DCAR

Post-Conference report

Devin L. Ganger — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:16:15 GMT

As I typically do, I'm posting links to my slide decks for the presentations I just finished giving. I apologize to the Connections folks; I was supposed to get this done Monday afternoon or Tuesday and got ambushed by a travel-induced migraine.

Orlando was nice this time of year; not too hot, so the humidity slipped under the radar. It was nice to see a bunch of familiar faces and meet some new ones, and I was very pleased with the attendance at all of my sessions. Doing all three sessions back-to-back is definitely a drain, but the conference organizers helped out a lot by keeping me in the same room for all of them, and had I stayed for a couple of days I'd definitely have had the . And I have apparently finally beaten my notorious string of demo failures; my demo DPM environment (provided by Jason Buffington of Microsoft, thank you Jason) worked quite nicely.

For the MMS folks, I can't put my deck up directly; you'll need to get it from the MMS CommNet or wait for your attendee DVD to show up. Las Vegas is still completely over the top; the Venetian was opulent and provided a nice venue. For some reason, the casino didn't seem nearly as intrusive as it could have been (and is in other venues). I am, however, glad I had new shoes -- my feet didn't hurt from all the walking. For the flight home, I picked up 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions at the airport and read it cover-to-cover; a great story told well.

Greetings from Orlando!

Devin L. Ganger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:53:24 GMT

I'm posting from a break between sessions at Exchange Connections in Orlando, FL. I just had a good session on protecting Exchange with DPM -- thanks to everyone who attended and gave lots of good feedback.

Next up -- a session on DCAR with Exchange, and then Exchange 2007 update best practices.

The weather is actually the best I've ever seen here -- not too hot, with a nice breeze, so the humidity isn't overwhelming. However, the A/C is up full in the room I'm presenting, so I'm glad the speaker shirts are long-sleeved.

More later!

A connection I hadn't noted before

Devin L. Ganger — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:55:16 GMT

Archiving 101's post today made a connection I hadn't thought about before.

New Exchange 2007 migration whitepaper

Devin L. Ganger — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:48:00 GMT

A couple months back, I was able to work with Quest Software on a new whitepaper for Exchange 2007 migrations. As you probably already know, Reader, Quest makes some of the slickest migration software on the market. They also make Quest Archive Manager, which offers (of course!) email archiving capabilities. Quest's notion, and the one I explored in this whitepaper, is that by deploying an archival solution such as Quest Archive Manager, you can actually reduce the risks you'll face during messaging migration. The paper is specifically about migrating to Exchange 2007; while I didn't focus on the details of Exchange migration, I do cover some of the possible risks you face during a migration to Exchange 2007.

If you're interested in reading the whitepaper, you can get it for free from Quest; you simply need to register your email address with them.

New blog about the archival industry

Devin L. Ganger — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:32:00 GMT

Hey, all. I'm not dead yet, just heads-down in work and the forthcoming DPM book that Ryan and I are writing. (Ignore the "2008" bit; that's a typo and the good folks at Wiley are working on fixing it.)

Just wanted to take a minute to tell you about a new blog that Exchange MVP Martin Tuip has started: Archiving101.com. It's sparse on content right now as he's just kicked it off, but Martin's been around the archival industry and worked for many of the key players in the space (and has earned himself a lot of teasing and heckling from his fellow MVPs because of it!) I'll be interested to see what insights he has to offer.

And finally...Chapter 6 of Email Discovery and Compliance ebook

Devin L. Ganger — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:01:00 GMT

At long last, Chapter 6 of the DCAR ebook is up. As always, it's a free download (registration required).

I just exchange some email with my editor and found out that we've so far had over 1100 people register to download the ebook.

Wow. Eleven hundred. Thank you very much, everyone, for registering and reading. I'm blown away. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts.

DCAR ebook Chapter 5: Implementation part 2: Hardware and Software

Devin L. Ganger — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:40:00 GMT

Chapter 5, Implementation part 2: Hardware and Software, of my ebook on DCAR (Discovery, Compliance, Archival, and Retention) is now available for download. This ebook is published online by Windows IT Pro. This was a fun chapter to write, because I finally got to discuss some of the technical issues.

All five chapters are a free download away (registration required) so please go download and enjoy. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. By no strange coincidence, I just turned Chapter 6 (the final chapter) into my editor last night, so it won't be too long before the entire ebook is available! For those of you who have been following along since Chapter 1, thanks for your patience.

DCAR ebook Chapter 4: Implementation part 1: People and processes

Devin L. Ganger — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:01:00 GMT

Chapter 4, Implementation part 1: People and processes, of my ebook on DCAR (Discovery, Compliance, Archival, and Retention) is now available for download. This ebook is published online by Windows IT Pro.

Before you spend a lot of time thinking about the specifics of your hardware and software design, you need to design your solution. This chapter reviews your business drivers, examines the scope of your efforts, and talks about how to get the right planning team selected. It also discusses how to examine your processes and ensure that your planning team covers all your needs.

All four chapters are a free download away (registration required) so please go download and enjoy. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Also, I'll be in Exchange Connections in Orlando in just a few days, and I'll be presenting a session that is a condensed version of this ebook. If you're going to be there, stop by and let me know what you think!

Book signing in Orlando

Devin L. Ganger — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:00:00 GMT

Paul, Missy, and I will all be speakers at this spring's Exchange Connections 2006 conference, held at the Walt Disney Swan Hotel in sunny Orlando this April 9-12. Not only will we have 8 sessions of Exchange goodness to share with you, we'll also be having a book signing at the conference bookstore. Come find us at 3:30pm on Monday, April 10th -- if you're going to be at Connections, I'd love to hear from you!

A good regulatory compliance resource

Devin L. Ganger — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:59:00 GMT

I know I've been on a Windows Mobile kick for the past few days, but it's not all I've been doing. I just recently turned in the final draft of Chapter 4 of my DCAR (Discovery, Compliance, Archival, and Retention) ebook to my editors at Windows IT Pro, so I expect to be seeing that go live on the website in the very near future. As always, I'll let you know once I know it's up.

This chapter was a very difficult one to write, because it (by design) had very little to do with technology. The technological challenges of DCAR -- especially the regulatory compliance aspects of DCAR -- get a lot of airtime in our industry; we're a tech-oriented industry, and frankly, tech solutions are a heck of a lot easier to figure out than people and process problems.

So, chapter 4 is all about people and processes. I have a fairly firm theory: any time you have an issue and need to make a change, it is either going to be a process change or a tech change. You won't have to do one or the other -- and if you find that you do, it has been my experience that you're really making two changes, or solving two problems, at once. This leads directly to a quote from Exchange MVP Ed Crowley:

There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems.

One of the groups I've worked with at Microsoft, Microsoft Solutions for Security and Compliance(MSSC), is spending a lot of time focusing on regulatory compliance as a pain point for their customers. Via their secguide blog, I recently discovered the Regulatory Compliance blog, which is turning out to have some interesting and thought-prooiking posts from a variety of really smart and talented people. Give it a look-see.

I'd like to highlight one recent post of note: Regulatory Compliance Planning Guide Beta Coming. I eagerly await this guide; I think it's going to be chock full of the same kind of crunchy usefulness as previous guidance produced by MSSC. Paul and I worked worked with them last fall to help produce the Windows Server 2003 Security Guide v2.0 and the Threats and Countermeasures Guide v2.0.

Don't forget to check out the secguide blog as well; they have a lot of interesting and useful security content, much of which is applicable to DCAR solutions and concerns.