In Depth
In Depth
Data centre
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Five key benefits of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud file storage
The big three offer cloud file storage that can ease hybrid cloud operations, with consistency between cloud and on-premise as well as greater enterprise application compatibility Continue Reading
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Cloud DR from the Big Three: Who’s best at what?
We look at cloud disaster recovery from AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google to see which is best for provision of turnkey solutions, breadth of portfolio and modular building blocks Continue Reading
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Data Dynamics aims at single view of unstructured data
Data volume is ballooning, and storage is becoming more disparate, which makes the need for a single platform to manage storage and compliance a key requirement for organisations Continue Reading
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Datacentre energy efficiency: Is the time now for a big switch-off?
The clock is ticking on sustainable IT and energy use, and much more can be done to save energy, power and reduce emissions at a datacentre level. So why isn’t it happening? Continue Reading
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Robin.io aims its Kubernetes storage at databases and big data
Cloud-native storage runs in Kubernetes and pools storage media to present it to application persistent storage needs, including snapshots and backup on top Continue Reading
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Five key points about cloud vs in-house disaster recovery
The cloud is well suited as a disaster recovery failover option. The key questions are about what you should keep on-site and what goes to the cloud. We look at five key points to consider Continue Reading
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Five hyper-converged infrastructure use cases to watch
We look at workloads ripe for hyper-converged infrastructure deployment. These include virtual servers and desktops, SMEs/remote offices, Kubernetes, and analytics and machine learning Continue Reading
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Serverless: Weighing up the pros and cons for enterprises
The concept of serverless computing has been gaining traction within enterprises for several years now, but what is it and how do CIOs know if it is the right fit for their applications? Continue Reading
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The end is nigh: Are datacentre operators prepared for a potential no-deal Brexit?
Datacentre operations are resilient and forward-thinking by nature, yet pitfalls and cost impacts are looming large with a potential no-deal Brexit on the horizon Continue Reading
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A safe bet: How Covid-19 is fuelling investor interest in the datacentre industry
With demand for cloud and colocation capacity soaring on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, datacentres are looking like an increasingly attractive bet for the investor community. Computer Weekly finds out why Continue Reading
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IP surveillance: The storage it needs, on-premise and in the cloud
Surveillance is changing, with the evolution from simple streams of sequential images to the application of AI to video, as well as an increasing move to use of the cloud Continue Reading
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Brain researchers get NVMe-over-RoCE for super-fast HPC storage
French neurological researchers deploy Western Digital OpenFlex NVMe array for super-fast HPC storage with Ethernet-based NVMe-over-Fabrics connectivity across several floors Continue Reading
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Cloud RANs offer promise in APAC, but not in near future
While there is growing interest in cloud-based radio access networks, experts argue that telcos will still cautiously approach the technology in a phased manner Continue Reading
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Intel Optane Persistent Memory aims to fill the gap DRAM can’t
We look at Optane and its PMem product that Intel believes will fill a big gap between memory and storage that DRAM technology just cannot deal with Continue Reading
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Tackling multicloud deployments with intelligent cloud management
Organisations are moving to hybrid and multicloud deployments, which complicates software assets tracking and workload management Continue Reading
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Forrester: Why tagging should be used to manage hybrid assets
With complex hybrid environments, there is a need to apply IT asset management best practices across cloud and on-premise systems Continue Reading
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How intelligent workload management tools can help IT admins cut through cloud complexity
IT administrators have to manage an increasingly complex and varied range of application types and IT environments, and intelligent workload management tools offer a helping hand with that Continue Reading
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NVMe-over Fabrics: How NVMe-oF revolutionises shared storage
NVMe brought super-fast flash storage to the datacentre, but it needs NVMe-oF to allow it to bring the benefits of rapid access and low latency to SAN and NAS shared storage Continue Reading
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Supporting mobile workers everywhere
With VPNs struggling to serve the unprecedented number of remote workers, we look at other ways of providing reliable remote networking Continue Reading
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CTO interview: Octopus Energy on using cloud power to get consumers to flip the switch on renewables
Octopus Energy is on a mission to disrupt the global energy market, and is banking on the AWS cloud and an innovative software licensing agreement to help it do just that Continue Reading
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Storage analytics: How AI helps storage management
We look at storage analytics products that measure key metrics in storage hardware, single-vendor and multi-vendor tools, and how AI-based storage management and AIOps is emerging Continue Reading
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Getting physical with datacentre security
Whether it is natural disasters, terrorism or break-ins, datacentres will be vulnerable to a range of risks unless they are physically secured. Here’s how you can improve the physical security of your datacentre Continue Reading
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Coding within company constraints
We find out how containerised microservices and automated testing, combined with effective collaboration and communication, can drive innovation Continue Reading
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Aerospace and satellite comms: The next growth frontier for cloud service providers?
