I just got an email from Microsoft - they’ve given me the MVP award for the area of File System Storage!  Great news - so how do I feel?  Not quite as good as the “Steve” in this video, but pretty good…

So what does this mean?  Am I now a shill, beholden forever to Redmond?  Should I return the Mac? Hardly!

In fact, the program materials all stress that, since we were nominated for what we did in the past, we should go right on doing just what we were doing.  For me, this means remaining non-partisan in the storage wars - I’m on the side of what works and delivers results, not what one vendor or the other decides is best.  Microsoft has done some really great things in the storage arena, and has given much of it away for free, and that’s the simple truth.  If they change their stance, expect me to call them on it, MVP or not.

I believe in maintaining the best possible relationship with everyone in the business, from vendors to analysts, so I can make great things happen for my clients, the end users of technologies.  This award gives me exceptional access to Microsoft resources, and I intend to call on them when my clients need help.  Simply put, being a Microsoft MVP means I can step up the level of service I can deliver.

Only one thing bugs me about this: The name.  Seriously, “MVP”?  I’m not A-Rod!  And “File System Storage”?  I guess they had to tie the award to some product area, so “storage technologies” or “enterprise storage” wouldn’t have worked.  So, yeah baby, I hit home runs with NTFS!

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Storage MVP: I Feel Great!

I’ve covered these considerations previously, but let’s just mention them again here.  Each is covered in more detail in the article and in my webinar, but I welcome comments and questions here.

1. How complete is the archive?
2. Does it record what people do?
3. Can the archive ingest an existing mail store or PST files?
4. Can the archive handle multiple email systems?
5. What about non-message content?
6. What about deduplication?
7. Will the legal department be happy?
8. How does search work?
9. Can the archive easily integrate with third-party tools?
10. What will users think?

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

10 Key Considerations for Email Archiving

Dave called me for this piece, and I was pleased with the question.  Truth be told, there really are compelling benefits from virtualization, but most folks have been waiting for a real “must have” killer application for the technology.  In order for this tech to make the impact it should, we in the industry have to change some of our thinking:

• Storage virtualization means more than just Fibre Channel block aggregation.  There are great applications inside servers and arrays and in the NAS world, too.
• Speaking of NAS, Microsoft DFS is probably the most-implemented storage virtualization product, and just about every NAS array has cool aggregation and migration features.
• Virtualization is a feature, not a product.  HDS has seen the amazing potential for block virtualization in migration and storage flexibility, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
• Storage and server virtualization go well together - so well, in fact, that ESG reports that 24% of those who have implemented the latter are also using the former!

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Storage Virtualization: What Is It Good For?

Although Hitachi was first to announce and ship a 2.5″ 500 GB drive, theirs used four platters, pushing thickness to 12.5 mm - too much for most laptops and external enclosures.  So Samsung’s announcement of their 9.5 mm two-platter SpinPoint M6 disk was greeted with enthusiasm, but it has taken months for actual drives to ship.  

All that looks to be changing, however, as at least one vendor is currently offering SpinPoints for sale in the United States, and OEMs are rapidly raising their hands.  Earlier this week it was familiar name Verbatim, who announced a 500 GB addition to their SmartDisk line.  Today it is Mac-friendly LaCie with a dual-drive bus-powered RAID 0 unit delivering a massive terabyte in a palm-sized package.

All this mobile storage goodness will continue pushing cost down and capacity up in the hot mobile market.  Where 120 GB was exciting last year, today we are seeing 200, 250, and even 320 GB drives in affordable notebooks and portable enclosures.  I missed snapping up a 320 GB Verbatim unit last week at Best Buy for just $139, but I expect to see a lot more at this bargain price over the next month or so.  That company claims their 500 GB drive will start under $300, and I expect it will drop 1/3 off that price on sale right off the bat.

Where does this leave supposed bargain NAND flash drives?  They’re not looking as attractive, with even the cheapest consumer units priced over $400 for a usable 60 GB.  Until vendors start hitting massive volumes, NAND will continue to command ten times the price per GB of old fashioned “spinning rust”.  With similar power requirements, expect NAND to remain a niche product for another few years at least.

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Big Little Disks Are On The Way

Most of the sessions were worthwhile, but I’d like to highlight a few of the sessions that I attended:

• Rich Castagna’s What Storage Managers Are Buying - always a highlight of the show, Storage Magazine’s survey results
• W. Curtis Preston’s Deduplication: The Perfect Solution to the Perfect Storm - it’s nice to have some sanity brought to the feverish talk of deduplication
• Ray Lucchesi’s Virtual DR - highlighting the value brought to disaster recovery from server virtualization (I missed this at the show)
• Marc Staimer’s Hidden Gotchas of Server Virtualization - I missed this one too, but Marc is brilliant and the content is right on

My two sessions are also available:

• Deep Dive Into Email Archiving Solutions - wherein I present my eleven points of differentiation and extoll the virtues of email archiving
• Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Storage Virtualization (In One Hour) - Overstuffed with content from my storage virtualization seminar

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Download Storage Decisions Presentations

Interestingly, most questions revolved around justifying the purchase of email archiving solutions.  I didn’t capture all of the questions, but will try to summarize the justification-related ones here.

How can a small company archive email?

Although email archiving is expensive, it is critical to almost any organization.  Luckily, there are options for most people.  At the most minimal, you can roll your own archive by “forking” messages into a redundant email system using mail forwarding rules.  Many folks use open source UNIX mail servers for this since they’re especially inexpensive.  Next, consider Exchange 2007’s managed folders as a way to build a basic but fully-supported archiving system.  Another idea is to think about a managed service - many of these are much less expensive to set up than building a solution in house.  Finally, look around and you might find that there are indeed much more affordable products than the “big names” many people have heard about.

Archiving solutions tend to be very expensive for enterprises, what is the trade-off?

Archiving solutions are very expensive indeed. They are difficult to justify on purely cost (IT infrastructure) basis. You must bring the legal and business people to the table and get their buy-in to justify the cost. Simply put, email archiving is expensive but e-discovery is much more expensive. With the backing of the legal organization, the cost justification looks much more positive.

What should be considered to account for email archiving for D/R scenarios?

Another great question! Many managed solutions include integrated DR for the system, but may not capture messages during a disaster or communications interruption. Local solutions tend to rely on conventional DR concepts like synchronous replication. Again, this technology (and especially the telecom to support it) is very expensive, but the cost can be justified for some when balanced against legal risks.

I’ll post more Q&A from my upcoming Storage Virtualization Seminars in Atlanta and San Francisco as well as my Storage Decisions appearances in the coming months.

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Justifying Email Archiving

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Jargon Watch: EMC 3D = Data Deduplication

So how will you make your choice?  I previously talked about the essential differentiators, and now I’ve refined these into a more complete list I’m calling “The Eleven Essential Elements of Email Archiving”.  I capitalize this because it is the basis for much of my recent writing and speaking:  I just wrapped up an article for Storage magazine on the subject, to be published next month, and spoke on the topic at Storage Decisions in Chicago.

If you missed the show last week (or really really liked it!) and can’t wait for the magazine, may I suggest tuning in tomorrow for TechTarget’s Email and File Archiving Virtual Seminar?  You can catch my session at 1:30 Eastern, with a live Q&A session following.  Or you can tune in at 9 AM for the whole day-long extravaganza, featuring sessions from other good folks from Contoural and elsewhere.

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Email Archiving: Just Can’t Get Enough

I arrived in beautiful Chicago today for the Storage Decisions show at the Hilton here.  What a great event this is - loads of interested and committed storage users and some of the best minds in the business get together to talk about how we all do this thing we call storage!

I was glad to see Jon Toigo here - while I may not always agree with him, he certainly has vast experience in the storage industry.  And I appreciate his role as the iconoclast of storage.  We both agree that the real action in the industry happens at a whole different layer than just storing and moving bits.

Before sitting down with Jon, I was pleased to chat with my good friends, Curtis Preston and Bill Peldzus, both of whom have, over the years, proved themselves advocates of end user concerns.

I’ll also be looking for Greg Schulz, Mark Staimer, Arun Taneja, and Steve Duplessie and his crew from ESG.  See what I mean about the best minds in the industry?

Of course, the hotel is crawling with TechTarget’s staff, including Rich C and Rich F from Storage magazine, Dave Raffo from SearchStorage.com, and Amy, Lindsey and the folks who run the show.

If you’re here, please do come up and introduce yourself.  If not, there are three more shows scheduled for this year!

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Hello from Storage Decisions Chicago

What do you think?  If you’re a Plaxo user, I created a poll over there to see if folks think it will rise, and when.

Post from: Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Will FCoE Rule the Future?