EMC Data Protection Suite Announcement

Today at EMC World, EMC has formally announced the EMC Data Protection Suite.  Although they have actually been selling it before now, they are shining a light on it with this announcement.  This new product does not consist of new technology.  Instead it is a licensing model for the EMC data protection products.  From a single license based upon protected data, you can use the full range of EMC backup products.  These include Avamar, Data Domain Boost, NetWorker, Data Protection Advisor, and SourceOne.  This is a wonderful way for customers to buy the licensing they need without tying themselves down to particular technologies.  With this license, as I said, you only need to know how much data you have to protect.  Then you can implement the technologies as you need.  If you change your mind as to which combination of technologies or if you needs change, you can change the technology mix without changing your licensing.  Additionally, it means only having to buy a single license instead of individual licenses for the various components.  If you meet the minimum capacity requirements, which is relatively low, then this is without doubt the best way to license your EMC backup products.

The most exciting aspect of the announcement for me is the inclusion of SourceOne.  I was not aware that it was to be included with the suite.  This means that you can not only backup with the technologies that you need, but that you can also pull the appropriate data out of the backup data stream ultimately making your data protection environment as efficient as possible.

You can read the press release here:  EMC Announces Data Protection Suite.

VMworld 2013 Session Voting

It is that time of year again.  Time to vote for VMworld sessions.  If you have ever attended a large conference such as Cisco Live, EMC World, or TechEd, and been disappointed that the session topics didn't cover the topics that you wanted to hear about, then this is for you.  VMware allows the public to vote on the sessions for their annual conference VMworld.  Public voting for the VMworld 2013 sessions started yesterday and I am hoping you’ll take the time to vote for our sessions.  Last year Jason Nash, Brian Boyd, Joe Kelly, and Greg Camp represented Varrow in several sessions at VMworld 2012.  I had the opportunity to speak at EMC World 2010 on "Operationalizing the Cloud".  I found that to be a valuable experience and would love the opportunity to share my point of view again.  I submitted 2 abstracts for VMworld 2013.  If these or any of the other Varrow submissions are something that you would like to hear at VMworld, please vote.

To vote you need to go here. You will need a VMworld account but it’s quick and easy to create one. There were a tremendous number of sessions submitted this year so it’s a long list. You can click Filter and use Varrow as the keyword to narrow down to our sessions, if you wish. From there you can easily vote.
This year Varrow employees have submitted seven sessions for consideration.  One of my sessions focuses on different uses of cloud within a business continuity plan.  At the suggestion of Greg Camp, my other session delves into the concept of cloud bursting.

Session: #5053 Cloud Continuity: How Does the Cloud Fit into Your Business Continuity Plan?

Abstract: Today cloud is becoming ubiquitous. However, it can be utilized in many different was. Whether you utilize cloud for your production environments or not, cloud can play a part in your business continuity plan. This session describes different business continuity strategies utilizing cloud. Topics include: cloud as a source, cloud as a target, and cloud to cloud DR. In addition, we will discuss mixed strategies and different types of cloud implementations including Platform-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Storage-as-a-Service, and DR-as-a-Service.

Session:  #5553 Cloud Bursting:  Strategies to overflow into the cloud
Abstract: Cloud bursting is a concept that to many sounds like a pipe dream. However, by looking at IT from a service perspective rather than from an infrastructure perspective, the tools exist to adopt this radical idea. This session will discuss how tools from VMware can help you make the cloud bursting dream a reality.

Varrow has a seven other sessions up for voting.

Tony Pittman and Kyle Quinby submitted a session on MS SQL virtualization:

Session: #4809 SQL Virtualization – How to bring Tier 1 SQL workloads into an optimized vSphere environment

Abstract: Drawing from real-world experiences, Kyle Quinby and Tony Pittman will be going through some accumulated knowledge on tips and tricks to squeak out every last bit of power of your SQL VMs. They will be focusing on how to lay a solid foundation for SQL for both performance and high availability. Tier 1 Database workloads truly have a home in modern virtual infrastructure. Consolidation ratios are finally what they should be, and bookkeeping aspects such as licensing and backup/DR have finally become relatively simple to achieve. This session will be appreciated by, 

1. SQL admins or developers that are looking for insight into how their virtual admins can help them 
2. Virtual infrastructure administrators, that are unsure what steps they should be taking for their SQL workloads
3. Long-term planners (architects/CIO) looking to get some “best practice” information to create a virtual SQL strategy

Jason Nash (blog:  http://jasonnash.com) submitted three sessions including a VCDX panel, a session on DR with Zerto, and an encore of vSphere physical connectivity:

