9 can now natively identify include social security numbers, credit card numbers, and drivers' license numbers. Customers also have the option to define their own patterns such as bank account or employee ID numbers and input them into Simpana.

This ability to detect specific patterns can then also be leveraged by Simpana 9 automated legal preservation capabilities. Using Simpana's policy engine, rules may be created based on custodian search criteria based on these patterns that can be modeled and then searches executed on pre-defined intervals. When these searches execute, any data visible to Simpana that meets this criteria including those that match the entity patterns is automatically preserved without legal or end-user action.

Simpana also can export data in the XML format supported by a number of legal tools (Concordance, EnCase, Clearwell, CaseCentral and others) that may be used by third parties during eDiscoveries. So as Simpana 9 collects, searches, reviews and/or preserves data for litigation, it can optionally export this data in the legally accepted Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) compliant XML format for information interchange.

These new information governance capabilities that CommVault introduced as part of Simpana 9 coupled with Simpana 9's steadily growing data management capabilities is doing more than separating enterprise backup software products like Simpana 9 from entry-level and mid-tier backup software products. Simpana 9 provides the across the board functionally that gives enterprise organizations the platform they initially need to solve today's pressing backing and recovery issues while equipping them to meet future information governance challenges with which they are being increasingly beset.

CommVault® Simpana® 9 Ushers in New Era of Enterprise Data Management, Protection and Recovery

2010-10-05T12:30:00Z

2011 is shaping up to be a point of demarcation for how enterprise data is managed and protected. But in making that claim I cannot point to any specific analyst study or market survey to support it. Rather it is my sense that enterprise organizations can no longer ignore or put off their need to better manage, protect and recover their data. So when I see new releases like today's CommVault® Simpana® 9 and the features that it has packed into it, I see it ushering in the new era of enterprise data management, protection and recovery that these enterprise organizations crave.

What makes this release of CommVault Simpana 9 special as compared to its competitors or even previous releases of Simpana is that it is more than just an introduction of new features. Yes, it now offers new source side deduplication, broadens its snapshot support to include over 75% of the market leading enterprise storage arrays, extends its cloud support and further enhances its integration with VMware to facilitate auto discovery of VMs.

But other data management and protection software products offer many of these same features to greater or lesser degrees. So while these are certainly key enhancements to Simpana, they primarily help CommVault maintain its leading position in the market.

Simpana 9's real differentiator and why it is helping to usher in a new era of enterprise data management, protection and recovery has much more to do with how it makes it possible for enterprises to take advantage of these features.

For instance, when a user enables the new source side deduplication feature on Simpana 9, the client will only send data over the wire that is net new unique to the server or the environment. The client does this by first scanning its data and then checking the hash marks of that data against that of the media server so only net new blocks of data are transmitted.

It is at this point that some of CommVault's differentiators come into play that is not always evident to the casual observer. As new or existing servers are brought under Simpana 9's management, they can be put into pre-existing groups that each has its own set of policies.

So rather than an administrator having to first install and then turn on source side deduplication on all of the servers in that group, as servers are added to that group Simpana 9 automatically installs its iData agent on each server and enables the source-side deduplication on that client.

Possibly a better illustration of how this works is with CommVault Simpana 9's extended support for snapshots on storage arrays. One of the bugaboos of end-users working with storage array snapshot technology is taking full advantage of the snapshot feature. While users tend to initially be excited about the new backup and recovery possibilities that snapshots create, the time and effort involved with implementing them for even a few applications quickly curb their enthusiasm for doing them for any more than the few applications that require them.

Simpana 9 eliminates this hassle as it takes the same approach of applying snapshot policies to servers in specific pools. By leveraging its prior support for EMC, NetApp, HDS and Dell storage systems; adding new support for HP, IBM, and LSI models; and, introducing its own Open Snap API framework so that storage array vendors not yet supported by Simpana 9 can be brought under its management, CommVault essentially makes taking advantage of any storage array snapshot feature a snap.

Now any application server that uses one of these backend storage systems to store its production data and is under Simpana 9's management can have a policy applied to it so that snapshots are automatically taken on the storage array of its data. This removes the overhead associated with doing the backup from the production server while re-assigning the snapshot to a proxy server that can then mount the snapshot and use it for recovery or copy it off to disk or tape.

However Simpana 9 goes much further than just automating the generation and management of snapshots on these storage systems. Since Simpana 9 has previously placed its iData agents on these servers to generate application consistent snapshots, once the snapshots are mounted on another server, these can be used as sources for recovery, for backing up to a secondary disk or tape target or even indexed at a very granular level such as at a mailbox or SharePoint document level if doing data mining or search.

But maybe what is most notable about Simpana 9 is that it addresses possibly one of the largest unspoken reasons why enterprise customers avoid switching to CommVault in the first place: the cost, pain and risk associated with making such a change.

CommVault tells me that none of its existing 12,000+ customers were a "green field" opportunity. In other words, they all had another competitive product installed before switching to CommVault and had to navigate the transition from their existing solution to CommVault on their own. So while they did the work, the work, cost and risk associated with making this transition has likely been a barrier for many others in making the switch to CommVault.

So to address these largely unspoken customer concerns, Simpana 9 is introducing a "Fast Pass" option that removes much of the cost, pain and risk associated with switching from either NetBackup or TSM to Simpana 9.

Simpana 9 provides an SRM style agent that can be installed on a NetBackup or TSM master server. This agent discovers and extracts all of the meta-data information associated with the clients that they protect and then aligns them exactly with how a CommVault implementation would look.

In so doing, customers know exactly what CommVault agents (Exchange, SharePoint, Oracle, etc.) that they need to install on each server and how many they will need across their enterprise. Further, with CommVault's new capacity-based licensing option, they can install whatever agents they need since CommVault now makes all of its agents available at the same flat per TB fee.

Enterprise organizations are dealing with an entirely new range of forces such as cloud computing, inexpensive network, server and storage hardware, virtualization and constantly changing shifts in business direction. These drivers are forcing them to fundamentally change how they manage, protect and recover their applications in this new environment.

So it might be premature to say that 2011 will be the year that the majority of enterprise organization will make that change but it is clear most are looking to make such a change sooner rather than later. This is why CommVault Simpana 9 with its source side deduplication, enhanced snapshot management and new Fast Pass enabler certainly looks poised to make its mark as it now makes it easier for these enterprises to say yes than put off the decision.

Further, its Fast Pass enabler alone may be the catalyst that helps to usher in this new era of data management, protection and recovery because if its competitors do not keep pace with similar technology, they will likely find themselves on the outside looking in as their customers make the switch to Simpana 9.

Automated Cloud Support for SMEs Now Part of the Total CommVault® Simpana® Experience

2010-09-22T10:00:00Z

Even as interest by small and midsize enterprises (SME) in cloud computing and cloud storage continues to swell, the last thing any SME wants is a solution that introduces more complexity into its environment. Rather solutions are needed that automatically plug into the cloud and take advantage of the features that it offers. Those SMEs who have this prerequisite are advised to take a look at CommVault and the latest integration it offered up last week for the cloud and cloud providers.

A recent study by the Aberdeen Group concluded that organizations pursuing cloud strategies are able to realize significant savings including up to 20% reductions in administrative costs as compared to non-adopters. The caveat according to one article is, however, that in order for organizations to realize these savings is they must "develop appropriate support resources such as a formal cloud computing team."

While creating teams may be entirely appropriate for enterprise organizations, an SME does not have that luxury. If anything, its entire "cloud computing team" may consist of the individual reading this particular blog entry. So when an SME considers any type of solution that includes the word "cloud" in it, the solution better bundle cloud support with it.

These concerns that SMEs have about seamlessly implementing cloud technologies are largely what CommVault sought to put to rest by making three enhancements to its Simpana offering.

First, Dell and CommVault announced the availability of the new Dell PowerVault DL2200 backup appliance powered by CommVault with Simpana® 8. This appliance introduces new hardware features that you might expect such as the ability to scale to over 300 TBs of storage capacity and 2.4Ghz Intel Xeon processors so it can achieve up to 3 TBs/hour of deduplicated throughput when doing weekly backups.

