Data protection, backup and archiving

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

Backup testing: A step-by-step tutorial

Testing backups is a key piece of the data protection puzzle. Explore the different approaches and frequencies you can use to make sure your backups work. Continue Reading

How tape backup systems improve data protection

Have you analyzed your data protection lately? Tape backup could be a savior if you get hit with a ransomware attack or other malware. Learn more about five tape-related terms. Continue Reading

PowerShell backup scripts: What are 3 essential best practices?

There are some strong PowerShell scripts that can provide backup capabilities. It's important, though, to be mindful of PowerShell's quirks so you get the best data protection. 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

How a backup administrator can manage large volumes in 3 steps

Backup administrators have a tall task: managing a vast amount of data. Even if the volume is seemingly growing out of control, it's possible to keep a handle on it. 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

6 best practices for choosing a cloud backup provider

Learn six criteria for choosing the best cloud backup vendor for your organization. Key among these is knowing your unique needs. Continue Reading

Switch to a new data backup system without disruption

Your organization may be looking to transition to a new data backup platform. Avoid potential pitfalls and make the change seamlessly with these guidelines. 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

Set the foundation for a solid cloud backup strategy

Behind any effective cloud DR strategy is a solid backup plan. Follow these tips around common backup methods, tools and replication to get started. 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

MySpace data loss: Botched server migration prompts user concerns over fate of lost songs

Social networking forerunner MySpace confirms server migration caused the loss of content uploaded to its site before 2015 Continue Reading

Veeam’s business soars in APAC, acquisitions on the cards

The backup, recovery and data management hotshot expects to grow its APAC business by about 40% this year, with an eye on acquisitions in adjacent market segments Continue Reading

Aptare buy to add turbo-charged analytics to Veritas

Veritas announces acquisition of Aptare, in a move that will boost the backup giant’s analytics offer with inclusion of Aptare IT analytics in NetBackup and Backup Exec Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Is it true you can't manage what you don't measure?

What should be the key cyber security risk indicator for any business? Continue Reading

Modernising IT at the Bank of England

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the Bank of England as it starts the modernisation programme for its core system – one that the UK economy relies on. We look at the rise of DevSecOps and how it can help deal with increasingly complex security threats. And we examine the different approaches to storage for structured and unstructured data. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2019: APAC keeping pace with digital transformation

Digital transformation is well underway among APAC enterprises which are looking to spend more on refreshing their IT infrastructure and technologies that improve employee productivity Continue Reading

SME backup products offer diverse routes to the cloud

We take the temperature on cloud-era SME-focused backup products that come as “traditional” software, replication-centric protection environments and hardware appliances Continue Reading

Cohesity opens up backup data to analytics and applications

Hybrid-cloud backup appliance provider launches marketplace for applications that can apply intelligence, such as analytics, to data held in backup and secondary data stores Continue Reading

Delving into viewer data at the BBC

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the BBC about how the UK broadcaster is using data analytics to better understand its viewers and grow its audience in the face of competition from the likes of Netflix. We look at how CERN is using IT automation in its quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe. And we examine the impact of GDPR on cloud storage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cloud backup helps ASL Airlines evade ransomware and keep its business flying, says CIO

ASL Airlines took home the Best of Show prize at the Best of VMworld 2018 Awards after detailing how adopting a robust and resilient disaster recovery strategy is helping it evade ransomware threats Continue Reading

CW Nordics: Sweden to test e-krona and plans cashless society

Sweden’s vision of a cashless society has gained traction after the Riksbank (central bank) rolled out plans to test a digital currency, the e-krona. Also read how the Nordic region’s longer-established companies are playing a forceful role to advance digital transformation, and how Finland’s IT sector has rebounded strongly after Microsoft’s takeover of Nokia’s mobile phones and smart devices business units in 2014. Continue Reading

Backup product approaches vary as they take aim at the cloud

Use of the public cloud for backup data is something all the backup software suppliers provide, but implementations range from simple S3 connections to expansive software offerings Continue Reading

Nand, flash, SSDs and HDDs – what’s happening?

