Data protection, backup and archiving

Veeam Availability Suite v10 adds NAS backup and cloud tiering

Availability Suite is mostly about consolidating the company’s data management platform idea, but it has added incremental forever NAS backup, cloud tiering and recovery to vSphere Continue Reading

US hotel group ditches datacentre for Nasuni cloud NAS

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts got rid of its datacentre and put everything in the cloud, with Nasuni cloud NAS providing storage from which any user can restore files Continue Reading

Veeam pushes subscription licensing in cloud-centric ‘Act II’

Backup specialist wants to “win the cloud” as it pushes towards a cloud-focused vision that includes pay-for-what-you-use and multicloud after its acquisition last month Continue Reading

Caribbean island hospital rebuilds after hurricane with DataCore

Hurricane Irma tore the roof off a server room and flooded IT hardware, but that was an opportunity to rebuild redundant IT using DataCore’s SANsymphony software-defined storage Continue Reading

Acronis CEO bullish as specialist goes beyond backup

Acronis is set to launch Cyber Protect as it rides a wave of confidence based on increasing revenues and investor funding. Will the backup-plus-cyber protection calculation pay off? Continue Reading

Why settle for just one RTO and one RPO?

I think we can all agree that protecting data is important – perhaps even very important. So how come some still find it a daunting challenge to progress from that acknowledgement into tangible ... Continue Reading

Podcast: How to boost staff awareness of compliance

Employee awareness of compliance, of the laws and regulations that affect your business, is vital, in some cases even mandatory. We look at the key ways to achieve it Continue Reading

Top four compliance considerations for SMEs

We look at the key data compliance regulations that affect smaller companies – such as GDPR, the Data Protection Act, PCI-DSS and PECR – and some key industry-specific frameworks Continue Reading

Data privacy benefits outweigh spend, says Cisco

Cisco’s 2020 data privacy study shows organisations can generate substantial returns on their data privacy and protection spending Continue Reading

Disaster recovery failover choices: Synchronous mirrors, P2V and the cloud

We survey the key options in disaster recovery: whether to failover to an on-site location or off-site facility. We also look at the cloud as an option in disaster recovery Continue Reading

Six disaster recovery pitfalls and how to avoid them

We look at some key pitfalls in disaster recovery, such as failing to plan, not testing the plan, not protecting backups, poor communication and neglecting the human element Continue Reading

Spread of Kubernetes spurs backup and disaster recovery products

Growth of containerised applications brings with it the need to back up and provide disaster recovery. But what do you need to protect, and who provides the products? Continue Reading

Exposed AWS buckets again implicated in multiple data leaks

A series of data leaks in the past week have once again implicated poorly secured Amazon S3 buckets, which are supposed to be private by default Continue Reading

Inside NetApp’s transition into a data management firm

NetApp’s leaders in Asia-Pacific discuss the company’s pivot into data services and its traction in the region Continue Reading

Do you use cloud storage for these use cases yet?

We look at the use cases most suited to a quick transition to the cloud: backup, archiving, disaster recovery, file storage and cloud bursting – cloud storage’s low-hanging fruit Continue Reading

Thailand gets ready for data protection law

Thailand’s personal data protection law comes into effect in May 2020, subjecting organisations to new rules that safeguard the personal data of individuals Continue Reading

Threat landscape grew in complexity in 2019, no respite in sight

Check Point’s annual state of security report shares some 2019 trends and looks ahead to 2020 Continue Reading

How container applications are shaping storage management

Persistent storage, backup and recovery were not on the minds of those behind container applications, but that is starting to change Continue Reading

$5bn buy-out set to make backup giant Veeam a US company

Veeam’s founders are out as investment fund gets its hands on a pioneer of virtual machine backup. Now it will be a US company and eligible to target US government customers Continue Reading

Don’t become the next Travelex: Get ready for ransomware

With Travelex’s IT still in disarray and banks and travellers left without access to funds more than a week after it was hit by a ransomware attack, we ask what others can learn from the foreign exchange services company’s response to the incident Continue Reading

DRaaS decisions: Key choices in disaster recovery as a service

We examine the key decisions when considering DRaaS. Whether to go full self-service, assisted or managed will depend on what you need to protect and your in-house resources Continue Reading

New GDPR service aims to ease compliance challenges

Security consultants claim their software platform will address a pressing need for an effective and efficient means of complying with data protection rules Continue Reading

Five ways that backup has changed since the days of tape

Back in the day, all this was tape, but times have changed, with cloud-to-cloud backup, cloud storage, virtual and physical backup appliances and myriad endpoint hardware Continue Reading

Cloud adoption in ANZ gathering pace

Australia and New Zealand have seen a four-fold increase in the amount of data moving from on-premise environments to the top public clouds, survey finds Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Put information at the heart of security

The belief that effective perimeter security is the best way to protect data is a fallacy that is being repeatedly exposed. We must recognise the need for a data-centric security model to protect data from both internal and external threats, but what does this mean for security professionals? Continue Reading

California’s CCPA an opportunity for security industry to do better

California’s consumer protection and data privacy laws came into effect on 1 January 2020, and present a golden opportunity for the cyber security practitioners Continue Reading

Top 10 storage deployment stories of 2019

Here are ComputerWeekly’s top 10 storage deployment stories for 2019, which see quite a move away from traditional SAN and NAS to hyper-converged, software-defined storage and object storage Continue Reading

Top 10 storage stories of 2019

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 storage stories for 2019, with the latest trends in enterprise storage arrays, hyper-converged, object storage, scale-out NAS, and more Continue Reading

Public sector still losing user devices in high numbers

The Ministry of Justice has lost 354 smartphones, PCs, laptops and tablets in the past 12 months, according to a Freedom of Information request, and other government departments are in the same boat Continue Reading

Survey finds most firms don’t respond to GDPR requests in time

Most organisations do not respond to requests for GDPR data in the one month allowed, while many return incorrect data. The education sector does best, but the public sector lags behind Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: In-depth protection is a matter of basic hygiene

The belief that effective perimeter security is the best way to protect data is a fallacy that is being repeatedly exposed. We must recognise the need for a data-centric security model to protect data from both internal and external threats, but what does this mean for security professionals? Continue Reading

Five essential steps to a sound disaster recovery plan

We walk through the key steps to develop a disaster recovery plan – from risk assessment and setting recovery objectives, to the plan itself and a testing regime to keep it fresh Continue Reading

Get ready for CCPA: Implications for UK businesses

The California Consumer Privacy Act, a wide-ranging data privacy and consumer protection law, comes into effect on 1 January 2020. How does CCPA differ from the EU GDPR regulations and what are the responsibilities for UK businesses operating in the US? Continue Reading

Australia’s Fenner Dunlop ditches tape backups for cloud

Australian manufacturer of conveyor belts Fenner Dunlop has freed up its IT staff to focus on future projects by moving tape backups to the cloud Continue Reading

University of Leicester dumps SANs and LUNs for Cloudian object storage

One-to-one mapping between Dell SANs and media servers had passed their sell-by date and caused vulnerabilities for the University of Leicester, which fixed the problems by a move to “stateless” object storage on Cloudian Continue Reading

Mystery surrounds leak of four billion user records

Threat researchers uncover four billion user records on a wide-open Elasticsearch server but who left them there is a mystery Continue Reading

SME disaster recovery made easy with cloud, hybrid and HCI

Disaster recovery is a lot easier for small businesses than it used to be, with use of the cloud, hybrid cloud, physical and virtual appliances, and hyper-converged infrastructure all among the choices on offer Continue Reading

Datrium boosts VMware protection but won’t add more hypervisors

NVMe flash pioneer turned DR-as-a-service-focused data platform provider Datrium says VMware and Kubernetes have “won the market” and it won’t extend support beyond those two Continue Reading

Businesses failing to wipe data from old endpoints

Organisations are not taking adequate precautions to sanitise data held on endpoints when refreshing their PC or mobile device estates Continue Reading

ASEAN regulatory sandbox will promote cross-border data flows

The Regulatory Pilot Space will offer ASEAN businesses a safe test environment to provide digital services across the region while complying with data privacy rules Continue Reading

Taking responsibility for security in the cloud

From accidental leaks to full-on data breaches, maintaining security across cloud services is becoming a headache for enterprises. What questions should organisations be asking of their cloud service provider and, ultimately, whose responsibility is cloud security anyway? Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Base cloud security posture on your data footprint

