In Depth

In Depth

IT suppliers

• RAID, flash and erasure coding: What works best with solid state?

  We look at RAID and flash to highlight key choices when it comes to drive data protection. What RAID levels work best with solid state and when is erasure coding a good choice?  Continue Reading

• 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

• This Christmas, Covid-19 heightens retail security risks for everyone

  Do you think it’s only retailers and consumers who need to consider cyber security when shopping online during the holidays? You’re dead wrong. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working has thrown a spanner in the works  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Spinning disk hard drives: Good value for many use cases

  When it comes to storage media, all talk is of flash, but there are plenty of use cases where – far less costly – spinning disk can do a perfectly adequate job in the enterprise  Continue Reading

• Unified file and object storage: The best of both worlds?

  Unified file and object storage tackles growing volumes of unstructured data in a way that’s compatible with traditional and cloud-era applications, and friendlier to analytics  Continue Reading

• 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

• Backup audit: What is a backup audit and why do we need them?

  Backup and recovery are vital components to protect against data loss, whether technical or causes such as ransomware. So how can a backup audit help protect our key assets?  Continue Reading

• Erasure coding vs RAID: Data protection in the cloud era

  Erasure coding has come to prominence with its use in object storage and, by extension, in the cloud. We run the rule over its pros and cons vs RAID data protection  Continue Reading

• Top five ways to benefit from tape today

  We look at the benefits that tape can bring, including in backup and recovery, long-term and ‘warm’ archiving, compliance and WORM use cases and ‘air gapping’ to protect data  Continue Reading

• 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

• Cloud storage costs: How to get cloud storage bills under control

  Many organisations look to the cloud to cut storage budgets, but the potential costs are many and varied. So what are the key ways to cut cloud storage costs?  Continue Reading

• Five on-premise and cloud options for network-attached storage

  We look at five options for file access storage, from ‘traditional’ NAS in a standalone appliance to distributed hybrid cloud file storage and NAS cloud gateways  Continue Reading

• Storage pros and cons: Block vs file vs object storage

  Despite the many changes in storage, there are still some fundamentals that hold true. We look at the key defining characteristics and use cases of block, file and object storage  Continue Reading

• Decision points in storage for artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data

  Artificial intelligence and machine learning storage is not one-size-fits-all. Analytics work differs, and has varied storage requirements for capacity, latency, throughput and IOPS. We look at key decision points  Continue Reading

• Auditing for algorithmic discrimination

  Despite the abundance of decision-making algorithms with social impacts, many companies are not conducting specific audits for bias and discrimination that can help mitigate their potentially negative consequences  Continue Reading

• Cloud flash storage: SSD options from AWS, Azure and GCP

  We look at the flash storage options available from the big three cloud providers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform – that can help narrow the gap between on-site and cloud workloads  Continue Reading

• 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

• Cloud storage 101: NAS file storage on AWS, Azure and GCP

  We look at NAS file storage options in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. All three offer native-based and NetApp-based file storage, with Azure adding single namespace cache services  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage 101: File, block and object storage in the cloud

  We run the rule over file, block and object storage from the big three public cloud providers: AWS, Azure and GCP. We look at what’s on offer and the use cases they are aimed at  Continue Reading

• Mainframe storage: Three players in a market that’s here to stay

  Far from disappearing, the mainframe market and the storage it needs is here to stay for some time. The three key array makers compete with high-end flash-equipped products  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Replication vs backup, and synchronous vs asynchronous

  Storage 101: Can replication replace backup? What are the pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous backup? What’s the best way to mix backup and replication?  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Crash-consistent vs application-consistent snapshots

  We look at crash-consistent and application-consistent snapshots and backup, how they are defined, the pros and cons of each and the benefits and limits of Windows VSS  Continue Reading

• 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

• Storage 101: Snapshots vs backup

  We go over the basics of snapshots. They are a quick and accessible way of protecting data, but they are not a substitute for backup. So how do you combine the two?  Continue Reading

• High-performance object storage: What’s driving it?

