14 Resolutions for the '14 Revolution

It’s a new year which means it’s time to make some new resolutions. If you are responsible for data protection in your environment, it might also be time for a revolution. Revolution you say? Yes, revolution. It’s time for IT’s transformation and I  written and spoken about this many times before. IT needs to be agile and deliver to end users the same way they have grown accustomed to for the last few years with the advent of the app marketplaces. Organizations want to click a button to deploy an application. And all of this requires substantial change to your data protection infrastructure. This change is scary to your boss. This change is scary to your boss’ boss too. So it’s going to take a revolution to put these resolutions forward.

1. I resolve to complete all of my systems backups under 8 hours each night
2. I resolve to create a daily report of all of my failed backup jobs that is intuitive enough to not just send me a list of failed servers that had an open file that couldn’t be backed up.
3. I resolve to provide a mechanism to my end users that allows them to complete simple granular recovery on their own without opening a ticket with the helpdesk/me.
4. I resolve to stop dropping agents on my systems just because we always have
5. I resolve to create a tiered data protection strategy. 15 minute RTO’s aren’t appropriate for test/dev systems!
6. I resolve to tell legal that I will no longer keep backups for ever, instead I will use resolution number 8 to address this.
7. I resolve to implement an information lifecycle management process and use a purpose built archive system to remove old data from my production environment.
8. I resolve to backup virtual servers the right way and not treat them like physical servers
9. I resolve to enable my DBA with purpose built backup appliances instead of providing another terabyte of expensive tier I storage for local backups
10. I resolve to to be smarter about Exchange backups and not recover an entire database just to restore a single email for an end user
11. I resolve to be smarter about my backup start times and stagger them throughout the 8 hour window
12. I resolve to create a monthly report that shows every end user/department what percentage of the data protection environment they are consuming. If my CFO wants to apply a chargeback to that department, that’s their prerogative.
13. I resolve to look at the cloud as a target for my secondary backup copy for disaster recovery purposes
14. I resolve to spend m0re time focusing on the parts of IT I enjoy instead of banging my head against the wall trying to fix backups.

Bonus 15th resolution: I resolve to call EMC to help me start the revolution.