Space projects of the near future are less sci-fi and more about driving efficiencies through business intelligence, edge analytics and cloud technologies Continue Reading
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A Dell of a deal: What a VMware spin-off could mean for datacentre operators
Analysts doubt that Dell would be fool enough to entirely divest itself of VMware, which continues to offer massive value to the enterprise. And how would a change affect the datacentre? Continue Reading
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APAC buyer’s guide to BI and analytics
In this buyer’s guide, we look at the state of adoption of business intelligence and analytics tools, common use cases and other technology and business considerations Continue Reading
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Coronavirus: Weighing up the responses of the public cloud giants to Covid-19
The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic had a huge impact on the demand for cloud services from enterprises worldwide, but how have the cloud giants fared behind the scenes? Continue Reading
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APAC hybrid cloud adoption still cloudy
Although there are clear benefits of hybrid cloud, enterprises in Asia-Pacific aren’t making the most of them due to a lack of holistic understanding, strategic frameworks and skillsets Continue Reading
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Coronavirus: How Covid-19 has elevated the status of the datacentre industry
The pandemic has served to highlight just how dependent the world is on the datacentre community – and governments, policy-makers and investors are taking note Continue Reading
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David vs Goliath: How the smaller cloud firms have weathered the Covid-19 storm
The toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the hyperscale cloud community is well documented, but how have smaller providers fared in the face of soaring demand for their services? Continue Reading
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How to apply zero-trust models to container security
Containers have become a common fixture in software development, but they have resulted in new concerns for security teams. Is zero-trust the answer to tackling them? Continue Reading
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Cloud storage on-site hardware: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
We look at the big three cloud vendors’ on-site offerings: AWS’s Outposts, Gateway and Snow hardware, Azure’s Stack and Arc appliances, and Google Cloud’s software-defined Anthos Continue Reading
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Keeping the lights on: Managing datacentre engineers through Covid-19
The coronavirus pandemic has seen datacentre engineers reclassified as “essential workers”, but how are their employers ensuring they can continue to do their work in a safe and secure way? Continue Reading
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The datacentre chill-factor: Finding the right conditions
Computer Weekly explores a variety of cost-effective, energy-efficient services currently using innovative methods to keep datacentres cool Continue Reading
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The Billion-Year Archive project: A post-apocalyptic disaster recovery plan
The Arch Mission Foundation’s Nova Spivack opens up about its Billion-Year Archive project, which aims to provide the Earth with an apocalypse-level disaster recovery plan Continue Reading
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Coronavirus: Hardening up datacentre equipment supply chains post-Covid-19
Fears about hardware shortages, staff absenteeism and how to keep sites up and running with social distancing have dogged the datacentre sector since the start of the pandemic, so how is the sector faring? Continue Reading
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Datacentre liquid cooling: What needs to happen for it to become commonplace in colocation?