  Object storage is getting its performance on to meet the needs of content delivery, analytics and IoT use cases while enabled by rapid flash storage media and other tech advances  Continue Reading

• 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

• What’s the problem with NAS backup?

  NAS backup has always been problematic, but what exactly are the issues with NDMP, and what are backup suppliers doing to make a decades-old storage staple easier to protect?  Continue Reading

• Computational storage: What is it and what are its key use cases?

  Computational storage brings the CPU to the storage and so boosts system performance by tackling processing tasks, such as near the edge or in AI/machine learning workloads  Continue Reading

• How Oxeva delivered budget analytics with Pure Storage flash NAS

  Web hosting provider Oxeva thought the consultants were mistaken and that what suited the web giants for analytics/big data wasn’t necessarily what was needed for enterprise customers  Continue Reading

• 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

• Flash storage tiers: Performance, cost and use cases

  We look at performance, cost and potential use cases for the key flash storage types available, such as Nand flash, 3D Xpoint and Intel Optane, plus SAS, SATA and NVMe connectivity  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• Do you use cloud storage for these use cases yet?

  We look at the use cases most suited to a quick transition to the cloud: backup, archiving, disaster recovery, file storage and cloud bursting – cloud storage’s low-hanging fruit  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Top 10 storage deployment stories of 2019

  Here are ComputerWeekly’s top 10 storage deployment stories for 2019, which see quite a move away from traditional SAN and NAS to hyper-converged, software-defined storage and object storage  Continue Reading

• How to buy hyper-converged infrastructure

  Simplicity, high availability, scalability and reduced cost are among the benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure. We survey the benefits, pitfalls and the key suppliers  Continue Reading

• 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

• NVMe-over-TCP brings super-fast flash over standard IP networks

  TCP is the latest transport protocol that can be used to connect NVMe flash storage. We explain how NVMe-over-TCP works and the key advantages for datacentre customers  Continue Reading

• What is QLC flash and what workloads it is good for?

  QLC flash offers low per-gigabyte costs and lots of capacity, but can be limited by endurance and I/O performance. It can be a good disk replacement for several workloads, however  Continue Reading

• Is NVMe flash the right choice for you?

  NVMe flash storage boosts performance for I/O-hungry operations, but how does it work, where can organisations best deploy it, and what are the key uses cases where it can make a difference?  Continue Reading

• Key storage choices: Cloud vs tape for archive storage?

  Tape still has benefits, such as an ‘air gap’ that can insulate archives from threats to data integrity. But what are the opportunities for cloud in tape’s traditional use cases?  Continue Reading

• 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

• Key differences between cloud storage offerings

  Cloud storage offerings are often largely similar. We run through the key areas where they can differ, such as location, range of services and data protection  Continue Reading

• Top five cloud storage pitfalls

  Cloud storage offers apparent simplicity, but unexpected costs, complexity, data movement and integration challenges can arise. We look at how to avoid common cloud storage pitfalls  Continue Reading

• 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

• Private 5G networks: Are they the right choice for you?

  The concept of dedicated private mobile networks for large enterprises is not a new one, but with the advent of ultrafast 5G networks, they are starting to attract more interest  Continue Reading

• What 5G applications will transform your business?

  The UK’s mobile network operators have started work on their 5G roll-outs, but what applications are most likely to gain enterprise traction for the new standard?  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Data protection: How privacy can be a benefit, not a burden

  With the growing number of data breaches, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about how their data is used. Organisations can take advantage of this trend by treating data protection and user privacy as product features  Continue Reading

• Public cloud: A key component in a disaster recovery plan

  The key things to consider when creating a disaster recovery plan that uses public cloud: DIY vs DRaaS, native cloud tools vs third party, and how low can you go with RPO and RTO?  Continue Reading

• 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

• How facial recognition technology threatens basic privacy rights

  As adoption of facial recognition systems continues to grow worldwide, there is increasing concern that this technology could undermine fundamental privacy rights and how it can be kept in check  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage and its main cost components

  We run through the main items charged for by the big cloud storage providers, such as capacity, storage type, transactions, data egress, networks and data protection  Continue Reading

• 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

• Software-defined storage vs NAS/SAN: What are the options?

