It’s more true now than any other time in history: data really can be anywhere. Which means you need to be able to protect it anywhere and everywhere. And the backup architecture you choose will either enable that process or hamper it. Data data everywhere, and not a byte to sync Any product should be…
Imagine if you had to lease a car in order to use Uber. That’s the logic behind how many infrastructure software vendors sell their “service” in the cloud. These “services” come in a couple of different flavors, but both of them come down to the same thing: infrastructure set aside for your exclusive use – which…
Last week I wrote the first of what will probably be a few articles about GDPR, EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. It governs the protection of “personal data” that your company is storing from EU citizens living in the EU. (They must be EU citizens, and they must be currently living in the EU for…
If you haven’t looked into how your data protection vendors are preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR), you’re already behind the power curve. It goes into effect May 25, 2018. Hopefully this article can get you up to speed so you can start pressuring your vendors about how they are going to help…
Depending on how you do it, the cloud can be much less expensive than using on-premises systems. But it can also much more expensive. It all depends on you use the public cloud. The expensive way: 24×7 VMs and pre-provisioned block storage Running one or more VMs in the cloud 24×7 (like you would in…
There’s a story going around about Apple’s MacOS APFS sparse disk images occasionally losing their mind and throwing documents out the window. Yet another example of why we do backups. Don’t use APFS images for backups I’ve never liked these disk images that Apple makes –– as a backup method. This is just another example…
Don’t get your backup advice from security people. That’s how I felt reading what started out as a really good article about protecting your systems from ransomware. It was all great until he started talking about how to configure your backup system. He had no idea what he was talking about. But now I’m going…
The man in the van can lose your tapes. Any questions? It’s the man, not the mountain Yes, Iron Mountain has had many very public incidents of losing tapes. You can do a google search for Iron Mountain Loses Tapes to see what I’m talking about. When all these stories started hitting the news back…
No one likes hardware; they only like what they can do with it. And I say this as a geek who has built plenty of PCs in my house, including a Hackintosh. What kind of sick weirdo builds their own Mac? Well, you know what? That Hackintosh illustrates the perils of hardware in three ways. Hardware…
Instant recovery is the modern-day equivalent of what we used to call a hot site, as it allows you to recover immediately after some type of incident. I have personally advocated for this concept, as I strongly believe that in a true disaster (or ransomware event), time is of the essence. As mentioned in my…