In Depth
In Depth
Data centre
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Cloud storage TCO: Key pitfalls and how to avoid them
Cloud’s flexibility is part of the attraction, but it can also lead to costs that spiral. We look at key elements in cloud TCO and how to intelligently make use of the cloud Continue Reading
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Bfloat16: What it is and how it impacts storage
Bfloat16 is an emerging way to handle very large numbers, developed by Google for its machine and neural learning and prediction. We look at what it means for IT and storage Continue Reading
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Data classification: What it is and why you need it
To be compliant, to ensure data is optimally protected, that it is available, that it can be analysed and that it is stored most cost-effectively – these are reasons why data classification is vital to organisations Continue Reading
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APAC organisations warm to cloud networking
Organisations in Asia-Pacific are getting up to speed with cloud networking services, even as they grapple with the challenges of managing a hybrid cloud environment Continue Reading
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Icelandic datacentres may lead the way to green IT
Iceland may soon become even more attractive to companies wanting to minimise their carbon footprint while using high-performance computing services Continue Reading
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Unstructured data storage – on-prem vs cloud vs hybrid
We look at storage for unstructured data on-premise, in the cloud and across multiple locations. There are advantages to a hybrid approach, but there can be hidden costs, too Continue Reading
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How IoT and digital twins could help CIOs meet ESG pledges
Many local authorities have set ambitious net-zero targets. Can IoT technology, allied to digital twinning, help CIOs hit them? Continue Reading
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File, block and object: Storage fundamentals in the cloud era
We look at the three basic ways that storage accesses data – via file, block and object – as well as the ways in which the rise of the cloud and distributed systems have brought changes to them Continue Reading
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How to track greenhouse gas emissions
Companies from a range of sectors, as well as public authorities, are using software and data analytics to track greenhouse gas emissions, partly to meet new regulatory demands Continue Reading
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Global file systems: Hybrid cloud and follow-the-sun access
We look at global distributed file systems that put enterprise data under a single file access namespace so that enterprises and branch offices can get to data from anywhere Continue Reading
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Data gravity: What is it and how to manage it
Data gravity can attract increasing amounts of data, and brings with it onerous management overheads. We look at how to mitigate data gravity in datacentre and cloud Continue Reading
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Looking ahead: How to create a multi-year datacentre capacity plan
Datacentres and cloud providers without a crystal ball can make educated guesses on future requirements to right-size resources and infrastructure Continue Reading
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Unified file and object storage: Three suppliers and their approaches
We look at unified file and object storage products from NetApp, Pure Storage and Scality, the differences, the workloads aimed at, and how unified they actually are Continue Reading
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AWS and startups: Using accelerator programmes to help enterprises address their pain points
The early days of Amazon Web Services saw its public cloud technologies keenly adopted by the startup community. Now the company is continuing its support for this customer sector by rolling out its accelerator programmes Continue Reading
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Cloud-to-cloud backup: When native cloud protection is not enough
There is a certain amount of protection built into cloud services, but it has its limits and full data protection requires that cloud data is secured with cloud-to-cloud backup Continue Reading
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Kubernetes backup products and 10 key players
We look at 10 key players in Kubernetes backup, why they are needed, what they offer and why you need to watch out for duplication between application teams and the IT department Continue Reading
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IT departments need holistic circular economies to fight climate change
With sustainability moving up the boardroom agenda, IT managers should revamp procurement strategies to align with the principles of the circular economy, but what does this mean for managing the IT lifecycle? Continue Reading
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Hydrogen’s promise: How fuel cells might power lower-carbon datacentres
Could UK datacentre operators soon adopt emerging hydrogen technologies to reach expanding energy and emissions requirements? Continue Reading
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The limits and risks of backup as ransomware protection
Backups can provide a sound means of recovery from ransomware infection, but they are not 100% certain to foil attackers. We look at the limits and risks of depending on backups Continue Reading
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Disaster recovery is an essential service for EDF with Phenix-IT
EDF has built disaster recovery tracking, planning and testing software on a six-month upgrade cycle based on governance, risk and compliance functionality in Mega’s Hopex platform Continue Reading
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Will AWS pledge to extend life of servers inspire other cloud firms to follow suit?
