It's no surprise that the adoption of server virtualization technology is continuing to accelerate as enterprise organizations consolidate critical applications on VMs. It's a technology trend that cries out for a modern approach to data management. The findings of our survey only reinforce CommVault's belief that there is a data protection gap in the virtual server world.

According to our survey, the adoption rate of server virtualization continues to accelerate year on year with 34 percent of the 388 survey respondents stating their server environments were 75 percent - 100 percent virtualized. The survey also indicates groundswell of support for running business-critical applications on virtual machines in their production environment, including application servers (93%), Web servers (84%), databases (72%) and messaging applications (53%).

"Oneness," as defined in the dictionary, is "The quality of being one; singleness; unity of thought, belief, aim, etc.; agreement; concord."

For thousands of years, "oneness" has been pointed to as an enlightened state in which the illusion of separation dissolves and true harmony is realized. And modern physicists have shown that, on a sub-atomic level, we are actually more space than form,]]> http://news.commvault.com/DavidWest/000080_Achieve_Oneness.asp http://news.commvault.com/DavidWest/000080_Achieve_Oneness.asp Mon, 1 Aug 2011 08:30:00 -0400 "How can we make an impact today?"

This is the question I blindsided the members of CommVault's global marketing leadership team with as we gathered recently in my hometown of Philadelphia for a few days of strategic planning and creative brainstorming.

The impact I was referring to was not the kind that is directly associated with the growth of CommVault's bottom line, but rather, the impact that can be made when a group of passionate, committed people are given an opportunity to be extraordinary and help those less fortunate than ourselves.

I was inspired by what Seth Godin expresses in his book Linchpin, which is that truly great companies only become so when the people who work there exert emotional labor to accomplish remarkable things. I thought, "How interesting it would be to test this notion by introducing 'CommVault Gives Back' to my team, with one very simple premise: Make a real and immediate impact on as many people as possible within a few hours."

"CIOs are desperate for the legacy integration mess to disappear, the virtualization work to be finished, and the cloud discussions to actually make sense. Then there's the problem of all that data–in some cases it's measured in petabytes--that never seems to decrease in size, no matter how many times the retention policy is revised."

This rang true because it echoes so many of my conversations with CIO's and senior IT leaders over the last 8-12 months. It also sets the stage quite fortuitously for our announcement today of the availability of Simpana 9.

What was once a taboo conversation by hardware vendors for fear of sales erosion, now deduplicating data on the primary copy is here to stay. Primary storage vendors are responsible - dare I say, obligated - to deduplicate on the front end. NetApp, for example, has proven to the market that primary deduplication with VMware is a significant need. Dell is now on a path to developing a story that addresses this market in an effort to drive more EqualLogic footprint.

But what about making copies? Copies of data for replication, backup, archive and compliance generate orders of magnitude more space than what's consumed by the original copy. Adding deduplication to all of these copies, across all storage tiers through to tape, will slash storage related costs. The economic impact of deduplication is profound.

So isn't it time for technology vendors to stop the hype and deliver practical solutions that work as promised? At CommVault, we have formulated a pragmatic strategy that extends our core competencies in data management to the cloud. We've also been very deliberate in pursuing MSP partners that can support our customers' growing interest in cloud storage by leveraging their own data center expertise and proven IT services.

We started this process by talking with customers to discover what they want from cloud computing. We learned they want to do more than just store data in the cloud; they want to manage it for data protection, archiving and eDiscovery, just as they do already with data stored on disks and tapes. We also surveyed our customers worldwide to find out their thoughts on the biggest risks and rewards of cloud storage. More than half of the 535 respondents to CommVault's cloud computing survey reported growing interest in cloud storage. Such interest by participants was attributed to a number of factors, including the ability to lower overall costs, reduce hardware expenditures, augment offsite disaster recovery as well as replace or supplement tape. Still, more than 75 percent of those polled expressed qualms over moving to a cloud storage model and cited security, privacy and reliability among their top concerns.

The proposed rehab effort, which is being met with much resistance, is intended to integrate the area into the surrounding neighborhood for the good of the residents, taxpayers and society as a whole. The reluctance to change reminds me of a capital campaign committee I'm on to raise $5 million to update my local church and school facilities with the addition of a new gym, pre-kindergarten classrooms and meeting rooms. We desperately need the overhaul to remain a competitive school and vibrant parish, yet all too often I hear parents and community members say "we can't afford this" or "the old gym is good enough."

