News

Storage

• September 10, 2008 10 Sep'08

  SSDs no silver bullet for server hard drive I/O problems

  Servers won't be able to exploit the speed of solid state drives without operating system modifications. Standards are also needed.

• September 04, 2008 04 Sep'08

  FIRST LOOK: Google Chrome

  Google's Chrome browser arrived yesterday. TechTarget ANZ Editor Simon Sharwood spent several hours working in the browser and filed this assessment.

• September 03, 2008 03 Sep'08

  Systems administrators make the best SAN administrators

  Learn why systems administrators were the first SAN administrators, and why systems admins are often the best SAN admins.

• September 03, 2008 03 Sep'08

  3PAR CEO: Storage needs to become a utility

  3PAR CEO David Scott says that storage giants EMC, HDS and NetApp are unprepared for utility computing and virtualisation.

• September 03, 2008 03 Sep'08

  Call centre operator seeks 25-year archive

  The call centre operator charged with providing a national health care service is looking for an archive that can store audio files for 25 years.

• September 02, 2008 02 Sep'08

  REVIEW: FreeNAS

  Ian Yates reviews FreeNAS, a cut of open source operating system FreeBSD that turns old PCs or servers into network attached storage appliances.

• August 27, 2008 27 Aug'08

  Deduplication helps firm expand data centre into two hot sites

  CMC Markets achieves data reduction averaging 15:1 as part of live replication project using Data Domain deduplication hardware.

• August 27, 2008 27 Aug'08

  Despite what you've heard, flash notebook era hasn't begun yet

  Even though notebook makers are starting to incorporate SSDs, the real flash notebook era won't begin until we have faster Windows boot times and flash costs drop significantly.

• August 27, 2008 27 Aug'08

  Storage security ignored, says SNIA security lead

  The Chair of SNIA's Security Technical Working Group says that security professionals don't understand how to make storage a part of a defence-in-depth strategy.

• August 26, 2008 26 Aug'08

  Sydney school reinvents its backup regimes

  IT staff at Sydney's Macarthur Anglican School share the challenge of managing some very important data, explain how narrow their backup window has become and share their new backup regime.

• August 25, 2008 25 Aug'08

  Five ways to create a more efficient backup infrastructure

  Learn how to optimize your backup infrastructure.

• August 19, 2008 19 Aug'08

  Thin provisioning makes server virtualisation more efficient

  In recent years, server virtualisation has probably had the single largest impact on storage. Organisations have moved a high percentage of direct attach storage servers to a consolidated virtual environment, with NAS storage or a SAN to support it.

• August 19, 2008 19 Aug'08

  Making the move from tape backup to disk backup

  The industry is moving from tape-based backup to disk-based protection. Here's how to plan your own transition to the brave new world!

• August 19, 2008 19 Aug'08

  ISP boosts storage with NetApp buy

  Perth ISP Westnet turned to NetApp to help it cope with growth.

• August 13, 2008 13 Aug'08

  Storage vendors' earnings show array makers healthiest

  (Opinion) -- More than 40 storage vendors have reported their quarterly results in the past month or so, and a picture is emerging of companies that are in Olympics-style shape at one end of the scale and intensive care ward occupants at the other. ...

• August 12, 2008 12 Aug'08

  A backup administrator should never be a single point of failure

  Many companies with longtime gurus as their backup administrators fall into the problem of becoming completely dependent on them. Such companies need to either hire some low-level techicians to grow into the guru's role, or clone the guru.

• August 08, 2008 08 Aug'08

  Clariion array update blurs line between EMC platforms

  A bigger, faster Clariion with advanced features, which first appeared in the Symmetrix line, has industry observers wondering about the increasing overlap between EMC systems.

• August 08, 2008 08 Aug'08

  Pivot3 consolidates physical servers onto storage arrays

  Pivot3's IP SAN offers Serverless Computing, which eliminates the need for application servers by running them as guests on its storage arrays.

• August 07, 2008 07 Aug'08

  SaaS provider turns to Atempo Live Backup for laptop backup

  Managed service provider Adept4 chose Live Backup to provide remote continuous data protection for customers' laptops, and because its bare metal restore feature let them offer a disaster recovery service.

• August 05, 2008 05 Aug'08

  Open source backup tool adds support for Windows, Oracle

  Zmanda's open source backup tool now covers Windows and Oracle, at a very attractive price indeed!

• August 04, 2008 04 Aug'08

  SSDs making inroads into enterprise computing

  For now, vendors are promoting SSDs as a Tier 0 of storage, a place to store the data that an application must access most frequently. Since this is work that might otherwise be done by 10,000 or 15,000 RPM FC, SCSI or SAS drives, in a sense SSDs ...

• August 04, 2008 04 Aug'08

  ACTEW/AGL drops NetBackup, opts for CommVault

  Canberra utility ACTEW AGL has changed backup software provider, with Symantec losing out to CommVault.

• August 03, 2008 03 Aug'08

  iPhone plans for business

  Techtarget ANZ's Richard Chirgwin has compiled the definitive breakdown of iPhone plans. His verdict? Consumer plans are far better than the business offerings, leaving would-be business users with tricky choices.

• August 01, 2008 01 Aug'08

  A good backup horror story can make you a better backup administrator

  Broad IT skill sets are fine. But to truly be an exceptional backup administrator, one must have survived a nightmarish backup experience.

• July 31, 2008 31 Jul'08

  EMC Clariion array gets major refresh with SSDs and thin provisioning

  EMC's Clariion CX-4 will include support for flash SSDs, thin provisioning, disk spindown, and an architecture for mixing Fibre Channel and iSCSI.

• July 30, 2008 30 Jul'08

  NetApp dedupes data on rivals' primary storage

  NetApp extends its free data deduplication to its V-Series gateways, making it possible for its customers to dedupe their primary storage. But users say what's missing is a GUI and data dedupe for VTLs.

• July 30, 2008 30 Jul'08

  Storage pros' jobs should be safe during economic downturn

  With storage skills at a premium and the volumes of data growing, storage professionals should be more secure in their jobs than colleagues with more general IT expertise.

• July 28, 2008 28 Jul'08

  With server virtualisation, storage often suffers

  Many companies are finding that after they jump on the server virtualisation bandwagon that the wheels are falling off and that their storage isn't working like it did before.

• July 28, 2008 28 Jul'08

  3PAR shrinks virtual desktop storage

  3PAR's software package allows users of its high-end disk arrays to store a single "golden image" of virtual desktops and hold that image in cache for better boot performance.

• July 24, 2008 24 Jul'08

  To manage your backup load, identify your data

  In an ever more pressurised IT world, where data grows exponentially year on year, do we really know what data we are securing every day, week or month? Even more pertinent, do we know what data we are retaining?

• July 24, 2008 24 Jul'08

  Melbourne company creates filesystem, storage appliance for video production industry

  A Melboure company has used RAID controllers, JBODs and a new filesystem of its own devising to offer an alternative to the high-end NAS and SANs used in digital video production.

• July 23, 2008 23 Jul'08

  EMC's cloud lost in fog of "governmental sensitivities"

  Legal issues associated with management of cross-border data flows are slowing EMC's storage-as-a-service push.

• July 23, 2008 23 Jul'08

  Legal issues slowing storage-as-a-service rollouts

  Storage-as-a-service may be stymied by cross-border privacy laws.

• July 17, 2008 17 Jul'08

  ILM diary: Time to select the file archiving supplier

  Lundbeck's ILM project reaches vendor selection stage, which means bringing in outside expertise and discovering that formulating questions for prospective suppliers is not always as easy as one might think.

• July 17, 2008 17 Jul'08

  CommVault/Yosemite combo brings order to chaotic backup environment

  To deal with a diverse backup environment, IT services group Tribal Consulting implements a combination of CommVault's Simpana software suite to carry out its main backup duties, and FileKeeper from Yosemite Software for the laptops of its remote ...

• July 16, 2008 16 Jul'08

  Melbourne Council outsources disaster recovery

  Max Giordano, IT Manager for the City of Whittlesea, explains why he took the decision to outsouce disaster recovery.

• July 15, 2008 15 Jul'08

  Melbourne's City of Whittlesea outsources its disaster recovery

  A Melbourne Council has dumped backup software vendor CommVault, adopted outsourced disaster recovery and saved half a million dollars over three years.

• July 14, 2008 14 Jul'08

  What are the costs of changing your backup application?

  Come budget time, every manager is forced to look at where the capital siphons are and decide how to decrease those costs for the next year. More times than not, the team responsible for maintaining the backup infrastructure is one of the biggest ...

• July 10, 2008 10 Jul'08

  FCoE no threat to iSCSI SAN makers, says LeftHand exec

  Larry Cormier, vice president of worldwide marketing for LeftHand Networks, explains why FCoE is not a threat and why iSCSI SANs may be the killer app for server virtualisation.

• July 08, 2008 08 Jul'08

  The bigger the SAN, the greater the risk it will crumble

  When a SAN grows out of control, the SAN administrator can feel like they're caught in a web of switches and fibre devices.

• July 07, 2008 07 Jul'08

  Start-up saves shekels with software-based iSCSI SAN

  To support its VMware environment, Alchemy Plus deployed Datacore's SANmelody iSCSI SAN, a software-based storage product, after deciding that the other storage products it was considering were cost-prohibitive.

• July 03, 2008 03 Jul'08

  Managing virtual hard disks in Hyper-V

  This tip covers the different types of VHDs in Hyper-V and explains how to work with them using Management Console, virtual hard disk wizard and other Hyper-V tools.

• July 03, 2008 03 Jul'08

  University opts for Stormagic software iSCSI SAN

  When direct-attached storage at the University of Liverpool started causing throughput issues, the university opted for an iSCSI SAN from StorMagic iSCSI.

• July 02, 2008 02 Jul'08

  Ten considerations for email archiving - Part 2

  We conclude our piece on ten email archiving considerations, with considerations six through ten!

• July 02, 2008 02 Jul'08

  Friction grows between storage vendors, VMware

  As the booming server virtualisation market spawns new competitors to VMware, how virtual machines connect with storage is becoming a matter of contention among vendors.

• July 02, 2008 02 Jul'08

  Business continuity means more than just securing your data

  When it comes to disaster recovery, data is only one aspect of the entire business continuity framework.

• July 01, 2008 01 Jul'08

  Ten considerations for email archiving - Part 1

  Email archiving products vary in their features and technical structures. Here's how to select an archiving tool that's a good fit for your company's needs.

• June 30, 2008 30 Jun'08

  Comic Relief chooses Compellent SAN for tiering, provisioning features

  After its existing SAN infrastructure hit a wall, charity opts for Compellent Technologies SAN for its data tiering and thin provisioning provisioning features. You could say that Red Nose Day goes green.

• June 26, 2008 26 Jun'08

  UK storage admins eye data deduplication to shrink backup windows, but remain wary

  Users need to speed up backups and are eyeing data deduplication to shrink their backup windows, but some wonder if dedupe fits their data profile.

• June 23, 2008 23 Jun'08

  Council sticks with IBM for £150,000 SAN project

  Dumfries and Galloway council opts for IBM SAN to support 50% cut in server numbers enabled by government-funded broadband connections to 150 remote offices.

• June 23, 2008 23 Jun'08

  When should hard drive capacity be part of the purchasing equation?

  When it comes to purchasing disc drives for consolidated storage, a key question is whether the additional benefits of the best currently available products are justified. Or are they an unnecessary expense?

• June 19, 2008 19 Jun'08

  National Library of Wales chooses optical disk media for digital archive

  With its digital archive growing at a rate of 2 to 3 TB annually, the National Library of Wales chooses Plasmon ultra-density optical media for long-term storage of data.

• June 16, 2008 16 Jun'08

  Unified NAS storage plugs business continuity leaks for water company

  A utility overhauls its storage infrastructure as part of a disaster recovery initiative, and by deploying NetApp NAS filers in lieu of tape backup, reduces data recovery times from a week to just minutes.

• June 16, 2008 16 Jun'08

  How server virtualisation reduces the need for backups

  Server virtualisation is not only changing the role of backup in the enterprise, it is also responsible for the traditional backup function moving down the priority order for IT organisations.

• June 12, 2008 12 Jun'08

  Copan CEO: Putting spindown on disk arrays isn't MAID

  Mark Ward, CEO of Copan, isn't worried about EMC or HDS offering technology similar to Copan's MAID because, he says, layering spindown onto traditional disk arrays is like putting lipstick on a pig.

• June 09, 2008 09 Jun'08

  Hull university turns to BridgeHead archiving software in tiered storage move

  The University of Hull implements archiving software from BridgeHead as part of a 25-year data lifecycle plan driven by green storage policy to lower the TCO of storing data.

• June 05, 2008 05 Jun'08

  Pharma firm sets out on ILM journey to shrink backup windows, classify data

  An IT infrastructure designer begins a diary of his company's implementation of ILM and its plans for data classification and archiving to curtail growing data volumes, reduce backup windows and improve data retention.

• June 04, 2008 04 Jun'08

  How much data protection do mirror copies provide?

  Do mirror copies of data and snapshots provide all the data protection offered by backup products?

• June 02, 2008 02 Jun'08

  Not so much storage in IBM's UK storage roadmap

  IBM storage UK chief strategy officer Mark Vargo discusses IBM's storage roadmap for the UK and how its goal is to reduce the amount of data that busineses store.

