The Saltworks

ILM is alive and well

Joe Martins — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:31:47 +0000

I have always enjoyed speaking with David West. He’s one of the relatively few people within the storage industry’s sell-side who genuinely seeks to understand information management - the industry from which I leapt into storage. After I read David’s recent blog post ILM: What’s Old is New Again, in which he wrote about the return [...]

Information Management - Hell no, not the CIO

Joe Martins — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:12:14 +0000

In his recent Wikibon post following a July 28 Peer Incite: Prevent Unstructured Data from Fueling Business Risk, Dave Vallente warns CIOs of what he calls the “data management trap”. Thankfully, Dave provided an overview for those of us who were unable to participate. I agree with Dave that “the starting point for an information management [...]

Massachusetts and Nevada data protection laws, and you

Joe Martins — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:37:18 +0000

I’m all for data protection, and I believe we can all agree that the protection of personal information is extremely important. However, if our government wishes to enact laws to protect our data, then it should do a better job of crafting unambiguous wording. Ambiguity is an attorney’s best friend. With the number of attorneys-turned-legislators [...]

More on non-competes

Joe Martins — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:19:40 +0000

Earlier this year I weighed in on the Donatelli/EMC non-compete drama with a brief post about the nature of non-competes. Since then I have read several new articles and opinions about the topic of non-competes. I am currently following two: Boston.com’s Clause for Concern, and Bijan’s Revised non-compete legislation doesn’t go far enough. Here’s my take in a [...]

Will CEOs really learn any lessons from the failures of their peers?

Joe Martins — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:46 +0000

I’m doubtful, but hopeful. Bob Hill over at www.BusinessBrief.com crafted a list of 10 lessons every CEO can learn from Fortune 500’s biggest losers. I agree with Bob. There are lessons to be learned. However, I added: And what, perhaps, is the biggest lesson of all? If you are F500 don’t worry about all of the above. If [...]

De-duplication as part of efficient information and storage management

Joe Martins — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:12:31 +0000

Tim over at Storage Monkeys wanted to know, “Is de-duplication a strategy or a finger in the dike?” I wrote: “In response to the title of Tim’s post, and [as he requested] in the context of backups alone, the concept of de-duplication is an extremely important consideration for any data protection strategy. We can all agree [...]

And now for something a little different…

Joe Martins — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Frankly, I simply do not like managing a blog as you can tell by how infrequently I publish. I much prefer to contribute insight to the blogs and columns of others than to publish my own beyond Data Mobility Group’s usual research. In fact, I’m quite active in that regard, and my comments can be [...]

Where has personal integrity gone?

Joe Martins — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:51:57 +0000

Following the recent news about David Donatelli’s sudden defection from EMC to HP, blogging pundits jumped at the opportunity to debate the nature of non-compete agreements. Over the past couple of days I have read more than a dozen blog entries on the topic, written by industry analysts and veterans, and [in my humble opinion] every [...]

Outcomes and the Value of Information

Joe Martins — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:53:24 +0000

More than four years have elapsed since I first wrote about what I called the Structured-Unstructured Information Continuum, and the Data-Information-Knowledge Continuum. Both articles described the nature of information and how humans consume it. This is a long awaited discussion about the value of information. I shall cover the key points here and our readers [...]

How An iPod/iPhone Can Compromise Your Exchange Server

Joe Martins — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:48:02 +0000

Imagine accessing your iPod Touch or iPhone to check your email and finding not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of email folders—none of them yours. Several questions race through your mind: Whose are they? How did they get here? Why are there so many? Why are they all empty? Why can’t I get rid of them?