Data Protection Directions

Since Symantec released Backup Exec 2012 there has been plenty of activity on blogs and community forums discussing all of the changes to the updated solution. In one particular form on the register users have a lot to say about the upgrades in at least one said that while difficult it was worth getting through the changes for the new functionality.

At Bocada it’s not really our position to comment one way or the other on the backup solutions and their functionality, our role is to provide users with a consolidated view of all data protection activity in order to help them manage their backup operations.

In the same form mentioned above, one participant who needed to manage multiple customers that were using Symantec and another vendor solution asked if there was any way to centralize reporting across multiple servers in order to make his job easier. Of course I had to reply that that is in fact exactly the value add that Bocada brings, even though I’m reluctant to advertise on community forums. I did appreciate when Chris Mellor, who had started the conversation, did weigh in and say

Certainly we here at Bocada think it’s a no-brainer as well, although it is surprising how few people realize that centralize reporting and analysis is readily available in the market in order to help reduce administrative time and costs and streamline operations. For any customers that are looking to upgrade to Backup Exec 2012, getting a centralized reporting solution in place prior to the upgrade could go a long way in eliminating some of the headaches they have been experiencing.

Being able to see before and after results and configurations can give administrators a very good idea of how the upgrade is working in their environment. In-depth troubleshooting and trend analysis can further help them determine where they might need to tweak and change policy in order to get the results they desire. And for customers that want to take advantage of the VM API integration and Backup Exec 2012 reporting that correlates information between vCenter and Backup Exec 2012 can save significant amounts of time in helping ensure that all the VM’s are recoverable in no way your best recovery points are located.

Bottom line change can be tough particularly in the backup environment. Having a centralized reporting solution that can give you detailed analysis of the before and after of an upgrade or change of backup application can provide huge benefits and cost savings, and hopefully reduce a great deal of frustration.

For more info http://bocada.com/supported/symantec-backup-exec/

Part 2 of a two part blog:

Recently, we have been very actively recruiting VAR partners for our new Vision module, a data protection service management solution for virtual environments.  Naturally, we need to convince VARs that their customers will see the value in our solution, but in order to really gain their interests we have to convince them that implementing Vision can help them sell more backup management product and just as importantly, more VMWare instances.

Luckily, that is easily demonstrated and proves itself out pretty quickly- and here are the key points that get our partners excited about bring data protection management to their virtualization customers:

1)      See previous blog…

2)      Vision can help reduce capacity use for VM protection

OK so it’s pretty much a no brainer as to why this will matter to the customer- capacity costs money, and as more and more VMs go in, more capacity is used to protect them.  Regardless of the amount of dedupe that is implemented with backup technology, when I have ten VMs running applications on a machine that could only run one application in the past, protecting the VMs will use up significant capacity. Vision provides in-depth visibility into capacity used for data protection activity.

It is particularly crucial to keep track of the amount of capacity snaps are taking up on a datastore. If a VM is only protected with snapshots, those snaps will reside on the datastore and can only be manually deleted. If the datastore runs out of capacity, the VMs will no longer work so it’s critical to be able to delete old snaps. Vision provides visibility into the snaps, how much capacity each one is taking up in the datastore, and shows how old they are (older ones can be candidates for deletion so capacity can be reclaimed).

3)      Vision reveals the performance impact of running VM backups

Surveys show a key blocker for further VM adoption, particularly in the data center, is concern about application performance when sharing resources. Vision is the only management solution on the market that can tie the VM and host performance to backup activity- showing what the impact was to the CPU, memory and network performance during a backup. As organizations strive to put more and more VMs on a single host, it will be critical to ensure no one VM activity will impact the performance of any other resident VM.

By being able to see the impact backups are having on overall VM (and thus application) performance, administrators will be able to better schedule and load balance backup jobs in the VM environment.

Overall- the visibility Vision provides gives customers’ greater confidence that VMs are protected and recoverable, and helps ensure they can manage data protection costs and performance impacts. And in the end, that will help organization feel more confident about adopting additional VMs across the organization.  That is a strong value proposition for any VAR to bring to their customer.

For more info on Bocada Vision go to http://www.bocada.com/products/vision/

Recently, Bocada announced an initiative to drive adoption of our solutions into the Managed Service Provider market. In reality, this has been an initiative all along; Bocada has a long history of working with some of the world’s largest MSPs to help them more effectively deliver backup services to their end-user customers.  Actually, we developed the Data Protection Service Management model with our customers, and many MSPs were instrumental in defining the best practices outlined in the DPSM processes.

What is new about this initiative is the greater focus we have as an organization on the MSP market.  This will include a campaign to educate MSPs about the DPSM model (after all their whole focus should be on service management), adding new features that help MSPs more effectively manage customer implementations (such as integration with trouble-ticketing systems) and better aligning with their business models (which means more flexible subscription pricing offerings).

MSPs  in particular will benefit by implementing the DPSM model as the intent is to help streamline administration of the backup service offering, reduce costs and improve overall operational efficiencies.  The processes in the DPSM model mirror those found in ITSM best practices, outlining a methodology to be proactive in managing to the needs of the customer, with a focus on driving communication with stakeholders to increase customer satisfaction.  In very general terms, this means focus on managing to a service level agreement (SLA), which is essentially the business contract with the customer.

Managing to SLAs is a critical piece of the DPSM process and an essential practice for any MSP.  By setting SLAs based on the needs of the business, and subsequently monitoring the results of SLA compliance, MSPs can better prioritize problem management activites and more effectively align with customer  expectations.  Proactive alerting and SLA impact analysis can help MSPs ensure that SLAs are compliant and continuous reporting to the customer about SLA results should have a very  positive effect on customer retention (and cash flow, if the MSP can always prove they are delivering on the service as promised, there should be no question about paying the bill…).

As more and more organizations rely on managed service providers for their backup services, the market is getting competitive and effectively managing to SLAs and communicating results with customers will be critical for acquiring and retaining customers.  Bocada’s initiative is to help MSPs effectively deliver backup services, meet SLAs and improve customer satisfaction while reducing overall costs of delivery.