Microsoft pushes Failover Cluster’s abilities every year. Its latest additions with Windows Server 2016 are quite extensive and very exciting! I will take you through these cool new features in this blog post and show you how they will improve your cluster’s functionality. Read more

A few years ago, the file exclusion engine was introduced to Veeam Backup & Replication. This was primarily meant to handle situations such as a large set file data that you didn’t need in an image-based backup. One example I had users liked was a SQL Server (especially before Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server) that had SQL Server DBAs performing SQL Server Agent jobs or SQL Server Maintenance Plans to export flat backups on disk and transaction log exports.

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In the previous article, Mike went over the most exciting new features of Hyper-V 2016 TP4 at the time. However, since its Technical Preview stages it went through some changes and not every feature made it to the GA in its initial form or intended way. Windows Server 2016 has been fully available since the end of 2016 and there were some features left out in the article that are still interesting and quite important. Read more

Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) is starting to disrupt traditional storage markets (SAN, NAS + DAS) as enterprise IT begins to replicate Hyperscale public cloud provider’s infrastructure. Public cloud giants such as AWS and Microsoft Azure have developed their own scale-out, software-defined enterprise storage built on commodity servers and disks. Adding the enterprise features from existing SAN and NAS devices into software allows the use of commodity hardware while shifting the storage directly to the host to improve performance and scalability. The storage is provided directly by the host. The storage is scaled-out, as are the compute resources, providing a truly scalable and cost-effective solution.

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Previously, we’ve set up a Windows Server 2016 in Core mode with Hyper-V role and prepared it to host VMs. On this blog post, we will discuss the Veeam Backup & Replication deployment and configuration process. After preparing the Hyper-V server running on a Windows Server 2016, Veeam Backup & Replication can be deployed on either virtual or physical machines that will be up to these specifications. Read more

We continue our Windows Server 2016 series with step-by-step guide on Hyper-V deployment and management. Read more

Veeam produces the world’s best Availability solutions. Over the last two years, our customers have become increasingly interested in Availability solutions in the cloud, specifically in Microsoft Azure. Veeam has always been and continues to be hardware agnostic. We always let our customers choose their preferred hardware, or in this case cloud provider. With that said, Veeam has built six show-stopping innovations for our customers who are looking to use Veeam with Microsoft Azure to strengthen their Availability story in the hybrid cloud.

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Along with the new functionality of Windows Server 2016, another essential element of any domain administrator — Active Directory — has been updated with some very important and great features. One of the updates that aims to improve the environment’s protection against external and internal threats to accounts is called privileged access management (PAM). This functionality is based on the idea of Just Enough Administration (JEA), which is a security technology that allows the delegation of administration rights with the help of PowerShell. Read more

Today most big storage providers offer some form of long-term physical tape library storage, which enables customers to utilize a cost-efficient cold storage option. But, there can be a few key issues faced with physical tape library storage. The first is complexity that surrounds exportation and management. The second is the cost of upgrading – old tapes are slow and unreliable but new ones are not cheap.

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As a flight instructor, I always advise my students to avoid the cumulonimbus cloud, which is associated with thunderstorms that create unpredictable conditions and make flying difficult and dangerous. Throughout a 100 years of aviation history, flying in or near this type of weather often makes headlines in the news; with some instances worse than others.

When discussing cloud strategies with Veeam customers, from migration to data backup to the cloud, I am reminded of the unpredictable weather conditions associated with flying in the clouds, especially when a customer raises a concern about the cost of cloud computing.

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