But as it pertains to the cloud the DL2200 also packages the latest CommVault extensions to the cloud that make moving data to the cloud the turnkey experience that SMEs need in order to make their implementation of cloud technologies a practical reality. The cloud extensions enable DL2200 users to store and/or retrieve their archival or backup data with cloud providers such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Nirvanix, EMC Atmos, RackSpace, and Iron Mountain.

In that same vein, CommVault also announced Simpana's support of the Mezeo Cloud Storage platform that may be run on any server and storage hardware. What makes this integration of special interest to SMEs is that they are often accustomed to working with trusted partners and may want to store their corporate data with that partner, not with some cloud storage provider with a far-off data center.

Mezeo gives these partners the ability to economically build out their own cloud storage solution. In so doing, SMEs have the confidence that their data is being stored with someone they know and trust. Further, their partners can provide cloud storage at a price point that SMEs can afford and do so in such a way that they can still show a profit in providing this service.

But with CommVault making it easy and affordable for SMEs to store data to the cloud with almost any provider, SMEs are also beginning to see the potential of doing recoveries in the cloud. As server virtualization has made it relatively easy and inexpensive for service providers to create virtual machines (VMs) on the fly, smart SMEs recognize it only makes sense to recover applications and maybe even their entire data center at the cloud service provider's site should the need arise.

This goes to the heart of the third announcement that CommVault made in conjunction with RackSpace. RackSpace already uses CommVault to protect and manage the data on 45,000 of its servers with about 24 PBs of data now under CommVault's management.

CommVault and RackSpace have now extended this relationship to jointly validate a solution that enables RackSpace subscribers to fire up one or more servers at RackSpace's data center, recover their data using CommVault to these servers at RackSpace's site and bring the application(s) back online.

This avoids the need to recover all of the data across the wire or send tapes and/or CDs with data back to the SME so the application server can be recovered. In so doing, this reduces recovery times from days or even weeks to hours or at most a day depending on the scope of the recovery. Further, now that this is validated with RackSpace, there is nothing to preclude other cloud service providers from eventually offering similar capabilities.

Every SME wants to introduce the benefits of the cloud into their environment but they want to do so without the creating more complexity or work. These three enhancements to CommVault Simpana take SMEs a long ways down that road. SMEs get native cloud integration with a number of cloud storage providers, the door is opened for someone they know and trust to provide an economical cloud storage offering for them, and faster, offsite recoveries are now a feasible option.

The New Deduplication Debate: Where to Draw the Line on Deduplication

2010-08-09T10:00:00Z

Not that many years ago the debate around how to best deduplicate data centered on inline versus post processing deduplication as data was archived or backed up. While that debate still simmers, a new one is brewing that was spurred in part by the recent announcement that Dell plans to acquire Ocarina Networks. This one touches on where organizations should draw the line on data deduplication.

In the last couple of years the business case for deduplicating archive and backup data, which is characterized by high levels of redundancy and infrequent access, has clearly been made. As organizations look to use disk as their primary target and/or medium for archive and backup, data deduplication drives down the cost of disk to the point where it is as economical as tape while providing the benefits of disk (successful backups and recoveries and less time to complete them).

But as one looks to move deduplication up the stack into primary storage such as what Dell is apparently looking to do by adding Ocarina Networks' technology to its line of EqualLogic storage system, where to draw the line on what data to deduplicate can start to get a little hazy. While introducing deduplication onto primary storage systems can certainly reduce data stores and ultimately lower storage costs, there is no guarantee that deduplication is appropriate for all data residing on primary storage.

DCIG analyst James Koopmann argued that one form of data that organizations would be wise not to use the storage system deduplication feature is data found in databases. Databases that are properly designed deduplicate the data stored in them as a matter of course using a technique called normalization. This is done to eliminate the redundancies that otherwise creep into database as well as to facilitate quick retrieval of information.

Koopmann even argues that if a storage system vendor promises that it can reduce the storage capacity used by a database through deduplication then the database administrator should be concerned about the quality of the underlying database design. He say, "Reducing the storage requirements for databases through deduplication just puts a Band-Aid on this problem and does not address the real issue."

However proper use cases for introducing deduplication on primary storage do exist and it is one of these that is driving Dell's interest in Ocarina networks. The two best use cases I have heard to date for using deduplication on primary storage is on file servers and in virtualized server environments.

In the first use case, deduplicating data on file servers, it is unclear how Dell may leverage Ocarina's technology. While Ocarina Networks technology has the ability to do this, Dell does not really play in the enterprise NAS space so whatever benefits that Ocarina Networks provides to Dell is this regards appear to be merely coincidental at this point in time.

The second use case, deduplicating virtualized server images, appears to be the logicrole that Ocarina Networks will eventually fulfill within Dell. Dell's EqualLogic storage systems are known if for nothing else their ability to deliver iSCSI SANs and iSCSI as a protocol is wildly popular in virtualized server environments right now.

So Dell's decision to acquire Ocarina Networks only makes sense since up to 90% of the data in virtualized server images may be redundant. Deduplicating these virtual server images reduces the amount of virtual server data stored and should serve to improve performance of virtual machines since their images can now be more easily and economically stored on high performance storage from Dell such as its PS6010XVS.

But as deduplication finds its way onto more primary storage systems it does not mean that organizations should redraw the line of how they use deduplication within their environment to exclude archive and backup.

CommVault's Dave West makes the point in a recent blog entry that copies of data used in archive and backup as well as for compliance and replication consume orders of magnitude more storage capacity than what the original copy of data on primary storage consumes. This is a problem that deduplication on primary storage does not solve. Rather he argues that using software to deduplicate data across all tiers to include disk, tape and even emerging storage clouds such as CommVault does slashes storage costs and is key to optimizing storage space and performance across the entire storage infrastructure.

Deduplication is appearing at almost every level of the storage stack and, as it does, the line that enterprises draw as to what data is deduplicated is clearly moving up the stack to now include such applications as file services and server virtualization.

However organizations should not confuse the growing use of deduplication on primary storage as a replacement for proper storage management practices. The introduction of deduplication on primary storage moves the line but does eliminate the need for it where it is already used. If anything because deduplication will enable so much more data to be efficiently stored on primary storage, the need for a comprehensive software-based deduplication solution such as what CommVault offers may be greater now than ever before.

A Cloud is a Cloud is a Cloud: HDPS Powered by CommVault Steps up to Deliver a Singular Storage Cloud

2010-06-29T17:00:00Z

Substantial technical differences exist between how the interfaces of storage clouds are presented, managed and secured. But from a business point of view, a cloud is a cloud is a cloud and the sooner that the technical challenges associated with managing these different storage clouds from a single platform are overcome, the sooner that businesses can ramp up their cloud storage adoption. It is this acceleration towards delivering a singular storage cloud that the Hitachi Data Protection Suite (HDPS) powered by CommVault that we see today.

It is no secret that organizations want to take advantage of cloud computing in general and are rapidly moving in that direction. For example, one third of healthcare providers already claim to be using cloud applications with that percentage of healthcare providers expected to grow to 73% by the end of 2010. Gartner also forecasts that business expenditures on cloud services are expected to approach $68.3 billion in 2010 and jump to nearly $150 billion by 2014.

The trouble with any cloud solution and specifically a cloud storage solution is navigating the transition from today's siloed storage stacks to tomorrow's cloud storage solutions. Today's in-house storage solutions are:

Complex, customized and expensive to manage
Intended for specific integrated application stacks
Require large in-house IT teams to manage them

Conversely, tomorrow's cloud storage solutions are expected to be:

More economical
Automated while simplifying the backend data and storage management
Less cumbersome needing fewer IT staff to manage them

It can already be said that today's cloud storage solutions are doing a good job of delivering on this first requirement of becoming more economical. Already the cost per GB associated with cloud storage solutions is in the pennies per month range and there is no reason to believe that those costs will do anything but decline in the years to come. Yet when it comes to making storage clouds easier to manage, automating the movement of data and reducing the time to manage them; those solutions are typically still in the works.