• May 29, 2008 29 May'08

  How to buy an entry-level iSCSI SAN

  Has your small business reached the point at which it needs a SAN? If so, this guide to simple SANs will make it easier to navigate your first purchase.

• May 28, 2008 28 May'08

  Only one way to know how restores will perform: Complete them

  Backups are only done for recovery, but when we are targeted against a backup success rate, it's easy to lose sight of that. Most backup environments are designed to place as much data to tape as possible in as short a time as possible. But will a ...

• May 23, 2008 23 May'08

  Managed services provider adopts Dell EqualLogic

  Secure hosting company manageNET has adopted EqualLogic product to support its move into virtualised hosting.

• May 22, 2008 22 May'08

  UPDATE - EMC reveals new backup lineup AND document management plans

  EMC has announced a raft of new backup hardware, and a refresh of its document management plans.

• May 21, 2008 21 May'08

  Storage on demand deal helps Barclays meet green storage targets

  HDS to supply storage on demand for Barclays' new datacentre as bank seeks to boost utilisation and sidestep power and cooling constraints.

• May 20, 2008 20 May'08

  Old tape libraries never die -- someone needs the data

  Bertha was my first big tape library. I had complete authority over the backup system that sent her little tasks, and total responsibility for correcting her numerous fibre card problems.

• May 15, 2008 15 May'08

  What is Thin Provisioning and why does it matter

  Up tp 50% of storage goes un-used. Thin provisioning lets you allocate storage more dynamically, saving money and ensuring the storage you bought gets used.

• May 14, 2008 14 May'08

  Partial backups are a success. . .aren't they?

  We've been led to believe that a backup that completes with a partial success is a success. And in terms of the backup application it is. But in real terms it is not. A partial success is a backup which is in fact not 100% successful, meaning that ...

• May 14, 2008 14 May'08

  Storage channel set for 'momentous changes,' says analyst

  A possible economic slowdown may lead to IT projects being delayed or even abandoned, but storage and virtualisation projects will not be affected.

• May 12, 2008 12 May'08

  D2D2T plan helps council slash backup window

  When Shepway council's legacy backup software could not scale to protect a growing number of servers, the council implented Bakbone software as part of a D2D2T strategy that also allowed it to slash the duration of its backup window.

• May 09, 2008 09 May'08

  Rein in NAS with file virtualisation

  File virtualisation can reduce storage TCO and increase availability, as we explain in this feature on the technique.

• May 08, 2008 08 May'08

  O'Neill rides data deduplication wave with Data Domain storage arrays

  Surfwear manufacturer cuts backup times from 14 hours to two and slashes restores as it implements D2D2T with Data Domain appliances across European sites.

• May 07, 2008 07 May'08

  Why cross charging for backup can be tricky

  Disk storage is a good starting point for cross charging, but cross charging for backup carries risks. Finding the right balance between too little chargeback or too much is critical.

• May 06, 2008 06 May'08

  The State of Continuous Data Protection

  Continuous data protection is one of the latest backup tools, yet few understand how it fits in with other products ... until they read this guide!

• May 06, 2008 06 May'08

  Bulky backups spur Council to consolidate, centralise

  Local authority's move to centralised backups and a mixed NAS/SAN storage infrastructure results in faster, more efficient backups because less backup traffic goes over the network than before.

• May 01, 2008 01 May'08

  SNIA: Expect XAM products by late 2008

  Products based on the eXtensible Access Method spec, which addresses long-term data retention and migration issues, will be available by year-end. SNIA's Wayne Adams expects XAM to unlock the CAS market, but will also find application in enterprise ...

• April 30, 2008 30 Apr'08

  Encryption and off-site tape storage

  Glasshouse Technologies (UK) consultant Brian Sakovitch says it makes more fiscal sense to encrypt tape than to eliminate tape. But encryption is not as easy as vendors would have you believe. There are cost implications, performance issues and ...

• April 28, 2008 28 Apr'08

  Tape vs. disk: how to calculate the cheapest option

  Tape vs. disk is about more than dollars. Here's how to make your choice based on the value of your data, rather than the value of equipment.

• April 23, 2008 23 Apr'08

  Separating storage networking marketing from reality

  SearchStorageUK writer takes one of SNIA's storage networking courses and learns about SAN, NAS and how to avoid storage vendor lock-in.

• April 18, 2008 18 Apr'08

  FalconStor CDR thrashes IBM at fee-paying school

  Bradford Grammar School implements real-time protection of vital data, choosing FalconStor continuous data replication over competing products from IBM and Neverfail.

• April 18, 2008 18 Apr'08

  3Com's SAN push stalls

  3Com's plan to push into storage has stalled, with localisation of its SAN on the back burner.