As demand for increasingly dense racks and compute-heavy workloads increases within datacentres, could this lead to a wholesale shift in preference from air-to-liquid-based cooling systems? If so, at what cost to the environment? Continue Reading
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Changing realities of digital transformation in the public sector
Digitisation of citizen service delivery and government operations has accelerated during the coronavirus outbreak, despite legacy constraints Continue Reading
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Snapshots 101: Array vs backup software
We run the rule over snapshots in storage arrays and backup software and find a range of capabilities that go from mere support to fully snapshot-centric approaches Continue Reading
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Australian firms soldier on amid Covid-19 outbreak
From the largest financial institutions to small companies, Aussie firms have been dialling up their use of technology tools to keep their businesses humming during the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading
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Multicloud storage 101: Pros, cons, pitfalls and strategies
Not putting all your eggs in one basket can be helpful to an enterprise’s resilience strategy. We look at multicloud storage and the benefits and pitfalls it brings Continue Reading
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Malaysia’s business continuity planning readiness a mixed bag
Larger Malaysian enterprises have BCP in place, but SMEs lag behind and will find it harder to weather the Covid-19 storm Continue Reading
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Why security validation matters
FireEye’s top executives in Asia-Pacific discuss the benefits of security validation and offer their take on the region’s cyber threat landscape Continue Reading
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Edge computing environments: what you need to know
An edge case in business sits at the limits of what's viable, and edge computing requirements suggest a similar struggle Continue Reading
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The AWS bucket list: Keep your cloud secure
Misconfigured cloud installations risk billions of records being exposed, damaging organisations’ finances and reputations. Paying attention to securing AWS storage buckets is a simple matter Continue Reading
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Container storage 101: What is CSI and how does it work?
We look at the container storage interface, which provides an interface to persistent storage in the products of storage array makers, and how it relates to Kubernetes Continue Reading
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Networking gains ‘cool’ status
There is renewed interest in networking, driven by enterprises looking at how public cloud services can co-exist with on-premise IT Continue Reading
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Lean, mean and green: The datacentres of the future
Working out how to develop more efficient datacentres in an increasingly resource-hungry world is not easy, but it is possible Continue Reading
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Cache vs tier: What’s the difference between cache and storage?
We look at the key distinctions between cache and tiers of storage, and where the line has become blurred with fast flash, 3D Xpoint and storage class memory technologies Continue Reading
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Rook 101: Building software-defined containerised storage in Kubernetes
Rook – think castles, not birds – uses the principles of containerisation and the methods used in Kubernetes to build storage that’s abstracted from the hardware it lives on Continue Reading
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Datacentres operators must move away from diesel backup generators to give back to grid
While the diesel backup generators used by datacentre operators have a limited environmental impact, using them for extended periods of time to power sites to feed energy back into the grid is not a sustainable solution to growing electricity demand Continue Reading
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How AI and data analytics are driving composable infrastructure adoption in datacentres
As enterprises continue to grapple with how to make sense of their big data stores, organisations are having to rethink how they kit out their datacentres, with composable infrastructure leading the way Continue Reading
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Alibaba versus Amazon, Microsoft and Google: Does the Chinese cloud challenger have what it takes?
Chinese public cloud challenger Alibaba is undoubtedly making waves in the west, but does it have what it takes to seriously trouble the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft in the infrastructure-as-a-service market? Continue Reading
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Spread of Kubernetes spurs backup and disaster recovery products
Growth of containerised applications brings with it the need to back up and provide disaster recovery. But what do you need to protect, and who provides the products? Continue Reading
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Driving adoption: Are high costs putting public cloud out of reach to non-profits?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insights into the sky-high cloud bills faced by some non-profit organisations prompts questions about whether the public cloud giants should do more to make their services more accessible to the third sector Continue Reading
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Mixing it up: Cloud and datacentre in the new world of IT
Cloud computing has long been tipped as the technology that will displace enterprise datacentres in CIOs’ affections, but that is not quite how the story is playing out Continue Reading
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Big storage meets cloud in the datacentre 'as-a-service' revolution
Cloud is mainstream but the datacentre’s here to stay. This has resulted in a trend towards as-a-service in the datacentre where big storage array makers and the cloud giants meet Continue Reading
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Five ways that backup has changed since the days of tape
Back in the day, all this was tape, but times have changed, with cloud-to-cloud backup, cloud storage, virtual and physical backup appliances and myriad endpoint hardware Continue Reading
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Processors re-imagined: Will cloud and AI lead mean all change in the datacentre?
We look at the changes cloud-native platforms and artificial intelligence could bring about in the datacentre. Continue Reading
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Overcoming the infrastructure and connectivity challenges of cloud gaming
The cloud gaming market has a number of infrastructure challenges to overcome to reach its potential, and the supplier community is intent on helping it address them Continue Reading
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In it to win it: Should AWS consider building out its SaaS play?
