Tag: industry trend

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Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR

Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR

Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR trends

It’s time for Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR Start Date.

The annual March 31 world backup day focus has come and gone once again.

However, that does not mean data protection including backup as well as recovery along with security gets a 364-day vacation until March 31, 2019 (or the days leading up to it).

Granted, for some environments, public relations, editors, influencers and other industry folks backup day will take some time off while others jump on the ramp up to GDPR which goes into effect May 25, 2018.

Expanding Focus Data Protection and GDPR

As I mentioned in this post here, world backup day should be expanded to include increased focus not just on backup, also recovery as well as other forms of data protection. Likewise, May 25 2018 is not the deadline or finish line or the destination for GDPR (e.g. Global Data Protection Regulations), rather, it is the starting point for an evolving journey, one that has global impact as well as applicability. Recently I participated in a fireside chat discussion with Danny Allan of Veeam who shared his GDPR expertise as well as experiences, lessons learned, tips of Veeam as they started their journey, check it out here.

Expanding Focus Data Protection Recovery and other Things that start with R

As part of expanding the focus on Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR, that also means looking at, discussing things that start with R (like Recovery). Some examples besides recovery include restoration, reassess, review, rethink protection, recovery point, RPO, RTO, reconstruction, resiliency, ransomware, RAID, repair, remediation, restart, resume, rollback, and regulations among others.

Data Protection Tips, Reminders and Recommendations

  • There are no blue participation ribbons for failed recovery. However, there can be pink slips.
  • Only you can prevent on-premises or cloud data loss. However, it is also a shared responsibility with vendors and service providers
  • You can’t go forward in the future when there is a disaster or loss of data if you can’t go back in time for recovery
  • GDPR appliances to organizations around the world of all size and across all sectors including nonprofit
  • Keep new school 4 3 2 1 data protection in mind while evolving from old school 3 2 1 backup rules

    • 4 3 2 1 backup data protection rule

  • A Fundamental premise of data infrastructures is to enable applications and their data, protect, preserve, secure and serve
  • Remember to protect your applications, as well as data including metadata, settings configurations
  • Test your restores including can you use the data along with security settings
  • Don’t cause a disaster in the course of testing your data protection, backups or recovery
  • Expand (or refresh) your data protection and data infrastructure education tradecraft skills experiences

Where to learn more

Learn more about data protection, world backup day, recovery, restoration, GDPR along with related data infrastructure topics for cloud, legacy and other software defined environments via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means and wrap-up

Data protection including business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BR), disaster recovery (DR), availability, accessibility, backup, snapshots, encryption, security, privacy among others is a 7 x 24 x 365 day a year focus. The focus of data protection also needs to evolve from an after the fact cost overhead to proactive, business enabler Meanwhile, welcome to Data Protection Recovery Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR Start Date.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Is there an information or data recession? Are you using less storage? (With Polls)

Is there an information or data recession? Are you using less storage? (With Polls)

StorageIO industry trends

Is there an information recession where you are creating, processing, moving or saving less data?

Are you using less data storage than in the past either locally online, offline or remote including via clouds?

IMHO there is no such thing as a data or information recession, granted storage is being used more effectively by some, while economic pressures or competition enables your budgets to be stretched further. Likewise people and data are living longer and getting larger.

In conversations with IT professionals particular the real customers (e.g. not vendors, VAR’s, analysts, blogalysts, consultants or media) I routinely hear from people that they continue to have the need to store more information, however they’re data storage usage and acquisition patterns are changing. For some this means using what they have more effectively leveraging data footprint reduction (DFR) which includes (archiving, compression, dedupe, thin provision, changing how and when data is protected). This also means using different types of storage from flash SSD to HDD to SSHD to tape summit resources as well as cloud in different ways spanning block, file and object storage local and remote.

A common question that comes up particular around vendor earnings announcement times is if the data storage industry is in decline with some vendors experience poor results?

Look beyond vendor revenue metrics

As a back ground reading, you might want to check out this post here (IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand) which candidly should be common sense.

If all you looked at were a vendors revenues or margin numbers as an indicator of how well such as the data storage industry (includes traditional, legacy as well as cloud) you would not be getting the picture.

What needs to be factored into the picture is how much storage is being shipped (from components such as drives to systems and appliances) as well as delivered by service providers.

