Daniel Hoffer's blog

I've always been surprised by how much of an effect the "Buy One, Get One Free" slogan has on my psyche. For example, I lived in New York during grad school and whenever it rained, within minutes a small cottage industry of street vendors would pop up like daisies all around the city. All of these vendors would be selling umbrellas, with most offering a two-for-one deal.

I bought a box of Frosted Flakes recently - this was a departure from my usual diet of Froot Loops, I make my life very exciting with these spontaneous bursts of adventure.

I have a few New Year’s resolutions: 1) Eat less, 2) exercise more, and 3) share some thoughts around the term “granular recovery” when it comes to VMware and VCB backups. Hopes are high and I am confident I will be able to achieve at least one of my three resolutions.

Once you're running VMware, new VMs pop up like moles in the game, "Whack-A-Mole." And kind of like the moles, many of the VMs are identical, because they were all cloned from the same gold image. What does that mean from a backup perspective? It means that you're backing up the contents of that same gold image over and over again.

But why would you do such a thing?? You'd have to be really frickin' stupid to burn dollar bills to light a fire!!

I was shopping at a shoe store recently for a new pair of dress shoes, and finally found what I was looking for and brought my purchase to a counter. "Don't you know about our 2-for-1 deal?" the woman at the counter asked me. "With this purchase, you could buy a second pair of shoes for only $5 more."

And I'm not just talking about the vibrant visuals at the VMworld party, or the visceral visual experience of Danica Patrick (the car racing superstar) within feet of me as she kicked off the party.  No, what I'm talking about was the vindication of NetBackup winning a slot in the Best of VMworld awards in the Data Protection category for the second year in a row.

As a Product Manager for NetBackup for VMware, one of the biggest challenges I face is around prioritization. Where does it make the most sense to spend my time? On the one hand, assisting customers on a one-on-one basis is very attractive.