Rethinking Virtual Server Backups

We’re pleased to announce the availability of the next chapter in our free e-book, The Definitive Guide to Windows Application and Server Backup 2.0, by Don Jones (www.appassure.com/resources/free-ebooks/). Chapter 7 takes us through rethinking virtual server backups (go.appassure.com/eBookChapter7Download.html).

As virtualization continues to play an ever-increasing role in our data centers, the importance of building a backup and recovery architecture that is virtualization-aware becomes equally critical. In this latest chapter, Microsoft MVP Don Jones uncovers the problems and challenges that may be created when trying to protect applications and data stored within virtual servers. Of course, he also introduces new technologies and techniques available to help us overcome those challenges.

Once you’ve had a chance to read through Chapter 7, be sure to also have a look at our recent virtualization webinar (http://go.appassure.com/HyperVWebinarPlaybackRegistrationPage04.01.10.html) with Microsoft MVP Greg Shields. In this session, Greg provides some additional context on the virtual server backup challenge, and how to overcome it quickly and easily in your organization.

Have a great week!

-Josh

Industry News

Dedupe and compression cut storage down to size – searchstorage.techtarget.com/magazineFeature/0,296894,sid5_gci1506890,00.html

Use less disk, save more electricity. What’s not to like? If you buy the right products, you can pare down the disk capacity your data needs and maybe even cut your electric bills by as much as 50%. That’s the promise of primary storage data reduction, and while slashing utility costs is appealing, there’s still plenty of skepticism about the claimed benefits of the technology.

The importance of data migration in storage tiering – searchstorage.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid5_gci1508242,00.html

Tiered storage allows an organization to optimize its data storage infrastructure to lower costs, increase performance and address capacity issues. However, an organization should look to optimize its data migration strategy, as it will play an important role in the end result of a tiered storage strategy.

3 Technologies that Can Help Save Your Business Money

www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/3-technologies-that-can-help-save-your-business-money/?cs=40742

With recession still upon us, it may be tempting to cut back on technologies that don’t produce an easy-to-define ROI or a low ROI. Ironically, investing in the right technologies can actually help your business save money. New technologies like virtualization are changing the way data is stored and optimizing physical machines, while technologies like software as a service and thin client computing are realizing their full potential in the SMB space.

Why aren’t SSDs getting cheaper?

www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175690/Why_aren_t_SSDs_getting_cheaper_?taxonomyId=19

Solid-state drives (SSD) have been among the hottest hardware products for more than two years, with a good deal of uptake within the consumer PC, notebook and netbook markets in response to a precipitous drop in pricing in 2007 and 2008. After the first quarter of 2009, however, SSD pricing leveled off and even increased as the economy forced NAND flash manufacturers to stop investing in new equipment and demand outstripped supply.

SharePoint Security: The Fundamentals of Securing SharePoint Deployments

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff625837.aspx

Even an inexperienced administrator can deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 within a matter of hours. Chances are, though, that while the basic deployment would indeed be functional, it probably wouldn’t be configured for optimal security. SharePoint Server 2007 is one of those applications that’s easy to install, but tough to do so properly.

News from AppAssure

AppAssure Protects GE Healthcare Centricity with Affordable Backup & Disaster Recovery Solution

www.appassure.com/appassure-protects-ge-healthcare-centricity-with-affordable-backup-disaster-recovery-solution/

Barry Jalbert works to stay ahead of the technology curve by using AppAssure Backup & Replication, with a primary facility and three remote offices at the Southeastern Urological Center. With 120 users, two websites (one with a patient portal) and about 19 servers (including a virtual server) Jalbert was always concerned about the traditional tape backup solution they were using. When Barry participated in a AppAssure Backup & Replication demo, he realized he’d found the backup and disaster recovery features he’d been looking for.

De-Duplication, Compression and No Double Backups Required

www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14212

AppAssure Software has released version 4.3 of AppAssure Backup & Replication, the award-winning, next generation backup and disaster recovery software solution. Because AppAssure Backup & Replication performs a single application-aware snapshot spanning the entire host machine and an unlimited number of guest machines in a Hyper-V environment, customers experience the fastest backup and restore process of the entire host, individual virtual machines or specific files within virtual machines compared to traditional backup and disaster recovery technologies.