Category: Commvault Systems

Substantial technical differences exist between how the interfaces of storage clouds are presented, managed and secured. But from a business point of view, a cloud is a cloud is a cloud and the sooner that the technical challenges associated with managing these different storage clouds from a single platform are overcome, the sooner that businesses can ramp up their cloud storage adoption.

Standing in the way of progress is the inability of organizations to cost-effectively provide the expertise and 24X7 coverage that this emerging backup infrastructure needs. It is this gap that the CommVault Remote Operations Management Service (ROMS) has been closing since its introduction in 2009.

Too often storage providers seem to think that “Services and Support” is just another way of saying “Skimp and Save”. However more customers are seeing through this thin veil of deceit and holding storage providers more accountable for how well they deliver on this critical infrastructure component by making services and support a part of their buying decision.

It is time for organizations to heed the calls to take a proactive position on data management and preservation. While the sirens have been wailing for a number of years about the risks of not putting in place a comprehensive data management solution, too many organizations have failed to heed these warnings. Now a recent landmark opinion has dramatically altered the data management and preservation landscape by making it a necessity for organizations to implement a comprehensive, singular data management solution like CommVault® Simpana®.

Today IT managers have to think about more than just buying products that only solve their tactical day-to-day problems. Increasingly they have to consider how any new solution that they implement solves their more strategic data center management problems as well. This is why IT managers should be encouraged by the newly announced snapshot integration between CommVault® Simpana® software and Dell EqualLogic midrange arrays. While this integration solves their pressing backup and recovery problems, Simpana gives IT managers a path to better managing their data long term as well.

Managing Microsoft Exchange Server has never been easy and Exchange 2010 introduces a few new twists even as Microsoft promises to ease some of the management burden. Granted, Microsoft did make some notable changes to 2010 in regards to improving its availability, remote management and performance characteristics that addressed key end-user concerns. But these changes mean Exchange administrators need to pay special attention as to how they manage the Exchange data store going forward as Microsoft chose to sacrifice Single Instance Store (SIS) to deliver on these new user demands.

In a recent analyst conference call CommVault’s VP of Marketing and Business Development, Dave West, pulled no punches about how CommVault wants enterprise organizations to view it in regards to backup modernization. While CommVault is certainly happy to assist those enterprise organizations that want to make incremental changes to their backup infrastructures, that is not who CommVault is specifically targeting. Rather CommVault is seeking out those customers and prospects that are ready to do a wholesale rip and replace of their existing data management products and go with a more modern solution.

Just a few years ago disk-based backup was considered the cutting edge of backup. No more as cloud storage is now all the rage. However a cloud-based backup strategy that works or using cloud storage for archival data is still the exception, not the rule. This is why CommVault’s announcement today regarding its new cloud storage connector merits attention for those organizations looking to make cloud storage a viable part of their corporate data management strategy.

A few years ago when I suggested to my co-workers that our company needed to account for the continuing growth of the Apple MacIntosh in its enterprise storage design, I was met with outright guffaws and left the meeting with my tail between my legs. Fast forward to today and the Mac is no longer a laughing matter. Mac is now an emerging OS in many enterprise organizations and creating new data management issues that today’s announcement between CommVault and Group Logic should help address.

Just how significant is today’s announced technology partnership between CommVault and Informatica? Pretty big. The most obvious benefit that it provides to CommVault® Simpana® users is a new option that they can leverage to archive structured data while still managing and searching it using their Simpana software.