Truth is, the old gym isn't good enough and families are choosing other schools and parishes with modern facilities and the latest programs we simply can't offer. It's clear that we must embrace change, no matter how scary, as it's the universal price we pay for progress–whether that means rehabbing a neighborhood, updating an aging school or upgrading an outdated information management infrastructure to keep pace with growing business demands.

It also was significant that CommVault landed on Goldman Sachs' coveted list of big-league players cited in a recent IT spending survey. CommVault ranked No. 5 on a list of the top 10 software providers gaining a share of limited IT spending dollars. Yep, we followed virtualization leaders VMware, Citrix and Red Hat while outpacing several other big names in software, including Salesforce.com, Cisco, Adobe and Oracle.

It's great to make it into the software big leagues, especially at a time when CIOs have lots of choices and fewer dollars to spend. As a result, they're making tough choices while struggling to lower costs and increase operational efficiencies. So, making it onto the "share gainer" list is rewarding–and somewhat surprising.

Don't get me wrong, we work really hard to add value to our customers' businesses and we believe we're the best at providing a singular platform for managing data. But, we also recognize there are much bigger players out there, not necessarily with better solutions but with longer histories, well-established customers and deeper pockets. And yet, CIOs picked us over them because they understand what we're trying to do. In fact, nearly all the top players on this big-league list have a strong story to tell when it comes to demonstrating solid economic benefits.

CommVault resides at the apex of a massive convergence that's taking place in data centers around the world as organizations seek new ways to reduce costs by redesigning their IT infrastructures and embracing new cloud and virtualization strategies. In his Open Road post on the IT spending survey, Matt Asay acknowledged the top 10 players for scoring highly with CIOs, calling them "cloud arms dealers." From our perspective, virtualization and cloud strategies are both driving major infrastructure redesigns, which is the perfect time for improving data management.

The term fell from favor originally because all the over-hyped vendor promises came up empty. That doesn't mean the concept was flawed-though the products were. Stepping into the "wayback machine," I recall a presentation by Mark Lewis, who then was VP and GM of Compaq's Enterprise Storage Group. When he took the stage at an industry trade show to espouse the merits of this new ILM category, he energized the audience with the promise of an overarching strategy for effectively managing information throughout its useful life. EMC then applied enough marketing muscle to make ILM a household name, but as Tony Asaro described in a recent blog post on the big buzz around ILM, "the reality never matched the rhetoric." As he says, "the term ILM is rarely used these days and it is not going to open any doors for you."

Well, I think that's about to change. ILM is making a comeback. During recent travels abroad I came across a lot of ILM fans-especially in EMEA. The catch with the concept-and perhaps the reason for its initial false start-is it requires an extra layer of intelligence to move data effectively. This element was absent from the hardware-based ILM solutions that first were brought to market, so they ended up supplying tiered storage instead. As a result, people became disillusioned when none of the major ILM proponents delivered on the many promises they made.

Fortunately, next-generation, intelligent data management solutions now exist that might actually enable ILM to reach its full potential. So, it's time to start talking ILM again. Who knows, maybe now it really will open doors.

Last month, I attended the first stop of the tour in Washington, D.C. and was struck by the common discussion threads among the attendees. For the most part, everyone was actively seeking ways to cut costs and improve efficiencies during the continuing downturn in IT spending. While our attendees concurred with the cost-cutting wave, they seemed most concerned with making wiser investments that would enable them to halt endless hardware buying sprees.

Clearly, folks are sick and tired of throwing hardware at their problems, especially when trying to fix broken backups. One frustrated IT manager told me she was highly motivated to switch backup solutions as she no longer could justify spending nearly $400,000 on a maintenance contract to support a legacy platform that was too costly and couldn't scale sufficiently.

Attendees across the board were more focused than ever on reducing exposure to risk, especially in the areas of compliance. Fortunately, Randy Kahn of Kahn Consulting, gave them a lot to chew on during a thought-provoking keynote. The author of "Information Nation: Seven Ways to Information Management Compliance," Randy addressed both the business and legal issues of information and technology. In a recent blog post on compliance, he provides more insight on the importance of compliance rules, as well as the consequences when employees willfully or inadvertently violate those rules. His bottom line: consistency is central to effective enforcement of any information management program.

Industry research reveals a growing trend to jump on the virtualization bandwagon. More than 1,400 U.S. CIOs were polled in a recent Robert Half Technology spending survey, of which approximately 70 percent said they'd spend money on new IT initiatives in the next 12 months. Of those CIO's that indicated plans to invest in IT, 39 percent at large (1,000+ employees) and midsize (500 to 999 employees) companies plan to invest in virtualization. From the survey, added budget pressures were forcing many companies to focus on more cost-effective solutions for servers, storage and networking; virtualization tools were noted as enabling "greater consolidation, lower hardware costs, and reduced space and power requirements."

