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EMC backup strategy - NetWorker, Avamar and Data Domain
Hi,
I work for an EMC partner selling into the mid-market.
In this space the Celerra/CLARiiON is very compelling from a feature/price point of view, but it is a lot more difficult to sell the EMC backup solutions.
Clearly one reason for this is that backup products are much more 'sticky' than storage products.
I also believe that unlike Celerra/CLARiiON which are priced for mass consumption, Avamar and Data Domain are priced for the high-end of the market.
It is also confusing from a customer point of view that there are two backup solutions (i.e. NetWorker and Avamar) and two dedupe solutions (Avamar and Data Domain), which also results in massive duplication (ironically!!!) of resources within EMC.
Avamar is good as a pure dedupe solution but it lacks some of capabilities that NetWorker has (i.e. tape management) and NetWorker lacks some of the capabilities of Avamar (i.e. VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection support).
Avamar also has problems in the fact that a single appliance of 3.3TB is just too small, clearly Data Domain can scale way beyond this.
What EMC need to do is dedupe their backup solutions!!!
I attended EMC World this year and I came away thinking that by 2011 EMC would have a backup solution much more like:
1. Backup software: NetWorker with agents that can either perform a conventional or source-based dedupe backup with a start-of-the-art easy to use Unisphere based interface
2. Backup target: Data Domain which would support NetWorker conventional and source based dedupe backups and 3rd party backup solutions
In additon it would be nice to see:
1. Data Domain available as a VM (i.e. like Avamar)
2. A low-cost tier of dedupe storage designed for long-term retention (i.e. to finally replace tape)
3. An Avamar client built into Celerra for dedupe of NDMP backups at source
I think the market is going through massive change (i.e. a move to virtualisation and replicated storage arrays even at the low end).
At the same time customers would like to replace their aging tape-based backup with a dedupe solution.
If EMC can deliver a unified solution that takes all the best bits of their technologies, makes it easy to use and prices it for mass consumption there is no reason why most Celerra/CLARiiON sales cannot include a new backup solution.
Customers want it, so roll-on 2011.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Mark
Hodgy9687
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October 18th, 2010 03:00
Hi,
I think EMC have gone from market leader with Avamar and Data Domain to now missing the boat and playing catch up.
I think this is another situation where EMC have all of the solutions but do not have them integrated. Granted they announced a couple of weeks ago that Legato will manager both Avamar and DD but when will this be suitable for customer consumption in the wild?
If you look at the competition, Symantec have Netbackup 7 with dedupe (source and target) virtual appliances and the new Netbackup 5000 appliances they launched at Symantec's "Vision" conference a couple of weeks ago. This delivers the exactly the functionality the you've asked for. Customers are all looking at ways to consolidate their environments and EMC is behind the curve on this.
Commvault also have a solution but it is fuzzy and they struggle at the "enterprise". Falconstore and Quantum have "partnerships" which look great at sales engagement but are a potential nightmare post-sale.
I saw the presentation and Symantec can deliver and, more importantly, support such an environment right now. If I was a customer looking at streamlining my backup infrastructure I'd want one vendor to manage it all not three.
Mark
ecarter11
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October 18th, 2010 11:00
Mark - thanks for the comments and perspective. It's actually very helpful - highlights points where we can do better with respect to communicating solution fit. The thoughts on future places for innovation are also very welcome.
One thing I think could be helpful to clear up confusion - please join us if you can for a presentation on 20 October. This will deal with much of what you've raised here. The link to register is: http://www.emc.com/events/2010/q4/10-20-10-dedup-networker-with-data-domain.htm.
Regards,
Eric
AllanW1
334 Posts
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October 18th, 2010 13:00
MarkB- As a partner, you should have access to Powerlink. Take a look at this presentation. Hopefully you can use it to help clear up your customer confusion about NetWorker integration and Avamar/Data Domain use cases.
Hodgy- I'd recommend the webcast that Eric posted too. Consumption for the wild will be covered.
MARKBURGESSSNS
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October 19th, 2010 01:00
Hi Eric,
Thanks for coming back to me.
I have signed up for the webinar - I hope it covers what is coming soon.
I am already aware that you can manage Avamar from NetWorker and the DD Boost functionality - all good stuff.
As per my response to Alan this still leaves my wishlist of:
1. You have to pay twice for the agent (i.e. NetWorker agent and Avamar agent - you pay for this in the capacity license)
2. The NetWorker UI needs a major (Unisphere) refresh so it is modern and easy to use (Avamar is much easier to use than NetWorker)
3. We need a single (physical and virtual) dedupe datastore (i.e. Data Domain)
Will any of this be covered on the webinar?
Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Mark
MARKBURGESSSNS
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October 19th, 2010 01:00
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the feedback.
I have just checked my business cards from EMC World and it appears that we discussed this subject in Boston.
I am aware of the DD Boost capability and also that you can manage Avamar from NetWorker - I believe this is what the presentation link covers.
I guess I am looking for what is new and hopefully coming soon in terms of improved integration - as a partner one would hope that we could get an insight into the road-map for the next 6-12 months.
My concerns are:
1. The NetWorker UI needs a major refresh if it is going to be slick and easy to use - I believe you stated that we hopefully will see a Unisphere based version in 2011
2. I understand that when NetWorker manages Avamar the customer needs to purchase additional NetWorker agent licenses - this way they are paying more to have a single integrated solution (which is not entirely logical).
3. We still have the situation of two dedupe datastores (Avamar and Data Domain) with no dedupe across them, which again is not entirely logical from a customers point of view
I am sure if you dig into the detail of what Symantec has to offer then there will be short-comings with their technology, but EMC seem to be very close in terms of offering truly next-generation backup technology, we are just missing that last integration piece.
Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Mark
ecarter11
177 Posts
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October 19th, 2010 14:00
Mark - the items you've listed will not be covered in the Webcast. It's dealing in the realm of what is available today - feature/function/positioning - but not roadmap items such as you've raised. Would you be open to talking with our product management folks about this? I've let them know I think it would be a good opportunity.
Thanks,
Eric
MARKBURGESSSNS
19 Posts
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October 20th, 2010 08:00
Hi Eric,
I would be very happy to talk to product management.
Please note that I am based in the UK.
Many thanks
Mark
P.S.
I have just taken a quick look at CommVault 9 and clearly from high-level integration/customer perception point of view it looks like it is where we want NetWorker, Replication Manager, Avamar and Data Domain to be.