In Silicon Angle’s ongoing Dell Storage Forum coverage, Dave Vellante and Steve Miniman of Wikibon, spoke with Brett Roscoe, General Manager and Executive Director of Dell Power Vault and owner of Dell’s data management solutions.  Vellante and Roscoe discuss fluid data architecture, AppAssure, data protection strategies and replication’s pervasiveness.

For Dell, Roscoe explains that fluid data architecture more than what Vellante calls, “just great architecture,” began with exploring how to provide enhanced value and unique capabilities to customers.  This starting point evolved into a way for developers to explore new capabilities.  Roscoe states: “So, if you look at the tenets like self-protecting storage, the whole idea of [that] is to develop a portfolio that makes data protection and data recovery, very automated and very easy to use…engineers look at those tenets as guideposts that say I’m working on a program that benefits a customer in this way and provides a solution for these problems.”  Roscoe adds that fluid data architecture has both external and internal benefits: “ It’s also a way for us internally to develop products and make sure we’re focusing on the right things, right uniqueness and right capabilities for our customer.”

Roscoe also explains that AppAssure is not just using traditional back up tools, but primary storage tools to do data protection and data recovery.  AppAssure, a snapshot based solution offers excellent back-up recovery and complements the Dell portfolio within existing solutions with AppAssure capabilities, offering “deeper tools around scheduling [and] e-mail recovery” among other things.  Vellante notes that Dell is providing a unique solution in the industry, as compared to the trend of simply “sticking in a large target de-doop device.”  Roscoe explains that AppAssure is different in that it utilizes local snapshops in a continuous data protection strategy and then replicates it off-site, dealing with the back-up window problem that way; this shrinks RPO and RTO requirements.

Roscoe notes that changes in protection have evolved from replacing a big disk library and then using the additional performance once had from the disk or additional reliability from disk as an augmentation to the current environment. Roscoe rhetorically adds: “Why make a high performance disk drive look like a tape drive? At some point we all said let’s stop making this look like this and get more capabilities out of it.”  Traditionally, snapshot has been used to replicate DR and then disk based back-up or tape based back-up was employed.  The nice thing about AppAssure, according to Roscoe, is that it can take snapshots up to every 5 minutes and move those off-sites in a network efficient manner.  Roscoe explains another benefit is how it helps address failure issues: “So, think about you’re data center going down and now the workload the app you’re running could be stood up and running in another location or in a cloud in a very short period of time, or while you’re restoring the data you can actually stand the workload up and be running it while the roster is happening.”

Stuart Miniman chimes in, “cloud seems to be the wild card in terms of storage,” and asks where Dell sees cloud replacing storage for backup and integrating into the portfolio.  Roscoe begins by stating that cloud is an “overused term,” but important trend.  Dell customers aren’t aiming to replace their solutions with cloud, but augment them.  As Roscoe states: “No one wants to go, I’m gonna kill all my IT and move everything to the cloud.”  The cloud is useful as it helps compliment offsite replication or fail-over, which can improve the client’s bottom line.

Roscoe explains that AppAssure’s goal is to help customers align their data protection strategy with their application value. The title AppAssure is fitting as Roscoe explains “the product is designed around application awareness…being able to understand the inner working of an applications…the goal is really [to enhance] the ability of the exchange administrator.” Dell aims to maximize data protection efficiency.  According to Roscoe, “a one day recovery time is unacceptable” and ought to be minutes or seconds.

Vellante also inquires about Dell’s corporate strategies, referencing it’s approach to acquisitions is unique.  Vellante notes: “Companies make acquistions and then leave them alone, placing the burden of integration on customers.”  Dell, however, has focused on integration and concern for mid-sized customer.  For this consumer, Roscoe suggests the most important needs are enterprise capabilities and infrastructures.

Roscoe suggests that when it comes to back-up appliances, dropping-in a purpose built appliance and taking a CDP approach does not have to be mutually exclusive.  The DR4000, for example, among other procuts, allows for target based back-up recovery, “you can point any data at it and it will de-doop it in-line store it in the back and you can recover data using the high-efficiency random IO capabilities of a disk drive…and still get much more cost optimization.”

Vellante and Roscoe conclude with a view towards the future.  For Roscoe, the back-up window (Vellante says everyone has been chasing) is “yesterday’s battle.”  Roscoe cites a recent ESG survey of mid-market customers in which, 52% indicate replication as a primary means of back-up recovery for tier 1 data.  Before this reference Roscoe reflects: “People keep talking about the back-up world changing.  My argument is that it’s done. It’s changed.”