Election Results - Change is Coming...

Today marks an incredible point in the history of our country. It is a day that our children and grandchildren will read about in the history books in school and ask us about it. While many people have great opinions one candidate vs. another, there are not many people in our country that will debate the need for change. That change has been needed. Our financial markets are changing and demanding more changes. Wall Street in the greatest sense doesn't exist as it did three months ago and the massive mortgage companies no longer exist.

Change was the focus on the race and no matter who was elected, change was promised. Change was needed and change in the eyes of the world is on its way. The one thing that I have always shared with my classes in the past and all of our employees is that the only thing guaranteed to not change is that there will always be change. If we or our products don't change, they will die. Change is required to grow and advance forward.

The world view of the United States of America has instantly been changed, the blogs on the BBC site are filled with comments from people around the globe stating how their view of the USA has instantly been changed and they are looking forward to seeing the change that has been promised. A new face is being embraced by the world at the moments after the election was declared.

McCain's speech tonight was probably the best of his entire campaign and was focused around exactly what we need to work on; Working together to better our country as one country working to right the ship. He is still committed to working for our country and working for his new President.

Obama's speech started slower than I was expecting from him but he finished strong with a historic speech that will be spoken about for years to come. He spoke to everyone about coming together as one and making changes that benefit everyone in our nation. The gracious commanding speech was one that many will be replaying on YouTube and the like for years to come.

No matter what you were hoping the outcome was, one thing is for sure; we're going to get change. We're going to be viewed better by the world and we have to come together and work as one country to create the stability and growth that we've lost the past few years.

Regardless of what your party affiliation is if any, no matter who you voted for, being a part of history is always amazing and today history was made. Congratulations to Senator McCain for fighting for what you believe in and to President-Elect Obama, the world and our country are hoping this historic day is followed by years of positive change for the betterment of everyone in our country.

Current Market Conditions

The current market conditions are certainly creating many challenges for all of us. Whether it is a reduction in work force at your employer or trying to buy a new car. GMAC's announcement that they will only approve those with a FICO score over 700, will limit who can gain financing to the vast majority of the public in today's world. Yet they wonder why they can't sell cars ;)

When people ask me how we're "weathering the storm" and how we're adjusting to the "new market", I tell them the truth. We're hiring people, we're expediting our new product version releases and we're going to have our largest quarter in the history of the company.

To some this is shocking, to others who know the market we are in or in similar markets, they explain that they are doing the same and seeing the same growth potential. In the world of archiving, the data exists for a reason. It exists solely for the function of being able to access it in the future.

What the market is discovering is that their existing applications and storage platforms are unable to retrieve the data in either a fast enough time frame or the fact that some applications are failing all together. Here is the issue. The main function these applications are to provide, they can not. Procedo re-enables our customers to be able to discover this data by migrating it from one archive platform to another in a guaranteed method.

In the times of increased oversight, mergers & acquisitions, takeovers, shareholder lawsuits; the one key item for all of these will be a need for e-discovery solutions. Being able to move the data forward into applications, storage or even SaaS providers that can produce the data on demand as needed will be critical for these companies and exactly what Procedo does. We enable these companies to respond to the demands that are being placed on them in terms of their archived data.

Back to School - Making Progress

As my daughter is back in school it has made me think about how the progress of learning and technology map to one another. In the world of school, each year our kids head back in September to the place of learning. Each September they "graduate" to the next grade level in school and start to learn more new things and more complex items regarding subjects they have already learned a base knowledge of. What would happen if each year our kids headed back to school and simply repeated the same year over and over again for 12 years. One thing is for sure is that they'd be able to get done with their Math Facts in about 4 seconds and they could add 4+5 amazingly well. But what about algebra, geometry, chemistry, world history, etc. Our kids would never get a chance to learn more and grow.

So why is it that once we deploy a technology we think we're set for life? Why is it that we're not looking foward to advancing the technology we just deployed. Shouldn't we be "heading back to school in September" looking at new classes to take to better our existing technology? In the world of Archiving, products change constantly and most companies new/updated releases close to once a year. Just because you picked "the best" platform 3 years ago, doesn't mean it's the best platform today.