It is estimated that the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. How will storage technology cope? Continue Reading

Cloud-era backup appliances aim at hybrid content platform

While traditional backup apps evolve to meet the cloud via S3 and Azure, a new breed of backup appliances aims to build a single environment across cloud and on-premise Continue Reading

Pure launches ObjectEngine cloud dedupe, plus inter-rack NVMe

Flash storage pioneer offers flash-to-flash-to-cloud ObjectEngine on-premise and in the cloud while boosting connectivity between datacentre racks with NVMe-over-fabrics Continue Reading

CW ANZ: Home in on storage minutiae

With storage analytics, enterprises will be better able to enhance and optimise their storage infrastructure and proactively address problems before they occur. In this edition of CW ANZ, we look at how organisations are using storage analytics to manage their storage footprint and what suppliers are doing to help enterprises get the most of out of the technology. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cloud and backup top storage priorities for 2019

Deploying the cloud for primary and secondary storage and backup and archiving project top project priorities in 2019. SAN, NAS and hyper-convergence also prominent Continue Reading

Cloud the rising star of storage: Eight years of text analysis

Tracking word frequency in nearly a decade’s worth of storage content shows how cloud has come of age, flash has gone mainstream and how we don’t talk about virtualisation any more Continue Reading

A cloud compliance checklist for the GDPR age

The cloud is supposed to make things simpler, but when it comes to compliance, things can get complex. Here is a look at the essential elements of a cloud compliance strategy Continue Reading

Veeam Cloud Tier adds tiered storage for backups in S3 clouds

Virtualisation backup specialist adds tiering of Veeam Availability Suite data to AWS, Azure and S3-compatible clouds, which can now also be used as a repository for its N2WS cloud-native backup Continue Reading

Podcast: How to get ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act

If you have any customers in California, you need to know about that state’s equivalent to GDPR. Mathieu Gorge of Vigitrust talks through what you need to achieve compliance Continue Reading

Veritas launches Docker container backup in NetBackup

Docker is becoming an industry standard form of application virtualisation, and with that comes the need to back up Docker environments and data. Veritas joins CommVault and Asigra in doing so Continue Reading

Top 10 storage stories of 2018

Key trends in storage in 2018 included hybrid and multicloud storage, container storage, and hyper-converged infrastructure. Meanwhile, flash storage has evolved with NVMe Continue Reading

Data protection, backup and replication in the age of the cloud

A data protection and backup strategy has to take account of the expansion of the sphere of IT, from the datacentre to the public cloud to devices and locations at the edge Continue Reading

Survey: Data very fragmented, and that’s a worry for most

Cohesity-sponsored survey finds most organisations store multiple copies of secondary data and worry about the cost and the effect on their competitiveness Continue Reading

Pure Storage makes big hybrid push with Cloud Data Services

Flash storage pioneer makes a big deal of its object storage architecture as it launches Pure capacity in the AWS cloud, plus replication to the cloud for on-premise hardware Continue Reading

Rubrik adds Oracle, NoSQL and SAP Hana data protection

Scale-out backup appliance maker has already ticked most physical and virtual support boxes and is now filling out the details with enterprise application support Continue Reading

Hyper-converged backup appliances bring flexibility benefits

Backup appliances in scale-out format allow data protection to be scaled easily by simply adding extra nodes. But is it an idea that’s ready for the enterprise? Continue Reading

IBM refreshes StorWize with NVMe flash and NVMe-over-fabrics

Big Blue boosts midrange arrays with NVMe and NVMf capability and launches Spectrum Discover, a Data Lake metadata-focused data analysis tool, plus a new tape drive, the TS1160 Continue Reading

As data volumes grow, backup needs analytics, says StorageCraft CEO

Backup appliance maker’s CEO says backup needs analytics so customers can prioritise restore of critical data in a world where volumes increase by 50% a year Continue Reading

Igneous enhances unstructured data management product

Specialist Igneous allows customers to backup and archive, search, manage, move and handle large sets of unstructured files that mainstream NAS can find difficult to handle Continue Reading

Elastifile ClearTier allows cloud tiering for burst workloads

Elastifile adds ClearTier to its CloudConnect to bring enterprise NAS access in the cloud with the ability to tier data between object storage and file system Continue Reading

Cost of WannaCry attack to NHS set at £92m

Department for Health and Social Care estimates the immediate cost of the May 2017 WannaCry attack on the NHS was £92m, and says it will have spent about £275m on improvements to its cyber security infrastructure by the end of 2021 Continue Reading

Commvault tops and tails HyperScale backup appliance offer

Data protection specialist adds clustered high-end HS3300 backup appliance and the standalone Remote Office Appliance, pushing the HS1300 launched last year to mid range Continue Reading

Keeping Commvault on its toes in ASEAN

Backup and data protection software supplier is going after mid-sized companies and renewing its focus on partners to make deeper inroads in Southeast Asia Continue Reading

Object storage: On-prem, in the cloud and hybrid

We take a look at the object storage market and products and find offerings made to build public and private clouds that often provide a link between the two Continue Reading

Tape’s got a future but are use cases narrowing in the age of analytics?