  We look at the pros and cons of software-defined storage and weigh up when it’s a better option than buying NAS and SAN pre-built hardware shared storage arrays  Continue Reading

• Cloud’s low-hanging fruit: Backup, tiering and data sharing

  Native cloud operations can have a steep on-ramp in terms of enterprise IT readiness, but some things are relatively easy to port to a tier of storage in the cloud  Continue Reading

• Scale-out NAS: File storage with cloud and flash from big five

  We run the rule over scale-out NAS from the big five storage array makers to find all-flash and hybrid-flash commonplace and use of the cloud as a tier almost ubiquitous  Continue Reading

• Mobile phones and health: is 5G being rolled out too fast?

  European countries are rolling out 5G mobile communications at breakneck speed as they seek to gain a competitive edge over the US and Asia. But some scientists have raised questions about the effects of 5G mobile phone radiation on public health ...  Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged infrastructure vs NAS and SAN shared storage

  Can compute, storage and networks in one box be a better option than shared storage? And which organisations can most benefit from it, and for what scale of deployment?  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage 101: Specifying for cloud storage

  We run through key questions to ask when specifying cloud storage, such as disk type, performance, availability and the possible hidden cost of getting data out of the cloud  Continue Reading

• Competitive threats: What the growth in new public sector cloud frameworks means for G-Cloud

  Public sector IT buyers may soon find themselves spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding where to procure their cloud services, thanks to the emergence of several new frameworks, but where does that leave G-Cloud?  Continue Reading

• Blackout after Brexit: UK datacentres brace for post-EU power supply and cost changes

  As the uncertainty over how the UK intends to extricate itself from the European Union rumbles on, datacentre operators are weighing up how Brexit might affect the availability and cost of the power they need to run their facilities in future  Continue Reading

• How Europe’s largest datacentre is helping to expand broadband access

  NGD, the operator of the largest datacentre in Europe, is playing an unlikely role in helping expand access to full-fibre broadband in south Wales. We find out how, and why  Continue Reading

• Collaborative security approaches underpin container success

  Containers are helping organisations to accelerate age-old software development approaches, but success is underpinned by a constant and team-wide attention to security  Continue Reading

• NVMe startups’ different routes to flash performance gains

  NVMe offers huge flash performance benefits, but no one is quite sure how to overcome the challenges that brings and startups are trying several different approaches  Continue Reading

• The nightmare driving test: How to make sure self-driving cars are safe

  Simulating realistic environments using deep learning to enable self-driving cars to learn the rules of the road will prove more useful than any amount of real-world practice. We find out why, and meet the people doing something about it  Continue Reading

• The rise of DevSecOps

  The increasing complexity of security threats facing enterprises is leading to DevSecOps approaches, which combine operations and development with security, so that all business units are involved in security operations  Continue Reading

• Top 10 cloud storage stories of 2018

  Top trends in cloud storage in 2018 included key enablers of hybrid- and multi-cloud such as native cloud storage, array makers’ cloud appliances and distributed file systems  Continue Reading

• CIO trends for 2019

  Harvey Nash’s CIO practice director shares her prediction on CIO trends for 2019, which include a growing demand for new technology skills, innovation and customer-focused initiatives  Continue Reading

• Brexit implications for data protection

  Leaving the European Union will have serious implications for data protection in the UK unless adequate steps are taken, so businesses are advised to have contingency plans in place  Continue Reading

• IBM pushes boundaries of AI, but insists companies take an ethical approach

  Researchers at IBM are pushing the boundaries of what artificial intelligence and machine learning can do, but remain wary of the ethical implications that accompany the proliferation of this technology  Continue Reading

• Where in Britain works best for IT?