In today's world, our kid's can't repeat the same grade over and over again thanks to our politicians and the whole "no child left behind act", so don't be that one kid left behind in your business leaving your archive technology behind.

Technology - Has it bettered your life?

I typically don't write too much about what is going on in my personal life. However, I wanted to touch on something that happened this past week. For those that know me well, they know my daughter is diabetic. She was diagnosed as Type I Diabetic shortly after her 5th birthday. What this means is that she is insulin dependent and has been receiving between 6-10 shots of insulin a day since. She's an amazing person and has handled this so well I'm nothing short of amazed and proud of her.

Through the amazing power of Disney (yes, I'm still talking about medical innovation here :), our daughter learned from her Grandma that Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers was recently diagnosed and on a newer diabetes pump called the OmniPod, by Insulet. It is a self contained pump that is WIRELESS and TUBELESS! Having experienced the Jonas Brothers live in concert along with Hanna Montana (her first concert, 20k screaming kids, her crazy dad took her) it was clear that these were some of the first people in her life that she was in awe of. Anything the Jonas Brothers thought was cool, certainly she thought it was cool too.

After much research by myself and my wife, On Friday July 25th 2008, technology changed our daughter's life. NO MORE SHOTS!!!! She programs in her insulin dose into a wireless remote and it sends the dosage requirements to the pod and a few seconds later, her dose is done. It has already changed her life and it's only been 3 days.

This really got me thinking, how has and how does technology make our lives better every day? Isn't that its purpose? We advance technology to make our lives and the lives around us better. So when you're contemplating new technology, make sure you ask yourself "is this going to make my life better?" If the answer is no, maybe you should be buying something that will. Or better yet, ask yourself if your current technology is making your life better. If it's not, maybe it's time to find some that will.

The Communication Archive

Ever since humans have been communicating, we have been keeping communication archives. In prehistoric times, it was cave paintings, to the Bible to the Quran, etc. Ever since we have been able to keep a record in some form of written mechanism, we have technically been archiving this data for not only the current generation, but future generations ability to look back on earlier times.

As we continue to evolve in terms of how we communicate and the technology that surrounds us, we 'Archive' in new ways. The electronic archive. Some people feel as though we've changed the world in terms of this new concept called "archiving." Technology is merely giving us a new place to store our communication archives. It's not on the side of a stone, but within a little black box on a shiny metal round disk.

From the beginning of "Modern History", we have been able to trace back historical records through written notes of historical events, "archives." Now imagine the world 500 years into the future. What are historians going to be able to search through to create history books? Will the "electornic age" become the second coming of the "dark ages" because nobody will be able to figure out why we didn't keep written records of events? Historians will find these little metal boxes with shiny round disks in them and have no idea where all of our paper is.

Maybe we can't find much written history from the original dark ages because they already had email archives and we just can't figure out how to read them or where they were stored? :)

When chosing a new archive solution, keep in mind how you will adapt your current archive and even the next version of your archive. When implementing your new archive, don't forget about your old data. Keeping your archived data in the most current format will allow for easier transitions and migrations in the future and keeping future historians with something they can read and understand in 500 years.

Don't let this become the second dark age in history, keep your archived data current.

Travel Rant

On a recent trip back from San Francisco, I had an incident that happened to me that makes me question the airline industry even more.

I was the 4th person to board the plane on the red-eye back to Minneapolis. Two of the women in front of me in line made it through just fine. The 3rd, was called out of line as the system came up "red" and that she needed a paper ticket. Even though she clearly had a printout of her boarding pass already. As i get into my seat I can hear the two women behind me (first two on the plane) chatting. Finally as one sits down, the other asks "I'm in 6a, where are you?" - "Well, I'm in 6a." OH NO, they double booked us!

One of these women then turns to the lead attendant and tells him "we're both in 6a". He proceeds to tell her, "well, you will need to go back up to the gate agent, as there are only 4 flight attendants on the plane and that is the FAA minimum once passengers are on board. We're not allowed to leave the plane."

With this information, they both decide to sit down and wait, for what I don't know. Another flight attendant walks by "Ma'am, we're both in 6a." "I'm sorry ladies, you'll need to check with the gate agent as there are only 4............." With this SAME information, they both again decide to sit down and wait. In the meantime, 6B shows up. "I"m in 6B." "Well, we're both in 6a." and the don't move. So 6B is stuck standing while they wait.

