Top 10 Blogs on the DCIG website by Page Views for 2008

Being the last calendar day of 2008, I thought it only appropriate to take a moment and look back at the most viewed blog entries on the DCIG website for the past year. While some were topics that I expected to receive a lot of attention when the blog was posted, others were blog topics that essentially came out of nowhere to garner a large number of page views. To be honest, I never thought that entries on topics like cable management and cable labeling would resonate with readers but ended up capturing a couple of the top spots for 2008. Meanwhile topics like the FTC’s Red Flag Rules were so popular on DCIG’s web site that it led me to write columns that eventually were picked up by websites like Network World and BusinessWeek.

In any case, here are the Top 10 blogs for DCIG’s website by page views for 2008.

1. Data center management
   101 Part 1 (Cable Management). This topic was on DCIG Analyst’s Tim Anderson’s mind when he first started writing for DCIG in mid-2008 and suggested that we include some material on the website about the topic. Tim felt that there would be a lot of user interest in this subject since it was something he could never find a lot of information about when he worked as a storage engineer at Abbott Laboratories. Turns out Tim was right as the popularity of this blog entry steadily grew with each passing month until it became the most viewed blog entry by the end of 2008.
   
2. Mendocino Software
   reportedly selling off its assets; what does this mean for
   HP? (Link to blog.)The impetus behind this blog entry was the result of some information I received from some of my sources in the industry. As part of DCIG’s mission, it does try to keep our readers up-to-date on current happenings in the industry and provide information on current events if DCIG happens to be fortunate enough to be the first one to catch wind of the news. In this case, we were. The popularity of this blog entry was also probably helped by the fact that when someone searches for “Mendocino Software” on Google, this was and still is the first search result to appear.
   
3. FTC issues red flag
   rules reminder; ensuring IT is ready as unlimited liability looms on the
   horizon. (Link to blog.)This topic was first brought to my attention by another DCIG Analyst, Howard Haile, who works as an auditor for Chan LLC. Howard regularly performs audits for Chan LLC’s clients and advises them on issues for which they need to be prepared to address. As part of his research for his clients, he uncovered that a number of them were starting to have growing concerns about complying with the looming passage of the FTC’s Red Flag Rules. Turns out, a lot of other companies shared these concerns as this blog entry received and continues to receive a large number of views every month.
4. Microsoft volume shadow
   copy service (VSS) for continuous data protection (Part
   1). It’s no secret that data protection for Microsoft Exchange remains one of the hottest topics on the minds of organizations. With Microsoft Exchange regularly rated one of the most if not the most critical application in organizations, administrators are hungry for information on how to protect and recover Exchange. This blog entry took a close look at how InMage Systems’ Scout takes advantage of Microsoft Windows VSS to provide near real-time data protection for Microsoft Exchange and gives companies the ability to recover this application either locally or remotely – often in 30 minutes or less.
   
5. Cable labeling as part
   of data center management Part 2. This blog entry is a continuation of the first blog entry written by Tim. In this entry, Tim provides practical how-to steps on how to properly label network cables in a data center so you can find them again after you put them in place. Who knew there would be so much interest in this topic? But then again, where else do you learn about this stuff? Certainly not in college.
   
6. Archived storage market
   forecast to grow to $23 Billion by 2010; Interview with Plasmon CEO, Steven
   Murphy, Part 2 of 2. Plasmon’s CEO Steven Murphy graciously consented to this interview in early 2008 when DCIG was just launching its blogging services. I have known Steven for many years dating back to his time as the CEO of Softek and I worked with him at that time while I worked at First Data and a Softek customer. I’m sure $23 billion number for the archiving market in 2010 garnered more than passing interest though Plasmon will garner zero percentage of that market since it essentially ceased operations in November of this year.
   
7. “No comment” from HP; No
   callback from Mendocino Software. (Link to blog entry.) This was a follow-up blog entry I did to try to the earlier blog entry on Mendocino Software. The most interesting aspect of this blog entry is that HP refused to comment on the status of its relationship with Mendocino Software and repeated calls and voice messages left with Mendocino Software asking about their status went unanswered.
8. Autonomy, Google and
   Microsoft battle for SaaS eMail archiving. (Link to blog entry.) In recent months, the interest in SaaS among readers at DCIG’s website has steadily been climbing and this blog entry posted in early 2008 was an early indicator that companies are doing a lot of research around this topic and thinking about making the switch to SaaS for their email archiving needs.
9. Changing the love’em
   and leave’em software model; SaaS puts customers back in the driver’s
   seat. (Link to blog.) This blog entry seemed to strike a nerve with readers and received a ton of views in a short amount of time as this blog entry was just posted in October. It seems that companies are not fond of software vendors giving them tons of attention prior to the sale of their software but once the product is sold they never hear from them again except to collect money for annual support. The SaaS model gives companies access to more features that they need now at a lower cost, gives them more flexibility to scale and, maybe most importantly, helps keep them in the driver’s seat in regards to software since they can switch more easily to competing companies that are hungry for their business and may be doing a better job at keeping their software up-to-date.
10. Legal risk, management
    requires a corporate strategy, mindset and commitment. (Link to blog entry.) This early blog entry on DCIG’s website features an interview with Stratify’s Stephen Whetstone where he breaks down how companies should best create retention policies for their data based upon the risk they face from legal discoveries. He includes some great advice on which companies should make sure to make an solid investment in ESI management software and which ones can afford to spend less.