Computer storage hardware

E-Zine 09 Mar 2023
CW EMEA: How Sweden is accelerating digitisation

Large conglomerates with diverse business portfolios face challenges when digitally transforming because one size cer-tainly doesn’t fit all. In this month’s CW EMEA, we find out how Richard Ventre, group CIO at Dutch company SHV Holdings, goes about ensuring his IT department pro-vides the foundations for a wide variety of businesses to thrive digitally. We also find out how to make the most of a composable enterprise architecture and how green storage can deliver savings if done right. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
E-Zine 12 Nov 2020
CW Benelux: Dutch Alzheimer’s app helps dementia patients

An app aimed at helping dementia patients and their families has been developed by the Alzheimer Society in the Netherlands. Also in this issue, read about a Belgian startup's app based on blockchain technology to help container handling at ports, and why Rabobank ditched its legacy backup. Continue Reading

Podcast 23 Jul 2024

Podcast: Sustainable data storage and how to achieve it

We talk to NetApp’s Grant Caley about data storage energy needs and how they can be reduced by use of QLC flash, efficient datacentre hardware and putting data on the right media Continue Reading
News 22 Jul 2024

CrowdStrike chaos shows risks of concentrated ‘big IT’

The concentration of so much mission-critical technology in the hands of a few large suppliers makes incidents like the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage all the more dangerous Continue Reading
Feature 19 Jul 2024

Interview: Nvidia on AI workload demands and storage performance

We talk to Charlie Boyle of Nvidia about AI impacts on storage I/O, key performance metrics for storage for AI, and storage attributes required across differing AI workloads Continue Reading
Feature 18 Jul 2024

Kubernetes at 10: From stateless also-ran to ‘platform to build platforms’

Sergey Pronin of Percona was all for ‘Kubernetes for stateless’ at a time when it was hard to provision storage and day-two services – then Operators and Stateful Sets came along Continue Reading
Definition 16 Jul 2024

JEDEC

JEDEC is a global industry group that develops open standards for microelectronics. Continue Reading
News 16 Jul 2024

Cloud spend trumps AI but data, security and cost a common headache

Nasuni-sponsored survey finds cloud projects higher on the to do list than AI, but data management, security and cost reduction are common themes in all areas of investment Continue Reading
Feature 15 Jul 2024

Cloud repatriation: What it is and when you can benefit

We look at the growing trend of cloud repatriation, why organisations repatriate data, the pros and cons, who can most benefit, and how to decide which data to move Continue Reading
Feature 11 Jul 2024

Kubernetes at 10: When K8s ‘won’ and life now as a ‘surly teenager’

We talk to Datastax’s Patrick McFadin about Kubernetes’ success against competitors and how StatefulSet and operators solved key challenges, but why there are still obstacles to clear Continue Reading
Feature 09 Jul 2024

Hybrid cloud storage vs on-premise: What data goes where?

We look at hybrid cloud in storage strategy, key benefits of the cloud vs on-premise storage, key workloads that suit the cloud and how to decide which workloads work best where Continue Reading
Feature 09 Jul 2024

Deep dive: How Pure Fusion plans to implement storage classes

We spoke to Pure Storage founder John ‘Coz’ Colgrove about how Pure Storage’s Fusion control plane will make its capacity available to applications via pre-defined storage classes Continue Reading
News 09 Jul 2024

Fewer than half of organisations achieve GenAI efficiency gains

Research finds that many organisations lack the IT infrastructure needed to deploy generative AI applications Continue Reading
News 09 Jul 2024

Tony’s Chocolonely gains Salesforce comfort with Own SaaS backup

Tony’s Chocolonely sometimes lost Salesforce.com data and often hit storage limits, but cloud-to-cloud SaaS backup from Own allows it to easily recover customer data and archive old data Continue Reading
News 08 Jul 2024

Synnovis attack highlights degraded, outdated state of NHS IT

More cyber attacks against the health service are likely, and will succeed if something isn’t done to address the increasingly elderly NHS IT estate, experts are warning Continue Reading
News 02 Jul 2024

Interview: Nvidia on AI workloads and their impacts on data storage

We talk to Charlie Boyle of Nvidia about data challenges in artificial intelligence, key practical tips for AI projects, and demands on storage of training, inferencing, RAG and checkpointing Continue Reading
Podcast 28 Jun 2024

