If you want a good summer scare fest, don’t bother with the latest Batman movie. Just read the headlines. Oil prices are up. Stock market is down. The mortgage crisis is crippling global banks. And let’s not forget global warming.

That’s why I couldn’t resist the urge to ask for a little free advice from a friend who is a financial planner. I just wanted to know if I should cash out the kids’ college fund and invest in ocean-front property in Vermont. Or maybe buy a few shares of the latest solar-powered car technology. And selfishly, will I be older than rocks before I can afford to retire?

Her answer was simple. First, think long-term. What are you trying to accomplish? College tuitions? Early retirement? Second, do your homework. Make sure your IRA, 401K, college funds etc. are diversified and in well-proven funds. Don’t fall for fads or hype. Third, if an investment scheme sounds outlandish. It is.

I supressed a yawn and continued my questioning. But, what about the headlines? Shouldn’t I be scared? Aren’t they trustworthy?

Headlines, she countered, are for ratings and readership. Imagine what the news would sound like if every commentator gave the same advice that she did? Boring. That’s not to say that news stories aren’t factual. But you have a responsibility to put them into context and understand the bigger picture.

In the storage industry, headlines, vendor hype, even analyst sound bites can be pretty scary too. They’ll have you convinced that if you don’t dump all your physical tape, virtualize everything that moves in your data center and deduplicate, deduplicate, deduplicate, your data center will explode before your eyes.

Worst of all, they don’t have time or column space for in-depth analysis. You have to a pay an analyst or a consultant for that. They just pick one feature or functionality in a given technology and go to town on it. They tell you that everyone everywhere needs the deduplication feature or functionality du jour and anyone using a different method or technology will suffer dire consequences.

SEPATON has been on the positive side of all this, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain. But don’t spend hours down in the weeds comparing deduplication ratios that are each calculated with a different methodology, digging into the benefits of inline vs concurrent vs post process; and decyphering the relative speed of capacity recycling in isolation.

At the end of the day, you are better off applying my friend’s advice.

Think big picture. Everyone wants to store backup data in less space, but what technology has the most positive business impact? Lower labor costs? Less capital expense? More end-user productivity? Investment protection? SLAs on operational performance

Think longer term. What will your data center look like in a year? Two years? Five years. Are you focusing on automating more manual functions? Managing data in a more integrated way? Providing more end user access? Higher levels of availability? Lower cost per GB stored? Evaluate whether your deduplication technology will be a step in that direction or be a future “rip and replace”.

Do your homework. Don’t get bogged down in the minutae, but understand the fundamentals and facts about how different technologies move you toward your end game.

Don’t panic. Forget the hype. When the dust settles there are only a few technologies that can do the heavy lifting needed to protect and deduplicate data at the enterprise scale.

Do you have any good advice to add to this list? Let us know.