  Where is the best place to be an IT professional in the UK? Computer Weekly looks at which location comes out on top for tech companies, and it’s not Silicon Roundabout  Continue Reading

• Fortunes of storage vary in big five led by Dell EMC and NetApp

  The big five take 50% of the enterprise storage market, with Dell EMC and HPE dominating. But some struggle with successive quarters of shrinkage while others see storage shine  Continue Reading

• Trusted nodes: The next generation in quantum key distribution

  QKD is a form of protection against interception by quantum computers, but cost and technical limitations have made the technology impractical. Could trusted nodes make all the difference?  Continue Reading

• Executive interview: Sebastian Krause, general manager, IBM Cloud Europe

  IBM Cloud Europe general manager Sebastian Krause opens up about Big Blue's big bets on hybrid cloud, enterprise IT and why the public cloud market is not one it is interested in playing in  Continue Reading

• Colocation and the hyperscalers: What the cloud giants want in a datacentre partner

  The colocation market is booming on the back of the growing demand from the hyperscale cloud giants for readily available datacentre capacity, but why are some operators more successful than others when it comes to landing their business?  Continue Reading

• What are the current SD-WAN options for enterprises?

  Software-defined wide area networking is well on its way to being a multi-billion dollar market. We assess the current state of the market and look at some of the options for enterprise CIOs and network managers  Continue Reading

• Employers turn to wearable technology to help staff manage work-life balance

  Companies are realising that there are sound business reasons for ensuring their employees get enough sleep and exercise, so they are turning to wearable technology to help their staff stay healthy, despite the pressures of work  Continue Reading

• How the big five storage array makers tier data to the cloud

  We look at the big five storage array makers' efforts to connect on-premise hardware with cloud storage and find automated tiering, on-ramps, and backup and archive capability  Continue Reading

• Inside DevOps, containers and enterprise security

  Global corporates are waking up to containers and orchestrated containerisation for software development that is fast and safe. Computer Weekly looks at the best approach to ensure security is not compromised along the way  Continue Reading

• Sustainability and the smartphone: How to give your old device a second life

  Find out what happens to your smartphone after you’re finished with it and why you should commit to the circular economy  Continue Reading

• An exciting time to be in cyber security innovation

  Cyber security innovation has received a £1.35m shot in the arm from the UK government with the opening of a new innovation centre in London. Computer Weekly looks at why now is a good time to be working and innovating in this industry  Continue Reading

• IPsoft’s digital worker is part of a shift in human productivity

  IPsoft used its annual user summit to allow customers to update themselves on the career of its cognitive digital agent Amelia  Continue Reading

• Application security more important than ever

  Applications have an increasingly crucial role in our lives, yet they are also a real security threat, with hackers always finding new ways to bypass security defences. Computer Weekly looks at how organisations are responding to the challenge  Continue Reading

• Application and device security under the spotlight

  The security of internet-connected devices and associated applications has become a significant concern, prompting suggestions legislation may be required, while the UK government’s recent Secure by Design review suggests several solutions, ...  Continue Reading

• GDPR: An overview of the latest data protection legislation

  The forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have wide-ranging implications for every organisation that processes personal data. This comprehensive overview tells you what you need to know  Continue Reading

• Network security in the digital transformation era

  Network security has always been a core focus for CISOs and IT security managers, but in an era of digital transformation, we examine if network security strategies are keeping up with new and emerging cyber threats  Continue Reading

• Businesses need to take cryptojacking seriously

  Organisations must pay attention to cyber criminals hijacking computing resources to mine cryptocurrencies, because nearly half are affected and the impact is greater than many realise  Continue Reading

• Universal Credit: How did it go so wrong?

  The DWP’s flagship welfare reform was meant to change the lives of benefits claimants through one simple IT system, but was beset by IT problems, low staff morale and delays. Newly released documents help explain what went wrong  Continue Reading

• The future of 5G mobile networks: support and development

  In the second part of our exploration of the 5G market, we find out how UK plc is innovating around 5G mobile networks, and ask what lies in store at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona  Continue Reading

• The great 5G bake-off: where are we and where are we going?

  With Mobile World Congress 2018 a week away, early 5G network standards formalised and tests up and running at the Winter Olympics, we assess the state of 5G, and what's needed to kick-start commercial roll-outs  Continue Reading

• How AI will underpin cyber security in the next few years

  Cyber security risks are growing in complexity and volume, but artificial intelligence techniques can help businesses track and fight them in real time  Continue Reading