News

Storage

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
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 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 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
How to select a storage reseller

Experienced storage pros share advice on how to find the right storage reseller for your storage project.

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 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
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 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 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
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 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 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.
October 07, 2008 07 Oct'08
IT distributor upgrades its storage... twice!

Sydney IT distributor Distribution Central explains its rocky upgrade path from DAS to NAS and beyond.
October 06, 2008 06 Oct'08
Streamlining storage processes will help admins survive economic crisis

Things are going to get tough for storage professionals. However, the rate of data growth is still increasing and the requirements for data compliance aren't going to change. The bottom line is that to survive, storage administrators must become ...
October 06, 2008 06 Oct'08
Council opts for tiered Compellent SAN to cut staff and power costs

Hillingdon borough replaces Sun SAN with Compellent mixed FC/SATA arrays.
September 29, 2008 29 Sep'08
How to select the proper backup reporting tool

Backup reporting tools can show a backup administrator how the backup environment is actually performing, rather than relying on perceived performance. But how does one select the proper reporting tool?
September 25, 2008 25 Sep'08
Storage array makers not following EMC's lead on flash solid state drives

Storage array manufacturers are copycats, except when it comes to flash solid state drives. In this area, storage array makers haven't yet followed the innovator, EMC. Why?
September 25, 2008 25 Sep'08
Brocade SAN data migration helps Council dodge WEEE

The WEEE waste directive hindered Surrey Council from adding SAN capacity. Brocade's Data Migration Manager helped it re-use IBM kit and avoid time-consuming LAN-based copy methods.
September 19, 2008 19 Sep'08
How to avoid a data deduplication fiasco

If a storage administrator doesn't have a solid understanding of data deduplication, there's a good chance the deployment of this technology will be a wasted one.
September 19, 2008 19 Sep'08
REVIEW: Sun OpenSolaris for storage

Sun says its OpenSolaris is an ideal storage platform. Tory Skyers installed it and found it capable, but needing plenty of experience to get results.
September 18, 2008 18 Sep'08
NHS trust treats DAS sprawl with FalconStor/Nexsan iSCSI SAN

An iSCSI-based SAN helps an NHS Trust to connect 100 sites to two mirrored datacentres, resolving a difficult situation of data growth as well as the problem of managing DAS at the 100 remote locations.
September 17, 2008 17 Sep'08
The end of storage virtualisation?

Is "classical" storage virtualisation still relevant?
September 16, 2008 16 Sep'08
Healthcare trust tackles backup malady with D2D2T

Wolverhampton PCT bins Symantec Backup Exec and Microsoft NT Backup and opts for Bakbone Netvault: Backup in a D2D2T move that sees it slash backup windows and management time.
September 16, 2008 16 Sep'08
More SAN capacity is not always better

Focusing on the storage capacity an environment needs, rather than how you might go about presenting that capacity or how the application will use it, is a recipe for disaster.
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.