The headline grabbers in storage are usually the quick – flash, NVMe etc – or the harbingers of the next generation, such as the cloud. But in some ways these are the extremes, the outliers. In ... Continue Reading

GDPR compliance and storage in digital transformation projects

Key considerations when transforming physical data into digital, the impacts on compliance and how to ensure access, encryption to data and safe disposal of physical assets Continue Reading

BFI deploys SpectraLogic tape in PB-scale digitisation project

British Film Institute got SpectraLogic tape and Black Pearl when it wanted multi-petabyte capacity and the ability to write tape archive of 10,000 movies into its workflows Continue Reading

Printing, document capture and compliance risk in the GDPR era

Printers, scanners and mobile devices that capture data from documents all store data in some way or other. How can you be sure to be compliant with GDPR with regard to that data? Continue Reading

How the big five storage array makers tier data to the cloud

We look at the big five storage array makers' efforts to connect on-premise hardware with cloud storage and find automated tiering, on-ramps, and backup and archive capability Continue Reading

Data protection for containers: Why and how to do Docker backup

Containers such as those from Docker are agile, lightweight, and can be short-lived, but they and their data often needs to be protected. We look at the key options available. Continue Reading

Taming the data beast with software-defined storage

Australian enterprises are turning to software-defined storage to improve data management and speed up testing and development Continue Reading

Who is The Cloud Daddy?

Had a great couple of online sessions recently with Joe Merces of the splendidly named CloudDaddy. The aim of CloudDaddy is to simplify one of the great pain points of IT (no, not repairing ... Continue Reading

Storage 101: Self-encrypting drives' benefits and limitations

Self-encrypting drives are a cost-effective way to ensure compliance in certain situations. We look at self-encrypting drives, what they’re good for and their limitations Continue Reading

A guide to choosing and using all-flash array storage

We take a look at the considerations when devising an all-flash array storage strategy, and what enterprises can do to get the most out of the technology Continue Reading

Arsenal puts Acronis in defence for analytics cloud backup

Football club is increasingly driven by video and data analysis and opts for cloud backup software-as-a-service and quick restore to any location to replace ad-hoc staff solutions Continue Reading

Veritas aims to boost NetBackup with simplified UI and setup

Two decades-old enterprise product upgraded with backups that can be set in three clicks, down from 30, plus instant VM workload recovery and capacity monitoring and planning Continue Reading

StorageCraft launches OneXafe scale-out backup appliances

Product revamp sees firm launch OneXafe scale-out secondary and primary storage with ShadowXafe data protection software in backup appliance for physical and virtual environments Continue Reading

Virtual storage appliances in the cloud from the big five

We survey the big five storage hardware makers’ cloud offerings. Virtual storage appliances available range from storage and backup/data protection to nothing at all Continue Reading

Quest goes software-only with QoreStor. Next stop, the cloud

Quest makes backup product software-defined with QoreStor, with dedupe functionality that can be added to other backup products, and plans cloud backup with native storage next Continue Reading

Hybrid cloud a key milestone on the road to cloud storage

The cloud seems to lend itself to use as a storage location. There are lots of bumps in the road, however, and hybrid cloud should be a key medium-term aim for organisations Continue Reading

JWT slashes server estate in move to Ctera cloud appliances

Marketing agency deploys Ctera cloud-attached NAS for 10,000 employees to simplify IT infrastructure, cutting server count and slashing software and hardware costs Continue Reading

Data protection for containers: Why and how to do Docker backup

Containers such as those from Docker are agile, lightweight and can be short-lived, but they and their data often need to be protected. We look at the key options available Continue Reading

Hedvig teams up with Veeam to support scale-out backup appliances

Scale-out software-defined storage supplier reaches agreement with Veeam for backup software to build clusters of nodes with flash, cloud and block, file and object storage access Continue Reading

Cloudian adds Storage Made Easy file-sync-and-share compliance

Object storage maker adds file-sync-and-share with compliance filters from Storage Made Easy to restrict movement of potentially sensitive data between endpoints and datacentres Continue Reading

Casino group bets on Pivot3 hyper-converged infrastructure for surveillance

Caesars’ ageing digital video recording equipment risked running foul of court and police requirements, and cost tens of thousands annually, so it switched to Pivot3 hyper-converged infrastructure Continue Reading

How the internet of things and edge data impact data storage

Remote device data poses challenges for the datacentre, but edge processing, analytics and the cloud can help businesses profit from the promise of the internet of things Continue Reading

Enterprises wrestle with OpenStack backup, DR challenges

To work around the manual and often tedious processes associated with OpenStack DR and backup, some enterprises have turned to third-party tools. Continue Reading

CW ASEAN: Banking on buckets of data

Organizations across ASEAN are starting to turn to object storage due to the explosive growth of data from new sources such as sensors, mobile apps and social media. In this month’s edition of CW ASEAN, we look at how enterprises have benefitted from object storage, the roadblocks to wider adoption and the future of the technology in an increasingly software-defined world. Continue Reading