Misconfigured cloud environments are increasingly identified as the source of damaging data breaches and leaks, raising serious questions for enterprises. Where does responsibility for data security in the cloud lie, and how can security professionals best work with their teams and cloud providers to resolve the problem? Continue Reading

Best of VMworld 2019 Europe User Awards: The winners

Find out who won what, including the best of show prize, at the 2019 VMworld Europe User Awards in Barcelona Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Secure the cloud when negotiating contracts

Misconfigured cloud environments are increasingly identified as the source of damaging data breaches and leaks, raising serious questions for enterprises. Where does responsibility for data security in the cloud lie, and how can security professionals best work with their teams and cloud providers to resolve the problem? Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: In the cloud, the buck stops with you

Misconfigured cloud environments are increasingly identified as the source of damaging data breaches and leaks, raising serious questions for enterprises. Where does responsibility for data security in the cloud lie, and how can security professionals best work with their teams and cloud providers to resolve the problem? Continue Reading

NordVPN enlists ethical hackers, launches bug bounty programme

Breached consumer VPN supplier details steps it is taking to shore up its cyber security posture after an unknown actor gained access to one of its servers Continue Reading

Key storage choices: Cloud vs tape for archive storage?

Tape still has benefits, such as an ‘air gap’ that can insulate archives from threats to data integrity. But what are the opportunities for cloud in tape’s traditional use cases? Continue Reading

Equifax lawsuit offers more evidence against passwords

Equifax’s internal security policies were a mess and directly led to one of the largest recorded data breaches in history, according to a lawsuit, demonstrating fundamental insecurities inherent in the use of passwords Continue Reading

Commvault adds Metallic SaaS backup and Hedvig features

Backup software maker adds software-as-a-service Metallic, which can protect on-premise, cloud and hybrid platforms. Meanwhile, Hedvig gets datacentre features and erasure coding Continue Reading

PCI DSS: Credit card data and what to expect from version 4.0

We preview October’s PCI Europe Community Meeting where attendees will discuss credit card payment data, with topics covered likely to include the cloud and point-to-point encryption Continue Reading

UK and Middle East PR firm ditches NetApp for Nutanix and Talon Fast

Four Communications needed better connectivity for collaboration between the UK and its gulf sites, so dumped server/storage for hyper-converged and a distributed file system Continue Reading

PLC flash: A solid state candidate for analytics and archives?

We thought flash would end at QLC, but storage media makers are working on penta-level cell, which could push capacity to double figures, but at a further performance cost Continue Reading

Data storage: The top five storage deployment pitfalls

Key pitfalls in data storage include silos, under-utilisation, backup and disaster recovery, plus neglect of skills and application requirements. We ask analysts how to avoid them Continue Reading

Dutch group works on digitising collaborator archives created in aftermath of World War 2

Experiments have been carried out to ascertain the best technology to open up the analogue archives of the Central Archive of Special Justice in the Netherlands Continue Reading

Pure Storage APAC CTO talks up storage trends

Flash-based storage will be around for at least two decades more, while crystal- and DNA-based storage needs a lot more work before becoming mainstream, according to Pure Storage’s CTO for the Asia-Pacific region Continue Reading

GDPR compliance: Whose job is it and is it really possible?

Nobody seems to have a good handle on business GDPR compliance, how many businesses are compliant, or indeed what compliance really is, but according to security experts, it very much depends on who you talk to Continue Reading

National Library of Scotland says aye to Scality object storage

National digitised archives move off Hitachi SANs and Qualstar tape, object storage is embraced and a “no backup” strategy put in place with petabyte-scale Scality S3/file deployment Continue Reading

Pure adds Optane and QLC flash to boost performance and capacity

Flash storage player adds Intel Optane modules performance, a capacity flash range based on QLC drives, plus rebranding and GA of its on-premise/cloud leasing service Continue Reading

Cloud provider sweeps away legacy storage for 1PB of Infinidat

Core DataCloud decommissions storage from several vendors to consolidate to 1PB on Infinidat Infinibox, with DRAM and flash to accelerate hot data in front of disk back end Continue Reading

Basic data and skills needed to fix UK social care

Foundations need to be in place to save the social care system from collapse, and NHSX needs to step up to the task, according to a Doteveryone report Continue Reading

Universities tempting targets for cyber criminals, warns NCSC

As hundreds of thousands of students prepare for the new academic year, universities have been warned that they are at high risk of cyber attack Continue Reading

