The mainstream trade press is using the case of the destroyed CIA tapes as a cautionary tale in preservation of tapes for businesses and the courts. But what I see as a great danger is that IT managers could get caught in the web of spoliation of evidence, and 'I was just following orders' is not going to cut it.
Lawyers and courts use the term spoliation in state and Federal procedure to refer to the withholding, hiding, or destruction of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. This is a violation of the criminal law and is not new. Spoliation has two consequences: first the act may result in fines and jail time for the parties who engaged in the spoliation. Additionally, case law added a particularly nasty curve ball called the 'spoliation inference.' The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a judge or jury can draw from a party's destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding: The 'finder of fact' can review all evidence uncovered in as strong a light as possible against the spoliator. There is no benefit of the doubt here.
For the IT manager, who is now very much an evidence manager at law, destruction of data must be planned and carried out according to established policies and procedures that can rebut the claim of spoliation. Destruction of data on an ad-hoc basis sews the seeds of litigation disaster.
We sometimes like to make fun of CEOs, saying their priorities are to make money, to save money, and to stay out of little orange jumpsuits. IT management priorities now have to include this last, sad priority.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
NeoScale a Hot Prospect
Had a note from my friend Barbara Nelson over at NeoScale. NeoScale does encryption and key management using an appliance in the storage infrastructure. Barbara relates that, just as the company was readjusting to focus more on the key management product, multiple bids were appearing for the company.
NeoScale is right on that the best way to assure value from encryption is to enjoy comprehensive key management. Obviously, others see this advantage. I'm looking forward to seeing how Barbara and her board navigate this 'hot prospect' status. Quantum never did understand what an asset they had in Barbara, who is one of the few executives I know who has been able to so effectively blend engineering acumen and business sense. But they let her get away to realize her dream of running a company. Whoever acquires NeoScale should be very conscious of everything that Barbara brings to the party.
NeoScale is right on that the best way to assure value from encryption is to enjoy comprehensive key management. Obviously, others see this advantage. I'm looking forward to seeing how Barbara and her board navigate this 'hot prospect' status. Quantum never did understand what an asset they had in Barbara, who is one of the few executives I know who has been able to so effectively blend engineering acumen and business sense. But they let her get away to realize her dream of running a company. Whoever acquires NeoScale should be very conscious of everything that Barbara brings to the party.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Slow Students of Archiving
Brian Fonseca at Computerworld reports that the mayor of Washington has abandoned an email retention policy that would have automatically and permanently erased government emails after a six month term. This announcement took place at about the same time that AP reported that US Justice H. Kennedy ordered the White House to preserve copies of all of its emails in an ongoing disagreement with the Archivist of the United States.
Issues of archiving are commonplace in the trade and now the mainstream press. There are many reasons for public officials to want to do extensive deletion of files, some legit and some less so. Emails are now business records, as important as any contract or warranty. They have evidentiary value in courts of law all over the country. They keep businesses going in a way faxes and wires never could match. But they are also instruments that could seal a company's liability or a government agency's guilt or innocence. They also take up megabytes and megabytes of storage.
As far as the government battles are concerned, I simply see them as slow students. Archiving is a fact of life, and anyone who protests that it costs too much or takes too much staff time is howling in the wind. Business is seeing the inevitability because of regulatory mandates and the persistent fear of litigation that infects the nation. Trying to whitewash a political legacy, another purpose of deleting emails, is useless...the truth will ultimately out. No matter what you think of de-duplication, there is a copy out there somewhere.
With all of the excellent software out there for archiving purposes, lost emails will increasingly become suspect. Archiving and retrieval will become a mainstay of data management, and effective data management is the foundation of the efficient storage infrastructure. The most lively debate, however, is what kind of hardware and media is to act as our archiving technology of choice. Hard disk is doing its level best to take center stage in archiving, as it is in operational and transaction processing. Tape technology and optical technology also have strong cases to make that they are either the more economical approach or the approach that delivers the most longevity. Plasmon, a leader in optical technology, is preparing to introduce a new optical archiving product, and has named a new CEO to push the tech.
