News

Storage

September 09, 2009 09 Sep'09
Tackling the data loss challenge

Today, data loss prevention (DLP) solutions have significant relevance in India. We take a look at DLP best practices, how to build a DLP strategy, and ways to avoid common mistakes.
September 08, 2009 08 Sep'09
ASIC flags database virtualization push as part of massive Symantec backup rollout

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will conduct a new Enterprise Backup and Recovery Project that will see the organisation extend its use of Symantec backup products, choose between hardware-based and software-based data ...
September 07, 2009 07 Sep'09
EMC, Cisco, accused of FUDfest, Apple hammered, NetApp accused of “PR BS” as IBM and HDS fight

The storage blogosphere embraced has devoted itself to VMworld … and the usual bickering as Pillar labels V-Max a “clunker” and EMC, Cisco, HDS, IBM and NetApp all swipe at one another.
September 03, 2009 03 Sep'09
UK users say data sprawl and compliance drive need for email archiving

Users at the Storage Decisions UK Email and File Archiving Seminar say growing email data volumes and compliance standards are driving their adoption of email archiving.

September 02, 2009 02 Sep'09
Analyst: Virtual desktops put "huge" pressure on storage

Taneja Group analysts have told VMworld that storage administrators must be involved in the early planning of virtual desktop projects, or storage will become a bottleneck that hampers their effectiveness.
September 02, 2009 02 Sep'09
LIVE COVERAGE: VMworld 2009

This story contains live coverage of VMworld 2009 from TechTarget ANZ editor Simon Sharwood.
August 26, 2009 26 Aug'09
Architectural practice archives, tiers storage using F5 storage virtualisation

F5 Networks' ARX500 beats out EMC, Brocade and Symantec products to resolve RHWL's capacity issue with EMC Clariion. Cuts backup times by 90% and saves firm £243,000 a year.
August 25, 2009 25 Aug'09
Storage roundup: RamSan-6200 sustains 5 million IOPS; 3PAR's new Asia Pacific sales chief; and more

Storage roundup: Texas Memory Systems' RamSan-6200 solid-state drive sustains 5 million IOPS; 3PAR's new Asia Pacific sales chief; Spectra Logic launches nTier Deduplication.
August 25, 2009 25 Aug'09
IBM, Brocade at risk as WA Health seeks new 8-Gig fibre channel SAN

West Australia’s Health Department is weighing native fiber channel and fibre channel over IP as it plans new SANs and adoption of 8Gb/sec fibre channel and acquire new SANs.
August 25, 2009 25 Aug'09
NetApp’s new cloud products grown at Telstra, Sensis, Suncorp

NetApp has released a suite of new products to let its customers create cloud computing services, and says the IP for the new tools was largely developed on engagements at Telstra, Sensis and Suncorp.

August 24, 2009 24 Aug'09
Solid-state drives, disk poised to change data storage market

Chris Mellor says disruptive technologies aren't common in the storage market, but solid-state drives and disk technology seem ready to make a difference. Will cloud storage be the next culprit?
August 22, 2009 22 Aug'09
Fibre Channel director face-off: Brocade vs. Cisco Part 1

Brocade's 48000 Director and Cisco's MDS 9513 Multilayer Director offer different paths to storage services and consolidation options. Which company offers the best director for your storage environment?
August 20, 2009 20 Aug'09
HDS, IBM and EMC brawl as NetApp’s new CEO gets the thumbs up

Our weekly stroll through the wacky world of storage blogs finds the usual sniping, 3Par’s usual weird video, general approval for NetApp’s new CEO, advance info about new products and lots of thinking about storage virtualization
August 19, 2009 19 Aug'09
Kuoni Travel Group India's disaster recovery plan for business success

The story of how Kuoni India implemented a world-class disaster recovery setup for its global network.
August 17, 2009 17 Aug'09
Hard disk drive specifications guide: What to look for when buying disk storage

Seek times, latency, data transfer rates, error correction codes and cache are important hard disk drive specifications. Learn the key features of hard disks drives so you can specify the right one for your data centre.
August 17, 2009 17 Aug'09
Amazon working to bring S3 portable storage device export feature to overseas customers

Amazon’s new service exporting data from its S3 cloud storage service to portable media devices may soon be available in Australia and New Zealand.
August 14, 2009 14 Aug'09
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade drops HP, Tivoli storage software

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is seeking new SANs, with equipment from incumbent HP considered to have reached the end of its working life and EMC SANs expected to be up for replacement soon. Also on the agenda: a move away from Lotus ...
August 13, 2009 13 Aug'09
Nice NetApp, voodoo HDS, cloudy EMC, virtual HP and IBM attacks!