• April 18, 2008 18 Apr'08

  Optimising iSCSI SANs with the right Ethernet switch

  iSCI SANS are now within the reach of many small businesses. Here's how to make sure the SAN works best, by optimising the supporting network.

• April 16, 2008 16 Apr'08

  Second EqualLogic SAN for London publisher

  Ink Publishing set to deploy disaster recovery site with second EqualLogic SAN bought at £18,000 off list price. Also plans VMWare project and SANs at overseas offices

• April 16, 2008 16 Apr'08

  Backup window traps

  Backup windows are getting longer and longer as companies generate more data to be backed up. Add in maintenance work and there's a good chance your environment will not be ready by start of business.

• April 15, 2008 15 Apr'08

  Melbourne Health consolidates 1000 DAT tapes into a single database

  Melbourne Health has created new infrastructure to manage medical images

• April 14, 2008 14 Apr'08

  Fire service replaces Windows backup with more reliable tool

  South Yorkshire fire service replaced its WIndows backup environment with a more reliable product from Yosemite, but it's missing support for Oracle.

• April 11, 2008 11 Apr'08

  CommVault boosts Simpana e-discovery and data reduction

  CommVault's first service pack for Simpana 7.0 includes e-discovery updates and new integration between replication and file-level single instancing.

• April 11, 2008 11 Apr'08

  Xiotech and Atrato forge self-healing storage market

  New disk array designs use sealed components, resulting in storage systems that may not need servicing for five years or more.

• April 11, 2008 11 Apr'08

  IBM: roadmap for data dedupe, thin prov, SSDs and MAID

  IBM's storage general manager and chief technical strategist provide clues to IBM's storage roadmap in data deduplication, thin provisioning, solid-state disks and MAID.

• April 11, 2008 11 Apr'08

  Tape has soul

  In the cupboard under the stairs is my VHS machine. It chewed up the last two cassettes I attempted to play on it (about 6 years ago). So with an odd assortment of tapes it remains there gathering dust. But for some nostalgic reason I haven't thrown...

• April 09, 2008 09 Apr'08

  The AA saves £34 million a year with NetApp iSCSI SAN

  Car breakdown service, The AA swaps out EMC and HP/Compaq Fibre Channel SAN for NetApp iSCSI storage, halving IT costs and slashing storage staff from 16 to one.

• April 09, 2008 09 Apr'08

  Cisco buys Nuova and launches FCoE-compliant switch

  Cisco buys subsidiary Nuova Systems and pushes out its first Fibre Channel over Etherent (FCoE) switch; QLogic, Emulex and Intel also launch FCoE products.

• April 09, 2008 09 Apr'08

  Xiotech unveils self-healing storage systems at SNW

  Xiotech's Emprise storage systems use a proprietary technology to reduce heat and vibration. Xiotech claims that an Emprise system will incur zero service events over five years.

• April 09, 2008 09 Apr'08

  EMC to buy Iomega

  Capping weeks of rumours, EMC has announced it is acquiring Iomega.

• April 09, 2008 09 Apr'08

  EMC pockets Iomega to create consumer storage division

  After chasing its consumer storage partner for two weeks EMC has finally acquired Iomega and its strong consumer channels for about $213 million (£106.5m).

• April 08, 2008 08 Apr'08

  SNW Roundup: Sun adds data deduplication to VTL

  Sun comes out with VTL Prime, a virtual tape library with FalconStor's data deduplication; Attune gets into file archiving; and SGI, Fujitsu and Dot Hill launch storage systems.

• April 08, 2008 08 Apr'08

  Storage power in the data centre

  The energy and power consumed by storage systems, especially backups is starting to raise some eyebrows in the data centre.

• April 07, 2008 07 Apr'08

  Law firm set to climb email compliance mountain

  Michelmores plans to implement email compliance, document management and inter-site replication following successful Hitachi SAN deployment.

• April 07, 2008 07 Apr'08

  Isilon reveals turnaround plan

  Clustered storage vendor vows to continue to spend on product development, sales and marketing, despite losing nearly $27 million (£13.5m) in its first year as public company.

• April 03, 2008 03 Apr'08

  Nimbus adds solid state to 10 GigE iSCSI NAS systems

  Nimbus Data expands 10 Gigabit Ethernet capability and adds solid-state drives to IP storage systems that support iSCSI, NFS and CIFS.

• April 03, 2008 03 Apr'08

  UK debut for storage compression appliance

  Ocarina claims a tenfold reduction of file data on primary storage. Alpha-testing UK photo sharing site set to put appliance into production