Some consider the primacy of hard disk a manifest destiny, due to a dropping price per megabyte and the performance delivered by spin physics. Some think tape and VTL are merely postponing the inevitable. What do you think?
By the way, have you ever noticed that the press coverage in the trades focus on the retention of these invaluable emails, but look much less frequently at their secure destruction?
Cheers.
Issues of archiving are commonplace in the trade and now the mainstream press. There are many reasons for public officials to want to do extensive deletion of files, some legit and some less so. Emails are now business records, as important as any contract or warranty. They have evidentiary value in courts of law all over the country. They keep businesses going in a way faxes and wires never could match. But they are also instruments that could seal a company's liability or a government agency's guilt or innocence. They also take up megabytes and megabytes of storage.
As far as the government battles are concerned, I simply see them as slow students. Archiving is a fact of life, and anyone who protests that it costs too much or takes too much staff time is howling in the wind. Business is seeing the inevitability because of regulatory mandates and the persistent fear of litigation that infects the nation. Trying to whitewash a political legacy, another purpose of deleting emails, is useless...the truth will ultimately out. No matter what you think of de-duplication, there is a copy out there somewhere.
With all of the excellent software out there for archiving purposes, lost emails will increasingly become suspect. Archiving and retrieval will become a mainstay of data management, and effective data management is the foundation of the efficient storage infrastructure. The most lively debate, however, is what kind of hardware and media is to act as our archiving technology of choice. Hard disk is doing its level best to take center stage in archiving, as it is in operational and transaction processing. Tape technology and optical technology also have strong cases to make that they are either the more economical approach or the approach that delivers the most longevity. Plasmon, a leader in optical technology, is preparing to introduce a new optical archiving product, and has named a new CEO to push the tech.
Some consider the primacy of hard disk a manifest destiny, due to a dropping price per megabyte and the performance delivered by spin physics. Some think tape and VTL are merely postponing the inevitable. What do you think?
By the way, have you ever noticed that the press coverage in the trades focus on the retention of these invaluable emails, but look much less frequently at their secure destruction?
Cheers.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
You Have To Start Somewhere
All right. I give in.
I have a way of resisting the next wave. I avoided getting a cellular telephone forever. But I ultimately gave in, and I can't do without it. The same with a blog...but, like everyone else, I need to move somewhat with the times.
The plan? To use this forum as an opportunity to report and comment on events in the computer storage industry, which I have been witnessing for over 18 years. For those who ask "Who in chaos is this guy?" I will answer. My name, Mark Ferelli. I spent many, many years in trade journalism, and was editor in chief of Computer Technology Review in its heyday. I was one of the early folks who recognized that storage was only peripheral in the sense of topology. It is, in fact, one of the three legs upon which computing stands, along with processing and connectiviity.
The people who buy, sell and use storage technologies are a mixed bag, Saints and sinners, innovators and retrofitters...much like anyone else. They make good decisions and bad ones, and the consequences create dynamics that this and other blogs take on and examine.
Although storage observations are going to be the lifeblood of the blog, I'd like to take a minute to discuss technology journalism and the information to be gleaned from modern electronic media. It should come as a surprise to practically nobody that print journalism is in significant pain. Since magazines rarely charged readers a subscription fee, the trade press lives and dies by advertising revenue. Since time immemorial, trade journalism has been considered something of a red-headed stepchild by mainstream journalists and editors because of a perceived bias, real or imaginary, on the part of trade editors and reporters. There was a suggestion that those who filled the advertising coffers received better, more frequent editorial treatment. It is a suggestion that many ethical editors, myself included, fought with everything they could muster. The duty in trade publishing's editorial venues is to the reader. The duty in trade publishing's business departments is to a small universe (too small, as it turns out) of advertisers who appreciate the magazines circulation base and the editorial product. Sometimes, those duties conflict.