WannaCry variants accidentally protecting against WannaCry

New variants of the infamous WannaCry malware continue to emerge, and many of them have accidentally turned themselves into a somewhat effective, although ill-advised, vaccine against infection Continue Reading

Northwestern cuts storage costs in half with Komprise

Komprise’s Deep Analytics helps university classify and migrate research data to cheaper disk and cloud as it cuts storage costs from $1.1m to $680,000 per annum Continue Reading

Ecuador citizens’ data breach holds lessons for enterprises

What caused the mass breach of Ecuadorian citizens’ data, and what can businesses learn from it? Continue Reading

Top five cloud storage pitfalls

Cloud storage offers apparent simplicity, but unexpected costs, complexity, data movement and integration challenges can arise. We look at how to avoid common cloud storage pitfalls Continue Reading

Commvault’s Hedvig throw of the dice

Commvault’s $225 million purchase of software-defined storage maker Hedvig looks like a rational move given the way the backup market is changing. But it also looks like a massive and potentially ... Continue Reading

GDPR non-compliance worse than feared

Over half of UK businesses do not yet appear to be fully GDPR-compliant, and many have de-prioritised their compliance efforts Continue Reading

Ctera launches hybrid cloud HC2400M at media use cases

Edge filer specialist hits up the media and entertainment market with its NAS-like hardware that caches data locally, syncs with other nodes and stages data to the cloud Continue Reading

Commvault buys Hedvig in push for global storage player status

Backup player Commvault aims to bring together datacentre and multi-cloud operations with software-defined storage that can unify access to almost any storage medium, anywhere Continue Reading

How APAC firms can slay the storage management beast

The data deluge and compliance requirements are shaping how Asia-Pacific firms are approaching storage management issues in the age of cloud Continue Reading

CW Nordics: Copenhagen woos tech startups

Copenhagen offers all the advantages startups need to get off the ground and many are setting up with the intention of staying there for the long haul. Also read how shipping giant Maersk is employing a cloud-first strategy to disrupt competition and build innovation, and why three Finnish banks are sharing a core IT platform. Continue Reading

French national research centre insources with Rubrik backup

France’s national research organisation wanted to insource IT back from Atos and built its private cloud on VMware across two locations with Rubrik appliances for backup Continue Reading

Hop jumps to Pure Storage to avoid big storage complexity

Air France short-haul and regional brand Hop jumps to Pure Storage after coming up against Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE, which all tried to sell it solutions ill-suited to its needs Continue Reading

CW Benelux: Dutch academic hunts the personality behind the hacker

Rutger Leukfeldt, senior researcher on cyber crime at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, is working to help organisations understand the personalities behind criminal hackers. Also in this issue, read about research that shows over half of Dutch organisations admit their knowledge of blockchain is substandard. We also feature an article about ABN Amro’s work with researchers to explore how quantum computing can be used to secure online banking. Continue Reading

BA/Marriott GDPR fines: What they were for and how to avoid them

We talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about the BA and Marriott GDPR fines and what organisations can do to ensure they achieve compliance with GDPR and similar regulations Continue Reading

Smartodds bets on Rubrik backup appliance with cloud archive

Betting intelligence analytics firm Smartodds replaced its old tape backup infrastructure with Rubrik appliances to cut management time and database restores from hours to minutes Continue Reading

Public cloud: A key component in a disaster recovery plan

The key things to consider when creating a disaster recovery plan that uses public cloud: DIY vs DRaaS, native cloud tools vs third party, and how low can you go with RPO and RTO? Continue Reading

French baby store modernises backup as Veeam handles 150TB a night

France-based maternity, baby and children’s store Orchestra needed to share IT resources between 700 points of sale across multiple time zones, and backup for 100 applications Continue Reading

Cloud snapshots and backups: How to protect data in the cloud

You often need more data protection than native cloud services will give. But should you choose backup or snapshots? And what about third-party backup in the cloud? Continue Reading

Veritas bundles NetBackup into Enterprise Data Services Platform

Backup giant wraps key product into data management wrapper that adds search, index and data classification Information Studio plus InfoScale software-defined storage Continue Reading