That said, there are those solutions that are definitely ahead of the pack in terms of creating and delivering a singular storage cloud and HDPS powered by CommVault falls into that category. HDPS has for some time supported both disk and tape targets, the automated, policy-driven movement of data across different tiers of storage and even interfaced with private clouds that offer CIFS and NAS interfaces.

Today's announcement of Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering brings the Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) and HDPS together to provide seamless movement of data into the clouds to HDPS. This helps users in three ways as it pertains to them creating and managing a singular storage cloud.

First, HCP scales to over 40 PBs of storage capacity. In addition to the steadily growing amounts of email and file data that every organization has to manage, more organizations are deploying desktop virtualization, adopting social media for collaboration and information exchange, installing video surveillance systems and creating endless amounts of web content.

This puts them in a position where they will need to deploy massively scalable storage systems that are not bound by traditional file system and volume management software limitations. HCP gives organizations this flexibility to grow and scale their storage as needed.

Second, HCP uses an object store. Object store architectures are viewed by many as the primary architecture that public storage clouds will use in the not-too-distant future for a majority of their data storage.

Third, it makes the cloud more flexible. One of the complaints about private storage clouds has been the upfront investment that they require. Hitachi Cloud Services for Private File Tiering removes many of those concerns as it can start small with a minimal investment so users can scale its capacity and pay for what they need when they need. Further, since HDPS is used to manage the entire cloud, it can forecast when additional storage capacity is needed and then dynamically move the data into the cloud after the additional storage capacity is installed and available.

The corporate adoption of cloud infrastructures is fully underway but this is putting new pressure on organizations to identify solutions that enable them to take full advantage of the cost benefits they offer. Today's announcement that HDPS is an integrated part of the new private file tiering solution is just another indication that it is possible for organizations to do more than just deploy economical cloud storage solutions but also effectively manage them so they can fully realize the cost savings they provide.

Further, by organizations using platforms like HDPS powered by CommVault, they are well positioned to take advantage of new cloud storage options as they become available so that no matter what type of cloud they need, it becomes a singular cloud to manage from a data and storage management perspective.

CommVault ROMS Extends Customer Satisfaction to Service and Support

2010-06-03T10:00:00Z

Nearly every organization is embarking upon backup redesign initiatives in their ongoing efforts to create virtualized data centers, achieve near-instantaneous application backups and recoveries and meet heightened user expectations. But standing in the way of this progress is their inability to cost-effectively provide the expertise and 24X7 coverage that this emerging backup infrastructure needs. It is this gap that the CommVault Remote Operations Management Service (ROMS) has been closing since its introduction in 2009. As it does, it is raising the bar in terms of how enterprise will measure the delivery of service and support offerings going forward.

The Backup Redesign Balancing Act

Backup redesign has once again shown up near the top of The InfoPro Wave 13 heat index with nearly 30% of users naming it as one of their top storage initiatives for 2010. Organizations continue to list disk-based backup in its three primary iterations (deduplication, replication replacing backup software and VTLs) as a storage technology that they anticipate impacting their storage architecture this year.

Yet tiered storage build outs, technology refreshes, consolidations and server virtualization are other initiatives that these organizations are also looking to deploy. These technologies put strains on existing backup designs plus they need their own set of organizational resources to service and support them. So for organizations seeking to justify and balance the deployment of a backup redesign solution with these other priorities, they need a backup solution that meets the demands of these other initiatives without introducing its own set of services and support overhead.

CommVault Simpana with ROMS

Those who are familiar with CommVault® Simpana® software already know that it offers a singular, integrated approach for protecting data in the virtualized data center of tomorrow. Archiving, backup, compression, deduplication, eDiscovery, replication, search and server virtualization data protection are just some of the features that it now supports in anticipation of these emerging needs.

But since the introduction of ROMS in 2009, CommVault has been raising the bar for the delivery of services and support for CommVault users.

One of the key changes that CommVault ROMS makes to the services and support model used by its competitors is its introduction of real-time monitoring and management. The monitoring and management of an organization's CommVault implementation are performed by trained CommVault engineers who typically work for a value added reseller (VAR) or even CommVault.

To accomplish this level of integration, monitoring and management, ROMS runs as a native service on the CommVault Simpana CommServe backup server so it can take advantage of its security privileges. It uses these permissions to directly communicate with Simpana's Common Technology Engine (CTE), gather information and then send it offsite.

It is because this level of security exists that organizations can grant either a trusted partner or CommVault itself the appropriate level of permissions so they can in real time leverage ROMS to access, monitor, manage and service an organization's backup environment.

ROMS Brings the Cost Justification to Backup Redesign

The native integration that ROMS has with Simpana delivers the immediate as well as the long term dollar savings that enterprises are looking for so they can justify proceeding with their backup redesign initiatives.

Absent a feature like ROMS, enterprises may need to add up to 2 - 3 full time employees (FTEs) to manage and support a central backup redesign architecture such as what CommVault supports. Even then these individuals will not be CommVault experts as they generally must call upon either their VAR or CommVault support for any sophisticated issue that they encounter or need to resolve.

Using CommVault ROMS changes the structure of the services and support model in two important ways.

First, enterprises do not need to dedicate FTEs to monitor and manage their backup environment. ROMS enables them to outsource the monitoring and management of their backup environment to either a VAR or CommVault who can monitor and manage this environment. Since CommVault support is available 24x7, 365 days a year, organizations do not necessarily need to retain FTEs to monitor and manage their backup environment.

Second, the average cost of ROMS for many of these environments starts in the $2500 - $5000 per year range. This price range generally includes a sufficient number of licenses for organizations to use ROMs to monitor and manage their most mission critical application servers with the flexibility to add more ROMS licenses if needed. This is a fraction of the cost of what it might cost an enterprise to hire staff to manage this backup infrastructure.

Proactive Backup Infrastructure Optimization Gives ROMS Teeth

Monitoring and managing backups is great but what gives ROMS its teeth is its ability to move an organization to the next level by providing them the information they need to proactively optimize their backup infrastructure.

Using ROMS means organizations no longer necessarily have to wait until a backup job or tape drive fails. Because of the tight integration that ROMS has with CommVault Simpana and its CTE, any disk or tape device managed by Simpana can be rendered by ROMS. This eliminates the need for ROMS to use MIBs and traps to gather information associated with each physical device.

Now by simply querying Simpana for the information it needs when it needs it, it is very straightforward for ROMS to pull back that information. Once ROMS has it, ROMS can then use it to monitor the health and efficiency of the entire backup ecosystem as well as analyze errors so it can predict when a backup job or tape drive is prone to fail.

In the case of tape libraries, anyone (local or remote) who is using ROMS can administer it. Once a tape library is selected, ROMS displays all of the tape drives in the tape library and lets the administrator know their status (healthy, degraded, off-line, etc.)

However ROMS also captures and displays the efficiency level that the tape drive is running at and what errors are occurring. In this way ROMS is more than just another backup reporting tool.

While ROMS captures how much data is protected, how fast it is being protected and how reliably it is being protected, it also provides the additional details that organizations need to drive costs out of their backup infrastructure.

For instance, using ROMS an organization may ascertain that tape drives are being written to inefficiently or experiencing a large number of errors and then proactively take steps to optimize their backup environment. In this example correcting these problems may include increasing the number of backup jobs executing concurrently or replacing the tape drive that is experiencing errors.

CommVault ROMS Extends the Customer Satisfaction Experience to Services and Support

The era of backup pain is coming to an end in large part because of data management software like CommVault Simpana. However organizations still expect to internally handle the service and support their backup infrastructure. Yet many organizations make that assumption simply because it has never occurred to them that services and support can be delivered in another way.