Just another week in the storage blogosphere as HDS sticks a pin into EMC's enterprise strategy, IBM and HP get narky, CommVault cops criticism and everyone loves NetApp – for once.
August 11, 2009 11 Aug'09
Force vendors to work together to improve efficiency, says CMC Markets' Gawthorpe

In this Storage Pro-File, Greg Gawthorpe, technical operations manager at CMC Markets, discusses the challenges of getting vendors to work together in storage/backup environments.
August 11, 2009 11 Aug'09
How to backup and restore Active Directory

Backing up and restoring Active Directory is not straightforward, as we explain in this tutorial outlining the application's special requirements.
August 10, 2009 10 Aug'09
Financial firm uses Compellent SAN for server virtualisation project

CMA selects Compellent Storage Center SAN over EMC Clariion, HP EVA and NetApp FAS products to support VMware server virtualisation project that saved £300,000 in six months.
August 10, 2009 10 Aug'09
Seven free disaster recovery assessment tools

Is your disaster recovery plan up to scratch? Would you know if it was not? We've linked to seven free templates and tools so that you can test your preparedness.
August 07, 2009 07 Aug'09
Logical Units – Hitachi GST hits 2TB, plus new cloud backup and surveillance products

Our regular roundup of new storage products features the first two terabyte hard drive, a new surveillance product and an Australian, Microsoft-centric cloud backup service
August 06, 2009 06 Aug'09
EMC labelled "desperate", NetApp turns poet , HDS tiers up, IBM and HP turn on the megaphone

Our weekly slog through storage blogs finds NetApp turning its hand to poetry at the same time it is called "bait" for a buyout.
August 05, 2009 05 Aug'09
Q&A: Best backup reporting tools

Backup Guru Curtis Preston lists his favorite backup reporting tools and explains why you would consider these products.
August 04, 2009 04 Aug'09
Geospatial data company virtualises data storage with IBM SAN Volume Controller

Geospatial data firm Landmark Solutions replaces its Hewlett-Packard EVA arrays with IBM DS4700s and uses IBM SAN Volume Controller to link EMC arrays into a common storage pool.
August 04, 2009 04 Aug'09
How to use Symantec NetBackup OpenStorage for disk-to-disk backup and recovery

Enterprise Storage Group Analyst Lauren Whitehouse explains how to use Symantec 's Veritas NetBackup OpenStorage option for disk-to-disk data backup and recovery.
August 03, 2009 03 Aug'09
Exchange 2007 won't be supported on Windows Server 2008 R2

In a move sure to irritate many, Microsoft is all-but forcing Exchange 2007 users to upgrade to new versions of Windows Server.
August 03, 2009 03 Aug'09
SATA, SCSI and SAS: Which drive is right for your storage environment?

Learn the key differences between SATA, SCSI and SAS technologies in terms of performance so you can decide which types of drives are most suitable for your environment.
July 30, 2009 30 Jul'09
LTO 5: Fast, vast but still the past?

The next generation of the Ultrium standard is so fast and has so much capacity that many users will ignore it.
July 30, 2009 30 Jul'09
EMC cops it on two fronts as HDS, NetApp attack, HP attacks NetApp

Our weekly roundup of storage blogs finds Fiber Channel over Ethernet generating opposing opinions, while NetApp, EMC, HP and HDS keep picking old scabs. PLUS: Memristors on video and Sun achieves triple-parity RAID!
July 27, 2009 27 Jul'09
Upgrades, training costs slow Fibre Channel over Ethernet adoption

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) promises to consolidate traffic onto a single Ethernet backbone. But UK users have so far been slow to adopt FCoE due to expensive upgrades and retraining issues.
July 27, 2009 27 Jul'09
Storage roundup: Compellent bags UK reseller; Data Robotics doubles sales; Infortrend SANs VMware ce

Compellent bags UK reseller Transtec Computers to resell Storage Center; Data Robotics doubles sales; Infortrend EonStor Fibre Channel (FC) host RAID arrays now VMware certified.
July 27, 2009 27 Jul'09
Managing enterprise data storage more efficiently: Part 1

Storage managers must learn to improve storage efficiency though smarter spending, while taking steps to reduce operating expenditures during budget crunches.
July 23, 2009 23 Jul'09
HP, EMC slam NetApp, HDS laughs at EMC, NetApp digs at HP

The usual suspects in the storage blogosphere have initiated another round of brawling, as EMC, NetApp, HDS and HP all get stuck in again.
July 22, 2009 22 Jul'09
Storage roundup: Former NetApp UK director to head up Isilon EMEA sales, City of London data centre

Storage roundup: Former NetApp UK director to head Isilon EMEA sales; City of London data centre host expands in the square mile; Infortrend offers EonStor Plus disk bundle service.
July 21, 2009 21 Jul'09
Open source backup tools Amanda, BackupPC and Bacula compared

We compare open source backup tools Amanda, BackupPC and Bacula and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
July 17, 2009 17 Jul'09
Storage roundup: New Acronis product adds deduplication, virtualization support

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 gets data deduplication and virtualisation support; Clearpace NParchive now archives on Centera; Airport deploys DataCore SANmelody
July 16, 2009 16 Jul'09
Solid-state drives, 2.5-inch drives boost IOPS without wasting capacity

Small form factor hard disk drives and solid-state drives (SSDs) are becoming attractive ways companies can boost IOPS without wasting capacity.
July 16, 2009 16 Jul'09
NetApp gets up HP's nose, attacks EMC, which sneers at IBM while HDS picks a blogfight

The storage industry’s blog wars have escalated with HP’s Australian PR crew deciding that SearchStorage ANZ needs to know how mean and nasty NetApp is being to its LeftHand line of products, while HP, EMC and HDS indulge in the usual brawling.
July 14, 2009 14 Jul'09
Virtual tape libraries grow up, speed up, up the ante

A new wave of virtual tape libraries are faster, scale higher and offer more flexibility for their owners.
July 13, 2009 13 Jul'09
Which RAID level has the best price-to-performance comparison?

Configuring disk in RAID arrays brings a variety of benefits, most notably data protection and I/O performance. But which RAID level wins in terms of price vs. performance?
July 10, 2009 10 Jul'09
What's the best Unix for you? We compare AIX, HP-UX and Solaris

Learn the differences between Sun Solaris, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX and IBM AIX to help you make a smarter Unix purchasing decision.
July 09, 2009 09 Jul'09
With one eye on the cloud, EMC enters enterprise management market

EMC has rebranded and revamped its management products, labelled them “Ionix” and believes it can beat the likes of HP, CA and IBM’s enterprise management efforts.
July 09, 2009 09 Jul'09
NetApp gives up on Data Domain, EMC wins the spoils

NetApp has terminated its bid for Data Domain, leaving EMC with the prize.
July 09, 2009 09 Jul'09
NetApp gives up, gets slapped by HP while EMC parties and HDS defends its turf

Another week of storage blogs finds the usual suspects – HDS, EMC, HP and Netapp – continuing to behave like feuding wrestlers.
July 08, 2009 08 Jul'09
ITV switches channel from Apple Xsan to Nexsan SATABeast Xi

ITV switches from Apple Xsan to Nexsan SATABeast Xi with MAID technology to improve data storage needs, as well as space, and power and cooling issues.
July 08, 2009 08 Jul'09
How to Implement Hyper-V R2's new Cluster Shared Volumes feature

Learn how to adopt the new Cluster Shared Volumes feature in R2 of Microsoft's Hyper-V.
July 08, 2009 08 Jul'09
EMC to take on Tivoli, OpenView with "Ionix"

EMC has entered the enterprise management market with asuite it says will be far cheaper to implement than rivals’ products.
July 07, 2009 07 Jul'09
BlueArc challenges NetApp in the enterprise with Mercury 50, Mercury 100 network-attached storage (N

With NetApp distracted by Data Domain and late delivering Ontap with clustered NAS capabilities, BlueArc targets the enterprise NAS market with Mercury 50, Mercury 100 NAS systems.
July 06, 2009 06 Jul'09
Storage roundup: Fujifilm UK implements DataCore SAN, Symantec disaster recovery survey and more

Storage roundup: Fujifilm UK implements DataCore SAN; Symantec survey finds viruses and natural disasters most common DR spur; Mimosa NearPoint 4.0; and more.
July 06, 2009 06 Jul'09
Council adds solid-state drive (SSD) tier to Compellent SAN for new HillingdonFirst residents' card

London Borough of Hillingdon installs solid-state drive (SSD) storage to its Compellent SAN to support Oracle databases in rollout of new HillingdonFirst residents' card system.
July 06, 2009 06 Jul'09
Continuous data protection (CDP) grows up, finds friends

Continuous data protection (CDP) has matured and is now a viable complement to current backup regimes.
July 02, 2009 02 Jul'09
HDS hits EMC, HDS gets hit, NetApp hits HP, Dr Who spruiks Prime

Just another week in the storage blogosphere as all the main vendors get stuck into each other. We therefore lighten things up with video of vintage Tom Baker ads for Prime Computer.
June 30, 2009 30 Jun'09
Will Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) bring a fabric switch product shakedown?

Many network switch vendors won't provide deep Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) functionality, so will storage-area network (SAN) fabric management be dominated by Brocade, Cisco Systems and IBM?
June 30, 2009 30 Jun'09
Ingram Micro joins SNIA ANZ board

The Storage Networking Industry Association's Australia/New Zealand chapter has its first New Zealand-based board member.
June 29, 2009 29 Jun'09
Storage Roundup: ThinkGrid launches cloud service; Infortrend offers solid-state option; and more

Storage Roundup: ThinkGrid launches cloud storage service; Infortrend offers solid-state option; eMag Solutions tops 2,000 formats; NetApp achieves Hyper-V partnership status.
June 25, 2009 25 Jun'09
NetApp fights HP, as EMC, IBM, 3Par fight HDS

Our weekly wade through storage blogs finds NetApp, EMC and IBM on the offensive and HP and HDS protesting their innocence.
June 24, 2009 24 Jun'09
IT professionals explore disk-based backup, data deduplication to speed backup

As backup windows expand, UK storage professionals search for new technologies to optimize the process. At the Storage Decisions Advanced Backup School, storage pros agreed that data deduplication and greater use of disk are promising solutions.
June 23, 2009 23 Jun'09
Storage roundup: Oxford chooses DataCore for VM4rent service, StorageCraft opens UK office

Oxford University opts for DataCore SANmelody for VM4rent; Infortrend unveils new ESVA array range; StorageCraft's new UK presence; Compellent gains S3 as a reseller. Read the latest UK storage product news here.
June 23, 2009 23 Jun'09
Disk-based trends top Advanced Backup School agenda

A free Storage Decisions Advanced Backup School in London on 23 June will feature backup expert W. Curtis Preston and draw IT professionals who say backup is a top 2009 priority.
June 23, 2009 23 Jun'09
How to fine-tune Backup Exec

If Backup Exec isn't behaving, check out this list of simple troubleshooting tips to get your backups humming again.
June 19, 2009 19 Jun'09
Can you trust your backup application's reporting?

Third-party data backup reporting/monitoring tools can be a useful safeguard to ensure your backup software is protectingyour data properly.
June 18, 2009 18 Jun'09
Bloggers go soft as EMC, NetApp and HDS let HP get away with dodgy product repositioning

Our weekly roundup of the storage blogosphere finds an unusual absence of criticism of a soft target, but plenty of competitive friction between NetApp, EMC and HDS.
June 18, 2009 18 Jun'09
Geoscience Australia tenders for 50 petabytes of storage

If the account manager at your storage supplier is not returning calls, it could be because Geoscience Australia has the local industry in a tizzy with its tender for 50 petabytes of storage, complete with information lifecycle management and tiered...
June 17, 2009 17 Jun'09
Dell bundles software with new SAN

Dell has announced a new SAN and Microsoft Storage Server Appliance and says it expects both will help it to win more business from vendors of larger arrays.
June 15, 2009 15 Jun'09
Storage Roundup: 3PAR cuts costs for online jobs site, Tarmin and more

3PAR cuts storage costs for TheLadders.com online jobs site; Tarmin Technologies archives GridBank to the cloud; StorMagic bags 20 resellers from the VMware Partner Network.
June 10, 2009 10 Jun'09
SNIA hints at cloud storage standards

The Storage Networking Industry Association has issued two papers on cloud storage standards.
June 09, 2009 09 Jun'09
The impact of server virtualisation on storage and backup environments

Early adopters of server virtualisation share their experiences with the technology. Learn how to avoid backup and load-balancing challenges, and surprise licensing costs.
June 09, 2009 09 Jun'09
Disk-based backup is priority: Britannia Building Society's Mathias

The Britannia Building Society's Dylan Mathias talks about communicating with the business, dealing with massive data growth, and a recent disk-based backup and dedupe project.
June 08, 2009 08 Jun'09
Seven questions SMEs should ask a potential service provider

SMEs should ask service providers many questions, including types of backups supported, how long it takes to back up data and disaster recovery plans, before outsourcing any work.
June 03, 2009 03 Jun'09
Co-op Jersey opts for DataCore's SANmelody and more UK storage news

Co-op Jersey opts for low-cost DataCore SANmelody SAN; Magirus announces Magirus Credit Solutions; Atempo Digital Archive adds Mac and Celerra capabilities.
June 03, 2009 03 Jun'09
Aussies and Kiwis create 14 billion gigabytes of data, fail to manage them well

EMC’s says CIOs must plan to manage ever-increasing mountains of data. But analyst John Brand says their response is short-sighted and tactical.
June 01, 2009 01 Jun'09
Storage managers should be proactive, advises Royal Horticultural Society's Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) says data storage managers must be proactive with users and transition to new technology while remaining within their budget.
June 01, 2009 01 Jun'09
RAID 6 vs RAID 10: Choosing the best RAID level for your organisation

Compare RAID 6 vs RAID 10. What is the best RAID level for your organisation: RAID 6's capacity utilisation and protection against two disk failures or RAID 10's faster rebuild times?
May 29, 2009 29 May'09
Sectors – HDS, EMC, philanthropy and zombie storage!

Our weekly trawl of the storage blogosphere finds a “meh” reaction to HDS’ latest. We also have touching news of storage industry philanthropy, NetWorker tips galore and our usual snarkiness.
May 28, 2009 28 May'09
Banyule City Council adopts centralised backup

After struggling to reliably backup data from 29 sites, Banyule City Council adopted CommVault software to remotely backup its many servers.
May 27, 2009 27 May'09
Defining storage-area networks (SANs), network-attached storage (NAS) and unified storage

Network-attached storage (NAS), storage-area networks (SANs) and unified storage provide storage capacity not directly attached to servers, but use different protocols for data.
May 27, 2009 27 May'09
QStar HSM Archive Platform to support OS X v10.5 environment

Qstar offers archive management for Snow Leopard; Tandberg Data completes restructuring; Compellent's new channel appointment; The Open University implements Overland Storage D2D2T
May 26, 2009 26 May'09
Linux backup and recovery tools roundup

Learn aout Linux backup and recovery tools from Zmanda, Bacula, HP and Symantec in this tip.
May 21, 2009 21 May'09
IBM writes software to improve data placement on solid-state drives

IBM adds solid-state drive support to Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS); will add SSD-specific data placement and monitoring capabilities to software.
May 21, 2009 21 May'09
Sectors – EMCWorld blogged to death, Why NetApp is buying cockroaches

Our weekly trawl of the storage blogosphere brings back plenty of reaction to EMC’s annual conference and the worst storage video we have ever found. We also review the new Star Trek movie.
May 20, 2009 20 May'09
Lagan Construction implements Mimosa Systems' NearPoint for email archiving and legal compliance

Lagan Construction uses Mimosa Systems' NearPoint email archiving product to manage email mailboxes, increase search capability and to track legal compliance record of work won.
May 18, 2009 18 May'09
Tape suppliers struggle with disk for recession revenue

Tape suppliers struggle for revenue against disk's decreasing cost per gigabyte. Try to transition their tape protection expertise and plan for growth once the recession is over.
May 18, 2009 18 May'09
How to devise a disaster recovery plan

Learn how to create a disaster recovery plan that delivers a recovery time your business can live with.
May 15, 2009 15 May'09
Turnbull/Rudd battle echoes EMC/NetApp brawl

Our weekly blogosphere crawl finds NetApp unconsciously positioning EMC as Kevin Rudd, and itself as Malcolm Turnbull. We also find a great Australian blogger covering EMC NetWorker!
May 13, 2009 13 May'09
Branding firm LFH uses Overland Storage Snap Server to mirror data

Branding firm LFH implements disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backup using Overland Storage Snap Server. Byte-level replication and snapshot capability were factors in choosing NAS.
May 11, 2009 11 May'09
First Look - Windows Storage Server 2008

Microsoft has released Storage Server 2008, complete with improved iSCSI support, better virtualisation features and the ability to scale to 128 volumes.
May 08, 2009 08 May'09
Disaster recovery spending on the rise in the UK

Data storage managers cite increased awareness of risk and data growth as chief factors boosting disaster recovery budgets. Complex infrastructures and compliance also drive spend.
May 04, 2009 04 May'09
College uses BakBone Software's NetVault:Backup to shorten backup window

Cardinal Newman College slashes backup window and staff administration times by 90% with BakBone Software's NetVault:Backup in a local-area network-free backup configuration.
May 01, 2009 01 May'09
UK data centres buy disk despite smaller storage budget

The purchasing process of UK data centres is dominated by the need for greater disk capacity. Buying products from vendor already supplying technology to the company is important.
May 01, 2009 01 May'09
UK data centre purchasing intentions by technology

What information technology products are UK storage managers buying for their data centres? Charts and tables from our purchasing intentions survey provide a quick overview.
May 01, 2009 01 May'09
Disaster recovery spending on track despite recession

Learn how to create a DR plan to protect and recover data with Jon William Toigo, keynote speaker at the Storage Decisions Disaster Recovery Planning seminar in London on Wednesday, May 6.
May 01, 2009 01 May'09
Comparing UK and US storage managers' buying behaviour

The buying behaviour of UK storage managers reveals that they're more loyal to vendors already providing technology to their data centre and are greener than their US counterparts.
April 28, 2009 28 Apr'09
Sectors – EMC, 3PAR and Dell fight it out, HP goes to school and Seagate stands alone

Our weekly roundup of storage blogs finds EMC attracting a new antagonist and HP proclaiming its arrays are preferred by totally inexperienced high school students.
April 28, 2009 28 Apr'09
Three best practices for virtual machine backup

Learn about emerging best practice for backing up virtual machines - including user case studies - in this feature.
April 27, 2009 27 Apr'09
Beyond vmkfstools: alternatives to VMware's backup tools

VMware includes decent tools to backup virtual machines. But there are more poweful alternatives - some free - that deserve your attention.
April 24, 2009 24 Apr'09
How to evaluate a data classification product

A data classification product should locate and organize data based on user-defined rules. It should also help move and migrate data to the appropriate storage subsystem.
April 23, 2009 23 Apr'09
Sectors - Sun alumni angry, EMC happy about VMware, NetApp arguing about dedupe numbers

Our weekly trawl of the storage blogosphere finds the usual fighting, plus a fair bit of anger towards Sun’s management team and relief among those already fired by Sun – they’ll get bigger payouts than those fired under the Oracle regime.
April 22, 2009 22 Apr'09
Designing a storage architecture

If your storage architecture design methodology lacks discipline, try implementing a shared services model that incorporates function, strategy and cost.