Session: #4969 Understanding vSphere Physical Connectivity – Deep Dive & Recommendations
Abstract: This session will provide an in-depth look at your options for physically connecting vSphere hosts to the network. The discussion will focus on common question areas that come up during knowledge workshops and customer design sessions. Throughout the session videos and animations will be used to help attendees easily see the expected result from many of these configuration options. The presentation will focus heavily on the different hashing types and traffic control, especially the more advanced options such as Load-Based Teaming and Network I/O Control. Other areas of focus include physical separation of traffic, networks of differing security requirements such as DMZs, and suggested NIC configurations for both 1Gb and 10Gb environments. Finally, recommendations for physical switch configurations will also be covered. Throughout the session best practices, recommendations, and lessons learned from many production deployments will be shared. Attendees should expect to walk away with a deep understanding of the physical connectivity options available with vSphere, how they can be utilized in their environment, and the best methods for deploying them.

Session: #5296 Hypervisor-Based Disaster Recovery: The Missing Link for Virtualizing Mission-Critical Applications
Abstract: Mission-critical, tier-1 applications such as database and transactional applications are often the last to be virtualized. Despite the many benefits of virtualizing these applications, some companies still question the ability to protect and recover these applications in virtualized environments. Most likely, each application is on a different type of storage, so having one solution across the environment is not possible – driving up complexity and costs. Traditional BC/DR technologies are built for physical environments, requiring manual and complex processes to utilize these systems for virtualized applications, and each type of hardware has its own type of replication – so there is no consistency. New disaster recovery technologies are filling this gap for large and small enterprises alike, delivering all the flexibility customers expect from a virtualized environment, with the aggressive RPOs and RTOs that mission-critical applications require. In this session, we will show how hypervisor-based replication solves these critical DR issues, clearing all barriers to virtualize tier-1 applications.

Session: #4570 Ask the Expert VCDX's
Abstract: One of the highest rated sessions at VMworld is back for its sixth year. Come get interactive with a panel of five VMware Certified Design Experts, they'll answer your questions live. Experts in Cloud, Application Modernization and End User Computing are here to help.

Joe Kelly (blog: http://blog.virtualtacit.com/) and Martin Valencia also submitted a session around the use of VPLEX for high availability:

Session: #5038 Achieving High Availability with vSphere Storage Metro Clusters and EMC VPLEX

Abstract: High Availability in todays datacenters stretch beyond a single or multi host failure. Increased visibility and mobility across datacenters is quickly becoming a must have for all workloads. With the introduction of Active/Active Storage solutions to the market, VMware has begun to support these SVD's or Storage Virtualization Devices for qualified products. vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) is a configuration option that allows for stretched clusters between two synchronous joined datacenters. Providing these cluster capabilities, that are distributed in nature, allow for fluid VM mobility using vMotion between datacenters. This session will focus on the benefits and challenges of such a solution based on front line field experience using VPLEX 5.X and vSphere 5.X. Multi-site vSphere cluster designs just got better.

Dave Lawrence (blog: http://www.vmguy.com/wordpress/) submitted two sessions focused on end-user computing:

Session: #5158 How High Point Regional deployed a secure, feature-rich resilient desktop to their users

Abstract: Come hear how High Point Regional Health System implemented Horizon View using the latest technologies such as HTML Access, Persona Management, Imprivata OneSign, Trend Micro Deep Security and Zero and repurposed clients all on a vSphere Streched Cluster with EMC VPLEX. Come hear the lessons learned during this dynamic deployment and how to integrate all of these great solutions together.

Session: #54709 The seven things you need to look at in your environment BEFORE installing Horizon View!

Abstract: Ready to install Horizon View? Have you checked your DHCP scope? Is your version of vSphere supported? Are you using Group Policy loopback processing mode? Should you? There are seven main components of your environment that you should review BEFORE installing Horizon View. Come to our session and find out what the seven components are and how to avoid the most common environmental pitfalls that our engineers have come across during hundreds of View deployments.

Thank you for your support. We truly appreciate it.

DataDomain DD OS 5.3 New Features

Today, EMC announced Data Domain Operating System 5.3.  Here is a list of some of the enhancements provided in this dot release.