Podcast: Storage for AI needs scale, hybrid cloud and multiple integrations

We talk to NetApp’s Grant Caley about AI and data storage, the need for scale, performance and hybrid cloud, and to move, copy and clone data for wrangling for inference runs Continue Reading
Feature 25 Jun 2024

Kubernetes at 10: Building stateful app storage and data protection

Google engineer Michelle Au was involved in Kubernetes storage early, as the container orchestration platform was developed to support data protection operations such as snapshots Continue Reading
E-Zine 25 Jun 2024

A revolution in space

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to astronaut Tim Peake about the imminent revolution in space tech and what it means for IT leaders. AI is set to transform the movie industry – we hear from the producers of the latest Mad Max film about how it’s already changed the process for them. And we find out about plans for Neom, the Saudi Arabian smart city in the desert. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
Feature 24 Jun 2024

Pure’s storage as a service: We can offer what others can’t

All-flash storage vendor Pure makes bold claims about subscription pricing for storage, stating that the competition can’t offer what it can because its arrays are built for non-disruptive upgrades Continue Reading
Definition 17 Jun 2024

bad block

A bad block is an area of storage media that is no longer reliable for storing and retrieving data because it has been physically damaged or corrupted. Continue Reading
Definition 12 Jun 2024

erasure coding (EC)

Erasure coding (EC) is a method of data protection in which data is broken into fragments, expanded and encoded with redundant data pieces, and stored across a set of different locations or storage media. Continue Reading
Feature 11 Jun 2024

Kubernetes at 10: Persistent storage matures, helped by Operators

Google engineer Saad Ali remembers the early days of Kubernetes, the storage challenges faced and overcome, and the revolution in application awareness that comes from Operators Continue Reading
News 11 Jun 2024

Nuclear waste body cuts energy use by 20% as Pure replaces HPE

French nuclear waste agency Andra has cut storage energy use by 20% and strengthened its disaster recovery capabilities by deploying Pure Storage and 10-year controller upgrades Continue Reading
Definition 07 Jun 2024

memristor

A memristor is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in a circuit and remembers the amount of charge that has previously flowed through it. Continue Reading
Feature 06 Jun 2024

Storage technology explained: Key questions about tape storage

We look at the benefits of tape storage – low cost, inherent security, excellent energy efficiency – the workloads it is best for, and how tape fits a wider storage strategy Continue Reading
News 04 Jun 2024

Mad Max production company gets Dell PowerScale to leverage generative AI

One supplier enters, one supplier leaves: Australian film production company replaces HPE with Dell storage and compute as it leverages GenAI Continue Reading
News 03 Jun 2024

Dell launches PowerStore Prime and hints at PowerScale AI boost

Array range launched at Dell World 2024 in Las Vegas as PowerScale gets OS upgrade and new Intel Xeon CPUs, while Dell CEO hints at acceleration for PowerScale NAS Continue Reading
Feature 29 May 2024

Storage technology explained: File, block and object storage

We ask the key questions about file, block and object storage: how they work on-premise and in the cloud, global file systems, and file and object locking Continue Reading
News 28 May 2024

Executive Interview: Why Dell wants to be your one-stop AI shop

At Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town as Dell staked out an all-encompassing strategy ahead of an anticipated goldrush. Dell’s Nick Brackney explains why the tech giant believes it's onto a winner Continue Reading
News 26 May 2024

Nutanix beefs up AHV hypervisor, doubles down on AI

Nutanix takes aim at VMware with enhancements to its AHV hypervisor along with tighter integrations with Nvidia and Hugging Face to simplify AI deployments Continue Reading
Podcast 22 May 2024

Podcast: AI and its impact on data storage

We talk to Shawn Rosemarin, vice-president for R&D at Pure Storage, about the requirements of AI workloads, and what data storage needs to cope with AI Continue Reading
News 22 May 2024

Infinidat adds smaller footprint G4 arrays with claimed 2x performance

Purveyor of triple-controller all-flash and hybrid flash arrays aimed at high-end customers tails and tops InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA ranges, and adds Azure cloud storage to AWS Continue Reading
News 20 May 2024