Looking at storage systems vendors from a revenue earnings perspective you would get mixed indicators depending on who you include, not to mention on how those vendors report break of revenues by product, or amount units shipped. For example looking at public vendors EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Nimble and Oracle (among others) as well as the private ones (if you can see the data) such as Dell, Pure, Simplivity, Solidfire, Tintri results in different analysis. Some are doing better than others on revenues and margins, however try to get clarity on number of units or systems shipped (for actual revenue vs. loaners (planting seeds for future revenue or trials) or demos).

Then look at the service providers such as AWS, Centurlylink, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft Rackspace or Verizon (among others) you should see growth, however clarity about how much they are actually generating on revenues plus margin for storage specific vs. broad general buckets can be tricky.

Now look at the component suppliers such as Seagate and Western Digital (WD) for HDDs and SSHDs who also provide flash SSD drives and other technology. Also look at the other flash component suppliers such as Avago/LSI whose flash business is being bought by Seagate, FusionIO, SANdisk, Samsung, Micron and Intel among others (this does not include the systems vendors who OEM those or other products to build systems or appliances). These and other component suppliers can give another indicator as to the health of the industry both from revenue and margin, as well as footprint (e.g. how many devices are being shipped). For example the legacy and startup storage systems and appliance vendors may have soft or lower revenue numbers, however are they shipping the same or less product? Likewise the cloud or service providers may be showing more revenues and product being acquired however at what margin?

What this all means?

Growing amounts of information?

Look at revenue numbers in the proper context as well as in the bigger picture.

If the same number of component devices (e.g. processors, HDD, SSD, SSHD, memory, etc) are being shipped or more, that is an indicator of continued or increased demand. Likewise if there is more competition and options for IT organizations there will be price competition between vendors as well as service providers.

All of this means that while IT organizations budgets stay stretched, their available dollars or euros should be able to buy (or rent) them more storage space capacity.

Likewise using various data and storage management techniques including DFR, the available space capacity can be stretched further.

So this then begs the question of if the management of storage is important, why are we not hearing vendors talking about software defined storage management vs. chasing each other to out software define storage each other?

Ah, that’s for a different post ;).

So what say you?

Are you using less storage?

Do you have less data being created?

Are you using storage and your available budget more effectively?

Please take a few minutes and cast your vote (and see the results).

Sorry I have no Amex or Amazon gift cards or other things to offer you as a giveaway for participating as nobody is secretly sponsoring this poll or post, it’s simply sharing and conveying information for you and others to see and gain insight from.

Do you think that there is an information or data recession?

How about are you using or buying more storage, could there be a data storage recession?

Some more reading links

IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand
Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
Is There a Data and I/O Activity Recession?
Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
The Human Face of Big Data, a Book Review
Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage?
Little data, big data and very big data (VBD) or big BS?

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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What does gaining industry traction or adoption mean too you?

Storage I/O trends

What does gaining industry traction or adoption mean too you?

Is it based on popularity or how often something that is talked about, blogged, tweeted, commented, video or similar?

What are the indicators that something is gaining traction?

Perhaps it is tied to the number of press releases, product or staffing announcements including who has joined the organization along with added coverage of it?

Maybe its based on how many articles, videos or some other content and coverage that helps to show traction and momentum?

On the other hand is it tied to how many prospects are actually trying a product or service as part of a demo or proof of concept?

Then again, maybe it is associated with how many real paying or revenue installed footprints and customers or what is also known as industry deployment (customer adoption).

Of those customers actually buying and deploying, how many have continued using the technology even after industry adoption subsides or does the solution become shelf ware?

Does the customer deployment actually continue to rise quietly while industry adoption or conversations drop off (past the cycle of hype)?

buzzword bingo

Gaining context with industry traction

Gaining traction can mean different things to people, however there is also a difference between industry adoption (what’s being talked about among the industry) and industry deployment (what customers are actually buying, installing and continue to use).

Often the two can go hand in hand, usually one before the other, however they can also be separate. For example it is possible that something new will have broad industry adoption (being talked about) yet have low customer deployment (even over time). This occurs when something is new and interesting that might be fun to talk about or the vendor, solution provider is cool and fun to hang out and be with, or simply has cool giveaways.

On the other hand there can be customer deployment and adoption with little to no fan fare (industry adoption) for different reasons.

Storage I/O trends

Here’s my point

Not long ago if you asked or listened to some, you would think that once high-flying cloud storage vendor Nirvanix was gaining traction based on their marketing along with other activities, yet they recently closed their doors. Then there was Kim Dotcoms hyped Megacloud launch earlier this year that also has now gone dark or shutting down. This is not unique to cloud service providers or solutions as the same can, has and will happen again to traditional hardware, software and services providers (startups and established).