Amazon’s recent announcement to extend the useful life of its datacentre equipment has been deemed a positive decision for the cloud computing giant, but will other companies adopt this cost-saving and sustainability strategy? Continue Reading
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Growing prospects for edge datacentres
Although the value that edge datacentres provide is not in question, for many companies, the journey to adoption is far from fixed Continue Reading
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Interview: LF Energy on using open source to ready energy systems for phasing out fossil fuels
With the climate crisis putting increasing pressure on countries to decarbonise their economies, the founder of open source championing LF Energy talks about digitising power networks to be ready for renewables Continue Reading
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The role of infrastructure as code in edge datacentre computing
As datacentre computing is pushed to the edge of the organisation’s network, IT has to address the overheads associated with remote server management Continue Reading
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The time is now: Edge datacentres come of age
After years of hype and speculation, could the post-pandemic period see a resurgence in interest in the build-out of edge datacentres and compute environments as enterprises look to dust off projects that Covid-19 forced them to shelve? Continue Reading
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Backup types explained: Full, incremental, differential, synthetic
We look at backup – on-prem and cloud – and the key variants available, from full backup to synthetic full, via incremental, differential, incremental forever and reverse incremental Continue Reading
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Weighing up the nuclear option for powering datacentres
Resourcing energy-hungry IT through the race to reduce carbon emissions means looking objectively at all the options, including nuclear power Continue Reading
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Storage suppliers put Kubernetes platforms centre stage
How to orchestrate the orchestrator? Storage suppliers’ Kubernetes management platforms aim to meet storage and data protection challenge in containerised application environments Continue Reading
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A waste of energy: Dealing with idle servers in the datacentre
Servers can be the slackers of the datacentre, consuming power without doing much work. Why not whip them into shape? Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Maintenance and continuous improvement
In the final article in this four-part guide to disaster recovery planning, we look at how and when to update, maintain, audit, review and continually improve the DR plan Continue Reading
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Datacentres and climate change: Operators accused of being all talk and no action on sustainability
Datacentre operators talk a good fight when it comes to tackling climate change, but there is far more they should and could be doing to make their operations more sustainable, say experts Continue Reading
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Why post-pandemic reskilling must focus on mainframes
A major contributing factor to UK-wide skills shortages is the significant number of people who have left the workforce since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading
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Decarbonising datacentres: Turning the hot air about heat reuse into real-life use cases
Reusing waste heat from datacentres to warm local businesses and homes could bring about considerable reductions in carbon emissions and lower energy costs, so what needs to happen to make this a more widespread practice? Continue Reading
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Software firm saves storage array costs with Nutanix hyper-converged
Banking SaaS provider Vialink needed more IOPS when its NetApp arrays slowed up, but Nutanix hyper-converged proved a better package than Pure Storage and Dell EMC, too Continue Reading
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Cracking the code on blockchain and crypto: What might adoption mean for datacentres?
A high share of datacentre customers look set to adopt blockchain technologies, including digital currencies, over the next few years Continue Reading
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How to beat the heat: What can datacentre operators do to meet emissions targets?
