W. Curtis Preston

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BACKUP PRODUCTS
In-band vs. out-of-band deduplication By W. Curtis Preston
What you will learn from this tip: This tip compares and contrasts in-band and out-of-band deduplication and offers some pros and cons of each approach.

An important differentiator among deduplication products is whether they work in-band or out-of-band. That is, do they deduplicate the data as they're writing it to... More...

Be prepared; get encrypted By W. Curtis Preston

The world is jumping on the encryption bandwagon.

Word on the street is that each time some major company announces they've lost a backup tape or two, the switchboards at Decru Inc. and Neoscale Systems can barely keep up with the calls (they're the only two companies who claim to provide line-speed encryption for tape... More...

Use disk as a primary backup target and overcome shoeshining By W. Curtis Preston
What you will learn from this tip: Today's high-speed tape drives can outrun a network, causing the drive to have to wait for a data stream. This shoeshining effect can be overcome, but only if you make disk your primary backup target.

With so many disk-to-disk backup options available, it just doesn't make sense to back up... More...

Why you need a backup reporting tool By W. Curtis Preston
This article first appeared in "Storage" magazine in their June issue. For more articles of this type, please visit www.storagemagazine.com.

What you will learn in this tip: How backup reporting tools will save systems administrators and users a lot of time and energy.

Collecting data from multiple servers can often... More...

Pros and cons of VTLs By W. Curtis Preston
This article first appeared in "Storage" magazine in the April issue. For more articles of this type, please visit www.storagemagazine.com.

What you will learn from this tip: For disk-to-disk backup, virtual tape libraries (VTLs) treat disk as tape and offer many advantages compared to disk-as-disk backup targets. But... More...

Agent-based vs. agentless backup: Pros and cons By W. Curtis Preston
Backup software take-away: Agent-based backup software, such as TSM or Netvault, is compared to an agentless backup solution like Asigra in this tip.

A SearchStorage.com reader recently asked: What are the pros and cons of agent-based backup software like TSM or Netvault compared to an agentless backup solution... More...

High density file system backup By W. Curtis Preston
What is the best solution to backup a high density file system (20 million files an average of 68 KB a file) with a change rate of 8 GB per day or 150 K files? The only way is to back it up at the image level. Most major backup products have this ability, although not all of them allow you to do single file restores from an image... More...
Agent-based backup pros and cons By W. Curtis Preston
What are the pros and cons of agent-based backup software like TSM or Netvault compared to an agentless backup solution like Asigra? Which would be better for a SMB environment? The advantage to an agent-based architecture is that it can provide its own authentication mechanisms. The agent is always running as a... More...
Pros and cons of converting to VTL By W. Curtis Preston
We are currently running Netbackup 5.1, but I'm interested in VTLs. Can you talk about the pros and cons of converting to a VTL? I've written about this quite a bit, so I would search on my name and virtual tape libraries (VTL). [Editor's note: I just tried this and came across a tip he recently wrote: Pros and cons of VTLs] That... More...
Disk vs. tape for long-term backup By W. Curtis Preston
I've enjoyed your columns on backup and recovery and even attended your seminar at a few TechTarget forums.

In my environment, I use four different applications (BackupExec, NetBackup, HPDP and plain ol' tar) to backup various platforms to various tape drives and technology (LTO-2 and SDLT220/SDLT320). I have an... More...

Disk vs. tape for long-term backup By W. Curtis Preston
I've enjoyed your columns on backup and recovery and even attended your seminar at a few TechTarget forums.

In my environment, I use four different applications (BackupExec, NetBackup, HPDP and plain ol' tar) to backup various platforms to various tape drives and technology (LTO-2 and SDLT220/SDLT320). I have an... More...

Choosing an offsite backup vendor By W. Curtis Preston
How do you choose an offsite backup vendor? We are a medium-sized company looking for a technical/strategic partner. There are thousands of them out there. It's difficult to decide, and even more confusing when you look at the services they are providing. Any suggestions would be appreciated. There are actually only a... More...
FAQ: Serverless backup By Chris Poelker, W. Curtis Preston

Editor's note: SearchStorage.com experts receives many questions from its members on the subject of serverless backup. The three questions (and answers) below will tell you what serverless backup is, what the difference is between LAN-free backups and serverless backups, and what the best way is to design a server... More...

REMOTE BACKUP SOLUTIONS
Why Archive Is Archive, Backup Is Backup and Backup Ain't Archive by STORServer
The differences between backup and archive are quite simple and the stumbling block to understanding the difference is the tools we've chosen to use. The differences between backup and archive are really quite simple. Often, the stumbling block to understanding the...
IT Briefing: Making Virtual Backups Real by Data Domain
This document is based on a DataDomain/TechTarget webcast entitled "Making Virtual Backups Real" where Curtis Preston will discuss about server virtualization and backups. This document is based on a DataDomain/TechTarget webcast entitled "Making Virtual Backups Real." In this document W. Curtis Preston, Vice...
Disk-based Data Protection Options: The Changing Data Protection Landscape by ExaGrid Systems, Inc.
of protecting primary disk storage data was to backup that data onto one or more magnetic tapes on a daily basis. Magnetic tape will continue to play a critical role in data protection, offering the lowest cost storage medium for maintaining offsite backup data and long term archive data.

But...
Addressing Backup and Recovery in a Consolidated Server Environment: Practical Advice from a Field-Proven Expert by Datalink/NetApp
the pros and cons of using VMware Consolidated Backup for local backup and recovery, where it makes sense to use consolidated storage in a virtual environment, and the challenges of DR in a consolidated server environment. Organizations are deploying server virtualization at a rapid pace...
Data Protection Laws and Compliance: A Growing Concern for the Modern Enterprise by Wave Systems
the extent to which full disk encryption and remote admini... This white paper summarizes the nature of the risk of data breach resulting from a lost or stolen laptop PC, the relevant legal standards for compliance and reasonable care, and finally the extent to which full disk encryption...
Related Knowledgestorm Podcasts
Podcast: Optimize your Network for Better Business Outcomes by Hewlett-Packard Company
leading edge application acceleration to mobile workers, and speed up backup procedures associated with disaster recovery. Your network has never been more critical to business success than it is today, with employees, customers and partners relying on it to communicate easily and transfer large quantities of...
Time to Rethink Backup and Recovery - Virtualization Changes the Paradigm by Vizioncore Inc.
to run more of their production applications. This raises the bar for backup and recovery applications like vRanger Pro. Virtualization is becoming more widely used and accepted. As the level of use rises, experienced users are adopting virtualization to run more of their production applications. This raises the...
Addressing Backup and Recovery in a Consolidated Server Environment: Practical Advice from a Field-Proven Expert by Datalink/NetApp
This podcast discusses the pros and cons of using VMware Consolidated Backup for local backup and recovery, where it makes sense to use consolidated storage in a virtual environment, and the challenges of DR in a consolidated server environment. Organizations are deploying server virtualization at a rapid pace...