How about former high-flying FusionIO, or the new startup by former FusionIO founder and CEO David Flynn called Primary Data. One of the two is struggling to gain or keep up revenue traction while having declined in industry popularity traction. The other is gaining in industry popularity traction with their recently secured $50 Million in funding yet are still in stealth mode so rather difficult to gain customer adoption or deployment traction (thus for now its industry adoption focus for them ;).

in the news

If you are a customer or somebody actually deploying and using technology, tools, techniques and services for real world activity vs. simply trying new things out, your focus on what is gaining traction will probably be different than others. Granted it is important to keep an eye on what is coming or on futures, however there is also the concern of how it will really work and keep working over time.

For example while Hard Disk Drives (HDD) continue to support industry deployment traction (customer adoption and usage) traction. However they are not new and when new models apear (such as Seagate Ethernet based Kinetic) they may not get the same industry adoption traction as a newer technology might. Case in point Solid State Devices (SSD) continue to gain in customer deployment adoption with some environments doing more than others, yet have very high industry adoption traction status.

Storage I/O SSD trends
Relative SSD customer adoption and deployment along with future opportunities

On the other hand if your focus is on what’s new and emerging which is usually more industry centered, then it should be no surprise what traction means and where it is focused. For example the following figure shoes where different audiences have various timelines on adoption (read more here).

SSD trends
Current and emerging memory, flash and other SSD technologies for different audiences

Wrap up

When you hear that something is gaining traction, ask yourself (or others) what that means along with the applicable context.

Does that mean something is popular and trending to discuss (based on GQ or looks), or that it is actually gaining real customer adoption based on G2 (insight – they are actually buying vs. simply trying our a free version).

Does it mean one form of traction along with industry adoption (what’s being talked about) vs. industry deployment (real customer adoption) is better than the other?

No, it simply means putting things into the applicable context.

Ok, nuff said (for now).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Is more of something always better? Depends on what you are doing

Storage I/O trends

Is more always better? Depends on what you are doing

As with many things it depends, however how about some of these?

Is more better for example (among others):

  • Facebook likes
  • Twitter followers or tweets (I’m @storageio btw)
  • Google+ likes, follows and hangouts
  • More smart phone apps
  • LinkedIn connections
  • People in your circle or community
  • Photos or images per post or article
  • People working with or for you
  • Partners vs. doing more with those you have
  • People you are working for or with
  • Posts or longer posts with more in them
  • IOPs or SSD and storage performance
  • Domains under management and supported
  • GB/TB/PB/EB supported or under management
  • Mart-time jobs or a better full-time opportunity
  • Metrics vs. those that matter with context
  • Programmers to get job done (aka mythical man month)
  • Lines of code per cost vs. more reliable and tested code per cost
  • For free items and time spent managing them vs. more productivity for a nominal fee
  • Meetings for planning on what to do vs. streamline and being more productive
  • More sponsors or advertisers or underwriters vs. fewer yet more effective ones
  • Space in your booth or stand at a trade show or conference vs. using what you have more effectively
  • Copies of the same data vs. fewer yet more unique (not full though) copies of information
  • Patents in your portfolio vs. more technology and solutions being delivered
  • Processors, sockets, cores, threads vs. using them more effectively
  • Ports and protocols vs. using them more effectively

Storage I/O trends

Thus does more resources matter, or making more effective use of them?

For example more ports, protocols, processors, cores, sockets, threads, memory, cache, drives, bandwidth, people among other things is not always better, particular if those resources are not being used effectively.

Likewise don’t confuse effective with efficient often assumed to mean used.

For example a cache or memory may be 100% used (what some call efficient) yet only providing a 35% effective benefit (cache hit or miss) vs. cache turn (misses etc).

Throwing more processing power in terms of clock speed, or cores is one thing, kind of like throwing more server blades at a software problem vs. using those cores and sockets not to mention threads more effectively.

Good software will run better on fast hardware while enabling more to be done with the same or less.

Thus with better software or tools, more work can be done in an effective way leveraging those resources vs. simply throwing or applying more at the situation.

Hopefully you get the point, so no need to do more with this post (for now), if not, stay tuned and pay more attention around you.

Ok, nuff said, I need to go get more work done now.

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved