Archive for the ‘Axxana’ Category

Twins!

Everyone loves twins. They just make you smile. And if you have twins, you’re so happy, you don’t think about the cost. That’s true of twin babies, but it’s not true with twin data centers.

On yesterday’s webinar with Gil Chaouat, we had an interesting discussion. Gil discussed a global company with which he had recently met. The company has two data centers in every region. Two data centers per region is a common approach for organizations like this one, that want to deliver a zero data loss environment. There were two things that really stood out for me:

1. Two data centers per region is really expensive
2. One is sometimes better than two

For this particular company, one of the biggest costs, in addition to the cost of the second data center in every region, was the cost of the high-speed fiber connections between each of the two data centers. And, of course, because fiber connections can break, they had to have two. Twice the cost. They used fiber connections, because they wanted synchronous data replication. It was the only way they could deliver zero data loss. So why is one data center better than two?

This company had no replication between regions. That would have added even more cost, and they wanted to reduce spending, not increase it. And replication between regions, which for them would have been North America to Europe and Europe to Asia, can only be done asynchronously, which means they will lose data in a disaster.

What they are discussing is eliminating the second data center and implementing Axxana’s black box. That way they can use asynchronous replication over IP lines between regions, eliminate the cost of the redundant fiber links, and use Axxana to deliver zero data loss. Doing this also ensures zero data loss in regional disasters, disasters which might have impacted both data centers in one region. So in this scenario, one is better than two.

Of course, when it comes to babies, two is better than one.

No One Can Reliably Predict Disasters

When it comes to data centers, everyone believes site location matters. It seems obvious that anyone choosing a location for a new data center would want to be far away from any known disaster zones. However, an article published yesterday by GigaOM entitled “The states with the most data centers are also the most disaster-prone [maps]” shows that in the U.S., organizations do the exact opposite. They locate data centers in the most disaster-prone states! Wow!

First, thanks to Roni Molla, the author. She’s an expert in data visualization, and the maps really help to tell the story of data center risk. In her article, she references Mark Thiele, data center expert and founder of Data Center Pulse, who argues that climate change will substantially change the risk profile for data centers going forward.

I’ll write more about this in a later post, but Nassim Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, would argue correctly, that given time, any location is at risk. The strategy, then, needs to be that you make your data center and your organization, at the very worst, resilient, meaning it can survive disasters. At the best, you will make your organization anti-fragile.

In his latest book, he explains that something that is fragile is more likely to break, the more you stress it. Something that is anti-fragile gets stronger or better, the more you stress it.  He also reminds us that “the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” Prior to Hurricane Sandy, no one, or at least few, guessed that the lower half of Manhattan would be underwater. Prior to the World Trade Center collapse, no one, or least few, would have guessed that terrorists would fly two planes into the twin towers.

Unlike other disaster recovery solutions, Axxana does not require that you predict the type of disaster that might occur, or the frequency with which they might occur. Given time, everyone will be affected by a disaster. Axxana also doesn’t require that you predict how you will retrieve the protected data. When preparing to survive unforeseen disasters, having options is key. That’s why we give customers four different ways to retrieve data.

I think it’s time to stop trying to predict those things we can’t predict, and instead spend our time figuring out how we will survive.

This week I wanted to share with you Dr. DR., a monthly comic on disaster recovery from Rich Parsons.  We hope you like it as much as we do. Please share it with your friends.

The Sixth Differentiating Feature: Bandwidth Reduction

For almost 8 years, Sebastian Darrington, who maintains a much-read blog under the title The Storage Chap, has been discussing and debating various approaches to disaster recovery and business continuity planning. In June, he posted an article on The Six Differentiating Features of RecoverPoint. Add to that the excellent post he wrote in January on Zero Data Loss with Asynchronous Replication, and you’ll get a pretty complete picture of the EMC/Axxana benefits.

The sixth differentiating feature he mentions in his June blog post is Bandwidth Reduction. It is specifically this feature that makes RecoverPoint and Axxana the perfect combination for organizations that operate in regions that have less-reliable or very expensive communication costs. Of course, regardless of where an organization operates, there’s no sense in throwing away good money on bandwidth. But in some regions of the world, you can’t get good bandwidth, regardless of the price.

