If storagecraft disappears the customers still have the existing tools, which can, for instance, convert their backup images to vhd or VMDK, so I think this is probably not an issue.
Sent from a phone On Mar 9, 2012, at 3:28 AM, "Paolo Bonzini" <pbonz...@redhat.com> wrote: > Il 09/03/2012 10:23, Kevin Wolf ha scritto: >>> You make really good points on opening up the image file format. >>> I see real value there in that it would foster development of >>> other solutions around that format. The problem in this case is >>> that StorageCraft's backup image format uses proprietary >>> compression and encryption, and so, regrettably, we can't >>> (currently) open up that code. >> >> This is an interesting statement. Not so much for compression, for >> which I can't know how much better your solution is than common >> algorithms. But I always thought that closed encryption algorithms >> have to be considered bad, because using them would mean relying on >> security by obscurity. Which probably everyone agrees is a bad idea. > > And even for compression, having an open decompressor is usually a good > idea. Some people have no problems with proprietary solutions but do > not like lock in (and wonder what to do with their backups if > StorageCraft disappears). > > Paolo
