On 7 Jul 2004 21:07:21 -0400, adykes@panix.com (Al Dykes) wrote:
>See what the entry-level network storage boxes from NetApp and the EMC
>file servers that Dell sells cost.

Such solutions will not autonomously run from any machine I have,
namely my WinXP laptop, but I appreciate the "big picture" thinking on
this.

In general, I suspect that one possibly solution to this problem would
be to create software that can compare one file system to another, and
essentially save the differences between the 2 file systems in a
"delta" space.  One could save only those files that have been updated
for instance, or even save just the parts of the files that have
changed (something that could significantly reduce space for big
files).  Additionally, and more-generally (ie, in a
file-system-independent fashion), one could do a block-level
comparison.

Not that these operations are "off line" and are not easily done (at
least for NTFS/FAT32) for online data.  But that's not my
requirement/goal, nor would it be for what I think would be a HUGE
market of users like me, all with desktops/laptops wanting to keep
consistent data protection (from both logical and physical problems)
going without having to eat up so much disk space...and without having
to use tape.  Disk-to-disk all the way.  And all these users/market
have no problems going "offline" with the backup/incremental snapshot
because all it is their personal/home-office machine.  No
multi-user/network serving.

In any case, I smell market opportunity here.  Maybe I just go do a
market analysis and then go make the darn software myself and make a
few $$.  I sure as heck can't find any solutions as a user.

Anybody want to join me?  While I've done a lot of sw design and
coding in the past, I like to spend more of my time on the vision and
requirements specs side of things nowadays.  I would love to work with
a designer/coder.  I guess I have to figure out if there's that much
market opportunity (per demand, competition, and other barriers) to
make some reasonable dough.  I have little idea at this point.  I work
in the enterprise-storage industry, but that does not necessarily mean
much.

-Matt
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