Today's expanding backup environments are becoming both more complicated and labor intensive to manually manage so it is time to lay the foundation for the automation of backup monitoring and management as well as the outsourcing of services and support. CommVault ROMS with its 700+ customers, 400 customer requested feature enhancements and year's worth of experience in the field proves that its is well on its way to helping current and prospective customers reset their expectations around how storage providers deliver service and support.

Organizations using CommVault Simpana as their foundational data management and protection software have for some time been able to confidently manage and protect data in their environment. Now using CommVault ROMS, they can extend these same high levels of satisfaction and savings to the service and support of their backup environment.

CommVault Nails it on Service and Support

2010-06-01T12:30:00Z

Too often storage providers seem to think that "Services and Support" is just another way of saying "Skimp and Save". However more customers are seeing through this thin veil of deceit and holding storage providers more accountable for how well they deliver on this critical infrastructure component by making services and support a part of their buying decision. This is why when CommVault delivers a 97% customer satisfaction rating on service and support that it demonstrates that CommVault is nailing it on more than just its data management software.

One of the toughest valuations for any vendor to arrive at is the value of its service and support. Every vendor knows that they need to provide it but often this is one area where they think that if they skimp and save in this area, they hope their customers do not notice. Or if their customers do find out how bad their service and support is, they hope they find out after they have already purchased the product when there is little they can do about it.

Yet to say that service and support is somehow viewed as unimportant by customers is ridiculous. A previous blog entry that DCIG prepared on the subject of service and support resulted in thousands of page views and has gone on to become one of the most read blog entries on DCIG's website.

Reflecting back on my own experience when I was an end user at First Data, if a storage provider did not provide the level of service and support that First Data expected and needed, the storage provider was eliminated from consideration. So even though First Data never formally communicated that was why the storage provided was not awarded a bid, First Data dropped enough hints along the way that the storage provider got the message that it needed to get its services and support act together.

So providing good service and support may not always make sense when one looks it strictly from a financial perspective. However when one looks at service and support from a strategic perspective it quickly becomes evident that happy customers result in repeat sales.

It is this philosophy that has been driving CommVault since its inception as its service and support are as much behind its continued success as its CommVault® Simpana® data management software.

The satisfaction with CommVault's services and support is reflected in a recent fiscal 2010 technical support service survey where it achieved a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating. This is substantially above the industry average of 75 percent as reported in HDI's 2009 Practices Survey.

This technical support service survey was administered to CommVault users following the completion of a technical services incident and was intended to measure the knowledge of the CommVault support team as well as how quickly the customer's problem was resolved.

To achieve this high rating, CommVault services does a couple of things that distinguish itself from its competitors. First, this survey found that half of all incidents were closed within 24 hours. This in itself is rather remarkable considering that since Simpana is data management software, the source of the problem could come from almost anywhere and Simpana may not even be the root cause of the problem.

Second, CommVault follows the life of a trouble ticket from open to close. Unlike some other call center operations that require opening a trouble ticket during normal business hours and then re-opening a ticket with their support center after hours, CommVault employs a best practice approach that distributes incidents to its five globally dispersed data centers. This approach ensures around the clock support as well as a dispersion of trouble tickets to where there are support engineers available to work on their resolution.

Services and support tend to get downplayed in the broader picture of technology but make no mistake, most organizations are not at the bleeding edge of technology and it is unlikely that they are even at the leading edge. Rather most are just trying to hold their infrastructure together in such a way that it meets the day-to-day demands of the business.

To do that, they first need technology that works but no technology works perfectly in every circumstance and when it doesn't, they need their storage provider's service and support organization to be there to help them out. In the case of CommVault, it appears that even in those rare circumstances when its Simpana software stumbles, CommVault's service and support organization is there to put it back on track and is nailing it when it does.

CommVault Users Poised to Benefit from Increased Clarity on Legal eDiscovery and Data Preservation Requirements

2010-04-12T18:30:00Z

It is time for organizations to heed the calls to take a proactive position on data management and preservation. While the sirens have been wailing for a number of years about the risks of not putting in place a comprehensive data management solution, too many organizations have failed to heed these warnings. Now a recent landmark opinion has dramatically altered the data management and preservation landscape by making it a necessity for organizations to implement a comprehensive, singular data management solution like CommVault® Simpana®.
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Prior to January 15, 2010, when this opinion was penned by the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin in the case of the Pension Comm Of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of Am. Secs, it could be argued that organizations lacked any clear direction as to how a court might apply terms such as "negligence", "gross negligence" or "willfulness in the discovery context" to a court case in which they were involved. Judge Scheindlin states as much in her opinion when she writes,

"...I have found no clear definition of these terms in the context of discovery misconduct."

Now for the first time thanks to this 87 page opinion penned by Judge Scheindlin, this ambiguity starts to dissipate. Shannon Smith, an attorney and Archiving and eDiscovery Specialist with CommVault Systems, states this in regards to Scheindlin's opinion:

"She (Scheindlin) issued such a lengthy opinion because litigants are still failing to heed her call in previous opinions regarding the importance of preservation. In this particular opinion she goes the extra step of providing a very detailed framework for the standard of care that is expected of litigants (something that has been lacking until now). Although she is just one of a handful of respected jurists on this topic, it is very likely that other federal judges will leverage this standard of care going forward."

This level of guidance from the courts has been sorely needed and sought after by organizations for some time. Simply put, they need this level of guidance as to what the courts actually expect them to produce and adhere to from an eDiscovery and preservation perspective when they go to court. Otherwise the type and scope of the data management and preservation platform that they do put in place could be for naught if it fails to meet the court's expectations that have been rather nebulous and subjective until now.

Judge Scheindlin's detailed opinion sets the context for how organizations should proceed in terms of selecting and evaluating the appropriate software that meet the demands of the court. This opinion enables them to put an appropriate framework in place so they can have a reasonable level of confidence of meeting the court's expectations.

However Judge Scheindlin's opinion does more than just provide guidelines as best practices for what to do. It also comes with a stiff warning for both defendants and plaintiffs that fail to do so. Smith goes on to say in her thoughts about this opinion:

"Because we are dealing with a plaintiff here rather than a defendant, the failure to preserve was offensive to Scheindlin.

She doesn't state it specifically but if a party is going to leverage the court system to pursue damages against another party, they should, at a minimum, have made an effort on their end to have their ducks aligned. I think that Scheindlin wants to emphasize that preservation obligations begin EARLY, especially for plaintiffs."

The momentum around this opinion has been building significantly over the last 12 months in the whole area of preservation driven in part by planned and forthcoming updates to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). The ability to search for information and the ability to preserve it in a form that holds up under legal scrutiny remains a large challenge for many organizations that have lacked the impetus to take action because of a lack of clarity on this matter from the courts as to how best proceed.

This opinion by Judge Scheindlin is a key piece of the jigsaw puzzle that brings it all together for organizations. They now have the motivation and framework to select an appropriate solution while removing "best faith effort" arguments on the sides of both defendants and plaintiffs. This opinion defines what those "best faith efforts" should look like, what courts can reasonably expect companies to deliver and warns them what happens if they do not.

The good news is that software such as CommVault Simpana is already available that meets these now newly defined data management, eDiscovery and data preservation demands that the courts have just thrust upon every organization. CommVault Simpana enables organizations to deploy a single strategy that can manage and perform archiving, backup, eDiscovery, preservation, and search from a single web console. Further, Simpana acts as an enabler by providing companies a way to centrally manage their data in a controlled manner without negatively impacting other parts of the organization either financially or operationally.

The legal sirens have stopped wailing as the requirements for preservation are now upon us. Existing techniques of reactive eDiscovery and "best faith efforts" no longer work and organizations that cling to these philosophies are about to find themselves confronting unsympathetic judges who are more willing to deal harshly with those that have not complied.

