Mesabi Group

Recent Mesabi Group Papers, Reports and Presentations

Mesabi Group Data Protection Report

PDF_Icon “Data Protection: Adapting to the Sea Change” (Report Preview)
It’s well-known that data protection is a business necessity — yet few agree on exactly what data protection is. And failure to appreciate the full dimensions of the data protection challenge can lead to poor data protection management and costly resource allocation issues. (2007) The 2007 edition is now available.
For information on purchasing the 2007 edition of the report, please contact Fred Abbott.

ITWorld Storage Tips

David Hill of Mesabi Group writes a weekly storage tip for ITworld that cover a wide range of topics. If you would like to look at them, please check them out at ITworld at http://storage.itworld.com/5002/featurelink_storage/page_1.html

Articles Originally Published In Charles King’s Pund-IT Review

For information on subscribing to Charles King’s newsletter, please contact Fred Abbott.

PDF_Icon “The Case for Data Classification as the Foundation for Intelligent Information Management ” Data classification is critical for ILM. Up to now, however, no compelling high-level business reason for data classification exists. This paper answers the “why data classification?” question. In serving as a foundation for intelligent information management, data classification provides significant benefits to the business as a whole in addition to benefits for storage and the overall IT organization. (04October06)
PDF_Icon “Playing the Data Protection Management Game More Effectively”For many organizations, problems with data protection — notably backup and recovery issues — seem intractable. This paper discusses the key roles of data protection management (DPM) products, a category of software products that improve the management of data protection processes. (27September2006)
PDF_Icon “Moving to the Head of the Data Class ” Discusses the first principles of data classification, including the need to look through both a management and a data lens when classifying data. (02August06)
PDF_Icon “The Real World Benefits of Storage Virtualization ” Where block-based storage virtualization and file-based storage virtualization are today and where they are going. (07June06)
PDF_Icon “Getting Back to Basics on Data Security ” Discusses the first principles of data security, including data preservation and data confidentiality. (03May06)
PDF_Icon “Virtual Tape Libraries Are Very Real ” Discusses why virtual tape libraries (VTLs) really do fill a vital role in the data protection infrastructure. (01Mar06)
PDF_Icon “Data Protection for Remote Sites is Not Cheaper by the Dozen” Discusses how remote branch offices or sites can take advantage of backup consolidation technologies to central sites. (25Jan06)
PDF_Icon “In Memoriam — John Diebold — Evangelist, Pioneer, and Visionary” This tribute to the late John Diebold shows why all of us in the IT industry owe him a debt of gratitude. (11Jan06)
PDF_Icon ”WAN Acceleration: Getting More Data Rabbits Out of the Bandwidth Hat Faster” Explains how WAN acceleration (a.k.a. WAN optimization) enables organizations to get more effective throughput a network, which can provide benefits such as speeding up backups from remote branch offices to a central site. (21Dec05)
PDF_Icon “Space Savers: The Benefits of Freeze-Drying Your Storage” Discusses how the different techniques for saving space on disk — especially an approach called data reduction — can have a significant impact on not only getting more out of both disk space and bandwidth, but also improve backup/restore processes. (23Nov05)
PDF_Icon “Only the Shadow Knows” Introduces continual shadowing protection (CSP) as a category that along with continuous data protection (CDP) meets the need for low data loss and fast recovery from logical data protection problems. (2Nov05)
PDF_Icon “Active Archiving Is Not an Oxymoron” Why the move to active archiving for fixed content is becoming an imperative. (19Oct05)
PDF_Icon “Sticks and Stones” Discusses tape encryption and electronic vaulting in helping to improve data security. (17Aug05)

Data Protection Related Documents

PDF_Icon “Rethinking Database Recovery”
 