Dell Technologies World: AI at core of Dell’s next chapter

With a significant anniversary just passed, Dell CEO Michael Dell was in reflective mood as he looked ahead to the impact of artificial intelligence on the tech giant’s product stack Continue Reading
News 20 May 2024

DataStax launches on-premise GenAI in ‘hyper-converged’ format

NoSQL database specialist adds generative AI for datacentre deployments where cloud is a no-no for cost, security or compliance reasons, with a focus on vector storage Continue Reading
News 20 May 2024

Toshiba shows 32TB HDDs with heat-assisted and shingled drives

Drive maker demonstrates 32TB and 31TB capacity hard drives that boost write density by use of heat and microwave assistance plus shingled – overlapped – drive tracks Continue Reading
News 14 May 2024

QStar launches tape access from anywhere with Global ArchiveSpace

Tape veteran provides file and object access to Exabyte scale archives aimed at AI, high-performance computing and hyperscaler storage. Single-site for now, multi-site to follow Continue Reading
News 14 May 2024

NetApp upgrades AFF all-flash as it targets AI storage

New AFF arrays offer performance boost for artificial intelligence, while NetApp trumpets its advantages as a provider of sustainable and intelligent infrastructure for all kinds of workloads Continue Reading
Feature 10 May 2024

Four key impacts of AI on data storage

We look at the key impacts of AI on data storage, including I/O and possible bottlenecks, how I/O differs across training and inference, plus data management and compliance concerns Continue Reading
News 08 May 2024

Huawei launches exabyte-scale OceanStor A800 at AI workloads

Chinese storage array maker announces high-performance NAS that can build out to clusters in excess of 1 exabyte, plus NVMe flash drives of 128TB coming to market next year Continue Reading
News 07 May 2024

French MSP saves 30% on cloud costs as it deploys Cubbit

Cubbit’s distributed object storage turns on-site capacity into a sovereign and secure cloud. CloudReso.com uses it to supply its customers and save on fees from big cloud providers Continue Reading
Podcast 01 May 2024

Podcast: 32TB HDDs by 2029, but how much bigger can they get?

We talk to Rainer Kaese of Toshiba about the roadmap for conventional magnetic recording on hard disk drives, the roadmap to 32TB, and what it would take to get to 100TB or 200TB Continue Reading
News 30 Apr 2024

Arcitecta offers file and object storage with huge transfer rates

Australian startup offers single namespace file and object storage with rapid access via a metadata database that puts the right data in the right place according to recent use Continue Reading
Podcast 25 Apr 2024

Podcast: How to prepare your data for digital transformation

We talk to Chris Gorton, EMEA managing director at Syniti, about how to prepare data for digital transformation Continue Reading
News 24 Apr 2024

AI firm saves a million in shift to Pure FlashBlade shared storage

AI consultancy Crater Labs spent vast amounts of time managing server-attached drives to ensure GPUs were saturated. A shift to all-flash Pure Storage slashed that to almost zero Continue Reading
Feature 23 Apr 2024

Five reasons why – and when – cloud storage is the answer

We look at when cloud storage can be the best choice, with considerations that include performance, scalability and agility, cost, management simplicity, and security and resilience Continue Reading
News 22 Apr 2024

Fujifilm plans to ‘make tape easy’ with Kangaroo SME appliance

Fujifilm to add 100TB SME-focused Kangaroo tape infrastructure in a box to existing 1PB offer, as energy efficiency and security of tape make it alluring to customers Continue Reading
News 16 Apr 2024

Leil wants to revive MAID as green storage tape substitute

MAID sought to provide energy-efficient disk storage with quicker access times than tape. Estonian startup Leil wants to supplant tape with green storage spin-down SMR drives Continue Reading
News 15 Apr 2024

Quickwit claims big advantage in log file search and index

When the logs are the data: Startup Quickwit claims late entrant advantage in log file search and index with bigger datasets and better analytics on reduced infrastructure Continue Reading
Feature 11 Apr 2024

Storage technology explained: AI and data storage

In this guide, we examine the data storage needs of artificial intelligence, the demands it places on data storage, the suitability of cloud and object storage for AI, and key AI storage products Continue Reading
Feature 05 Apr 2024

