Organizations are deploying server virtualization at a rapid pace. With multiple applications consolidated on fewer physical servers, meeting backup and recovery windows becomes even more challenging. This podcast offers a Q & A session, with Datalink virtualization practice manager Kent Christensen posing questions to Datalink Storage Architect Jason Anderson, who has designed and deployed a number of server and storage consolidation initiatives. They discuss the pros and cons of using VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) for local backup and recovery, where it makes sense to leverage the advantages of consolidated storage for a virtual server environment, and the unique challenges and opportunities around DR in a consolidated server environment, including how Site Recovery Manager (SRM) fits into the overall picture.

Backing up and recovering Oracle® data presents unique challenges. How can you back up your large and growing databases within a limited window? How do you recover your environment in under a day, let alone a few hours or even minutes? Where do Oracle solutions work well for your business needs and which limitations can be addressed by additional solutions? With your mission-critical and 24x7 operations, issues such as slow backup and performance can put your organization at risk. Beyond that, recovering a database to a consistent point in time can be a very manual and daunting task, decreasing your ability to meet your company's Service Level Agreement (SLA). This podcast addresses: -Native features of Oracle and third party solutions for enabling backup and recovery and how they compare, contrast and work in conjunction with one another . -Options such as triple mirroring, array based replication and snapshots that enable near instant backup and recovery of large data sets as well as cloning for development and testing. Hosted by: Ari Kaplan, senior consultant, Datalink, and previous president of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG).

Stories about lost data in the news coupled with legal and corporate requirements for safeguarding data are putting pressure on IT organizations to revisit the security of their data at rest. Data encryption is emerging as a key solution. The technology, which is typically deployed for the most sensitive of corporate data, encodes information so that it is unintelligible until it is unscrambled by the intended recipient. This podcast discusses the drivers behind data encryption as well as the various encryption methods that are available. It highlights a data encryption deployment and covers some of the common questions that organizations have about encryption. Speakers: Scott Robinson, Chief Technology Officer, Datalink and Juan Orlandini, Client Solutions Consultant, Datalink

As companies' information assets have grown, their storage environments have become increasingly heterogeneous and complex, and thus difficult to manage. The good news is that storage virtualization technologies are providing organizations with tools to more easily and efficiently manage their storage infrastructure, ultimately helping maximize IT resources and enabling capabilities that were not possible before. This podcast provides an overview of storage virtualization, detailing the various approaches in the marketplace today and assessing the pros and cons of each. Attendees will learn about the operational and business benefits that storage virtualization provides, including: simplified management; increased storage utilization; easier disaster recovery planning; seamless data migration; and foundation for a tiered architecture. Listeners will also hear first-hand experiences from a Datalink engineer who has implemented virtualization technology in several environments. He'll describe how companies he's worked with have used virtualization to address their business issues. For organizations looking to simplify and consolidate their IT infrastructure, this podcast provides a detailed account of how virtualization technologies can help.

Backing up and recovering Oracle® data presents unique challenges. With mission-critical and 24x7 operations, slow backups and performance issues are crucial to solve. It isn't easy though. Databases are typically large and growing rapidly. And the systems are complex. Beyond that, recovering a database to a consistent point in time can be a very manual and overwhelming undertaking. Often this decreases your ability to meet your company's Service Level Agreements (SLAs), consuming expensive resources and increasing your organization's risk. This webcast presents options that can help you cost-effectively manage the challenges of backing up and recovering Oracle environments.

Among today's storage technologies, deduplication is generating significant buzz and is at the top of the 'what's hot' list. The hype comes with good reason. Deduplication provides compelling benefits and offers the potential for significant savings for most IT organizations. Within the emerging deduplication technologies, there are a variety of alternatives. Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut answers about if, when and where a solution should be implemented. Attend this webcast, led by seasoned Datalink storage experts, to learn exactly what deduplication can do for you'what's real and what's hype. -Find out what deduplication technology is (and what it isn't) -Learn how various types of deduplication work -Gain insights from field-proven storage technology experts'hear about their front-line experiences and lessons learned