With new mandates around sustainability proliferating, datacentres must find ways to meet their environmental goals while remaining competitive and meeting customer service-level expectations Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Staff training, incident and media management
In the third in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we set out the key components of DR staff awareness and training programmes, as well as incident management and dealing with the media Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Setting strategy and developing plans
In the second in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we look at how to formulate a DR strategy and develop detailed DR plans for your organisation, while taking cloud services into account Continue Reading
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Stakes raised for hybrid cloud as complexity challenges continue
Hybrid cloud may be with us for some time, so what does that mean for cloud provision in 2022? Continue Reading
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EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre
Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground Continue Reading
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Object storage: How research institute got 850TB for €150,000
French scientific research institute had its budgets cut and to meet the new cost constraints, it settled on Swarm software-defined object storage from DataCore Continue Reading
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Hybrid cloud storage: Options for rearchitecting enterprise IT
Hybrid cloud is seen as a way to have the best of both the on-premise and public cloud worlds. We look at the pros and cons of hybrid cloud storage Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Assessing risk and business impact
In the first in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we provide a step-by-step guide to building firm foundations for the disaster recovery plan, with risk assessment and business impact analysis Continue Reading
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Dispelling the top five myths of modern infrastructure
Modern infrastructure is agile, flexible and scalable. It is at the forefront of every CIO’s digital strategy – and it's everywhere. But with the multitude of choices comes complexity Continue Reading
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How to make AI greener and more efficient
Artificial intelligence promises both to combat the ill effects of climate change and to make the emergency worse with excessive energy use. How can AI be made greener? Continue Reading
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Sharp end of the edge: Managing micro-datacentres in a shared environment
Ongoing diversification in datacentre types gives rise to management challenges for operators, prompting a rethink about how they run their sites Continue Reading
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Evolving datacentre chipsets put cooling, power and software management techniques under microscope
New processor designs that could revolutionise approaches to supporting higher power densities at the rack still look years away, it appears Continue Reading
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Scale-up vs scale-out: Horizontal vs vertical scaling for storage
We look at the differences between scale-up and scale-out in storage – or horizontal vs vertical scaling – and the key ways it can be carried out on-prem and in the cloud Continue Reading
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Clouds gather over Chinese providers – but is there a silver lining?
With the geopolitical outlook chillier than for some time, Computer Weekly explores the future prospects for UK-China approaches to technology and business Continue Reading
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Cloud repatriation: Five reasons to repatriate data from cloud
We look at key drivers of cloud repatriation, including cost, compliance, issues around latency and data gravity, reversing poorly planned moves to the cloud, and supplier failure Continue Reading
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APAC expert guide to cloud migration
In this expert guide on cloud migration in Asia-Pacific, we highlight the key considerations and strategies that enterprises can take when moving their workloads to public cloud Continue Reading
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How can enterprises avoid datacentre supply chain issues affecting IT upgrades?
With analysts predicting that the current datacentre component shortages could last for at least two years, CIOs are being advised to act now to prevent the situation affecting their IT upgrade plans Continue Reading
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Five ways the hyper-converged infrastructure market is changing
We look at changes in the hyper-converged infrastructure market as suppliers go cool, go soft, disaggregate HCI nodes, provide as-a-service options and look to containers Continue Reading
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APAC expert guide to storage management
In this expert guide to storage management in Asia-Pacific, we unpack the developments shaping storage management and key strategies to extract business value from data Continue Reading
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What lies beyond the data warehouse?
Has the traditional data warehouse finally reached the end of its life? If so, what will follow it? Will it be a hybrid? We find out Continue Reading
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Riskier business: How Brexit could be changing downtime risk and resilience in the datacentre
As the UK enters the final quarter of its first year from the Brexit transition period, the risk picture for local datacentres remains unclear Continue Reading
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Could Iceland be the best place in the world for high-performance computing?
