#38 – Talking Dedicated Backup Appliances with Don Foster from Commvault

#38 – Talking Dedicated Backup Appliances with Don Foster from Commvault

Chris EvansCommvault, Guest Speakers

In this week’s podcast, the team talk to Don Foster, Senior Director for WW Solutions Marketing at Commvault.  Initially this podcast was intended to be recorded at Commvault Go last November (2017) in Washington DC, but schedules didn’t align so we did it remotely.  The audio quality is not as good as we’d like, so apologies for that.  However, there are some good discussions in this episode, including lots to think about if you’re looking to deploy a backup appliance in place of a traditional DIY solution.  Don spends some time at the end of the podcast talking through the Commvault offering in this space – HyperScale.  Finally we wrap up with thought about how this market will mature.  Is there any future at all for build-your-own solutions?

Elapsed Time: 00:33:13

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 – Intro
  • 00:01:00 – Commvault background
  • 00:04:00 – Why buy an appliance compared to build your own?
  • 00:06:30 – What operationally, is the benefit for the customer?
  • 00:07:30 – Vendor designs, scale-out or scale-up?
  • 00:08:30 – What are the compromises?
  • 00:10:00 – Who are the typical customers for the appliance model?
  • 00:11:30 – Are appliances simply a way to make better margins?
  • 00:14:30 – Design and build is over….
  • 00:15:30 – Nobody loves their 10th NetApp – allegedly.
  • 00:17:45 – Deeper dive into Commvault HyperScale.
  • 00:22:00 – What patching has been done for Spectre/Meltdown?
  • 00:24:30 – How are existing non-appliance customers accommodated?
  • 00:26:01 – What support is available for public cloud?
  • 00:29:30 – How is licensing managed?
  • 00:30:30 – What is the future of data protection appliances?
  • 00:32:30 – Wrap up
 
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