Seven ways to be sure you can restore from backup

Backups are no good if you can’t restore from them. We look at key elements of backup restoration, including backup audits, RPOs and RTOs, and how and when to test backups Continue Reading
Feature 02 Apr 2024

Storage technology explained: Flash vs HDD

In this guide, we examine the differences between flash storage and HDD, the rise of NVMe and much denser formats such as QLC, and whether or not flash will vanquish HDD in the all-flash datacentre Continue Reading
News 02 Apr 2024

Flash storage prices rise by 25% as manufacturers chase profitability

Analysis of 30,000-plus drive prices shows cost of flash drives per gigabyte rose sharply since October 2023, as memory manufacturers limit supplies and increase prices Continue Reading
Definition 28 Mar 2024

IOPS (input/output operations per second)

IOPS (input/output operations per second) is the standard unit of measurement for the maximum number of reads/writes to noncontiguous storage locations. Continue Reading
Podcast 28 Mar 2024

Podcast: What is distributed cloud storage and what are its benefits?

We talk to Enrico Signoretti of Cubbit about how distributed cloud allows customers to control their data in hybrid and multicloud storage and the workloads the company targets Continue Reading
News 26 Mar 2024

Alletra MP hardware changes see HPE orient arrays towards AI

HPE doubles controller nodes, boosts capacity with denser drives, cuts caches and builds in 100Gbps links to bring denser, faster storage aimed at all parts of the AI/ML pipeline Continue Reading
News 26 Mar 2024

GTC 2024: Storage suppliers queue up to ride the Nvidia AI wave

Storage supplier announcements at Nvdia conference centre on infrastructure integration, tackling the GPU I/O bottleneck and AI hallucinations by running Nvidia NeMo and NIM microservices Continue Reading
Definition 19 Mar 2024

RAID 50 (RAID 5+0)

RAID 50, also known as RAID 5+0, combines distributed parity (RAID 5) with striping (RAID 0). It requires a minimum of six drives. Continue Reading
News 19 Mar 2024

Vast targets AI checkpointing write performance with distributed RAID

AI checkpointing operations targeted by Vast Data as it touts QLC-based storage for AI workloads Continue Reading
News 18 Mar 2024

Cohesity: We won’t abandon NetBackup customers or force migration

CEO promises no forced migration to Cohesity and not to abandon any NetBackup product while building new leadership in artificial intelligence and security around Cohesity Gaia Continue Reading
News 12 Mar 2024

Hammerspace leverages smart metadata handling for AI/ML workloads

Software-defined storage maker separates metadata from files to provide view-from-anywhere file system visibility. It has now leveraged that for AI/ML workloads in Hyperscale NAS Continue Reading
Podcast 11 Mar 2024

Podcast: Immutable storage essential against ransomware, but...

...not all immutable storage is created equal. That’s the message from Paul Speciale of Scality, who looks at immutable storage, its variants and what’s needed to secure data Continue Reading
News 05 Mar 2024

Unexpected costs hit many as they move to cloud storage

A Wasabi survey of cloud storage customers finds more moving to the cloud, but they are experiencing busted budgets and unexpected fees, and expect big demands from artificial intelligence workloads Continue Reading
News 05 Mar 2024

Keepit brings backup and restore to unprotected SaaS applications

SaaS backup specialist keeps data in its own cloud datacentres, protects cloud data across numerous platforms and aims to give customers the ability to rapidly add data sources Continue Reading
News 05 Mar 2024

Own targets SaaS backup and offers analytics insight

Targeting a growing market – SaaS applications that lack backup – Own offers backup, fine-grained restores and analytics on data stores that can bring business insight Continue Reading
Feature 01 Mar 2024

Pseudo-SLC flash storage: What is it, what’s it good for and what does it cost?

Pseudo-SLC takes MLC, TLC flash and changes data storage at cell level to get better endurance and performance, but it’s mostly aimed at edge applications and is costly Continue Reading
Feature 28 Feb 2024

Storage technology explained: Ransomware and storage and backup

We look at ransomware attacks, and the importance of good backup practice as well as immutable snapshots, air-gapping, network segmentation, AI anomaly detection and supplier warranties Continue Reading
News 27 Feb 2024

Hycu uses AI to develop APIs for SaaS application backup

SaaS applications don’t usually come with built-in data protection, but Hycu plans to tackle that gap in the market with AI to generate the connectors needed to backup user data Continue Reading
News 26 Feb 2024

Storage and backup spend in 2024 targets risk and resilience

The TechTarget and ESG spending intentions survey finds big bias towards averting risk and building organisational resilience, but on-premise storage a significant planned outlay Continue Reading
News 21 Feb 2024

NasuniIQ brings visualisation of massive unstructured datasets

Global file system provider adds visualisation of massive distributed unstructured datasets to allow customers to analyse data usage and prepare clean training data for artificial intelligence Continue Reading
News 19 Feb 2024

Music agency halves space and energy costs with switch to Pure

SUISA handles billions of royalty payments, but had capacity and storage admin nightmares with its EMC hardware. It cued up Pure Storage for simple admin, space and cost savings Continue Reading
Podcast 14 Feb 2024

Podcast: What is the impact of AI on storage and compliance?

Start now looking at artificial intelligence compliance. That’s the advice of Mathieu Gorge of Vigitrust, who says AI governance is still immature but firms should recognise the limits and still act Continue Reading
Podcast 13 Feb 2024

Podcast: What are snapshots? Can they replace backup?

We talk to Shawn Meyers, field CTO at Tintri, who defines snapshots, why they are no substitute for backups, and the effect on recovery of snapshot granularity Continue Reading
News 13 Feb 2024

What will result from Cohesity’s Veritas acquisition?

The $7bn backup giant will leverage huge assets in enterprise customer base, compliance and governance intelligence, AI, R&D, and Kubernetes backup and storage Continue Reading
News 31 Jan 2024

Seagate uses HAMR to hit 30TB in Exos hard drives

HDD giant Seagate unveils 30TB Exos drives with higher areal density, aimed at hyperscaler customers, with products at 50TB promised for 2028 in its roadmap Continue Reading
News 30 Jan 2024

We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why

Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance Continue Reading
Feature 29 Jan 2024

French TV giant sticks with Dell NAS for channel upgrade

TF1 has the biggest market share in French TV, but plans for more. It has upgraded from Isilon to PowerScale scale-out NAS and saved 42% in energy costs, halving rackspace use Continue Reading
Feature 25 Jan 2024

Cloud is not always the answer: Five reasons why

We look at why the cloud is not always the best choice, including for reasons of cost, application suitability, management, data protection and the needs of the business Continue Reading
Podcast 23 Jan 2024

Podcast: Storage and compliance outlook for 2024

Interesting times ahead in 2024 as we talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about updates to EU regs, PCI, NIST, post-Brexit divergence and 60 national elections across the globe Continue Reading
News 23 Jan 2024

NVM Express boosts computational storage standards

New command sets allow for computational storage with NVMe flash and includes frameworks to allow local memory usage in processing workloads on storage hardware Continue Reading
Feature 17 Jan 2024

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What it is and why you (probably) need it

Basic cloud data protection is just not enough. Several loopholes leave business data vulnerable and that means additional cloud-to-cloud backup should be seriously considered Continue Reading
News 17 Jan 2024

Data on Kubernetes Community aims at K8S storage scaling solution

DoKC works on community solutions for Kubernetes. It aims to develop storage scaling automation for the containerised platform outside the orbit of the big vendors Continue Reading
Definition 12 Jan 2024

shingled magnetic recording (SMR)

Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is a technique for writing data to a hard disk drive (HDD) whereby the data tracks partially overlap to increase the areal density and overall storage capacity per disk. Continue Reading
News 11 Jan 2024

QLC made gains but storage innovation focus was on software in 2023

Storage hardware innovation has taken a back seat – QLC flash excepted – as the big storage suppliers build around software-based variants and optimisation on modular product sets Continue Reading
News 21 Dec 2023

Top 10 storage stories of 2023

In this 2023 review, we consider if flash will thrash disk, what the Toyota outage shows about capacity planning, how to achieve green storage, the backup and compliance risks of AI, the lowdown on DPUs, and more Continue Reading
News 21 Dec 2023