Most of Iceland’s cheap, sustainable energy is currently used by aluminium smelters, but recognising the need to diversify, the Landsvirkjun power company now promotes other uses Continue Reading
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Climate change and datacentres: Weighing up water use
Given that a mid-sized datacentre uses as much water as three average-sized hospitals, green IT needs to start considering water usage Continue Reading
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The second coming: The Nordic datacentre market comes of age
As concerns mount about space and power constraints within several of Europe’s largest datacentre hubs, enterprises are being urged to consider shifting more of their energy-intensive workloads to the Nordic countries Continue Reading
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Five things you need to know about cloud file services
We look at cloud file services, which provide a file system-like architecture that gives users access to file data wherever they are, just as if it were a local NAS filer Continue Reading
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Five key questions to ask about storage-as-a-service and consumption models
We look at important questions to ask providers of consumption-based storage procurement services, such as base costs and burst, usage measurement and upgrade paths Continue Reading
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Uninterruptible power in the datacentre: Choosing between sustainability and uptime
With datacentres under heavier pressure to decarbonise, could even the lowly UPS play a larger role? Continue Reading
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Hybrid IT: Making datacentre and cloud work better together in the enterprise
Enterprises are increasingly trying to balance and manage IT assets in a variety of environments, but there are plenty of tools and technologies out there to make the job a lot easier Continue Reading
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Disaster recovery for SMEs: Five key areas to consider
We look at key disaster recovery considerations for SMEs, including why backup is not enough, how to create a disaster recovery plan, best-practice DR testing and DR as a service Continue Reading
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Five ways to ensure remote working security and compliance
A mix of on-site and remote working has become a fact of life for many organisations. We look at five key things you should consider to ensure compliance and security Continue Reading
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Microservices: What enterprises need to know
For any enterprises looking to build cloud-native applications, an understanding of microservices is essential Continue Reading
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APAC datacentres gear up for the future
Datacentre operators in the Asia-Pacific region are dabbling in advanced power and cooling solutions, along with machine learning and edge computing, to keep pace with growing demand for their services Continue Reading
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Dublin in distress: Power supply issues threaten growth of Europe’s second-biggest datacentre hub
Dublin’s standing as Europe’s second-biggest datacentre hub could be on potentially shaky ground as Ireland’s electricity infrastructure creaks under the pressure of so many power-hungry server farms plugging into the national grid Continue Reading
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Cloud storage APIs: What are they and what can be done with them?
We look at the kinds of application programming interfaces (APIs) available to expose cloud storage to applications, from SME-targeted solutions to higher-end hooks Continue Reading
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Post-pandemic IT: Are virtual datacentre tours here to stay?
A physical tour of a datacentre has traditionally been a key marketing and selling tool for colocation operators, and the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many to provide virtual alternatives. But how do they compare? Continue Reading
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Nautilus Data Technologies CEO on building waterborne datacentres in the name of sustainability
James Connaughton, CEO of waterborne datacentre design champion Nautilus Data Technologies, sets out why the firm is convinced that water-cooled facilities are the answer to the tech industry’s sustainability woes Continue Reading
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Investigating process and performance improvement in private cloud
Continuous process improvement means, among other things, creating an environment that helps enterprises gauge performance as requirements change. However, the whole picture should be considered before deciding on an approach Continue Reading
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How the pandemic changed backup
The Covid-19 pandemic forced big changes in how people work – we look at impacts on backup, including increased reliance on the cloud, plus security and compliance vulnerabilities and ransomware Continue Reading
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Private cloud deployments: Beating the blind spots and bottlenecks
Private cloud can be challenging to manage while meeting the ramped-up demands of data-driven enterprises Continue Reading
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The drive towards computational storage
The explosion in data is driving demand for faster computing and storage remains a bottleneck – but things are about to change Continue Reading
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Gartner: How to turn old datacentres into critical IT assets
IT infrastructure and operations leaders are increasingly focusing on new ideas and technologies alongside ways to deliver business value Continue Reading
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How Bureau Veritas migrated 85% of its applications to the AWS cloud
In six years, France-based services giant BV has migrated 115 applications to the AWS cloud, mostly using in-house expertise. We talk to the company’s IT director Continue Reading
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Living on the edge: The enterprises working with distributed cloud
Distributed public cloud services are seen as driving future advances at the network edge but few companies are as yet enjoying full-fledged benefits Continue Reading
