Asigra, the Toronto-based cloud Backup, Recovery and Restore (BURR) software provider, just unveiled Asigra Cloud Backup v12, a secure, single end-to-end data protection software suite that protects data across physical, virtualized and cloud operating environments.
It claims the widgetry is the first and only backup solution to back up all enterprise data into a single repository – that means physical and virtual environments, everything from servers and storage to desktops and on to endpoint devices – laptops, tablets and smartphones as well as databases, enterprise apps and cloud-based applications.
That means that users can rip out their myriad point solutions, simplifying their environments and their recovery processes.
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Hurricane Sandy Uncovers Lack of Back-Up
Based on different reports of companies in New York still caught “off-guard” with their computer systems, it is hard to believe that corporate computer systems are down for some major companies – especially financial ones – and there are no redundant systems up-and-running.
What happened to adhering to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, where it clearly states you need to have both a back-up plan as well as redundant systems? Some IT executives should lose their jobs for poorly designed mission-critical information systems.
Did Your Cloud Get Blown Away?
It’s not Disaster Recovery 101, today it’s Business Continuity 101. There is a huge difference in how you design and configure your systems and network.
Note to all affected companies: If you experienced down-time in your systems, you have laid off the wrong people and kept the incompetents to manage your operations.
Disaster recovery is the old approach of “as the impending disaster looms, shut down all systems in an orderly fashion so that you can restore them in an orderly fashion when the disaster ends.” When the disaster is over, go back and restart all the systems to get the organization back up-and-running.
No Time for a Petulant Oracle
Oracle was notable for its absence at the recent Cloud Expo in Santa Clara. Previously a headliner, the company may be threatened by the emergence and aggressive marketing of all of the Openstack folks, if I’m reading between the lines properly.
Oracle is widely reviled – and I don’t think that’s too strong a word – by open-source vendors and others in the cloud industry for its alleged cloudwashing activities. Who hasn’t chortled at the famous clip of Larry Ellison mocking cloud a few years ago, only to watch him subsequently pour his company’s old wine into new cloudish bottles?
All kidding aside, this is no time for a petulant Oracle. All of the IT megavendors have made major moves to the cloud. Many of them have done it through OpenStack, including IBM, HP, Cisco, and Dell. Microsoft has gone directly into the hardware business with its Surface tablet as part of its strategy. SAP recently updated its Hana cloud-computing initiative.
Oracle’s cloud strategy, for better or worse, does and will have a big influence on the cloud-computing industry. This is the nature of a company that claims a locked-in presence at 98% of Fortune 500 companies. Whether its efforts are cynical, uncloudish, and anathemic to true innovation is a matter that should be available for as much public view as possible.
We are in the early stages of one of the great change cycles in the history of computing, and for one, I’d like to see Oracle competing openly (so to speak) as often as possible. It’s a pity I wasn’t able to do so while roaming the halls of the Santa Clara Convention Center last week.
Cloudwashing the Cloud Brokerage
Since ZapThink wrote our ZapFlash on Cloud Brokerages in April 2011, the Cloud Brokerage marketplace has exploded. Or at the very least, the noise level involving such Brokerages has reached a fever pitch, which the vendors in the space want you to think is the sound of an exploding market anyway. Regardless of your level of cynicism, however, there’s no question that Cloud Brokerages are a hot topic. But as with so many new markets, confusion reigns—in large part because such Brokerages come in so many different flavors. That being said, this market also suffers from rampant Cloudwashing, which refers to vendors (and service providers) who stick the “Cloud” label on existing offerings to take advantage of the Cloud hype. Let’s see if we can separate the steak from the sizzle and delineate how Cloud Brokerages are actually supposed to work.
Re-Distributed Computing
This morning, Chaucer, our relatively new Sheltie puppy, took off with my slippers. I found one lying in his favorite spot almost immediately, but the other had gone missing. I wandered about the house with one slipper in hand while he hid in his kennel, knowing I was angry but not quite understanding why. It made me ponder the state of computing today, and where we’re headed, because it made me ponder years ago with our last dog, doing exactly the same thing. One was a Shih Tzu, the other is a Sheltie, but puppies chew on slippers with rawhide ties, doesn’t matter the breed or how many years in between.
Filling the SLA Gap in the Cloud
User expectations with respect to performance are always a concern for IT. Whether it’s monitoring performance or responding to a fire drill because an application is «slow», IT is ultimately responsible for maintaining the consistent levels of performance expected by end-users – whether internal or external.
Virtualization and cloud computing introduce a variety of challenges for operations whose primary focus is performance. From lack of visibility to lack of control, dealing with performance issues is getting more and more difficult.
What Happens in Barcelona…. Can Now Be Seen Here
Also this year cloud computing was a large topic at Gartner’s annual symposium in Barcelona. It shared the limelight with the other three forces of the Nexus (Social, Mobile and Information) but managed to pop into most conversations and presentations.
For those who missed it – and for attendees that did not manage to be in all parallel sessions at once – video recordings can now be accessed at gartnereventsondemand.com (highlights available after registration of email, full sessions for registered attendees).
Personally I did a couple of dozen 1on1’s, seven larger sessions (presentations, roundtable’s and clinics) and met with several more people over breakfast and dinner. With breakfasts at the time most Americans are accustomed to and dinners taking place according to local tradition, you can imagine these were pretty lengthy days. Not that we noticed, because the 1on1 rooms (unlike last year) had no daylight. Luckily we managed to get some fresh air as we popped over to the special CSP (Communication Service Provider) track that was running across the street.
Racemi Announces Addition of VP Finance
Racemi, the moving company for the cloud, announced that Christian Nelson joins as vice president of finance bringing more than 15 years experience in finance and accounting.
Most recently, he was senior director of finance and controller for Alimera Sciences, where he assisted in the sale of $72 million of common stock in an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010 (NASDAQ: ALIM).
Before that, he was director of finance EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and corporate controller at JBoss, which was acquired in 2006 by Red Hat for $420 million.
Nelson has worked in finance and accounting roles of other Atlanta-area companies, and began his career in the audit practice of Arthur Andersen where his clients included Georgia Power, Savannah Electric and Power, and SouthernLINC Wireless.
Racemi Announces Addition of VP Finance
Racemi, the moving company for the cloud, announced that Christian Nelson joins as vice president of finance bringing more than 15 years experience in finance and accounting.
Most recently, he was senior director of finance and controller for Alimera Sciences, where he assisted in the sale of $72 million of common stock in an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010 (NASDAQ: ALIM).
Before that, he was director of finance EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and corporate controller at JBoss, which was acquired in 2006 by Red Hat for $420 million.
Nelson has worked in finance and accounting roles of other Atlanta-area companies, and began his career in the audit practice of Arthur Andersen where his clients included Georgia Power, Savannah Electric and Power, and SouthernLINC Wireless.
Cloud-Integrated Storage Broadens Its Appeal
While there is no denying that cloud storage has delivered the promise of unlimited “pay-as-you-go” storage capacity, simplified disaster recovery, and savings in costs and maintenance, these attributes alone aren’t driving the growing business adoption. Instead, it is the rise of cloud-integrated storage appliances, which have augmented cloud storage to provide the levels of security, availability, connectivity and performance found in traditional storage systems, that has made cloud storage a viable choice for business.
With this week’s announcement of TwinStrata CloudArray 4.0, the flexibility, availability and performance of cloud-integrated storage has improved further, narrowing the functionality gap between cloud-integrated storage and traditional data storage systems, while leveraging all of the benefits of cloud.