I have adapted this approach to the device I lug around in my backpack as well. I have always used an IBM or Dell laptop while working as a road warrior.  However, at home you will typically find me in front of an Apple or Linux system.  Mac OS X powers my home media experience, Linux runs the servers that power the back office, and Windows is there where its needed too.  On the road though for business, it is a Windows world and one that I have always understood and embraced.

Moving into a different role with my company, I am still traveling heavily, but the need to carry the heavy powerhouse laptop has subsided.   I made the decision this last week to jump back into the Apple camp in the backup back as well.  This doesn’t mean I am giving up Windows in my business world either, just carrying the best of all worlds.

I picked the new mid-2010 unibody MacBook Pro 13.3” unit.  While the 13” is still running a 2.66 Ghz Core2 Duo, I couldn’t stand to lug along a 15” or 17” version to get into the Intel Core i5 processor family.  By all accounts the unibody design of the new MacBook Pro provides a very robust unit with excellent form and fit.  The processor is just as fast as the Dell I have carried for the least 18 months too.  I did do a post purchase upgrade to 500 GB in a Hybrid SSD / 7200 RPM drive with a Seagate Momentus XT and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM.  The upgrade combo make the machine scream and boot up is almost instant.

Being a fan of both Snow Leopard and Windows 7, I knew I would continue to use both operating systems on the road just fine.  Apple has provided the option to Bootcamp Windows 7 for awhile now.  However, I tried in vain to get my burned ISOs to boot properly.  Well known issue on the Apple support forums, so I went down the path with virtualization instead.

After heading over to VMware.com and downloading a copy of VMware Fusion 3.1, I provisioned out a new Windows 7 workstation.  After a few hours of data migration, Outlook setup, Exchange syncing, and some program installations, I am rocking the best of all worlds.  Mix in Fusion’s sweet Unity integration and I truly have some tasty Applesauce to consume.

Over the next few weeks as I get a good handle on the road on just how well this combination will work for me from a road warrior perspective, I will do another post update with my feedback, tips, and tricks.

[Full Disclosure: Yes, I do work for Veeam Software]

Some of you may have even heard about Veeam’s SureBackup innovations back in March when we went public with forthcoming patent-pending technologies to evolve and change the way people work, think, and deal with virtualization data protection.  Our next release is definitely cool and all the cool kids want the cool toys.  I am humbled to work for the company that is really leading the way.

The real validation of this opinion though comes from the fact that our competition recognizes us as leader. Our competitors have started to imitate our marketing approaches, product and feature names, and even some of the cool technologies we have filed patents around.  I am not going to debate the possible patent and intellectual property issues here, it is being well covered in the press and through our official company channels.

I am just satisified enough to have a great view looking in the rear view mirror of those trying to keep up with us.  It really is good to be number one.

While living in Chicago the last 14 years I have come to adopt the Chicago Bears as a team I agonize with during the season, I will still always have a fondness and root for the Cleveland Browns too.  I start today my scouting efforts in earnest to see who will make my fantasy roster.  I would post my thoughts, but I don’t want to tip my hand until after the draft is over.

So mark your calendars, if you want to get a hold of me for the twenty-eight Sundays, just be sure to call during halftime because it is beginning to feel a lot like Sunday… the way it supposed to be.

Doug Hazelman is traveling on business this week and asked if I would write a post and provide some advice on using a cloud service provider as a backup option for your virtualization backups.  My name is David Siles and I am the Director of Worldwide Technical Operations for Veeam Software.  I am also a VMware vExpert and VMware Certified Professional.

In my job, I am continually asked by customers, partners, and service providers who purchase our backup and replication product the best way to utilize our solution to interact with the cloud.  While this sounds ominous, dealing with backing up data into remote hosted storage or cloud storage has been around for some time.  You may be familiar with services such as Dropbox, Amazon Simple Storage Services (S3), Rackspace CloudFiles, and the like already.  They are great for protecting your personal documents and sharing items with colleagues for collaboration.  However when it comes to backing up virtual machines for remote data protection and business continuity additional questions arise.

The 4 C’s
Cryptography, Compression, Compatibility, and Cost are the four “C’s” to consider when dealing with cloud storage for backup of your virtual machines.  Everyone wants their data to be secure as it leaves their premise so encryption is always a concern.   Almost any cloud storage provider you choose to host your backups  is going to provide some access utilizing network transport encryption.  The further question is always around the backup archive itself.  The decision to encrypt the backup archive needs to be balanced with the purpose of the archive, business regulations, and corporate policy.  Just be aware that encryption is always a time trade-off.  Software encryption of the archive versus hardware encryption at the storage layer should be evaluated to best meet your needs.

The next consideration is compression, which feeds into the cost angle as well.  The moment backup data leaves your internal network, you are paying a bandwidth cost to both your Internet service provider and cloud storage provider.  The ability of your backup solution of choice to compress and deduplicate your backup archive is going to help reduce bandwidth and storage cost.  It is a must-have when looking at cloud storage.

When speaking to compatibility, you need to ensure that the chosen cloud solution presents a storage point that is compatible with your backup vendor.  Many providers will give you the ability to mount and present the cloud storage location as locally mapped target drive.  The other aspect of compatibility to consider is does this cloud storage provider offer a way to utilize my backups to extract and run my virtual machines in the cloud?  Many managed service providers are aware that in a true disaster situation, the ability to provide you cloud based storage for backup is key, but  the ability to restore and run the virtual machines in the cloud is just as important.  You may wish to consider providers that have a compute cloud that is compatible with your virtual machine format and hypervisor of choice.  Some service providers also offer the ability to host replicated virtual machines in native virtual disk format in a standby state that can be brought online if needed quickly.

The last aspect is always the one people focus on first—cost.  You typically pay for backup storage on a GB-per-month basis.  Additional fees include inbound and outbound bandwidth from the provider’s network along with additional services such as geographic distribution of content and guaranteed level of protection.  When doing your research, always consider the service level agreements and guarantees your provider offers.  Review the terms and conditions on the reimbursement of fees and damages for not meeting the SLAs.  Sometimes the most cost effective provider ends up costing you more in your time of need if they can’t deliver when you need them most.

Take an Educated Chance
I always recommend that our customers start with low hanging fruit and test our solutions with their new cloud storage provider of choice.  As a place to start, reach out to your current backup solution provider and see if they have a recommendation for a provider.  Of course, since every situation is unique, you should still conduct a test for your environment.  Since you can typically pay as you use, test your backups into the cloud, test conducting recovery, and monitor your bandwidth utilization in a pilot program. Then make the decision that is right for your business needs.

The new launch is going to be just that with my blog starting a fresh.  The old posts are pretty much lost forever, some of the good nuggets I had there may come back as new posts.  If your looking for an old referenced post linked from somewhere on the interwebs, sorry you reached a dead end now.

The new mantra for Silesville is “Partly cloudy with a chance of virtualization.”  This perfectly sums up what you will find here on the weblog.  I will still cover virtualization topics of interest while branching out to muse on cloud computing.  I am still a geek at heart and at times I will share cool and new technology that piques my interest as well.  Finally as this is my personal blog and some times I will be making posts of rants, raves, and ponderings that intrigue me whether or not it is technology related.

So thanks for stopping by and look for exciting growth as I go Silesville 3.0… The forecast is bright and sunny for the future.

– Dave