Courts are no longer naïve about what today's technologies can do and are aware that solutions do exist that enable proactive data management, eDiscovery and preservation that can meet these new standards that they have just set forth with sanctions waiting for those that fail to comply. This is why this recent ruling acts as a point of demarcation between the past and future of data management. It highlights what is now required of organizations and why they must pursue it with solutions like CommVault Simpana poised to swiftly address them.

CommVault Simpana Software Provides New Tactical Snapshot Edge with Comprehensive Singular Management

2010-03-24T18:00:00Z

Today IT managers have to think about more than just buying products that only solve their tactical day-to-day problems. Increasingly they have to consider how any new solution that they implement solves their more strategic data center management problems as well. This is why IT managers should be encouraged by the newly announced snapshot integration between CommVault® Simpana® software and Dell EqualLogic midrange arrays. While this integration solves their pressing backup and recovery problems, Simpana gives IT managers a path to better managing their data long term as well.

"Doing more with less" has been a part of the IT lexicon as long as I have been associated with IT. While adherence to this mantra ebbs and flows, it is holding up pretty well this time. As concerns about the strength of the economic recovery linger, maximizing data center efficiency, controlling costs and making employees as effective as possible remain top priorities.

These concerns are forcing data center managers to identify solutions that can both fix their current tactical problems while leaving them better positioned to manage their environment going forward. This is why CommVault's announcement to add the Simpana SnapProtectTM snapshot technology for Dell EqualLogic midrange arrays is so important as it enables them to accomplish competing objectives.

CommVault's support of Dell EqualLogic's snapshot feature in addition to its current support for EMC CLARiiON, EMC Symmetrix and NetApp FAS systems should come as no surprise. Since June 2009 CommVault and Dell have partnered to offer the PowerVault DL2100 that functions as a turnkey backup appliance which uses a version of Simpana that is customized for fast, simple deployments.

However in the year since the DL2100's release, the adoption of server virtualization and storage technologies such as the Dell EqualLogic midrange arrays has accelerated. The need for faster backups and recoveries of virtualized systems has led to IT managers wanting to take advantage of the snapshot feature that comes as a standard software feature on Dell EqualLogic arrays.

The bad news is that this snapshot feature is not necessarily easy to implement. Examples of new tasks that IT managers have to be prepared to do in order to successfully utilize it include:

Scripting. To take snapshots using the Dell EqualLogic array, IT managers have to write scripts that instruct the array to take snapshots of specific volumes and the times at which to take them.
Snapshot management. Snapshots cannot be taken and then forgotten about it. IT managers must track why snapshots were taken, who is using them and then delete them when no longer needed.
Creating application consistent snapshots. Taking snapshots of applications like Microsoft Exchange or Oracle means first acquiescing these applications otherwise the snapshots that are taken are unusable for application recoveries.

It is these tactical issues that the Simpana SnapProtect now addresses. Fully integrated into both the enterprise version of CommVault Simpana software as well as the customized Simpana software version on the PowerVault DL2100, IT managers no longer have to do their own scripting as they can use Simpana software to configure and schedule the occurrence of snapshots on the EqualLogic array.

The Simpana SnapProtect feature can also do snapshot management. It can discover previously created snapshots on the EqualLogic system and manage them as well as the snapshots that it created. IT managers can use the Simpana SnapProtect enabler to schedule the creation, retention and deletion of EqualLogic snapshots by simply setting policies within Simpana software so that they are retained and kept for the appropriate length of time.

Finally, IT managers using CommVault technology do not have to worry about the issue of applications snapshots taken in an inconsistent state. Simpana software integrates with applications like Exchange, Oracle and SQL Server and prior to taking a snapshot, Simpana software issues a command to the server to acquiesce the application so an application consistent snapshot can be taken.

This is all good news for IT managers. They can now better leverage the standard snapshot feature found on EqualLogic arrays and then manage the snapshots using the Simpana SnapProtect software.

The better news is that Simpana software can leverage the data in snapshots in ways simply not possible when only scripting is used. Simpana software can index the data in the snapshots so they can be accessed and searched during eDiscoveries or use designated snapshots as the source for backups to disk, tape or even to the cloud as well as a source for faster recoveries of individual files, folders or entire applications.

IT managers responsible for data center operations are still as tactical as ever in that they need products that solve today's problems. However there is no doubt that a shift in mindset is occurring in that while they want to solve current problems, they also want solutions that prevent these types of problems from recurring again in the future.

CommVault's support of the snapshot feature on Dell EqualLogic arrays typifies the type of solution that IT managers should be selecting. It solves their immediate tactical problem by providing them an easy way to introduce the use and management of snapshots into their backup and recovery scheme. But equally and maybe more importantly, CommVault is continuing down a singular path of meeting tomorrow's data management requirements without needing to bring in additional point products to do so.

'Rip and Replace' becomes more than Acceptable when Used in the Context of ROI

2010-02-24T11:00:00Z

In a recent analyst conference call CommVault's VP of Marketing and Business Development, Dave West, pulled no punches about how CommVault wants enterprise organizations to view it in regards to backup modernization. While CommVault is certainly happy to assist those enterprise organizations that want to make incremental changes to their backup infrastructures, that is not who CommVault is specifically targeting. Rather CommVault is seeking out those customers and prospects that are ready to do a wholesale rip and replace of their existing data management products and go with a more modern solution.

That's a pretty aggressive position to take in any market and especially so in the enterprise data storage and electronically stored information (ESI) space. Changes in how enterprise organizations manage their data and information usually are done over periods of years, not weeks or months, and phrases like "rip and replace" are almost never uttered. But new economic pressures and fundamental changes in how data and information is managed are making it apparent that more enterprise organizations are willing to make this type of dramatic shift in direction when the payback is right.

CommVault certainly seems to have no problem finding enterprise organizations that are willing to consider such changes, execute on them and then go on the record and talk about them. Last week's conference call had the IT Director from a large Midwestern retailer joining West to speak about his decision to make a wholesale change from Symantec to CommVault® Simpana® software.

Like many IT managers currently looking to improve their backup situation, he started from the premise in the spring of 2009 that he was going to make some incremental changes to his company's backup environment. Responsible for IT services in his company's main office as well as its over 200 remote store locations, making dramatic changes to this size environment on short notice is generally ill-advised. But a couple of factors forced him to alter his plans.

First, he was planning on upgrading all of his company's servers to Windows 2008 during the summer of 2009. Since he was using the native NTBackup utility found on previous versions of Windows at his remote sites, he assumed he would continue to do so after the upgrade to Windows 2008. However as he began his preparations to roll out Windows 2008, he discovered that Microsoft has substantially changed its NTBackup utility. He says, "Microsoft decimated how it used to work."

Second, since he was most familiar with Symantec, he just assumed that he would continue down that path. But problems that he had with Symantec's antivirus product led to concerns about an expanded use of Backup Exec. He feared that if he moved to a larger deployment of Backup Exec that he would run into issues similar to what he experienced with Symantec's anti-virus software.

This prompted him to step back and re-evaluate how to proceed but his problems were now three fold.

The clock was ticking. He had to get the roll-out of Windows 2008 done during the summer of 2009 but he only had 2-3 months to select a solution, develop an implementation plan and then roll it out.
His company used interns during the summer months to do roll outs in its stores. This meant the implementation had to be simple and not require a lot of expensive professional services.
He wanted to simplify backups. Despite his company's history of use with NTBackup in its remote store locations, he found the quality of the backups suspect plus it required a lot of manual scripting and scheduling to maintain.

But maybe most importantly he wanted to put in place a platform that would meet his company's needs now and into the future. Just because he was under these three constraints, he did not want to select a solution that did not meet his company's needs. He says, "We decided to take a step back, take a broad look at everything and find the best solution for us."

He initially did some evaluations of other enterprise backup products such Symantec NetBackup, Symantec PureDisk and EMC Avamar. However they were not exactly what he needed so he did further research at which point he uncovered CommVault as CommVault kept popping up in many online forums. Then in subsequent conversations that he had with his peers, many had positive things to say about it.

So as he did more research on CommVault and its features, the more he found to like. This eventually led to his decision to deploy CommVault as part of his Windows 2008 rollout during the summer of 2009.