Amazon Web Services is the undisputed leader of the public cloud market, but could its relatively small software-as-a-service portfolio be its undoing in years to come? Continue Reading
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From consumer to prosumer: Reducing the datacentre industry’s reliance on the national grid
With the government ramping up plans to go net zero on carbon emissions by 2050, where does the datacentre industry stand – and how can it become more sustainable over the coming years? Continue Reading
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Amazon, AWS and antitrust: How tough could US lawmakers be on the tech titan?
How Amazon conducts its business is coming under close scrutiny from US lawmakers, both from an online retail and cloud perspective, and this is why Continue Reading
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Outsourcing PKI to the cloud: What enterprises need to know
Moving public key infrastructure deployments to the cloud can bring a lot of benefits to IT leaders and their wider organisations, but first they need to make sure doing so is right for them Continue Reading
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Taking business transformation and disruption to the Extreme
Supporting business transformation and disruption seem to be on every supplier’s lips these days, but not many can say they are where they are today precisely because of their own business transformation and disruption. Extreme Networks can Continue Reading
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Five essential steps to a sound disaster recovery plan
We walk through the key steps to develop a disaster recovery plan – from risk assessment and setting recovery objectives, to the plan itself and a testing regime to keep it fresh Continue Reading
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Beyond the database: Digging deeper into Oracle’s cloud strategy and its bid to conquer AWS
Oracle has plenty of ground to catch up on in the cloud infrastructure space if it is serious about going toe-to-toe with Amazon, so how does it plan to close the gap? Continue Reading
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SME disaster recovery made easy with cloud, hybrid and HCI
Disaster recovery is a lot easier for small businesses than it used to be, with use of the cloud, hybrid cloud, physical and virtual appliances, and hyper-converged infrastructure all among the choices on offer Continue Reading
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Taking responsibility for security in the cloud
From accidental leaks to full-on data breaches, maintaining security across cloud services is becoming a headache for enterprises. What questions should organisations be asking of their cloud service provider and, ultimately, whose responsibility is... Continue Reading
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Overcoming the container security conundrum: What enterprises need to know
Container technologies continue to shake up enterprise IT, but security concerns abound Continue Reading
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Do non-compete clauses risk stifling cloud innovation?
Non-compete clauses in tech employment contracts are commonplace – and understandably so – but could they be limiting innovation in the public cloud? Continue Reading
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McAfee’s push for secure cloud adoption
Organisations must do more to secure their cloud environments as malicious actors increasingly focus their attention on exploiting cloud vulnerabilities, says McAfee Continue Reading
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DevOps and storage: APIs and flexibility key
The details of back-end storage are irrelevant to DevOps engineers, but they need enough of it, when they want it, and the ability to manage it programmatically is key Continue Reading
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Data storage: The top five storage deployment pitfalls
Key pitfalls in data storage include silos, under-utilisation, backup and disaster recovery, plus neglect of skills and application requirements. We ask analysts how to avoid them Continue Reading
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Locking down the datacentre: A security checklist for IT administrators
As datacentres become increasingy decentralised and the security threats they face increase in number and complexity, IT admins are at risk of becoming overwhelmed as they strive to keep on top of their server farm estates Continue Reading
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EBA outsourcing guidelines: What banks, fintechs and cloud providers need to know
The regulatory landscape for financial services and outsourcing will undergo a refresh this month with new guidance from the European Banking Authority. We look at what banks, fintechs and cloud firms need to do Continue Reading
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Storage and DevOps: What is required for agile development?
