Last week, I had the rare opportunity to take place in a new hire orientation for the DPS team at DellEMC, to learn about the new IDPA and DPS offering. Truly, as a partner, to be able to attend this event was a great glimpse into how things are being created over there at DellEMC. With such valuable cornerstones to their portfolio as Data Domain, Avamar, Recoverpoint, and all the goodness that is VMware, they’ve been able to package up what is likely the premier solution to the space. The category of DPA or Data Protection Appliance just got more interesting. 

I’ve written about CDM, and CDP (Copy Data Protection) a number of times. I’ve written on the major technology in the field. Rubrik, Cohesity, and Actifio have been significant drivers of this technology. Each brings some key pieces to the equation. Do you want, for example, your backup infrastructure to exist as a storage tier in your data center? Well, that would point you in a direction. Cohesity truly has made strides in this space, and with Helios, they’ve upped their game with a very cool additional tech. Rubrik, as another example, has taken the ability to search and qualify your metadata such that retrieval, and let’s face it, retrieval is the key to good backup, with an incredibly google-like functionality.

Those of you who know me, know that I’ve spent some key time at both VMware and at EMC in the past, prior to acquisition, and have consistently been impressed with the technology they produce. I can say that I’ve not seen such impressive strides taken in a single platform by the BRS, BURA, or Storage teams to come together with a product as robust and well thought out in quite some time.

Certainly, there was a fair share of Koolaid to be shared by this group of new hires. I, after all, remember my own New Hires both from VMware, and as a vSpecialist. Of course, I didn’t have to walk on hot coals, as I did when joining EMC’s team, but there was a lot of energy spent on how the competition pales in comparison. I balk at that, and only want true, unfalsified competitive information. I want to know why this over that, and for what use-cases. All the FUD be damned. Fortunately, I was well equipped, thanks to being an independent, and all the time I’ve spent as a Tech Field Day delegate. I’ve seen all the major players in the space, and, to be fair, quite a few minors in that same category. I can take a critical eye toward the tech, and also remove my skepticism, so that the marketecture (toward which I view askance) workloads (VMware and HyperV), even Oracle and SQL database workloads have been taken into account. They can all be backed up, with very robust solutions, and very well thought out scenarios. For example, the incorporation of an RMAN protocol into the backup of Oracle databases seems more functional than any solution I’ve seen previously, outside of Oracle themselves, and maybe beyond those.

I had an excellent time in Austin at this training, met some wonderful people, and learned a great deal. I could not be more pleased that I was able to attend this event, and could not feel that I could have a best-in-breed conversation in this category, likely the most important space in any datacenter, without having attended. I enjoy being educated to a given category, and feel far more qualified to have this conversation today than I did even a week ago. Much thanks to some key people at DellEMC, both new hires, and established DPS personalities. I even had the opportunity with my Team5 members to deliver the winning presentations in the internal new-hire contest for the week. All-in-all, I must say that it was a great event.