While it's easy to see how you can justify server virtualization and consolidation projects solely on cost reductions, I say there's no better time to overhaul the backup and recovery platform you've most likely outgrown. If your backups can't handle virtualization adequately, you'll most likely quickly lose the cost benefits. That's why any server virtualization or consolidation project provides a great opportunity to revisit and improve your underlying data management infrastructure. If you don't address it now, it's like building a new house and then carting over and installing the rickety, energy-wasting furnace from your old house. You wouldn't consider doing that, especially since it's obvious it would cost you more in the long run to keep the faulty furnace operational.

While it's not recognized yet by Hallmark, this special day already has its own song, written by Wes Borg, a grateful recipient of sys admin know-how. Popular online merchant Café Press is commemorating the day with lots of great mugs, funny t-shirts and other unique gift ideas while ThinkGeek has been running a special pageant to honor the most deserving "SysKing" or "SysQueen" with $500 in gift certificates.

I'd also like to give a shout out to all of the sys admins who tirelessly keep the email server up, critical data intact and the compliance department happy. It's a daunting task, but these hardworking techies always seem on their game when challenged. We've all heard the horror stores and feel their pain. No one wants to spend countless hours finding the CEO's lost emails, writing manual scripts to backup crucial corporate databases or managing a hodgepodge of products that don't talk to each other or work well together.

At CommVault, we have a philosophy of paying attention to what sys admins want and need as their in-the-trenches input has proven invaluable in helping us make better products. In fact, our latest software release, Simpana 8, contains more than 300 customer-requested enhancements mostly from sys admins which we hope makes their jobs easier. We truly value the opinions of sys admins, especially since they're the ones deploying Simpana software and recommending it to others. They also can pack a lot of useful information into 140 characters, which I've learned from following some recent Twitter comments.

So what's the connection to data management? The show's catch-phrase: "we can rebuild him-we have the technology" resonates today when I think about the problems our customers face after outgrowing their current data management infrastructures. Many of them fear horrific crashes that could cripple their mission-critical businesses but they simply don't know there is a better way. They want to rebuild their environments, so they can bolster backup and recovery, do a better job of containing data growth costs as well as keep up with escalating e-discovery, archiving and compliance demands.

There's no way to deny the short-term pain of replacing legacy systems, but there's plenty of long-term gain in terms of bionic-like operational efficiencies with reduced risk and significantly decreased data management costs. The trick is looking far enough into the future to avoid band-aid fixes to data management problems.

In a recent Byte and Switch blog post, Storage Switzerland's George Crump examines the future direction of deduplication, which he thinks will pose greater areas of concern as dedupe becomes a focus for archiving and primary storage. George also thinks the battle between hardware-based dedupe appliances and software-based deduplication will continue as IT departments determine which approach best halts the proliferation of data copies so redundant data only needs to be stored once. Of course, you know where I stand on that topic as reiterated in my recent post on the fundamental flaw with hardware-based deduplication.

Don't get me wrong. I applaud Data Domain's ability to create massive momentum for what has been the best-selling standalone deduplication product on the market. I give both EMC and NetApp credit for recognizing the rising importance of deduplication and I totally understand why they're facing off to add the No. 1 dedupe appliance to their respective arsenals. But I take issue with the implication that this appliance really is the long-term solution for customers. I question where customers will find themselves in six months or even a year from now.

No one should lose sight of the fact that dedupe appliance vendors have been successful because traditional backup and archive companies lacked the foresight and innovation to eliminate redundant data when they created the copies in the first place. (Remember, stand alone dedupe appliances rely on a data feed from legacy backup/archive vendors.) In other words, dedupe appliance vendors essentially built their companies on a foundation of broken backup. Do you really think that if EMC Legato, or EMC Documentum, or even EMC Dantz all had built-in data deduplication, there would be a need for them to make a $2B acquisition? But, then again, deduplicating redundant data probably wasn't that important to EMC when money from IT budgets flowed freely to disk vendors so companies could add more capacity.

As Eric-Jan Schmidt, VP of corporate marketing for Hitachi Data Systems, says, this new software release can solve data protection problems with "one platform, one common technology engine and one dashboard in one comprehensive solution." It's clear "the power of one" - our singular approach to information management - resonates with industry leaders striving to help their customers protect more information, reduce storage CAPEX and OPEX as well as simplify overall operations.

Hitachi Data Systems is a trusted supplier to many enterprises worldwide and together we can deliver world-class turnkey solutions with unparalleled value and functionality. The launch of HDPS v8 is sure to accelerate their land grab in the growing secondary disk and data management software markets. It's a compelling value proposition. Instead of a myriad of inefficient, multi-vendor point products, HDS customers now can buy their end-to-end storage and data management from a single vendor with a solution that includes critical embedded features like block based dedupe, virtual server management, eDiscovery, laptop protection and archiving.

• 140 new features,
• 50 additions in platform support,
• 20 architectural enhancements, and
• 150 other enhancements to improve usability, resiliency and scalability.

In applauding their accomplishments, I realized all the hard work and forward-thinking it took over the years to truly change how data gets moved and managed across an enterprise-a feat much easier said than done.

Perhaps that's why Symantec has been talking about unifying its Veritas storage software for years, but has yet to deliver on that overarching vision. When Symantec revealed its "Storage United" foundation in June 2007, the company described how Veritas storage software would unite platforms, administrators and businesses by integrating various data protection technologies under a single management umbrella. Fast forward to this year and they're still talking about it, as recently as this week on their quarterly earnings call. In fact, while a lot of storage software vendors continue to talk about product integration, common management interfaces and consolidated policy structures, I'm continually amused that they have made such little progress on it.

I certainly don't mean to come across as arrogant, especially since what I really want to express is confidence in the approach we've taken. We believe that for our customers, companies thinking about replacing their current backup platform as well as organizations required to maintain long-term tape archives, CommVault's embedded software approach is a compelling alternative to purpose-built hardware appliances.

Our confidence comes from our conviction that by embedding end-to-end data reduction technologies inside the backup/archive software, you gain substantially better performance, greater flexibility and overall lower costs. In a nutshell, here's why:

• Data Reduction is not just about reducing the footprint of data on backend disk. Simply replacing tape with deduped storage, without addressing the data growth bottle necks at the front end and across your backup infrastructure, will only temporarily address the real data management challenges. These challenges are bound to resurface almost immediately and only exacerbate the initial problem. We believe a good data reduction strategy starts at the front-end with archiving stale information (we dedupe that too), combined with client/application software compression and more frequent incremental backup copies. Smarter reduction on the front-end slows primary disk growth while also yielding less movement over the network and less load on the back-end to deliver a significant throughput boost in both backup/archive and recovery speed. With CommVault deduplication, restores can be 30-50% faster than similar restores from other dedupe solutions.
• You can avoid vendor lock-in and mix and match any manufacturer's disk drives for the target hardware. (For the record, we agree that disk is the target medium of choice for near-term recovery).
• Most enterprise customers are concerned with security and data encryption across all tiers. Our ability to dedupe encrypted data allows these customers to benefit from dedupe for even their most sensitive data.
• Tape is still the preferred option for long-term offsite archives, which is why many of our enterprise, pharmaceutical, financial services and government customers appreciate the fact that we can help them reduce by up to 90 percent the consumption of offline media for long term retention and compliance. When you add up the lower costs of media management and offsite storage, invariably you're looking at substantial cost savings.

If you listen to Data Domain and other dedupe appliance vendors, you'd think deduplication is the ultimate cure. Sure, dedupe is white hot these days and most IT shops feel compelled to kick the tires in validating the dedupe value prop. You can alleviate a lot of pain by eliminating redundant copies of data, that's for sure.

For many early adopters of Data Domain and other dedupe appliances, however, the pain relief doesn't last long enough; it's a bit like taking Tylenol for a toothache when what you really need is a root canal. The same can be said of first-gen dedupe appliances, which aren't powerful, scalable or flexible enough to be the end-all, be-all solution vendors tout.

According to a report by non-partisan think tank The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, massive upgrades to America's digital infrastructure could spur the most opportunities through major investments in broadband networks, health IT and the Smart Power Grid–all of which will have an enormous ripple effect on the need for data storage as the recession reverses.

How well prepared will you be to handle these pent-up storage demands? A recent blog by Hu Yoshida, CTO of Hitachi Data Systems, offered useful tips for surviving the recovery. His bottom line: plan now for the recovery by setting a strategy for where you need to be, not only to survive but to prosper with the recovery. I couldn't agree more, especially since there is no better time to wring out cost and complexity from your infrastructure and prepare for what's next.

