EMC E20-329 Begins

Today I begin study for the EMC E20-329 exam to finish off the EMCTA certification.  The first module is "Assessing the Environment" and had mostly review information regarding why we need to assess an environment and how to do so from a 10,000-foot view.  However, some notable points:

• Success Criteria
• Application capacity, or do we have enough storage space?
• Criticality of applications, or are we backing up what needs to be backed up?
• RPO/RTO - can we recover to an acceptable level?

Phases of Assessment:

1. Interview customer
2. Environmental Analysis, often using EMC tools and manual discovery
3. Cross-check assumptions vs. reality
4. Design the solution

Some EMC analysis tools are the Exchange and Sharepoint System Assessment tools, (ESA, SSA), the File System Assessment tool (FSA), Deduplication Assessment tool (DDA:B) and EMC Quickscripts which are run against the existing backup tools and software.

Another interesting quote was to "never quote marketing data" when designing a system, because marketing data is developed in a lab under ideal conditions and a customer environment is *never* ideal.  Rather, "focus on solution design and problem solving."

Hmmm, does that mean "our marketing data is accurate unless it's in the real world?"