Last week, we were privileged to host a free webinar entitled Virtual Backups: Many Perspectives, Painful Management, Duplication of Work … Or, NOT? Joining us in this exciting session for a discussion of the challenges – and opportunities – presented by the continual increase in virtualization technology were Greg Shields, Microsoft MVP and VMware vExpert, as well as Brendan Hourihan, systems administrator at Flagler College.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: without a doubt, the proliferation of virtualization in our data centers has been one of the most profound changes to IT in the last decade. That point is essentially a given. The important next step is what it means for IT administrators who have an entire data center to manage.
Virtualization presents some unique challenges for IT pros as they strive to continue to protect their data and applications and ensure system uptime. In this webinar, Greg Shields walked us through some new approaches for IT departments to consider when it comes to the backup and recovery of their virtual machines. With guidance from experts like Greg, we can realize the benefits of virtualization without creating increased complexity or cost in our day-to-day operations.
Also joining us was Brendan Hourihan of Flagler College. Brendan recently concluded a replacement of his backup and recovery platforms, with a particular focus on protecting his virtualized infrastructure. We were fortunate to have Brendan join us to share his experience and expertise.
For those of you who weren’t able to attend, don’t worry! An on-demand rebroadcast of the entire session is available for you watch at your convenience. We hope you’ll take the opportunity to benefit from the information that Greg and Brendan were willing to share. Enjoy!
Industry News
Thinly-Provisioned Bandwidth
Thin-provisioning of storage came about to address the issue of having to hard-allocate storage capacity to servers. This leads to more efficient utilization of a resource that many data centers have plenty of, but prior to thin-provisioning, most of it was allocated but not used. As we move into an era of increased datacenter bandwidth, we are going to need the ability to do the same thing.
Using remote replication and data deduplication technology to back up branch office data
Remote replication and data deduplication technology are frequently used together in order to back up branch offices to a central site. W. Curtis Preston, executive editor of the Storage Media Group and independent backup expert, answers common questions about using remote replication and data deduplication together.
SharePoint Products: New and Enhanced, Spring 2010
Join Sheila Molnar and Caroline Marwitz from Windows IT Pro Magazine for a look at the latest and greatest SharePoint products this spring (including AppAssure’s DocRetriever for SharePoint!)
A tutorial on colocation data centers
Colocation data centers are a kind of data center where multiple customers can install network, server and data storage devices, and interconnect to a variety of telecommunications and other network service provider(s). In this tutorial on colocation data centers, learn whether or not a collocation data center is the right choice for your company, what to look for in a colocation service, and other data center disaster recovery planning tips.
Making E-discovery an Internal Function
Among one of the biggest IT challenges in the last few years has been the incredible explosion in demand for e-discovery services – the need to be able to quickly recall a defined set of information, records, communications, and so on for legal purposes. Join Joan Goodchild for a discussion with Jonathan Chow, Chief Information Security Officer at NBC Universal, about how NBCU has made e-discovery an internal IT function.
News from AppAssure
AppAssure Releases the Fastest and Most Scalable Backup and Recovery Solution for Microsoft Hyper-V Environments
AppAssure Software today 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.
Best Practices In Business Continuity for SMBs
According to Gartner, two out of every five enterprises that experience a disaster goes out of business within five years. It makes sense then to have a disaster recovery and backup plan in place before you actually need it! Join me for a walkthrough of the types of disasters you should be prepared for, the direct cost of downtime that any business needs to prepare for, and the decisions you need to make ahead of time that fit with your business model. In addition, I’ll also addresses the options available to you to protect your data and your business.