DevOps brings continuous and agile application. Storage has to fit in and make itself just as responsive to development that does away with the inertia of stifling hierarchies Continue Reading
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Blockchain: hype vs reality
Blockchain technology presents a number of complex challenges that must be overcome before it can truly deliver on its promises Continue Reading
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Cutting the cord: Negotiating cloud contracts with problematic customers
How accountable should cloud firms be for the actions of the customers that use their platforms, and how much thought should they give to aligning themselves with problematic brands before hosting them? Continue Reading
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Finding a fix for the IT industry's recruitment woes: A datacentre perspective
The datacentre industry is in the midst of a well-documented skills crisis, caused by a mix of sector-specific challenges and some more generalised ones Continue Reading
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Financial services and cloud: Delivering digital transformation in a highly regulated industry
The financial services community has gone from being one of the least likely sectors to adopt cloud to becoming one of its keenest users, as regulator attitudes to using the technology have become more accommodating Continue Reading
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Hop jumps to Pure Storage to avoid big storage complexity
Air France short-haul and regional brand Hop jumps to Pure Storage after coming up against Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE, which all tried to sell it solutions ill-suited to its needs Continue Reading
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Unpicking the datacentre industry’s complicated relationship with climate change
The energy usage habits of datacentres often see the sector labelled as a contributor to climate change, but the situation is far more nuanced than that, it seems Continue Reading
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Log management: Helping IT admins to achieve infrastructure-wide visibility
When properly configured and deployed, log management tools can unearth a veritable treasure trove of data that IT administrators can use to triage and diagnose problems in enterprise IT infrastructures Continue Reading
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Evolution in action: How datacentre hardware is moving to meet tomorrow’s tech challenges
The datacentre industry is in a state of flux, as new and emerging tech trends highlight hardware and performance shortcomings in legacy sites, prompting operators to rethink how they kit out their facilities Continue Reading
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The pitfalls of hyper-converged infrastructure and how to avoid them
Hyper-converged infrastructure can be an easy win when it comes to datacentre infrastructure upgrades, but there are pitfalls. We discuss how best you can sidestep them Continue Reading
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Cambridge Cognition CTO on applying server monitoring principles to suicide prevention
Cambridge Cognition CTO, Ricky Dolphin, discusses why it pays to think outside the box when trying to find technological answers to business and customer problems Continue Reading
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Evolution in action: The changing face of the datacentre
The role datacentres play in the wider enterprise IT landscape is changing, fuelling the demand for a mix of different types of facilities that are capable of meeting the growing variety of enterprise data-processing requirements Continue Reading
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Exploring UCaaS: The main benefits for enterprises
Getting unified communications-as-a-service right can mean more agility, higher productivity, and cost control Continue Reading
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Employee activism: How staff revolts are shaking up the IT recruitment landscape
As staff at tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon continue to speak out about pressing social issues, pressure is growing on firms to better align themselves with their employees on ethics Continue Reading
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Cloud snapshots and backups: How to protect data in the cloud
You often need more data protection than native cloud services will give. But should you choose backup or snapshots? And what about third-party backup in the cloud? Continue Reading
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Microsoft’s road to multicloud support
From Microsoft’s perspective, multicloud is more about portability than resiliency Continue Reading
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Hybrid cloud: Weighing up what to run in the cloud and on-premise
The hybrid cloud model promises a lot, but enterprises really need to take their time when working out what applications and workloads to run where – or they will find themselves on a hiding to nothing Continue Reading
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Uptime and availability: Making sense of supplier SLAs
Enterprises need to read the fine print of supplier service-level agreements (SLA) or risk finding themselves caught short during downtime incidents Continue Reading
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AI storage: Machine learning, deep learning and storage needs
Artificial intelligence workloads impact storage, with NVMe flash needed for GPU processing at the highest levels of performance – and there are other choices right through the AI data lifecycle Continue Reading
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Interview: Rackspace EMEA CTO on why it pays to put people at the heart of IT transformation
Rackspace EMEA CTO Lee James opens up about how taking a people-first approach to digital transformation raises staff morale and engagement levels while helping the managed cloud provider win new business Continue Reading
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Enterprise HPC: Why HPE is buying Cray
HPE’s decision to acquire supercomputing pioneer Cray for $1.3bn serves to highlight the growing importance of high-performance computing (HPC) deployments in the enterprise market Continue Reading
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Making multicloud work: Is it really worth it?
Enterprise interest in multicloud deployments is on the rise, but with so many moving parts to take care of, will the benefits end up being too hard-fought to make it viable for most enterprises? Continue Reading
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SAN vs NAS vs hyper-converged for virtual machine storage
The pros and cons of file and block access storage arrays vs the new breed of all-in-one server/storage architecture for storage of virtual machine systems and data Continue Reading
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XaaS models are reshaping the future of outsourcing
The outsourcing sector is suffering reputational damage after some high-profile failures, just as companies are turning to the "as-a-service" model instead. Can the two approaches co-exist? Continue Reading