Today's announcement-> What do you think about it?

My questin is how does it work with a restore?

Siobhan,

Restore/recovery will follow the exact workflow and process as data saved to any other device or target.  Simply run recover, winworkr or nwrecover and choose the files you want recovered. 

-Michael

Michael,

Thanks, that's not exactly what I was after. I assumed the usual NetWorker restoration commands would be used. However, what I'm after is exactly how it does the restore. The announcement was all about how Bosst helps with Backup. I want to know how, or if, it helps with Restore, or is fully hydrated data restored, and that there is no restore benefit from boost?

I'm seeing much from vendors on de-dupe at the moment, but what I've noticed is that all the announcements concentrate on backup and not restore.

e.g., DD talks about its backup speed, I had to ask to get restore speed and this was before boost.

Avamar de-dupes at source, but hydrates on the data store then compresses it before it sends it over the wire.

Siobhan,

Sorry about the delay ... the recovery work flow is data is rehydrated on the DD System, then pushed back to the requesting client. There is no Boost in the recover workflow.  Great question.

-Michael

Michael,

as I suspected. What I've noticed is the data protection market place concentrating on Backup again, rather than on Restore. This is al vendors, I'm not pointing the finger at EMC specifically.

This, I suspect,  is due to the fact that de-dupe tends to help more with backup, so if you are going to say how sexy something is, you naturally concentrate on the positive and conveniently ignore the flaws.

That is not to say that this functionality does not have its place, just as long as purchasers remember it is about Restore.

Whilst on the subject, it is worth comparing restoration of differeing de-dupe technlogies in the market place.

Avamar provides rehydration within a file at the client (So, if the same block is repeated twice in teh same file it will only transmit it once)

Symantec have claimed that they only send a block back once in a complete restoration. I've yet to check out that, but interesting technology if it does - because that is what you want. If you've already sent a  block back... why send it again?

regards