At the April 3, 2012 Peer Incite we heard a cloud service provider, Lighthouse Computer Services, put forth a cloud-based data protection solution with a value proposition that eliminates tape. As Data Domain so effectively marketed for years, "Tape Sucks!", and a message that eliminates tape is alluring. But the reality is that getting rid of tape has risks that CIOs need to consider. The question is, as a vendor, how much of a responsibility do you have to convey those risks to your clients?
In the case of Lighthouse the situation is nuanced. Specifically, the data protection service being marketed, which is based on an Actifio solution, is primarily targeted at small- and mid-sized businesses. These businesses often have limited or no disaster recovery strategy and have relied for years on tape as the sole backup medium. Their tape systems are unreliable, cumbersome and expensive.
As disk-based backup has become more prevalent, for many firms, tape can be eliminated in theory, especially because many current DR plans are so lacking. In reality, however, tape or some other removable medium should be used not only as a deep archive for compliance but as an offsite last disaster resort. Without an off-site backup, SMBs are very vulnerable to fairly common disasters such as a major fire in their main office, one of the most common causes of small business failure.
As a vendor, how much should you capitalize on your client's lack of a coherent DR strategy to sell a solution versus risking slowing down the sales process to help your client really think through a DR strategy? It's not a black and white answer.
Here's the reality of the cloud. Moving data takes a long time -- several days in the case of large databases -- and if you have to move data to another location to recover from a disaster then you'd better realize it's going to take that time. The fastest, highest bandwidth and probably cheapest way to move lots of data is still to load a truck up with tapes and drive it somewhere. Old mainframers call it CTAM - the "Chevy Truck Access Method." We all like to visualize the cloud as this place where I can store huge volumes of data and move it around when I need it, but in real life speed-of-light physics and exorbitant telecommunications line costs make this impractical.
So where does this leave the security manager and CIO? In the case of disaster planning, either you're going to need some type of removable medium like tape or a removable disk solution, such as that used by Ares Management, or some type of premium/enhanced DR service such as that offered by Lighthouse, where applications can access data from a remote site in a two-site, semi-active:active data center scenario. Your business objectives and budget will determine the right choice for you. As always, there's no free lunch, and "getting rid of tape" is not a business goal (especially when talking about data protection), so be careful what you wish for.
Back to the central question: What responsibility does the vendor have to convey the risks and provide a full picture to its clients? As an advocate for practitioners, the Wikibon community would say vendors must bear a large part of that responsibility. But the reality is in today's world, the buyer has to be savvy enough to ask the right questions, talk to peers, and ultimately make the right decision. This should not be a surprise to buyers -- "Let the buyer beware" is a phrase that goes back to the Roman Empire.
Nonetheless, we believe that while hyperbole may sell products in the short term, it can damage long-term relationships. The Wikibon community believes that delivering a valid use case where the desired result is possible is the vendor's responsibility, and vendors must be careful to highlight the exceptions. Without that the vendor's pipeline may fill with overselling, but customer satisfaction will ultimately decline. Overselling is particularly notable when dealing with customers’ stated goal to “get rid of tape.” A balanced approach would be for the vendor to ask good questions such as:
- Why do you want to get rid of tape?
- Have you conducted a business impact analysis?
- What is your DR plan, and what role does a removable medium play in this plan?
- Which parts of the organization are involved in creating the plan?
- How will you test your disaster recovery?
All these questions will lead to opportunities for the vendor to better understand your customer, provide consulting services that will reduce your client's risk, share in the success of your customer and ultimately drive more business for your firm. Disaster recovery and data protection (backups) are insurance that customers hope never to use, but precisely because it is insurance, the standard needs to be set higher. Nothing is worse than buying insurance that couldn't deliver the desired result in a disaster. While we recognize the need to sell, if you're only solving one small part of the problem, you'll be serving your customer if you work with the ecosystem to communicate the full picture.
Action Item: Vendors must balance the need to sell with the needs of their customer, especially when it comes to data protection. While the allure of disk-based backup solutions is very compelling, buying decisions can have ripple effects for a company's DR plan, and the vendor must bear some of the responsibility for assisting its customers in thinking through the implications of a disaster scenario. The old cliché of trusted advisor is most important when it comes to protecting data and the sales rep that helps protect its customers from true disasters will ultimately prosper in the long run.
Footnotes: