News

Storage

April 21, 2009 21 Apr'09
Analysts say Oracle buying Sun is a game-changer

Oracle's acquisition of Sun creates potential conflict with other storage vendors the software giant currently considers critical partners and makes industry consolidation more likely.
April 20, 2009 20 Apr'09
Brown buildings can host green offices

NetApp’s Director of Real Estate says it is possible for green companies to live in brown buildings
April 16, 2009 16 Apr'09
Sectors – HDS, NetApp say EMC’s V-Max is dated and derivative

Our weekly trawl of the storage blogosphere finds EMC’s rivals tetchy about its new Symmetrix range, which has generated two videos - one funny, one featuring lots of black boxes in a data centre.
April 14, 2009 14 Apr'09
Virtual server environment security in five simple steps

Data storage administrators need to ensure that their computing environments aren't vulnerable after adopting new technologies.

April 13, 2009 13 Apr'09
How to define RAID levels

Defining RAID; explaining mirroring, striping and parity; and the difference between RAID levels.
April 09, 2009 09 Apr'09
Sectors - Cisco to buy NetApp?

This week's roundup of storage blogs finds Cisco shopping - maybe for NetApp? - and EMC about to attempt time travel.
April 09, 2009 09 Apr'09
EXCLUSIVE IBRS ANALYSIS: How to avoid archiving project failure

Independent analyst firm IBRS has researched Australian and New Zealand organisations attitude to archiving. This article contains their report and is exclusive to SearchStorage ANZ readers.
April 08, 2009 08 Apr'09
EMC launching cloud services next week?

EMC says it will announce “the virtual data centre of the future” at a global event next Wednesday, ANZ time.
April 06, 2009 06 Apr'09
Server virtualisation benefits and getting started with virtualisation projects

Server virtualisation projects need planning, good design and smooth migrations of hosts from physical to virtual targets. Learn to make the transition to virtualised servers easier..
April 06, 2009 06 Apr'09
Inside the minds of storage CEOs

Who runs the storage vendors? Columnist Chris Mellor sketches storage CEOs he's met from Compellent, EMC, FalconStor, Pillar, Seagate and 3PAR.

April 01, 2009 01 Apr'09
Data classification best practices create effective policy

Following data classification best practices and creating an effective data classification policy lets companies store data in line with compliance controls, thereby reducing risk to the business in the event of an audit or legal discovery.
April 01, 2009 01 Apr'09
Tape backup alternatives for remote offices

If you're still running tape drives in your branch or remote offices, it's time to consider the alternatives. Tape has always made for backup headaches and newer alternatives now exist that can be a whole lot easier to manage. Tape at remote offices...
March 31, 2009 31 Mar'09
Sectors – EMC and NetApp leave each other alone PLUS another dodgy rap video

The storage blogosphere bubbles into life again as folks who are not HP or NetApp swing a slipper at EMC, while 3Par gets into the rap video caper.
March 30, 2009 30 Mar'09
Importer dumps tape for Acronis backup

Australasian Merchandisers has abandoned tape backup in favour of disk-based systems and server snapshots.
March 24, 2009 24 Mar'09
IT budget constraints force project focus, vendor deals

Smaller storage budgets mean users have to re-evaluate projects, while suppliers should offer customers staggered payments and other deal sweeteners.
March 24, 2009 24 Mar'09
Are application-specific backup tools worth it?

A new wave of backup vendors promises to do an extra-special job protecting data in a single application. Simon Sharwood explores these tools’ role in a modern backup regime and the revitalised point solution vs. suite debate.
March 23, 2009 23 Mar'09
How to troubleshoot SATA hard drive connections and issues

SATA drives and fast parallel ATA drives vary in several key respects. This checklist can help you with SATA drive installation or troubleshooting.
March 22, 2009 22 Mar'09
Sectors - HP takes on EMC and NetApp, swipes Cisco for good measure!

This week’s dive into the storage blogosphere finds a new belligerent party– HP – taking on EMC and NetApp. We’ve also found evidence of Oracle’s array-busting “Database Machines” in Australia!
March 18, 2009 18 Mar'09
How to make the right storage infrastructure decisions

The total cost of ownership for a storage hardware infrastructure often runs significantly higher than its purchase price, so how can you make the right decisions and lower costs?
March 16, 2009 16 Mar'09
Sectors - Dodgy data in HP survey?

Our weekly trawl of the storage blogosphere finds a writer accusing HP of putting a favourable spin on survey data
March 12, 2009 12 Mar'09
Email retention policy key to compliance

Archiving email is a necessary part of a legal compliance program and, if done well, can boost employee productivity. So what's the best way to develop an email retention policy?
March 11, 2009 11 Mar'09
Virtualisation, SSD, dedupe surviving recession

Storage vendors in the U.K. are banking on virtualisation, solid-state storage, deduplication and refreshed modular arrays to get through tough economic times.
March 11, 2009 11 Mar'09
Offsite data storage with tape: Storage best practices

What are your offsite tape storage practices? Do you send tapes offsite one by one or in batches? Either way, there may be some drawbacks.
March 10, 2009 10 Mar'09
Expect to pay top dollar for disaster recovery in virtual environments

Don't expect continuous availability of virtualised infrastructure unless you are prepared to pay out for almost everything in a virtualisation vendor's catalog.
March 09, 2009 09 Mar'09
VMware's cloud computing vision

VMware's vision of high-availability, cloud-delivered computing threatens existing thinking on backup, data security and compliance.
March 09, 2009 09 Mar'09
Sectors - The feud continues: NetApp slams EMC's dedupe plans

The security blogosphere blows up again, with NetApp sinking the slipper into EMC's new Celerra.
March 04, 2009 04 Mar'09
LUN storage and its role in SAN management

Explore logical unit number (LUN) storage and its role in SAN management. Learn how to create a LUN, how to share a LUN, and find out about LUN provisioning and LUN masking.
March 03, 2009 03 Mar'09
Make IT change management part of your disaster recovery plan

All the disaster recovery technology in the world won't help without the right culture and process, writes Burton analyst Richard Jones.
February 27, 2009 27 Feb'09
IDC Europe: Storage safe, short-term investments key

IDC's European storage survey finds storage relatively safe from recession as data volumes grow, but users are diverting budgets to short-term projects such as expanding capacity.
February 27, 2009 27 Feb'09
Sectors – NetApp heads for the ghetto

Our weekly roundup of the storage blogosphere finds NetApp getting down with its homies on YouTube.
February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09
Virtualisation: A remedy for hard times

Technical teams need re-assess how they optimise their environment. Virtualization --with its reduction in the physical footprint in terms of space, power and cooling -- can help.
February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09
Commentary: Social bookmarking failure an obvious example for us all

The closure of social bookmarking site ma.gnolia offers a very good example of why you need to test your backups.
February 24, 2009 24 Feb'09
How to make iSCSI connections in Hyper-V

Learn the tools and commands you need to make iSCSI connections in Hyper-V - without the iscsicli.exe command line tool.
February 23, 2009 23 Feb'09
Sectors - NetApp, EMC square off again!

Our weekly storage blog roundup finds yet another EMC/NetApp brawl in cyberspace.
February 19, 2009 19 Feb'09
Don't let your VM world suffer from server sprawl

Virtualisation brings many advantages, but virtual server sprawl can create storage and data protection headaches. Quocirca principal analyst Simon Perry urges vendors to address it at VMWorld Europe 2009.
February 18, 2009 18 Feb'09
Change control management

Change control management is an integral part of any IT strategy. However, it often goes unused or is misused when implemented.
February 17, 2009 17 Feb'09
Sectors - EMC accuses rivals of virtualisation snowjob

This week's roundup of the storage blogosphere finds EMC accusing everyone else of offering 'Frankenstorage' when they try to virtualise. But the monster fights back ...
February 16, 2009 16 Feb'09
Law firm ditches tape for the cloud

Law firm Middletons has given up on tape and instead adopted a cloud storage provider for its archival needs.
February 16, 2009 16 Feb'09
Auckland University's virtualised disaster recovery regime

Learn how Auckland University is using virtualisation and offsite replication in its new disaster recovery strategy.
February 12, 2009 12 Feb'09
Incremental vs. differential backup: A comparison

In this Storage Basics on incremental vs differential backup, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of each of these backup strategies
February 11, 2009 11 Feb'09
IT efficiency through data classification, consolidation and control

Storage shops with growing data stores in tough economies can save money and leverage existing systems by classifying data, consolidating data and better controlling the infrastructure.
February 10, 2009 10 Feb'09
Sectors - NetApp says EMC Centera loses data, gets slapped by blogosphere

NetApp has tried to smear EMC, starting a blogosphere brawl which embroiled Symantec but may have left egg on its face.
February 10, 2009 10 Feb'09
Sectors – NetApp says EMC Centera loses data, gets slapped by blogosphere

NetApp has tried to smear EMC, starting a blogosphere brawl which embroiled Symantec but may have left egg on its face.
February 05, 2009 05 Feb'09
Solid-state cache set to speed up server data access

Vendors are trying to harness read/write capabilities of solid-state cache or flash data cache to smooth PC transfer bottlenecks; Sun looks to lead with cache support in server OS
February 05, 2009 05 Feb'09
ISCSI and SAN interconnections

This WAN overview focuses on how to connect SANs over a distance, as well as storage compatibility and data optimisation.
February 04, 2009 04 Feb'09
Backup priorities: Knowing your environment

Whether your backup environment is small or large, two metrics to examine are the presence of recurring failures and tape drive performance.
February 03, 2009 03 Feb'09
NetApp explains StoreVault deletion

Net App will launch new product bundles for small business in a month, after today deleting its StoreVault products.
February 03, 2009 03 Feb'09
"Sectors" - GDrive details revealed

This week's roundup of storage blogs includes possible details of Google's storage-as-a-service play.
February 02, 2009 02 Feb'09
Server virtualisation and backup

Server virtualisation brings efficiencies but changes the game for backup, putting snapshots, storage infrastructure and licensing issues on the agenda
February 02, 2009 02 Feb'09
Student Loans Company to get payback on IBM SAN implementation

Student Loans Company kicks out HP EVA storage and replaces it with tiered IBM SAN with virtualisation layer and thin provisioning.
January 29, 2009 29 Jan'09
Recovery plans essential for data loss prevention

If you lose a laptop or USB stick that contains sensitive employee data, do you know what to do next?
January 28, 2009 28 Jan'09
A comparison of data deduplication products

This SearchStorageUK data deduplication product guide outlines the key dividing lines between products, including hardware vs. software, source vs. target, inline vs. post-process and the data-reduction algorithm used.
January 28, 2009 28 Jan'09
Three ways to add capacity to an existing environment

Sooner or later, you'll have to increase storage capacity. Will you buy more or stretch your existing systems? Find out your options so you'll be prepared when the time comes.
January 21, 2009 21 Jan'09
How virtualisation affects backups

Server virtualisation presents us with a new problem in the backup arena. How do we capture information, and what strategy do we adopt? SMBs have three main options: Backup at the host level, backup within the virtual machine and backup via snapshot...
January 15, 2009 15 Jan'09
Navigating host bus adapters, zoning and LUNs

When implementing a SAN, you need to watch for pitfalls. Martin Taylor at the Royal Horticultural Society tells you how to navigate HBAs, zoning and LUNs.
January 14, 2009 14 Jan'09
The realities of virtual tape libraries

VTLs are a bit like losing coins in the car: You know they're between the seat and the handbrake, but you can't see them.
January 09, 2009 09 Jan'09
Cisco, Brocade Fibre Channel strategies differ

With two successive quarterly dips in revenue, has Cisco neglected 8 gigabit Fibre Channel and been premature with its FCoE roadmap?
January 08, 2009 08 Jan'09
Documenting backup and storage practices

Most people working in technology know that writing documentation related to the processes that drive backup and storage are the cornerstones of a successful IT environment. However, most of those technology pros don't enjoy documentation and often ...
January 05, 2009 05 Jan'09
Tiered storage steps up its game

Tiered storage that matches data types to Fibre Channel, SATA and SAS disk according to performance needs is rapidly gaining ground as a feature of storage subsystems
January 05, 2009 05 Jan'09
Five hot storage technologies for 2009 (and five flops)

Which storage technologies will make a difference in 2009? And which will disappoint? Read our annual predictions to learn how the future might unfold.
December 16, 2008 16 Dec'08
Service provider hooks up commodity storage with Seanodes

Aenigma, an application hosting and cloud service provider based in London, found Seanodes' hardware-agnostic product more affordable than HP/ LeftHand Networks.
December 15, 2008 15 Dec'08
How to plan for a disaster-free storage Christmas

How to ensure preparedness in storage, backup and disaster recovery for the holidays, when many organisations operate only skeleton storage staff.
December 10, 2008 10 Dec'08
The slow, gradual death of tape

Tape is an amazingly efficient use of data centre space. But it will die off because users decide to stop writing data to tape and put it on disk or optical disks instead.
December 10, 2008 10 Dec'08
For server virtualisation, Microsoft bets against VMotion

In competing against VMware, Microsoft seems to be betting that at the low to middle end of the market, it makes more sense to utilise planned downtime when data migration is necessary instead of paying the additional cost of VMotion or Storage ...
December 09, 2008 09 Dec'08
EMC, Dell renew their vows

EMC and Dell have extended their partnership until 2013, with Dell now also reselling EMC’s Celerra products
December 09, 2008 09 Dec'08
Backups at Christmas

Here are some tips for making sure your backup environment works through the holidays when staffing is at a minimum and your normal backup administrators may not be working.
December 03, 2008 03 Dec'08
Accidental deletion of virtualised data soaring

IT staff are losing track of virtual machines and inadvertently erasing data, according to a data recovery firm.
December 01, 2008 01 Dec'08
"Sectors"

SearchStorage ANZ Editor Simon Sharwood tracks down storage news and views from around the web - updated with free book offer!
November 28, 2008 28 Nov'08
Spectrum dusts off old tape drive to help Astronauts

NASA has turned to a Perth company to recover data from Apollo 11's moon dust sensor.
November 27, 2008 27 Nov'08
How to get the most from thin provisioning your storage

Thin provisioning lets you share storage space that's allocated but unused. The savings come about because you need fewer disks because you're wasting less of them.
November 27, 2008 27 Nov'08
New SNIA ANZ chair revealed

The Storage Networking Industry Association for Australia and New Zealand has announced its new Chair.
November 24, 2008 24 Nov'08
Why are EMC, HP and IBM so tentative about clustered NAS filers?

The biggest storage vendors obviously see a huge opportunity in the rise of unstructured data. Yet for some reason, they're not taking aim at the leaders in HPC and clustered filer storage market, DataDirect Networks and Isilon.
November 24, 2008 24 Nov'08
Reliance Australia relies on tape for future archival needs

Water valve company Reliance Australia has adopted a new tape library to preserve its LTO-x collection.
November 20, 2008 20 Nov'08
Australian Catholic University plans realtime disk backup over the WAN

AARNet's gigabit speed network will make it possible for the Australian Catholic University to use realtime disk-to-disk backup.
November 19, 2008 19 Nov'08
How to evaluate and purchase a SAN

The Royal Horticultural Society's network manager Martin Taylor guides users through the process of evaluating and purchasing a SAN.
November 18, 2008 18 Nov'08
Buying too much hardware is a mistake, especially when it comes to tape drives

Some storage environments buy too many tape drives because their backups aren't finishing in time. Others buy too many drives for the amount of data they're backing up. Either way, a lot of hardware on the floor goes unused.
November 18, 2008 18 Nov'08
Seven free or open source backup tools

Looking for some new backup software? On a budget? This review of seven free and/or open source backup tools could be what you need!
November 14, 2008 14 Nov'08
SNIA ANZ Chairman steps aside

A change of career means change at SNIA.
November 13, 2008 13 Nov'08
Gartner's vision for the future of storage

Gartner's Dave Russel says FCoE may be slow to emerge, in this Q&A with editor Simon Sharwood.
November 12, 2008 12 Nov'08
Police force recruits CommVault for centralised backup

Devon & Cornwall Police found its previous backup supplier guilty of poor support and licencing chaos when its backup system became unreliable and time-consuming to manage.
November 12, 2008 12 Nov'08
Sun places big bet on open storage arrays

Sun is betting that its bargain-priced open source, multiprotocol arrays will kickstart the open storage revolution. The "pile it high and sell it cheap" strategy worked in retail. It's working in servers. Will it work in storage?
November 10, 2008 10 Nov'08
Host-based replication vs. array-based replication for backup and disaster recovery

When creating remote replicas for business continuity, the decision to deploy a host- or a storage-based solution depends on the platform being replicated and the applications.
November 05, 2008 05 Nov'08
Core Blimey -- Do we still need edge switches?

While the average SAN is rapidly growing in size, the percentage of SAN fabrics that measure hundreds of ports still remains small. The days of the core-edge fabric for large enterprises may be numbered.
October 30, 2008 30 Oct'08
Taxi firm hails email archiving savings from Mimosa NearPoint

Learn how Addison Lee contained Microsoft Exchange server sprawl and shortened backup windows by choosing Mimosa NearPoint email archiving.
October 30, 2008 30 Oct'08
How to select a storage reseller

Experienced storage pros share advice on how to find the right storage reseller for your storage project.
October 29, 2008 29 Oct'08
Three ways to backup and restore under VMware

Backing up a virtualised environment is tricky - but we have three ways to make it work!
October 28, 2008 28 Oct'08
SNIA: Recovery is more important than backup

SNIA's Chairman Jacob Van der Eyk explains the organisation's belief that continuous data protection has a lot to offer storage users.
October 27, 2008 27 Oct'08
How long until backups are just a nearline copy?

Many organizations that have deployed server virtualization will invest in new backup processes in order to avoid a technology refresh.
October 27, 2008 27 Oct'08
How to create an email archiving and retention policy

Every business needs an email retention and archiving policy. We explain how to start developing this important strategy.
October 24, 2008 24 Oct'08
OEM relationship between Dell and EMC coming to an end

(Opinion) With Dell's Clariion sales decline and the building blocks that Dell's PS engineers could use, it's only a matter of time before the Dell-EMC OEM relationship ends.
October 24, 2008 24 Oct'08
Users wary after Plasmon buyout threatens headquarters move to US

UK users of Plasmon optical archiving products are wondering how the company's buyout and rumored move to the US will affect their product support.
October 22, 2008 22 Oct'08
For storage vendors and storage users, recession = retrenchment

In a recession, storage suppliers should be focussing on how they can deliver real savings. Storage users should spend to cut existing costs rather than investing to earn more money in the future.
October 21, 2008 21 Oct'08
Determining the fan-out ratio: Port queue depth, IOPS and throughput

Determining the optimum number of hosts that a storage administrator should connect per storage port is more complicated than it seems.
October 21, 2008 21 Oct'08
IBM hopes third party SoFS interest grows

Got a few million files? Then IBM has a file system for you, and hopes that third party backup software vendors see the value of its massive scalability.
October 17, 2008 17 Oct'08
User reports dedupe ratios of up to 450:1 at Storage Expo

Associated Newspapers and CB Richard Ellis make significant deduplication gains using Data Domain and FalconStor data deduplication products
October 16, 2008 16 Oct'08
Configuration, provisioning storage skills in short supply on VMware projects

According to users at Storage Expo, the key challenge for many storage managers today may be ensuring that their storage engineers know how to configure and provision storage for a virtualised server environment.
October 13, 2008 13 Oct'08
How to troubleshoot Exchange server backups and restores

Having trouble managing Exchange Server backup and restore? We explain the most common problems and how to fix them.
October 10, 2008 10 Oct'08
Evaluating Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and Ethernet protocols for network virtualisation

Chris Mellor judges the three candidate protocols for a converged data centre networking platform: Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and Ethernet.
October 09, 2008 09 Oct'08
Britannia gets 40:1 data reduction in DR site move via double dedupe

Building society dedupes deduped data at disaster recovery site and achieves deduplication ratios of up to 40:1.
October 09, 2008 09 Oct'08
Is solid state disk reliable?

Part two of our solid state feature looks at the reliability of solid state drives and their role in enterprise storage.