• Enhanced Oracle RMAN support for improved performance and deduplication efficiency by inclusion of support for Oracle RMAN multiplexing
• DataDomain Boost over Fibre Channel enabling more efficient backup and replication in Fibre Channel environments
• Support for Symantec NetBackup Auto-Image Replication (AIR) to improve disaster recovery across domains
• DataDomain Boost for Dell NetVault Backup 9.0 (previously Quest NetVault previously BakBone NetVault)
• ES30 expansion shelves with 3TB drives increase density for the DD990 by 50%
• The new shelves along with DD Extended Retention Software allows the DD990 to scale to 100PB of logical archive capacity
• Increased scalability for very large VTL environments
• Local encryption key management included with Data Domain Encryption using the same key types as RSA Data Protection Manager (DPM)
• Several improvements to handle archive data more efficiently:
• Small files that are about 100KB each are handled 3 times faster than in earlier versions
• Separate cleaning processes optimized for backup data and archive data
• MTree replication of archive data allowing more granular control of replication for compliance
• Native support for Symantec Enterprise Vault "savesets" simplifying integration with Enterprise Vault
• Support for AXS-One Central Archive for archival of file and email data
• Integration with EMC Documentum Content Storage Services for archival of EMC Documentum 7.0

Happy St. Baldrick's

For those that celebrate it, I hope you had a happy St. Patrick's Day.  I know I did.

What I'd like to mention now though is St. Baldrick's.  If you aren't familiar, this is not a typo.  St. Baldrick's Foundation is an organization that raises money and awareness for children's cancer.  On April 13th, I will be having my head shaved for the 3rd time to support this cause.  Find out more at http://www.stbaldricks.org.

I would love to see you at the Lonerider brewery in Raleigh at noon on 4/13/13.  Better yet, please go to my St. Baldrick's page and give a donation.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/590574/2013

Thanks,
Tom

Join the Madness

The time is upon us.  Varrow Madness 2013 is right around the corner.  In fact, it is one week from tomorrow.  If you haven't already signed up, it's not too late.  http://madness.varrow.com.

I'm excited to have Varrow Madness in the triangle and proud to be speaking.  My session is titled "BC/DR Strategies:  Bridging the Gap Between IT and the Business."  The DR related sessions include:

• "BC/DR Strategies:  Bridging the Gap Between IT and the Business", by Tom Cornwell, Varrow
• "EMC Backup and Recovery Solutions" by Eric Harmon, EMC
• "EMC RecoverPoint:  A Technical Overview" by Joe Kelly, Varrow
• "EMC Avamar Reporting:  How to Configure and Tune EMC Tools for Avamar Backup Platforms" by Tom Bouwman, Varrow
• "Managed Recovery Services for Virtualized andNon-Virtualized IT Workloads" by Michael de la Torre, SunGard
• "Disaster Recovery:  Business and Technology Both Needed" by Andrew Miller, Varrow
• "Avamar Brings the "WOW" Back to Backups!" by Tom Bouwman, Varrow and Jason Girard, Varrow
• "Desktop Virtualization and Mobility:  Key Enablers for Business Continuity" by Paul Penny, Varrow

EMC NetWorker 8.0 SP1 New Features

A little over one month ago, EMC began shipping NetWorker 8.0.1.  Here is a list of some of the enhancements and fixes provided in this service pack.

• Support for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and UEFI for Windows--I have heard people say lately that no can backup Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012; obviously they are incorrect.
• Windows BMR for Windows 8 clients and Windows 2012 server--it's nice to know that not only can NW backup Windows 8 and Windows 2012, but it can restore them to bare metal as well.
• Support for vSphere 5.1--similar to Win8 and Win2012, there is a lot of talk about the ability support vSphere 5.1; VDDK 5.0 build 427917 ships with 8.0.1 and supports vSphere 5.1.
• NPIV supported for tape device and jukebox--if you are still using removable media for your backups, you can now use NPIV to connect to those devices.
• LTO-6 tape device support--and you can use the latest version of those media.
• Auto-configuration of NDMP backups--8.0.1 automates the selection of resources and offloads NDMP index conversion.

Additionally, there are several fixes included with the service pack.  This includes issue number NW 141977 "VADP Client backup always runs a full Image level backup" and issue number NW142426 "Snapshot files not removed after VADP image level restore in san mode with more than 1 disk".

RSA Security Analytics: Remembering the Basics

Way back when....while an Applied Mathematics major in college, I took a class on coding.  In that class we discussed that there is no such thing as an unbreakable code.  This being the case, the strategy for creating a code should not be to make an unbreakable code because you will fail.  Instead, make a code that is breakable, but that will take so long to break that everyone that cares will be dead by the time it is broken.

This is a concept that we seem to forget frequently in IT security.  Similarly, we expect our security tools to be infallible.  However, in the dynamic world that we live in, if we are constantly waiting to add last week's vulnerability into our tools, then we are never ready for this week's vulnerability.

RSA Security Analytics is a new way to looking at Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) that takes this into consideration.   It does this by adding network security monitoring, big data management, and analytics to traditional SIEM.

The magic comes from the utilization of big data and analytics tools.  Existing security information is placed into a data warehouse where realtime analytics are performed.  The realtime analytics look for irregularities in behavior rather than predefined rules to identify security issues.  This means that you can identify this week's security threats today instead of waiting until next week when the new rules have been identified and the breech has already occurred.