Why is recovery so often overlooked in the endless dialogue on backup? Is it because backups are more top-of-mind since they are performed regularly throughout the day and companies are constantly struggling to meet their operational backup windows? Or, is it because recoveries can be even more complex, costly and cumbersome than most backup and archive operations?

We need to strike a better balance between backup and recovery so IT managers don't have to choose between meeting shrinking backup windows and supporting multiple recovery points. That's why we've included new features in Simpana 8 that incorporate the capabilities of hardware-based snapshot technologies within a broader data management foundation.

We are in the new storage economy, where doing more with less means exactly that-start managing your ever-increasing amounts of data with less infrastructure, fewer disks and tapes as well as reduced administration. Our founding principles are rooted firmly in the belief that you can wring cost and complexity out of your existing environment by leveraging a single, unified data management platform. Our philosophy is simple: replace multiple, disparate copies of data with one highly optimized copy that can be easily repurposed and centrally managed for backups, recovery, replication, archiving, deduplication, search, e-discovery and more.

This philosophy has enabled us to continually "walk the talk" of the new storage economy by demonstrating how a single data management approach can produce major economies of scale. With the release today of Simpana 8, CommVault's list of proof points just got longer as we introduce major advances in recovery management, data reduction, virtual server protection and content organization.

Much of the new administration's stimulus strategy addresses the need for "reinvestment" in the country's infrastructure–retrofitting roads, bridges, buildings and healthcare systems to be more efficient and effective. It's a simple, yet far-reaching concept that takes us beyond the Oval Office and into corporate conference rooms for conversations about reinvesting in information infrastructures.

Often, these discussions stem from a growing dissatisfaction with worn-out foundations and tired technologies that can't keep up with out-of-control data growth. Short-term fixes, such as adding more hardware and multiple software products, have proven to be costly, cumbersome and inadequate in meeting the rising demands of a global economy. Managing an inefficient, inflexible information foundation also leaves companies vulnerable to a variety of compliance risks and liabilities.

Now, factor in the hundreds of gigabytes of data that need to be collected and culled for typical litigation and it's easy to see how companies spend millions on eDiscovery alone. The reason it's so expensive to locate, search, retrieve and secure ESI is because people have stashed multiple copies of data in so many places. As a result, they have to collect and cull a warehouse-sized stockpile to respond to most discovery requests.

For many, the process is so painful they outsource discovery to service providers that search the information warehouse with a "find the needle in a haystack" or "forensic" approach. This is probably the most inefficient, time-consuming, expensive and risky way to handle eDiscovery. Sticking your head in the haystack with the attitude that "if it's hard to find, then I don't have to produce it" is equally flawed.

Access to information is a hot topic these days, especially as companies-big and small, public and private-struggle to optimize their electronically stored information (ESI) so it can be readily available. If you followed the advice in my last post and cleaned out your storage junk drawer, you've probably eased access to your critical data somewhat by getting rid of unwanted information while moving less important data onto less expensive storage.

Now that your house is in order in terms of what data is vital and where it should reside, let's add up all the times you save copies of that data and for what purpose. I'm sure you back up your data faithfully and even replicate the most important information, making real-time copies for elevated protection. You also probably create copies so you can archive it in accordance with corporate policies and/or regulatory compliance requirements. And, you might even have additional copies for eDiscovery. The total of all those copies most likely will surprise you.

For a lot of companies I talk to, the biggest sore spot begins with managing data growth. The complaint I hear most is the constant struggle to keep up with escalating capacity demands. Too often, however, the admitted knee-jerk reaction to running out of capacity is "1-800-call EMC" and roll in another box. Problem delayed, not solved.

So before budgeting for more storage hardware, I recommend an analysis of your primary storage, followed by some serious housecleaning. Hardware companies don't want you to know this dirty little secret, but I like the metaphor industry analyst Jon Toigo uses to describe where to start – the "storage junk drawer." Instead of buying more boxes, consider how much stale, "contraband", personal, and inappropriate information is sitting on expensive primary storage? How much expensive storage is being consumed by old, irrelevant emails? Cleaning out the junk drawer saves lots of space. As Toigo has said in the article linked above, this can "return upwards of 50 to 70 percent of every disk you own back to productive use."

We must stop addressing today's data management challenges in the same old ways. Continuing to do so only perpetuates the insanity that runs through too many organizations while it also drains their budgets.

So welcome to my first blog. The purpose of this space is to offer our community of customers, prospective customers and partners ways to cure–or at least reduce–the insanity with fresh ideas for swifter, more agile responses to data management dilemmas.