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Hello again and thanks for taking the time to scan this month’s VAN newsletter. This month’s small reader bonus is below and relates to the next topic. We sincerely hope you enjoy it. Next month, we will have one article on Continuous Data Protection (CDP) and begin a Storage Virtualization series co-authored by Symantec’s Frank Bunn. This material was originally available through the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). Through special considerations, SNIA is enabling us to make these publications available to VAN readers. We look forward to having you read them. Anchors away .... Sea Change When it comes to the world’s oceans, there is only one constant – it is:
Well, OK, maybe there is more than one constant. Yet, despite an ocean’s predictable unpredictability, an irresistible allure usually exists for a variety of maritime sports – sailing, surfing, swimming, etc. A fundamental assumption involved in these activities is that sporting participants can reasonably expect to return to dry land alive and well. But, since the future is genuinely unknowable, this underlying assumption is an expectation necessarily based on partial knowledge, or perhaps a belief that if something has not happened, then it can never happen. But, every now and then, something totally unexpected occurs. For example, in Australia’s 1998 Sydney to Hobart sailing race, hurricane force weather struck with a vengeance. Most of the participants had never endured anything like it; some unfortunately did not survive. A fundamental truth is that, in many endeavors, people tend to base their actions in probabilities, not the impact of possible outcomes. In the 1998 Sydney to Hobart sailing race, the probability of disaster was low since it hadn’t happened before (though it had in the August 14, 1979 British Fastnet race). But, it wasn’t zero and its occurrence proved breath-takingly instructive – for some, literally. What might have proven more useful than probability-based decision making would have been an expected value calculation of the outcome if such an event did occur. Here, the expected value would have comprised multiplying a low probability times a great cost, producing a value that might well have been found substantially more informative. In the final analysis, we all decide when to use and not to use safety nets. Sometimes we do it with our data as well, knowingly and unknowingly. Though the probability of data loss may seem small, the possible outcome can be lethal for the enterprise, large or small. As we write this, Hurricane Wilma has just reached category 5 strength. With an 882mb pressure reading, Hurricane Wilma is now regarded as the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin – enough said. To end on a somewhat lighter note, it is useful to recall John Maynard Keynes’s famous quote: "In the long run, we are all dead" While it may be true, just don’t let it unnecessarily let it happen to your enterprise’s data. Keep your data safe...back it up – enough said. See you next month. Until then, keep your data safe. Best regards,
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VERITAS NetBackup Webcast Series All webcasts begin at 10:00 a.m. PST
Tuesday, October 25 - Part 1: General VERITAS NetBackup 6.0. Overview Webcast: eDiscovery, Compliance, Backup Issues? Try Email/File Archiving Tue, Nov 15, 2005 – 10 am PST Webcast: Optimized Disk-Based Backup and Recovery Thu, Nov 17, 2005 – 10 am PST |
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VERITAS Enterprise Vault 6.0: Training from the Experts
Symantec Education is now offering technical training for VERITAS Enterprise Vault 6.0 (now from Symantec).
If you or your team is responsible for Enterprise Vault 6.0 in your data center, take the training that will
boost your productivity with Enterprise Vault, improve the performance of your Microsoft Exchange archiving,
and help you understand the features of Enterprise Vault. Symantec Education offers comprehensive Enterprise
Vault training including the following courses. Ready to Enroll or Learn More? |
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This Month's Small Newsletter Bonus Santa Cruz, California is one of the world’s great vacation spots. Just a short drive from Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Santa Cruz is a world away from the San Francisco Bay area’s hustle and bustle. In Santa Cruz, you can genuinely tune in and mellow out. The Santa Cruz city boardwalk has a fabulous pier and amusement park. Just beyond the pier is one of California’s top surfing spots – Steamer Lane. Here, the wet suit and surfboard leash were first used. This image was captured just around the point from Steamer Lane – it is off the right side of the image. If you look carefully, you can see a lone surfer in his wet suit patiently awaiting the more gentle waves at another surfing spot named Cowell’s. And, if you know where to look, there are scuba divers beyond the pier. This image is 4% the size of the actual image. As always, remember, if you are not horizontally scrolling the images when looking at the panoramas, you are not looking at the full resolution image... |