BMC Recovery Manager for Databases delivers a backup-and-recovery services solutions that helps organizations meet the demands of ever-higher service-level requirements.(26Sept2006)
PDF_Icon “EMC's CLARiiON Disk Library Raises the Bar for Virtual Tape Libraries”
  The CLARiiON Disk Library delivers full logical integration between disk and tape libraries. (28Apr06)
PDF_Icon “Finding Data Protection Choices to Meet Your Disaster Recovery Priorities”
  Joint presentation by Mesabi Group and ProgresSmart at the Disaster Recovery Journal spring 2006 conference in Orlando, Florida (27Mar06)
PDF_Icon “WysDM Software Enables Your Wisdom to Make a Difference”
  WysDM Software gives you the ability to manage your data protection environment proactively instead of reactively. (14Feb06)
PDF_Icon “Tape: An Ongoing Bulwark for Data Protection”
Why tape will continue to play an essential role in data protection. How LTO Program-based tape technology is continuing to play a major role in open systems tape technology. (12Dec05)
PDF_Icon ”Tape Virtualization — You Need to Know More Than You Think You Do”
There are actually three types of tape virtualization — virtual tape library (VTL), virtual tape, and tape library virtualization. This paper explains how each is different from the others. (17Aug05)
PDF_Icon “Disaster Recovery Choices for Microsoft Exchange”
Discusses the use of CLARiiON CX arrays with EMC software for providing disaster recovery choices for Microsoft Exchange environments. (22Aug05)
PDF_Icon “Continuous Data Protection: A State Analysis” (Presentation, 9Jun05)
The need for continuous data protection.
• The way CDP works today.
• Data “forensics”: putting CDP to the test.
• CDP in action.
• Issues with CDP.
• Summary: CDP benefits.
PDF_Icon “Mimosa Systems: Getting to the Point with NearPoint”
The NearPoint All-In-One server solution simultaneously overcomes multiple e-mail management challenges. (12Apr05)
PDF_Icon “Data Protection: Take a New Look” A white paper that summarizes some of the concepts described in the “Data Protection: Take a New Look” report and lists companies that supply different data protection technologies. (7Jan05)

General Interest Publications

PDF_Icon “ Enterprise Exchange Server 2007 Infrastructure: What Changes, What Doesn’t ”

Enterprises that look to take advantage of Exchange Server 2007 are also examining their overall messaging infrastructure. This paper examines what is likely to change and what is not likely to change in that infrastructure. (16July07)
PDF_Icon “Data Classification: The Foundation for Intelligent Information Management”

Joint presentation by Mesabi Group and Infostructure Associates at Storage World Conference in Boston September 21, 2006. In addition to providing some guidelines on how to do data classification, the presentation shows how data classification as part of ILM links to key IT business initiatives, such as business process management, enterprise content management, and master data management. This creates a foundation for intelligent information management. This answer to the question “Why data classification?” raises the business justification for data classification significantly. (21Sept06)
PDF_Icon “Find It! Move It! The Power of EMC's VisualSRM and DiskXtender Integration”
EMC has integrated VisualSRM and DiskXtender for NAS to provide file targeting and file migration for creating an active file archive. (14June06)
PDF_Icon “Database Archiving: A Necessity, Not an Option ”
Shows why database archiving is the foundation for managing the lifecycle of database data. (28Apr06)
PDF_Icon “Why SMI-S Compliance is Key to Efficient Storage Management ”
Discusses why SMI-S is a foundation upon which more efficient storage management can be built. (28Apr06)
PDF_Icon “Moving to the Head of the Class with Enterprise Class with NAS Gateways”
Discusses the role of NAS gateways for enterprise-class file management. (6Sep05)
PDF_Icon “Storage Virtualization 101: The Cliff Notes”
The question of where storage virtualization should reside has generated a lot of “religous” fervor. (28Mar05)
PDF_Icon “EMC Tips the Scales Toward iSCSI Acceptance”
EMC’s offering of iSCSI on its CLARiiON strengthens the general acceptability of iSCSI SANs. (14Feb05)
PDF_Icon “You Can't Tell the Major Enterprise Disk Storage Players without a Scorecard”
Making sense of the computer storage market starts with understanding the role of the major disk storage system vendors. (19Nov04)
PDF_Icon “The New TotalStorage DS Family Puts IBM Right in Storage Fashion”
IBM again demonstrates a trendsetter role in enterprise disk storage fashions. (12Oct04)

2005 Archived Documents