The Axxana Team at Storage Magazine UK 2012 Award Dinner

Wow! Storage Magazine UK knows how to put on a great event. Storries IX, the Storage Awards dinner hosted by Storage Magazine UK, was very elegant. Black ties, black dresses, the best entertainment from Chris Barrie, and a beautiful location. Maybe it’s not the Academy Awards, but in the world of technology, it would be hard to top this. There were more than 400 people in attendance and more than 41,000 votes cast.

It’s wonderful to attend an event like this, but it’s even sweeter to be a winner. So, first of all, thank you to everyone who voted for Axxana, thank you to the editors who voted for Axxana in the Editors’ Choice category, and thank you to our partner, EMC, who joined us at the awards dinner. I’m thrilled to announce that our company was voted “The One to Watch.” The momentum at Axxana is clearly building, and the industry is paying attention, as we revolutionize data protection and disaster recovery.

Paul Jassies Accepts the Storries IX 2012 Award for Axxana

EMC World was a great event! Axxana’s Select Theatre presentation was delivered by our own Brendan Foye, Director of Sales, USA West. According to the EMC Select team on the floor, it was by far the most attended session at the Select Theatre. Some of them asked me “What did you do to get such a crowd?”

Axxana at EMC World Select Theatre

It’s no surprise to anyone who has heard Brendan present, but, the presentation went very well. And the buzz continued long after his presentation. People came to our booth saying they saw his presentation and wanted to hear more. At the V bar later that night, people were still talking to me about how cool the Axxana Phoenix is and how great the presentation went. They started asking me if we smashed and crashed the box and I right there on the spot went to YouTube with my iPhone and showed them the mechanical tests video that we have on our channel WEDR, complete with the fire, earthquake, explosion, penetration and water tests. It was, as Chad Sakac would say “AWESOME”!!!

Stage is one thing… but EMC TV??? My friend Lara El-Ghazal from Philly was the beautiful host this year and in between conversations about potential customers who will surely benefit from Axxana’s transformation of Async to Sync… we also… by chance… really… talked about sending a TV live crew to our booth… and sure enough, they came. Mr. Paul Jassies, Axxana’s Director of Sales, EMEA, did a remarkable job in his first TV appearance. Word on the floor was that he was the one who sent RPO-0 to do dance with the TV crew live. That was so much fun! RPO-0 was everywhere at the show. Our friends from Presidio, an EMC Channel Partner, took a picture of RPO-0 strapped to the rope of their climbing wall… again… AWESOME!!!

RPO-0 Ready to Climb The Wall

As for the trade show… it was great. We had many meetings which were pre-set with end users and that’s a lot of what it is about. We had many EMC’ers bring their customers to our booth and of course, random end users who visited us and went home with a phone call in their future. We now have many good friends at EMC, people from all ranks and all roles… and many of them came to our booth to say hello. Having all of us and all of them in the same place at the same time – that’s… you guessed it – AWESOME!

Especially noteworthy was Jerry Eudey who walked around wearing our special, limited edition, “Team Axxana” shirt, which no Axxana employee is allowed to wear, by the way. And if we are talking about friendship… Axxana and RecoverPoint were seen going strong and steady at the show this year, with RecoverPoint’s new booth and back and forth referencing of Zero Data Loss @ Distance (RP+Axxana) to create the world’s strongest, most cost effective, replication solution, with not even a hint of competition. VNX/CLARiiON today… VMAX and VPLEX – here we come!!! Now… isn’t that… AWESOME?!

Maroon 5 Shaking It Up at EMC World

Even at EMC World 2012, it’s not all business. Last night everyone had a great time shaking it up with Maroon 5. Of course, the organizers knew everyone would be exhausted from three packed days of education, information, and entertainment, so they are kicking off today with a keynote from Steve Duplessie, Founder of Enterprise Strategy Group, at 8:30 this morning. If you are in the storage industry, you  know Steve Duplessie, and you know, that even if you are exhausted, he will WAKE YOU UP.

