Randy De Meno is one of the longest tenured CommVault employees joining "AT&T/CommVault" in 1994. Back then, Randy led the charge for CommVault to move out of the "UNIX-only" paradigm towards providing a heterogeneous data management solution. Randy led the development efforts for CommVault's Microsoft, Banyan and Novell solutions. In addition to contributing to dozens of CommVault patents, Randy initiated the move to CommVault's current Windows-based solution along with spearheading CommVault's partnership with Microsoft. That partnership was based on the long term vision of what Simpana software has become today and the performance of the Windows architecture.

Not only does Randy lead CommVault's solution and worldwide partnering efforts with Microsoft, but he has also initiated the CommVault Hockey Helping Kids program — a charitable program under which CommVault has worked with customers and partners for more than a decade to raise awareness and over $330,000 for various children's charities.

Prior to CommVault, Randy was the Strategic Director for Banyan Systems. Randy is married with three children, is a supporter in the fight against Autism and earned of a Bachelor's of Science degree for Computer Applications from Wagner College.

The Common Use Cases for Windows Azure storage

Saturday, June 16, 2012

A few weeks ago CommVault and Microsoft announced a significant go-to-market effort centering on the Microsoft cloud environment known as Windows Azure. I've been pleasantly surprised by the positive response from the industry and from the CommVault and Microsoft field organizations as they begin to work together.

I've seen five general categories describing how our customers are initially embracing Azure storage:

1. As an immediate archive target, primarily for older and larger Exchange, SharePoint and file system data.
2. As a tape replacement. Instead of "Disk to Disk to Tape (D2D2T)", customers are utilizing "Disk to Disk to Azure (D2D2A)".
3. To set up a "Zero Disk Paradigm" on-premises. Customers can get their older data moved to Azure while still giving their users untethered access to this older and sometimes larger archived data. Simple policies in place can keep the more commonly accessed data on-premises while the older data is automatically moved to Azure. Users can seamlessly retrieve the data, even if it is application specific like a PowerPoint file.
4. For compliance purposes – because Simpana software keeps the encryption keys local and on-premises, customers can immediately remain within compliance for legal and regulatory reasons.
5. As a data protection target for backup and recovery, especially for remote laptop users and remote offices so they can backup from remote locations directly to Azure cloud storage.

The CommVault/Microsoft partnership has been burning brightly since we moved to using Windows as our platform back in 1999. This new partnering effort around Azure is like throwing gasoline on a real charcoal fire (hey, I'm older and still only use real charcoal).

We've put together an executive video overview of the new Azure GTM, which we hope you'll check out.

In keeping with my blog's overall hockey theme, here are this edition's "Three Stars of the Blog":

1. All the charities that worked with us to make the 2011-2012 Hockey Helping Kids (HHK) season a success. The Long Island chapter of Autism Speaks, Autism Societies of Colorado and Minnesota, Temple University, and Philadelphia PowerPlay.
2. The sponsors that helped us this HHK season: Microsoft, Dell, Shop-Rite, Muller Insurance, Nexus Information Systems, St. Croix Solutions, Sage Technology Group and Christy Branham Jewelry.
3. Microsoft's Fran Dougherty. While he's a great visionary and technologist, the guy is also a rabid hockey fan and HHK supporter. Now, we just have to get him on skates for the 2012-2013 HHK season.

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