Now the co-pilot comes walking by, "Excuse me sir, we're both in 6a." Now, don't you think this gentleman has better things to do with his time then resolve a seat issue since he's about to fly a couple hundred people across the country? "I have to go get the passenger list anyway right now, I'll stop back down when I have it so we can figure out what's going on." "Oh, thank you sir."

In the meantime, the lead attendant gets on the overhead and says the usual "Welcome to flight xxx service from San Francisco to the Minneapolis, St. Paul airport. Full flight, put your bags in right, blah blah blah.... and again, this is flight xxx service from San Francisco to Minneapolis, enjoy your flight."

Finally as the co-pilot boards the plane, "OK, which one of you is Mary?" "OK, great, you're in 6a. Can I see your boarding pass ma'am?" "Sure, it's right here!" "Well Jane, you're on the wrong plane, you're going to Detroit and this flight is going to Minneapolis." "OH MY GOSH, I can't believe I did that, is that plane still here? Where is it boarding from? Oh, I'm sorry!!!"

So the issues that bother me about this entire scenario are as follows:

- 3 members of the flight crew were approached by these women and not one of them looked at both of their boarding passes to verify that they were in the right seat or ON THE RIGHT PLANE!

- On this flight, only Platinum members were getting upgraded. So here are two women that fly in excess of 75,000 miles per year on one airline, and yet with all of their travels, she doesn't know enough to verify she's at the right gate or getting on the right plane?

- When the flight attentdant comes on and painfully announces that the plane is going to Minneapolis more than twice, does it not register that you're not going to Minneapolis?

- The biggest issue of all is how in the world did they let her get on the plane in the first place? 2 of the first 4 people on the plane had the same seat assignment and they let them both on?

- What's the point of having the strict security if you can just present your boarding pass to get on any flight from the same airline?

- Shouldn't these boarding system verify the flight is actually the one they are boarding?

Archive Retention Policies - Use Them

So one of my biggest pet peeves in the archiving space is retention policies. This is probably in the top 10 requirements of any major firm looking to deploy an archive today. They require the ability to set a single or multiple retention policies for their data. So my question to virtually any customer that I've ever spoken to is this. WHY ARE YOU NOT DELETING DATA???

I've spoken at a few different conferences over the past few years and one of the items I like to get feedback on is in regard to retention policy adherence. The first question that I'll ask is "how many of you have an email archive deployed and have retention policies set on your data". Being that these conferences are about archiving, virtually everyone raises their hands. Now brings the second and guilt-ridden question, "how many of you have data that is OLDER than the retention policy?" The frustration starts to brew when all of the hands stay up from the first question. Why insist on retention policies if you don't use them?

The last time I presented these questions was before a group of 75 CIO's. These people know they have data that is currently not being properly managed. That is what the application and archive storage is for. Retention policy adherence is something that needs to be adhered to more. If there is a policy, follow it. If you decide you're not sure how long you're going to need your data, pick a timeframe of X and ALSO have your policy state that it will be up for review on that date. If you need to extend the date out again, you now have that ability to do so and the data won't become lost in a graveyard waiting for someone to dig it up.

When I was at a client site a few years back, one of their senior directors came up to me with two backup tapes in his hand. He looked at me and said, "can you recover this by tomorrow?" I honestly had never seen that kind of tape in my life. I looked at him and actually laughed. My first response back was, "WHY do you still have this tape, is there anything on it?" All he knew was that there was a post-it with the label "1997 - Email Data". This company had a 3 year retention policy at the time. So clearly I assumed the tape was headed to be destroyed since it was 2004. Much to my disbelief, it was headed back to the storage area in case they needed it. This is a classic example of what not to do.

From our experiences working with customers across all verticals and across the globe, the one thing that courts are looking for is adherence to whatever policy you have. If you have data that is 10 years old, but for some reason destroyed data exactly at 7 years, the court assumes you are hiding something. If your policy is to only keep data 7 years, then get rid of the 10 year old data.

Archive Retention Policies are there for many great reasons. Abide by them and use them. Be consistent.