Despite his relatively new exposure to CommVault, his requirements and the short time in which he had to plan for its roll-out and implementation, the deployment of CommVault in all of his company's stores went off without a hitch. His company deployed CommVault on all of its servers during the summer with interns as it had done in the past and found it worked well right away.

Equally as important, he found that CommVault eliminated some of the other backup headaches he previously had.

CommVault provided his company with a single pane of glass so the five administrators at his company's headquarters could centrally administer backups at any remote site.
The need to manual scripting and scheduling was eliminated at the remote sites.
DBAs could do their own restores which they previously could not do.

Maybe most important, CommVault provided him with a platform that could grow with his company. CommVault's ability to add deduplication and server virtualization as plug-ins to the Simpana platform was a major factor in his decision to go with CommVault. While he did not deploy either of these options initially, CommVault enabled him to deploy a backup solution immediately while giving him the flexibility to plug in the deduplication and virtualization pieces when he was ready for them.

CommVault's West included in his closing remarks that the wholesale rip and replacement of existing data management products is a big job that is not taken lightly by most organizations (and rightly so!) But he stressed that CommVault's objective is to make that transition as easy as possible through the use of technology and the use of its service and support organizations.

Based upon the testimony of this IT Director and others like him that I have spoken to in the past, it appears that CommVault is succeeding in delivering on these objectives. CommVault is making the "unthinkable" task of rip and replace of data management software a palatable option to more enterprise organizations. Because of this, more organizations are seeing the fiscal, operational and technical benefits that come from using a more modern platform that is designed to meet today's and tomorrow's data management requirements.

CommVault Takes another Step towards Bringing Cloud Storage Down to Earth

2010-02-01T13:00:00Z

Just a few years ago disk-based backup was considered the cutting edge of backup. No more as cloud storage is now all the rage. However a cloud-based backup strategy that works or using cloud storage for archival data is still the exception, not the rule. This is why CommVault's announcement today regarding its new cloud storage connector merits attention for those organizations looking to make cloud storage a viable part of their corporate data management strategy.

Using a public cloud storage provider such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Nirvanix SDN, Iron Mountain's ASP or EMC Atmos as a disk-based archival or backup target sounds great on many levels to organizations. Organizations do not have to build their own disk-based backup infrastructure; they can scale out storage capacity as required; the headaches of managing and supporting the storage infrastructure belong to the third party cloud storage provider; and, they only pay for as much storage capacity as they consume.

If anything, cloud storage sounds like the perfect complement to a data management solution like CommVault® Simpana® software. Since Simpana software compresses, encrypts and optionally deduplicates data before it stores it, using cloud storage as an archival and backup target seems to be a logical next step.

However storing data to a public cloud storage solution has three specific obstacles that a solution like CommVault needs to be prepared to address:

Access the public storage cloud via the Internet. Most data management solutions only recognize and support NAS or VTL interfaces. Accessing a public storage cloud requires going though an HTTP interface.
Requires support for each public storage cloud provider's REST API. To traverse corporate firewalls and manage data stored in the storage cloud, the REST API has emerged as the preferred way to deliver this functionality since it runs as part of HTTP. However each public storage cloud provider implements its own version of the REST API since no standard exists.
Avoiding public cloud storage vendor lock-in. Storing data with a public storage cloud provider carries certain inherent risks. The amount of data stored with a provider may grow to the point where an organization wants to move the data from a public storage cloud to a lower priced competitor or even wants to move to a private storage cloud that they implement in-house. This requires the solution to support the REST API from multiple storage cloud providers in order to have this level of flexibility available.

This is what makes today's new cloud storage connector from CommVault of note. Using this new connector, CommVault Simpana users can detect and connect to public storage cloud offerings such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure and Nirvanix SDN as easily as any other disk-based backup targets. And, customers will be able to take advantage of the cloud connector for cloud storage services from EMC and Iron Mountain at a future date.

Future support for REST APIs of other public and private cloud providers will hinge on how each provider has implemented it. If they are similar in nature to the ones it already supports, support for them could be added rather quickly while others that possess properties that significantly differ will take longer to add. In either case, CommVault's intentions to continue supporting more cloud storage providers - public or private - are important since it addresses consumers concerns about public storage cloud vendor lock-in and gives organizations the cloud storage flexibility they are certain to need in the future.

CommVault's approach to adding this new storage cloud connector to Simpana is also clearly inline with how it has brought previous features to market. It does not require complex upgrades or administrators to do extensive scripting to make it work. Rather CommVault customers with active maintenance contracts can download the latest CommVault service pack, license this feature and immediately use it to begin backing up data to any of the public cloud storage providers currently supported by CommVault.

Using cloud storage as a disk-based backup target is emerging as the next "Big" thing in data protection. But bringing cloud storage down to earth and making it easy for organizations to use as a backup target has remained somewhat elusive and difficult for end-users to implement. But my making it an optional add-on to the current Simpana product line, eliminating any requirements for scripting on the part of end-users and provide connectivity to multiple cloud storage providers, CommVault goes a long way towards moving cloud storage from hype to practical opportunity and perhaps pave the path for a new tier of "far line" storage as well.

CommVault Tames the Mac; Windows and Mac Can Play Nice Together

2009-12-21T16:00:00Z

A few years ago when I suggested to my co-workers that our company needed to account for the continuing growth of the Apple MacIntosh in its enterprise storage design, I was met with outright guffaws and left the meeting with my tail between my legs. Fast forward to today and the Mac is no longer a laughing matter. Mac is now an emerging OS in many enterprise organizations and creating new data management issues that today's announcement between CommVault and Group Logic should help address.

Everyone may smile at the cheeky "Mac versus Windows" commercials that regularly appear on network television but the Mac is showing up in the most unexpected of places. Some places where it is being adopted are quaint in nature, such as when my pastor who has three college-age children living at home sweeps his house of Windows PCs on the recommendation of his son and replaces them with Apple Mac Minis. But it is more notable such as when one of CommVault's clients did an internal audit on their ratio of Windows to Macs and found that 12% of their 12,500 desktops (1500 of them) are Macs.

This number of Macs changed the perspective of how this organization needed to manage them. While an obvious problem that it created was the need for the organization to provide Mac tech support for this OS, a more subtle back end problem that it created was managing the data on corporate networks that the Mac created and accessed.

Macs are traditionally used in the advertising, entertainment, media and publishing space so until now this served as a natural point of demarcation between it and Windows as almost every other vertical (government, finance, retail, etc.) used Windows. But now social media has taken off as at least 42% of enterprises now use Web 2.0 technologies which make extensive use of JPG, WAV and MP3 files. Further, those who are proficient in these editing and publishing these types of files are typically Mac aficionados and are bringing their Macs to work with them.

This is where the problems emerge. Media files are large and stored on network file servers where they consume a lot of space. Further, the value of the data in these files fluctuates so once the files satisfy their original purpose, they can become dormant and/or infrequently accessed. As such, they are prime candidates for archiving since organizations are rightfully loath to delete them as these file could become of value again in the future.

Now in Windows-only environments, it is rather straightforward to archive these files but once Macs enter the scene, the file archiving picture changes. An archived file leaves behind a stub on the file server that contains pertinent information such as where the file is now physically located and enable Windows clients to automatically retrieve the archived file from its new location. The key here is that the file is only retrieved if the Windows client selects it; the mere act of browsing the folders does not result in files being retrieved from the archive.

The Finder on Mac (Mac's equivalent of Windows explorer) does not behave the same way. As Finder browses folders with stubs in them, it triggers these stubs to request and retrieve the archived files associated with them. Depending on the size of the folder, this mere act can result in a Mac client 'hanging' for 3-5 minutes or more while files are retrieved from the archives.

This problem is only exacerbated on enterprise corporate networks. Not only is the Mac client accessing these files hung up, other Windows and Mac clients accessing this network file server experience degraded performance. Since the file server is busy processing this request to retrieve these archived files, it slows response times for all other clients accessing this file server.

This is why today's new partnership between CommVault and GroupLogic makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, GroupLogic's ArchiveConnect prevents exactly this type of behavior from happening. Using ArchiveConnect, Mac clients can browse network folders that contain these stubs without inadvertently triggering them to retrieve archived files. Second, enterprise companies that are already using or considering the use of CommVault Archive for their email and file archiving requirement can now do so without concern as to how it will impact them if they have Macs in their environment.

No one needs to worry about being laughed out of the room when bringing up the topic of how to best manage Macs anymore. The emergence of Macs within enterprises correlates with the growing importance that graphics and video are having but Macs create a new need for organizations to efficiently manage these files stored on network file servers without negatively impacting the organization as a whole. This new partnership between CommVault and GroupLogic should go a long ways towards making the Mac and Windows play nice together in the archiving space.

CommVault Puts Database Archives on Enterprise Dashboards

2009-12-14T17:15:00Z

Just how significant is today's announced technology partnership between CommVault and Informatica? Pretty big. The most obvious benefit that it provides to CommVault® Simpana® users is a new option that they can leverage to archive structured data while still managing and searching it using their Simpana software. But from an enterprise software management perspective, it continues to demonstrate CommVault's increased willingness to selectively partner with strategic software providers for technologies that are outside of its core competencies in order to display more data on enterprise dashboards.

The corporate adoption of software that archives unstructured and semi-structured data has accelerated in recent years while the archiving of structured data still remains on the fringes of corporate acceptance. It is not that the benefits of archiving structured data are not well known (improved application performance, optimized production storage space and reduced licensing costs), it is just that to date storing and managing the archives of structured data was as problematic as leaving them where they were.

Improvements in how database archiving software products manage archived data, growing structured data stores and new regulatory requirements are changing that and are, in the process, contributing to a heightened user interest in database archiving software.

On the database archiving side, one of its more significant improvements are software interfaces so that third party tools can access these database archives for search and retrieval. This is essentially what CommVault is leveraging in this partnership with Informatica. Informatica gives CommVault Simpana the ability to access data in its structured data archives through standard SQL/ODBC/JDBC interfaces as well as XAM and webDAV.

Leveraging these interfaces, CommVault can now directly access, search and report on archived data whether it comes from structured, unstructured or semi-structured archived data stores.

The timing for the announcement of this partnership between CommVault and Informatica is no accident. Analyst firms such as ESG and Gartner find that up to 50% of users that they have surveyed in 2009 are inquiring about archiving data in their structured data stores.

So why this surge in interest in 2009? While it is difficult to know exactly what is driving this sudden uptick in interest, a good bet is a directive issued by the European Union in 2006. At that time, it enacted the Directive on Mandatory Retention of Communications Traffic Data that requires ISPs and telecoms to retain of data such as emails and phone calls for up to two years.

While it was passed in March 2006, it only went into force this past March. Fast forward nine (9) months from March 2009 and large ISPs and telecoms that do business in Europe are probably now recognizing that complying with this directive is resulting in swelling structured data stores and are now actively looking at alternative means to store this data long term in a format that is accessible, economical, searchable and retrievable. While this is only one example, it certainly makes sense as to why now represents an opportune time for CommVault and Informatica to enter into a partnership to meet this burgeoning enterprise need.

However this partnership between CommVault and Informatica is also indicative of a maturing on CommVault's part as it continues to develop into an enterprise software provider. While its software has arguably been enterprise ready for a number of years, its reluctance in the past to partner with other software providers that offered technologies complementary to its own could surface as a concern to enterprise organizations. Many enterprises often only want to deal with a limited number of software providers. So while enterprise may like CommVault Simpana, if CommVault could not bring a larger portfolio of software solutions to the table, they would look elsewhere.

CommVault's recent partnerships with McAfee and now Informatica address these concerns head-on. More importantly, this partnership with Informatica displays a newfound willingness on CommVault's part to bring in software that is not native to CommVault in order to more effectively compete in enterprise accounts. In so doing, CommVault can provide those enterprise organizations that want it the single point of contact that they desire for all of their software requirements while still delivering on their pledge to make data easier to access, search, manage and retrieve.

CommVault's new partnership with Informatica and the addition of structured data archiving is what is grabbing the headlines today and rightfully so. It meets growing enterprise needs to archive their structured data stores while providing them a single interface to access, search and retrieve any form of archived data.

However it is equally important that enterprise organizations do not miss the subtle but important change in mindset that CommVault continues to put on full display with this new partnership with Informatica. It shows it is serious about playing in enterprise accounts and willing to do what it takes in order to accomplish these objectives with its increased willingness to strike strategic agreements with other software companies that both offer superior software and complement CommVault's core competencies. This should serve as a winning combination for CommVault, its partners and the growing number of organizations that are selecting CommVault Simpana as their enterprise data management solution.

Psychic Abilities No Longer a Prerequisite When Searching Corporate Data Repositories

2009-11-16T11:00:00Z

Google. Yahoo! Bing. These are the search engines that people most often turn to research and find information on the Internet. But the problem with these search engines is that they make some assumptions that one cannot make when searching for data behind corporate fire walls. More specifically, when it comes to finding information within an organization, people do not even know what they need to search for so individuals almost need to be psychic when beginning their searches for this information.

It is pretty well known that major search engines find information that organizations make publicly available on the Internet outside of the corporate firewall. It is also becoming better known that organizations can obtain search engine solutions that assist them in finding information that resides behind corporate fire walls.

This secondary set of search engines is being deployed more often within organizations to assist them in their searches of data residing on corporate file servers, in archived data stores and Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint repositories and to help them comply with eDiscovery requests as well as make for more efficient business operations.

However not all searches occur in the same fashion. General purpose search engines - whether searching on the public Internet or behind corporate firewalls - make a general assumption in performing the search: it assumes the user wants to search all of the data to which the user has permission to access.

In the use case of a search done on the public Internet, the search engine has access to anything published on the web and the search results reflect that. In a similar fashion, the use case of a search done against information behind the firewall, the search results are limited to what the user has the security permissions to access and view. But in both cases, the search engine makes the assumption that the user wants to search and see results for all data to which the user and search engine can access.

But this assumption fails to account for situations where the user does not want to search all data repositories but only a specific data repository or type of data. The scenario where this most often occurs is when the individual knows what specific information that they are looking for and which data repository that the information resides.

In this situation, using a general purpose search engine can actually become detrimental. First, it returns much more information than the individual needs so it takes longer to sort through the search results to find the information desired. Second, when performed in the context of an eDiscovery, it may turn up information that is outside of the scope of the search boundaries agreed upon during the "meet and confer" between the plaintiff's and defendant's attorneys as part of FRCP 2006 rules.

A practical example of which search method a user will employ is reflected in how an individual performs her search and what motivates her to start her search where she does. If she knows exactly what she is looking for and knows that the data resides in Microsoft Exchange and/or Microsoft Outlook, the scope of search is simple and she will go to the search tool provided by that application to begin her search.

Conversely, if she only has a general idea of what she is looking for but no real sense of where exactly in the organization the information resides, she will resort to using a more generalized search engine that can access and search a larger number of corporate data repositories.

In discussing these two different approaches to search with Simon Taylor, CommVault's Senior Director of Information Access and Management, he brought out that CommVault® Simpana® is evolving to accommodate these two behavior patterns that users exhibit when searching within a single information search portal.

CommVault Simpana has for some time provided a search interface that fell into the latter category. It was intended for users who had little or no idea where the data resided and needed to find it regardless of its location.

However CommVault has spent the last few years understanding how users search for data to provide more structured options within its search interface to allow users to select parameters so they only search specified data stores, mine information by classification or suggestion, and focus on specific types of information derived from applications such at Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Outlook.

The key way that Simpana differentiates itself is to provide users with a single interface to search for any data regardless of where it resides while also giving them the option to limit their searches to specific data repositories, types and classifications of information and target data when they know where it resides.

Searching for data on the Internet outside of corporate fire wall is a task so simple that even a child can do searches. However searching for information behind corporate firewalls is becoming a far more specialized task that involves accessing multiple data stores as well as verifying a user's permissions to access and view the data.

Search is only now starting to take into account a user's knowledge (or lack thereof) as to where the data resides in the enterprise. It is for these reasons that companies like CommVault are continuing to enhance search options within its software to account for these more sophisticated search behaviors of end users without the prerequisite of psychic abilities to find this data while giving them access to a single interface they can use to perform these searches.

Manual Classification of Data is Still a Best Practice when Developing a Repeatable and Defensible Process

2009-09-30T10:00:00Z

Smart managers always put a large emphasis on automating whatever processes they can within their organizations and for good reasons: processes become more predictable, there is a reduced chance of human error and ultimately the business is more successful. In the realm of eDiscovery, there are even efforts to automate the data classification process in order to define repeatable and defensible processes should the business be subjected to an eDiscovery request. However businesses are finding out that it may not be in their best interest to automate data classification and that for now courts still prefer people to computers when it comes to performing this particular task.

My interest in this topic was piqued by a recent conversation I had with Shannon Smith, an attorney who is an eDiscovery and Archiving Specialist with CommVault. We were discussing the pros and cons of the retention policy that many businesses inadvertently adopt (that is to say, they keep all of the data that they create). The reason they take this strategy is simple: it is easy to implement (many of them do this by default anyway) and it saves them the hassle of trying to classify records according to the various internal and external policies that exist.

She explained that in some verticals this model makes sense and is probably even desirable, such as among architectural and engineering firms, video production houses and other lines of business where the data that they store does not contain sensitive personal information. But when you start to talk about financial services firms, health care providers or bio-med and pharmaceutical companies, these organizations need to develop retention policies that make sense both for their business and that satisfies federal regulations.

The trick in these circumstances is to first properly classify the data so the appropriate retention policy or policies can be applied to it. My initial reaction when she said this was that organizations should look to identify a software tool that could automate the classification and retention of this data.

Shannon disagreed. She said that even though CommVault® Simpana® does have a tool built into it called "Content Director" that can automatically classify data, the advice that CommVault generally gives to its clients is that they classify their data by dragging and dropping data into folders that have specific archiving and retention policies associated with them.

This confused me as I assumed it would be the other way around. To me it made more sense to use a software tool to do the data classification as opposed to turning over a task as subjective as data classification over to an end-user or group of end-users.

However it is precisely because classifying data is so subjective that it is for now still best left in the hands of users albeit intelligent end-users. In addition, most organizations do not have the proper processes in place to leverage automated classification with confidence - e.g., published guidelines for how and where to save data, consistent file naming schemas, etc.

Smith explained that the key here is "intelligent users" since they can understand the context of how data is kept. Organizations probably do not want to save employee emails regarding their lunch plans though they may want to keep those emails where the lunch plans reference discussions about negotiating the terms of a contract. This requires a certain amount of intelligence on the part of the user to properly classify the data.

To use a tool that automates the classification and retention of a specific email solely based upon a single word such as "lunch" or "contract" would be inappropriate since the context of how these words are used is critical. She says, "The idea is to move away from retaining data based upon file types to retaining data based upon the actual content. However for now most customers agree that using people to classify data and make that determination is still the best way to properly classify data. We won't likely see a change in this area until organizations recognize the value in developing and enforcing data retention guidelines that make automation much more reliable."

However in order for a business to successfully use people to classify their data and have that process hold up in court means businesses must train their users. She adds, "If a business has never trained its users on how to manage their data, it is unlikely that the organization can claim with any confidence that it has developed a repeatable and defensible process around data management and ediscovery efforts."

Smith recommends that businesses first develop data retention policies and then instruct their employees on how to classify data. This way, when the organization gets hit with a subpoena or lawsuit, there will be some semblance of order during the collections process. Businesses do not have to make the process perfect day one as they can, over time, make improvements to the process. However courts will look for these processes as it gives them more confidence that the business is following a process as opposed to flying by the seat of its pants every time it gets hit with a lawsuit and has to perform an eDiscovery.

In this respect, CommVault Simpana supports full content indexing so users can classify the data regardless of where it resides. The metadata and contents can then be searched against regardless of where the data resides in the business, be it in the form of archives, backups or even online data that is still sitting on production servers. This capability becomes very valuable as it can be used by any business user to search across all corporate data (SharePoint data, online or offline email, file servers, etc.)

Today's world is all about process and automation but data classification does not yet appear to be a process that can be readily automated in such a way that organizations can rely on the outputs. The ability to leverage automation requires organizations to develop and enforce detailed classification and retention procedures and most companies have not yet dedicated the resources to such an effort.

While progress is being made in data classification and companies like CommVault envision and are working towards the goal of delivering tools that enable automated and reliable processes, for now businesses must still rely on documented procedures, educated users and sophisticated search engines such as what CommVault provides to deliver on the repeatable and defensible processes that courts are looking for now.

As Organizations Bring on Cloud Storage CommVault Brings on the Data Management

2009-09-10T10:00:00Z

More enterprise organizations are examining the possibilities of storing their data to a "cloud" and archive and backup data are heading the list of the two forms of data that they are most likely to store in the cloud. But managing these two types of data once they are in the cloud is anything but a straightforward process. Different archiving and backup software solutions create their own data silos with their own data management and retention policies. This situation can create new eDiscovery and legal hold challenges that organizations are ill-prepared to deal with.

This problem of managing these data stores created by different, individual archiving and backup solutions already exists in most organizations. It is not uncommon for different departments and business units within an enterprise organization to have their own archive and/or backup products that are not centrally managed. It is only as organizations initiate storage consolidation efforts and move to a common storage platform such as cloud storage that they begin to grasp the scope of the data management problems and their associated costs.

Shannon Smith, an attorney and eDiscovery and Archiving Specialist with CommVault, finds that a specific problem that an organization faces when using different archiving and backup products is the consistent expiration of data across this environment. When an organization goes into court and says, "Look, opposing counsel, you can only ask for email that is three years old because that is all we keep. Our policy is to archive data that is 60 days old and keep it for three years and that is all that we have."

However when an organization has an environment where the data repositories associated with its backup and archive products are separate, they may or may not know that their data exists somewhere else in the organization, such as on the backup side. So if data does show up that is over three years old, it has essentially blown the organizational retention schedule out of the water. Smith says, "At that point opposing counsel can essentially ask for anything it wants because you have shown that, although the organization has a policy, it isn't actually being adhered to."

Organizations can not act or assume that the current challenges associated with managing disparate archive and backup data stores will disappear once it is stored in the cloud. While there is some speculation that this may occur as cloud storage offerings advance in basic storage intelligence, for now organizations need to continue to assume that it is still their responsibility to perform this data management task. So as they look to move these different data stores to the cloud, it is important they put in place a solution that can manage and then consistently expire this data across both their backup and archive data sets.

CommVault has leveraged the cloud in the sense it has made it an extension of its customer's internal storage environment. CommVault has extended what organizations think of as traditional tiers (disk and tape) to include the cloud. Because of the integration that CommVault® Simpana® has, it makes it much easier to do that.

The benefit to organizations that CommVault provides is that it can start to apply retention and life cycle management to these assets or records. That data can then be aged off naturally as opposed to just moving data into the cloud without some sort of tool to manage it. In that situation, organizations are not really clear what data it has in the cloud plus they have no strategy to manage it.

Cloud storage may someday provide "data aware" or "smart" clouds that do not require organizations to use agents to collect, retain and search against your information assets stored in the cloud but that day is not today. What separates CommVault from the competition is that its solution is integrated so that organizations can remove both their storage silos and their data silos as they move data into the cloud. In this way they are managing one single pool of data versus separate archive and backup sets which only improves an organization's ability to find its assets but it also improves the overall management of its data in general.