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What digital transformation means for data storage
We survey the key planks of digital transformation and look at the storage technologies emerging to support it, such as NVMe and QLC flash, hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud storage Continue Reading
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The National Security and Investment Act: What datacentre operators and investors need to know
The incoming National Security and Investment Act will give the UK government enhanced powers to pre-screen and intervene on datacentre M&A deals, prompting concerns it could dampen the sector's soaraway growth rates Continue Reading
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Container-native storage: A definition, and what to ask suppliers
We look at container-native storage – aka cloud-native storage – what defines it, and its benefits as a way of bringing persistent Kubernetes storage to containerised applications Continue Reading
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APAC career guide on cloud computing
Besides having engineering chops and certifications, aspiring cloud professionals should have curiosity and soft skills to succeed in the evolving cloud computing landscape Continue Reading
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How to support a hybrid workforce
As the economy opens up, organisations are rethinking the idea of office-based work – and a more flexible approach is on the cards Continue Reading
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Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure
HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too Continue Reading
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How the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium sequenced Sars-Cov-2
Consortium of universities and other institutions has harnessed datasets, analytics and cloud computing to sequence Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a blisteringly short time Continue Reading
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Five ways to boost systems utilisation in the datacentre
Datacentre operators are always looking for ways to cut costs and improve the efficiency of their facilities. Here we ask the experts for their top five tips for reducing the operating costs of running a server farm Continue Reading
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Where now for storage? Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage
Part II: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading
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Preparing for enterprise-class containerisation
As more workloads are deployed in containers, IT teams will need to assess how to manage container sprawl, reduce cloud bills and support databases Continue Reading
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Containers for a post-pandemic IT architecture
One of the positive effects of Covid-19 is that it has put IT at the top of the business agenda – and containerisation is part of that strategy Continue Reading
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Ski firm dumps ‘motley’ storage for DataCore software-defined
Eurogroup cuts power usage by 70% and rackspace from 84U to 7U as it consolidates multiple physical servers and storage protocols onto SANsymphony software-defined storage Continue Reading
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NHS datacentre transformation projects continue apace during pandemic
NHS trusts have continued to invest in their datacentre estates throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but the nature of their upgrade projects continues to evolve Continue Reading
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With connectivity on the rise, Africa is a hotspot for datacentre investments
We look at opportunities for datacentre operators in setting up or partnering with local firms in Africa Continue Reading
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Five ways that disaster recovery changes in a pandemic
Covid-19 has changed IT. Previously, working remotely was a business continuity measure, but now it is the norm. That means disaster recovery has to adapt to new risks and new ways to respond Continue Reading
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Hyper-converged infrastructure: Why software-defined everything might not work for all datacentres
Choosing the right converged infrastructure in the first instance can pivot on a trade-off between security and agility requirements Continue Reading
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Prioritising workloads in a hyper-converged infrastructure migration
A cost-effective approach to combining virtualisation and unified management probably means deploying it workload by workload, experts suggest Continue Reading
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The driving force behind the EU colocation market’s climate-neutral push
Colocation and hyperscale datacentre providers across Europe are under pressure from governments, regulators and the user community to curb carbon emissions Continue Reading
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How colocation fits alongside a cloud-native architecture
IT departments are on a cloud-native roadmap to become more agile, but they are constrained by the risks involved in migrating core systems and data Continue Reading
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Five key points about unstructured data storage on-prem and cloud
We look at unstructured data, the myriad forms of data it comprises and the key storage options available, which include NAS and object storage on-prem and in the cloud Continue Reading
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Five key questions about Kubernetes backup answered
We look at when to back up containers, what to protect, the main methods of backup for Kubernetes and the main Kubernetes backup products available in the market Continue Reading
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How long until cloud becomes the preferred environment to run HPC workloads?
The high-performance computing market is growing, but enterprises that have already made large investments in on-premise HPC will need to weigh up whether a move to the cloud would be worth their while Continue Reading