But now, the very essence of trade publishing has changed. The readers, be they users of storage products, integrators who put together subsystems, designers and engineering talent, are looking more and more to the Internet to get their information. The stacks of magazines that stood like the tower of Babel on the edge of a desk have diminished as allegiance is pledged to a favorite blogger, website or on-line publication. This is not necessarily a bad thing...I hope not, since I am giving it a swing. But there is a caveat...readers need to be more discerning than ever before.
There is a great temptation for readers to seek out information, not for its usefulness, but for its agreeability. The reader is looking for input that he or she will agree with...sort of electronic yes-men. Useful coverage of events and developments can appear in these spaces, but sometimes only as afterthought. And blogs are also recognized as stellar promotional media for people and products alike. (Me, too.) It is not always the single most reliable place for objective, actionable information. There is electronic media still dedicated to journalistic mores such as objectivity, fairness, and thoroughness. But finding them is rare. I'd invite readers who stumble on this blog to let me know where and whether you find the kind of information that you can really use as the basis for making technology decisions. Or am I just a latter-day Diogenes?
Cheers.
I have a way of resisting the next wave. I avoided getting a cellular telephone forever. But I ultimately gave in, and I can't do without it. The same with a blog...but, like everyone else, I need to move somewhat with the times.
The plan? To use this forum as an opportunity to report and comment on events in the computer storage industry, which I have been witnessing for over 18 years. For those who ask "Who in chaos is this guy?" I will answer. My name, Mark Ferelli. I spent many, many years in trade journalism, and was editor in chief of Computer Technology Review in its heyday. I was one of the early folks who recognized that storage was only peripheral in the sense of topology. It is, in fact, one of the three legs upon which computing stands, along with processing and connectiviity.
The people who buy, sell and use storage technologies are a mixed bag, Saints and sinners, innovators and retrofitters...much like anyone else. They make good decisions and bad ones, and the consequences create dynamics that this and other blogs take on and examine.
Although storage observations are going to be the lifeblood of the blog, I'd like to take a minute to discuss technology journalism and the information to be gleaned from modern electronic media. It should come as a surprise to practically nobody that print journalism is in significant pain. Since magazines rarely charged readers a subscription fee, the trade press lives and dies by advertising revenue. Since time immemorial, trade journalism has been considered something of a red-headed stepchild by mainstream journalists and editors because of a perceived bias, real or imaginary, on the part of trade editors and reporters. There was a suggestion that those who filled the advertising coffers received better, more frequent editorial treatment. It is a suggestion that many ethical editors, myself included, fought with everything they could muster. The duty in trade publishing's editorial venues is to the reader. The duty in trade publishing's business departments is to a small universe (too small, as it turns out) of advertisers who appreciate the magazines circulation base and the editorial product. Sometimes, those duties conflict.
But now, the very essence of trade publishing has changed. The readers, be they users of storage products, integrators who put together subsystems, designers and engineering talent, are looking more and more to the Internet to get their information. The stacks of magazines that stood like the tower of Babel on the edge of a desk have diminished as allegiance is pledged to a favorite blogger, website or on-line publication. This is not necessarily a bad thing...I hope not, since I am giving it a swing. But there is a caveat...readers need to be more discerning than ever before.
There is a great temptation for readers to seek out information, not for its usefulness, but for its agreeability. The reader is looking for input that he or she will agree with...sort of electronic yes-men. Useful coverage of events and developments can appear in these spaces, but sometimes only as afterthought. And blogs are also recognized as stellar promotional media for people and products alike. (Me, too.) It is not always the single most reliable place for objective, actionable information. There is electronic media still dedicated to journalistic mores such as objectivity, fairness, and thoroughness. But finding them is rare. I'd invite readers who stumble on this blog to let me know where and whether you find the kind of information that you can really use as the basis for making technology decisions. Or am I just a latter-day Diogenes?
Cheers.
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