Steve will be talking about flash and how flash is shaking up the storage industry. He’ll cut through the hype and, as his blog says, give us “The Bigger Truth.” I’m sure it will be streaming live on EMC TV, so you can watch it at home, or if you are at EMC World, but can’t get out  of bed this morning, you can watch from your hotel room.

Our RPO-0 solution, the Phoenix System RP, uses flash. Watch this short video clip and you’ll see us doing a whole lot of shaking. Don’t try this with your spinning disk.

RPO-0 Meets VNX and Promises Total Protection

Coming from Tel Aviv, I’m used to the heat, but Las Vegas was over 100 degrees yesterday at EMC World 2012.  I figured it wouldn’t matter, because I stayed inside, with our new mascot, RPO-0. Turns out, though, it was just as hot inside. RPO-0 got a lot of attention, and hundreds came over meet him. Of course, one of his favorite visitors was RPO-0′s BFF, VNX.

Don’t forget to stop Booth #728 to meet RPO-0 in person, and remember that Eli Efrat, our CEO, will be speaking today at the Select Theatre at 1:30PM. Ask him how to get your own RPO-0.

Finally, if, tragically, you weren’t able to attend EMC World, you can still watch interviews and keynote presentations streaming live from theCube and EMC TV. We’ve been on EMC TV twice this week. Hey, it’s hot under the camera lights, but nobody handles heat better than Axxana’s RPO-0.  We prove it with this video showing RPO-0 being tested to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here I am: Introducing EMCworld to RPO-0

We did set up on Sunday and had time for a quick talk with the EMCTV. Go to EMCTV to watch live streaming video of the keynotes, as well as replays of interviews.

Yesterday was our first full day at EMC World 2012, and we were busy, busy, busy. Eli Efrat, our CEO, took the front row VIP seat that I won (you’re welcome, Eli) and watched the opening talk by Joe Tucci and Pat Gelsinger. You can see some of the pictures Eli took at the keynote. I posted them to Axxana’s Facebook page.

We spent the afternoon at the Solutions Pavilion, where I introduced affordable RPO-0 to hundreds of people.

Don’t forget, Eli will be speaking at the EMC Select Theatre at 1:30PM on Wednesday. Meanwhile, stop by to see us at Booth 728 and meet RPO-0 in person.

I’ve got to run now!

See RPO-0 in Action at EMC World 2012

EMC World 2012 is next week in Las Vegas. The Axxana team will be there in force, including our CEO, Eli Efrat, and CTO, Dr. Alex Winokur. It’s a huge event with plenty of options as to how to spend your time, so careful planning helps you make the most of the days.

As a company that has done deep technology integration with EMC’s RecoverPoint, you will find us at many of the RecoverPoint sessions.  There are now twelve.  To find the sessions, just go to the EMC World Scheduler and search on RecoverPoint.

If you are a VNX or VNXe customer, I recommend you attend the session by Jonathan Meltzer, entitled “VNX and VNXe Data Protection: Recovering from Disasters – Large and Small.” He’ll be presenting on both Monday and Tuesday.

If you are responsible for disaster recovery or IT budgeting, you should try to connect with Lynn Osborn, Director of Engineering Services at The Pinnacle Group.  He’s the individual that helped Animal Health International achieve a zero-data-loss IT environment on a budget that any mid-sized company can afford. You can hear Lynn discuss his experience with Axxana in this short video on our YouTube channel. Stop by Booth 728, and we’ll help connect you with Lynn.

As an EMC Select Partner, we are very pleased to have a cameo presentation at the Select Theatre on Wednesday the 23rd, at 1:30pm. Don’t miss it. At the presentation you will learn how to transform asynchronous replication to synchronous replication.

Finally, if you can’t attend EMC World, consider watching the live streaming video that will be coming from theCube. As always, the folks at SiliconAngle and Wikibon will be providing great coverage and interviews with EMC executives, EMC customers, and EMC partners.

We hope to see you in Vegas!