Tag Backup

So, the finalists are in for the contest I mentioned recently OMG! @Veeam backup supports restoring you to @VMWorld2009 to determine who will be voted on their way to attend VMWorld in San Francisco!

I know I said I’d record a video, and yes I did actually record a video but because I wanted Gabe to win, I opted to not compete (Let’s just say.. I’m a pain in the ass competitor and had a strong chance of taking it from him and everyone else ;)) I may post my video later not for credit to win… but that’s not what we’re here to discuss!

The contestants are in! And you have the opportunity to vote for the best! (Gabe) and comment to win a Flip Camera! (Hey, are you telling me, register, vote, comment = win?!)

Then yes, that is exactly what I’m telling you!  Oh, and check out some really cool software which will help resolve a number of challenges in your infrastructure and virtual environment, that too.  Being that a Flip Camera is not the only free possibility, since they have the Free Veeam Monitor Free Veeam FastSCP and more!

So be sure to go out there, vote for the best of the best! (That’d be Gabrie Van Zanten ;)), comment, and win a Flip Camera! (Check out the goods, make your life and job easier, win!)

It’s all so very straight forward! And be sure to check out Gabe’s blog, it’ll be an investment you’re glad you made!

So, just click the “I love Veeam” above, Vote, Comment and you could win a Flip!

Disclaimer: I am not a shill, I have no affiliation with Gabe other than the best of respect for his contributions back into the community   Were I to compete with Gabe or anyone else on the team, I likely would have obliterated them as I tend to take things considerably too far, and have at my beck and call a series of video editors and production people. ;)  Just so you don’t think this is biased, he deserves to win :)

Wait, what? I’m not even sure what that means?!   Are you seriously telling me that Veeam will send me to VMWorld 2009 in San Franciso? Where do I sign up?!

Veeam Video Contest. Win a FREE trip to VMworld 2009 !

In this economy, who wouldn’t like to win a free trip to VMworld 2009 in San Francisco?

Tell us why you love Veeam and get a chance to win a free full pass to VMworld 2009 or Flip video camera!

How to participate

Between now and June 15,

• Create a video about any Veeam product you love. See Contest Rules for details
• Send us a link to your video at video@veeam.com
• Deadline to submit videos is June 15, 2009

And make sure to post your Video to the Veeam Forum!

And… Then you’re done!  If I don’t see any traction from you folks out there, I’ll have to post a video myself (oh my! will @CXI win a trip to San Francisco!?) Don’t challenge me, I might!  So, post post post! Check it out and get yourself a free trip in this economy, oh and VMWorld2009 should be cool too! ;)   If you need some ideas of what/how to post, hit me up on Twitter and I can help you out also… My idea of a video (for me) likely will be drastically different than you can imagine anyway.. :)

I took these two beta exams this past week, and let me start off first by saying, Wow! These are quite possibly some of the most polished exams I’ve ever seen!

The content was clear and concise, the questions were spot-on, and the delivery was amazing! I had no comments to offer other than "Wow, great exam" (I’m paraphrasing!:))

However, going past that, we get into the depths of the Post-Mortem.

071-451 was an excellent exam, the questions were very focused on your ability to Design, Optimize, and continually work on making sure that your data was delivered in a consistent fashion while also validating for performance and a number of other figures.   If you’re a day-in-day-out DBA who looks at improving your SQL Data, then this is the exam for you.

071-450 was also an excellent exam, the questions were very focused on your ability to actually manage your data, be it in clusters, clustered and non-clustered indexes, mirrors and especially the ability to back up your data.   If you happen to wear the hat of managing the databases and spending less time writing queries, this exam is spot-on and will be a breath of fresh air to you.

In all, I have nothing special to offer you outside of "If you know you’re stuff, you’ll be ready for these exams"

However, I did encounter something disturbing.   While taking 071-450 an exam focused on "Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining" a database environment, I encountered a considerable volume of "How do I back this up" type of question, equally followed by a series of "How do I restore and get back into operation" type of questions.

Which leaves me to think, it’s 2008 already, is this seriously still a question?    I hear it in the field all the time as well, and I’m seriously disturbed.    The amount of data we have is growing, our windows – shrinking.   There are options and opportunities to ensure you have a quick, efficient and effective backup, restore and operational window.   When it’s still a question on the table – especially in an emerging product like SQL 2008, I have to seriously ask, Are we taking steps backwards instead of adopting the innovations available to us over the years?

Yes I work for NetApp, and yes I’ve seen the light offered by amazing solutions like SnapManager for SQL, and SnapManager for Oracle, and a series of other products to protect everything important within every small, medium and enterprise business.    And to be honest, this isn’t rocket science (Rocket Science is FAR easier) especially when you compare it to the number of "backup" options available to "try" to protect your SQL environment only to leave you scratching your head and still unsure about your availability and recoverability.  

And to be honest, this isn’t a commercial, whereas in reality that test was a wake-up call of "WTF is going on?!" I don’t want to be in this same position 2 years from now in 2010, and 12 years from now in 2020 and having it still be a question on the table of "How do we protect and recover our data?"