Top 10 storage supplier strategy stories of 2023

In 2023, we looked at the top storage suppliers, their market share and how they set themselves for a future of hybrid cloud, containerisation and consumption models of purchasing Continue Reading
Feature 21 Dec 2023

Storage suppliers’ market share and strategy 2023

We look at the top suppliers in data storage by market share and run the rule over their storage offer, strategies for hybrid cloud, containerisation and as-you-go purchasing Continue Reading
Definition 20 Dec 2023

megabyte (MB)

A megabyte is a unit of data capacity that is equal to 1,000,000 bytes in decimal notation (base 10) or 1,048,576 bytes in binary notation (base 2). Continue Reading
Definition 20 Dec 2023

iSCSI initiator

An Internet Small Computer System Interface initiator is software or hardware that lets a host computer send data to an external iSCSI-based storage array through an Ethernet network adapter over a TCP-based IP network. Continue Reading
Feature 19 Dec 2023

On-prem vs cloud storage: Four decisions about data location

Hybrid cloud is now a reality. But how to decide what data goes where? We highlight four key decision points to evaluate whether data should be stored on-premise or in the cloud Continue Reading
Feature 18 Dec 2023

Pure Storage: Flash ‘startup’ that brings late entrant advantage

Storage profile: We look at Pure Storage, the youngest of the array makers, which comes to market with well-developed flash, hybrid cloud and consumption purchasing models Continue Reading
E-Zine 12 Dec 2023

Shaping the modern workplace

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine how the shift to cloud services and the necessity of dealing with a hybrid workforce have changed modern IT. The emerging area of computational storage promises performance boosts for demanding workloads – we look at the challenges. And we find out how pandemic poster child Zoom plans to exploit generative AI. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
News 11 Dec 2023

Panasas set for Mach.2 throughput with multi-actuator HDDs

Scale-out NAS maker claims to be the first enterprise array maker to use multi-actuator HDDs designed for hyperscaler architectures and which double throughput Continue Reading
Feature 11 Dec 2023

ERP’s storage requirements and options in the cloud

We look under the hood at enterprise resource planning and its databases, the storage needed to support ERP’s I/O requirements, block, file and object storage, and ERP in an era of hybrid cloud Continue Reading
Definition 07 Dec 2023

HDD form factor (hard disk drive form factor)

HDD form factor (hard disk drive form factor) is the size or geometry of a data storage device equipped with one or more magnetic-coated spinning platters and one or more moving actuator arms with magnetic heads to read and write information. Continue Reading
Definition 05 Dec 2023

hardware RAID (hardware redundant array of independent disk)

Hardware RAID is a form of RAID (redundant array of independent disks) where processing is done on the motherboard or a separate RAID card. Continue Reading
Feature 05 Dec 2023

Dell EMC: Storage giant shifts gear to cloud operating models

Storage profile: We look at Dell EMC, the result of the biggest tech acquisition ever, and find a company well set for ubiquitous cloud operating models and as-a-service Continue Reading
Feature 30 Nov 2023

The all-flash datacentre: Mirage or imminent reality?

Some say disk is dead and we’re on the cusp of the all-flash datacentre. But when will flash capacity and cost hit a point where it is suited to more than just high-tier storage? Continue Reading
News 22 Nov 2023

Nebulon upgrades SPU to Medusa2 with Nvidia DPU hardware

Nebulon aims to replace HCI with its OS on an offload card that it claims reduces server resource use by 25%. Medusa2 uses Nvidia DPU hardware and its own cloud control plane Continue Reading
News 20 Nov 2023

Cubbit DS3 Composer brings DIY cloud to object storage pool

Cubbit customers can now build and configure S3-compatible clouds from unused capacity and offer MSP-grade services with high levels of resilience, security and data sovereignty Continue Reading
News 20 Nov 2023

IT not ready for AI, Pure Storage survey finds

Storage, compute and networking hardware won’t cope without upgrades, and that often means total IT infrastructure overhaul Continue Reading
Feature 15 Nov 2023

DPU 101: What are DPUs, what do they do, and who supplies them?

We look at data processing units, the latest in a line of hardware offload devices that emerged in the era of composable infrastructure. They come as hardware and even in the cloud Continue Reading