Steel firm adds steel to resilience with Scale hyper-converged

Carrs Tool Steels had to move on from legacy servers and found hyper-converged infrastructure from Scale Computing the ideal fit for a small business that couldn’t afford downtime Continue Reading

CW APAC: Buyer’s guide to NVMe storage

In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at how NVMe storage is gaining popularity in the race to reduce latency and speed up application performance, and throws light on seven misconceptions around the use of NVMe. Continue Reading

University graduates to Rubrik backup appliance with Azure cloud

University of Reading could only back up 20% of its data on an ageing tape library, so it modernised with a Rubrik appliance and Azure cloud storage in a cost-neutral project Continue Reading

Komprise to add Deep Analytics to unstructured data management

New functionality will allow customers to create and interrogate virtual data set from potentially petabytes of unstructured data across multiple shares and physical storage Continue Reading

Is ‘Brexit effect’ to blame for drop in UK data management investments?

Research from data backup software supplier Veeam suggests UK C-suite is set to invest much less in data management over the course of the next 12 months than the rest of the world, prompting concerns that Brexit might be to blame Continue Reading

Cloud storage and its main cost components

We run through the main items charged for by the big cloud storage providers, such as capacity, storage type, transactions, data egress, networks and data protection Continue Reading

V.Pharma swaps Data Domain for Quantum and cuts backup costs

Belgian pharmacy’s Data Domains had reached end-of-life and it wanted to remain in-budget. Quantum DXi worked out a lot cheaper and easy to manage, with good support Continue Reading

Reduxio’s Magellan charts course to storage in containers

Reduxio makes its storage product functionality available via microservices in containers aimed at container-native deployments, in an initial closed customer beta Continue Reading

Cloud’s low-hanging fruit: Backup, tiering and data sharing

Native cloud operations can have a steep on-ramp in terms of enterprise IT readiness, but some things are relatively easy to port to a tier of storage in the cloud Continue Reading

Datrium rebrands hybrid cloud data platform as Automatrix

NVMe pioneer Datrium announces ControlShift disaster recovery automation as a service, while bundling its data platform offerings as Automatrix, and lauds the benefits compared to siloed IT Continue Reading

Gorilla bets on Object Matrix for £1m-plus-per-episode TV shows

Customers such as Netflix, Amazon and the BBC need to be sure their content is stored safely. Gorilla Post Production chose object storage from Wales-based Object Matrix Continue Reading

HPE to launch Cloud Volumes in UK and Ireland

HPE Cloud Volumes will offer enterprise-class block storage for use with AWS and Azure compute plus a replication store for backup and disaster recovery from the end of May Continue Reading

Pure Storage buys Compuverde to put object storage on steroids

Fast flash storage specialist Pure Storage adds object storage to FlashArray and aims to compete with NetApp on NAS while bringing flash performance to web applications Continue Reading

Cloud storage 101: Specifying for cloud storage

We run through key questions to ask when specifying cloud storage, such as disk type, performance, availability and the possible hidden cost of getting data out of the cloud Continue Reading

JetStream DR cloud replication aims to make backup redundant

JetStream’s IO Filter allows for continuous replication to the cloud of VMware virtual machines and virtual disks instead of scheduled snapshots or backups, and with a near-zero RPO Continue Reading

Datrium makes European push as it targets storage ‘big guys’

NVMe pioneer turned hybrid cloud and “data platform” provider makes a push for the enterprise and wants to take scalps from those selling “1990s SAN technology” Continue Reading

Cranfield gets Rubrik backup plus Nutanix in drive to the cloud

Research-led university goes hyper-converged across the board with Rubrik backup appliances and Nutanix in a move to rationalise on-site physical needs and drive to the cloud Continue Reading

Commvault adds “tape killer” AWS Glacier Deep Archive cold storage

Backup provider to offer 1-cent-a-gigabyte AWS Glacier Deep Archive as a target in a move that mirrors a trend towards the cloud and away from tape among Commvault customers Continue Reading

Cohesity plans to put backup data to good use

Cohesity’s DataPlatform now makes use of previously dormant backup data with analytics to provide business value and to tackle threats such as ransomware Continue Reading

ArcServe 9000 backup appliance offers one-stop disaster recovery

In its latest 9000Dr appliances ArcServe beefs up processing, RAM and disk to run virtual machines and saves SMEs spending on dedicated disaster recovery hardware Continue Reading