VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) was a first attempt by VMware to address the backup challenges of backing up VMs.  However, it has significant limitations and has already been replaced by VMware.  If you’re already using it, fine.  But why would you move to it NOW?
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Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

Anyone that’s read this blog knows I’m a big fan of Mozy.  I’m a fan of other online products as well, but I use Mozy for my own data and it’s always done me very well.  Well, I’ve got my first gripe and it’s kind of a big one.  It wasn’t backing up and it never told me.
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

As you may already know, I decided last week that I had rebuilt Windows for the last time. My Windows laptop got corrupted somehow and none of the usual tools I use could fix it, and the only way to fix it would be a complete reinstall of the OS.  I said “Deja Vu” for the last time and bought a Macbook Pro for me and two iMacs for the house.  I got a pretty good deal on all three, spending just about $2000 for three 2-2.2 GHz machines with 2 GB of RAM and large enough hard drives for the job.  This is slightly faster than the laptop and PCs that I had, so I thought it would make a good transition and wouldn’t bankrupt me all at the same time.

Since this is a backup blog, I’ll limit the number of PC/Mac posts. I’ll actually keep updating this one and putting more and more stuff in it until it gets too much, after which I’ll start another one.
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

I recently reached out to several thousand Backup Central subscribers looking for customers of several backup products.  There are a few products, however, that I didn’t get quite enough respondents from, so I’m hoping to reach them this way.   I know that at least some of these products actually have thousands of customers.

If you are one of the first few customers of these products to respond, I have a special free offer for your kindness!
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

Fans of Exchange’s Single Instance Storage feature will be sad to know that is gone as of Exchange 2010.  That’s right.  Gone.
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

After spending three days trying yet again to resurrect a PC that had no hardware problems and oddly enough not even any viruses that any of my usual tools could find, AND wrestling with one PC that constantly doesn’t want to recognze the USB, I’ve decided to go over to the dark side.  I just ordered a Macbook Pro and two iMacs for my house.  That oughta do it.
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.

Reading announcements from companies like EMC, Symantec, CommVault, and CA, you’d think they were in the forefront of “proper” support for EMC’s vSphere.  When you read things like “NetBackup & Backup Exec certified for vSphere 4.0,” you would think that means that it supports vSphere’s new backup features.  You would be incorrect on both counts, and the same is true for EMC, CommVault, CA, and (oddly enough) VizionCore!
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----- Signature and Disclaimer -----

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston). For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I've specialized in backup & recovery since 1993. I've written the O'Reilly books on backup and have worked with a number of native and commercial tools. I am now Chief Technical Architect at Druva, the leading provider of cloud-based data protection and data management tools for endpoints, infrastructure, and cloud applications. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.