SAN, NAS, solid state, RAID
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E-Zine
12 Sep 2019
CW Europe: Dutch authorities call temporary halt to datacentre construction
Two Dutch municipalities are putting all datacentre construction on hold while they put together a strategy to help them control developments. A local alderman said datacentres take up a lot of space and place a large burden on the electricity grid. Also read how France is racing ahead of Germany in making the most of service companies in India, and about Google’s plans for a new datacentre and technology training hub in Finland. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Sep 2024
Cloud repatriation: How to do it successfully
The keys to reverse migration success include workload selection, how to prepare your on-premise infrastructure and future-proofing the decision to come back in-house Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Jul 2015
All-flash vs hybrid flash for virtual desktop storage
With massive random I/O and a huge bias towards writes, virtual desktop storage – especially for the more feature-rich VDI 2.0 – requires the speed of all-flash and hybrid flash storage Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2015
TLC flash storage: What it is and what it's good for
We run the rule over triple-level cell (TLC) flash: What it is, how it performs, what it's good for, why it's a competitor to disk, and how it's all been made possible Continue Reading
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News
06 Jul 2015
Genomics England rejects open source to deploy EMC Isilon HPC storage
100,000 Genomes Project rejects building open-source parallel file system on x86 servers and opts for EMC Isilon clustered NAS deployed by Capita S3 Continue Reading
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News
24 Jun 2015
NetApp adds AFF All-Flash FAS 8000 series storage arrays
NetApp boosts its SSD array portfolio with the addition of AFF All-Flash FAS 8000 series storage arrays built on Data ONTAP, but still no sign of FlashRay general availability Continue Reading
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News
15 Jun 2015
Council dodges £300,000 NetApp outlay with Atlantis flash caching
Somerset local authority avoids spending £300,000 on extra hard drives for its NetApp arrays and pays half that for Atlantis ILIO flash caching software that runs VDI from RAM Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Jun 2015
OpenStack Manila: File access storage for the open source cloud
OpenStack Manila is the file level access method in development by the open source cloud platform. What is it, how does it work and when will it be ready? Continue Reading
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News
01 Jun 2015
Pure Storage replaces FA series all-flash arrays with FlashArray//m
Pure Storage upgrades FA series all-flash arrays with FlashArray//m series devices Continue Reading
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Guide
27 May 2015
Guide to LUN configuration and virtualisation
LUN storage configuration has long been a cornerstone of storage management. The LUN – a chunk of storage created from RAID partitions on a SAN – presents a logical volume of capacity to an individual server. That’s still relevant today in the era of virtualisation. Many users retain physical servers that need a one-to-one connection between host and LUN. But, the role of the LUN is also changing with the rise of server and desktop virtualisation. It now forms a container for the logical objects used by VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V etc. In this guide you will find all you need to know about LUNs, LUN configuration and management, including their use in virtualised environments. Continue Reading
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Guide
15 May 2015
LTFS tape NAS: What it is and how to build it
In storage, cost is everything. So, imagine a storage medium with the frugal cost profile of tape and access times of NAS. Well, it already exists. Since 2010 the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) has allowed access to tapes as if they are spinning disk. Part of the LTO-5 tape format, LTFS partitions the tape, with one containing indexing information for all the data on the cartridge and the other contains the actual data. Marry this capability to a hardware NAS protocol front end with a disk cache and you have the potential for rapid access to massive amounts of data held on tape. Tiered storage is now mainstream. We have super-rapid flash for virtual machines and their data; Fibre Channel and 15k SAS for other fast access use cases. After that there is high-capacity SATA for bulk data, but here is where LTFS could start treading on the toes of disk vendors. That’s because, in some cases, where the use profile of data requires long retention and infrequent but relatively quick access, LTFS tape now rivals large capacity SATA as a nearline store. Maybe that’s why LTFS has failed to set the world on fire; there are just too many disk vendors who see it as a threat. Nevertheless, LTFS is worth looking at. And in this ComputerWeekly.com Guide you’ll find articles on why LTFS should be taken seriously and explanations of how tape NAS works and who sells products. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 May 2015
Erasure coding vs Raid for disk rebuilds
Erasure coding as a means of data protection has emerged with object storage and offers an alternative to Raid systems Continue Reading
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News
22 Apr 2015
Load DynamiX adds OpenStack protocols to storage testing product
Storage testing and validation provider adds OpenStack Swift and Cinder support to existing protocols in its Enterprise version 2.6 hardware Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Apr 2015
Docker storage 101: How storage works in Docker
Docker nails some of the shortcomings of virtualisation, but what about Docker container storage? Continue Reading
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Photo Story
17 Mar 2015
VM backup down as a priority while disaster recovery still tops to-do lists
Our survey finds VM backup increasingly “job done”, while disaster recovery, cloud storage, flash storage and mobility remain high priorities; but where is mobile backup? Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Mar 2015
Top five things you need to know about VMware Virtual Volumes
VMware’s Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) promise a revolution in storage for virtual machines, but what are the key things you need to know? Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Feb 2015
$/GB vs $/IOPS and how to compare enterprise storage pricing
While raw drive prices are pennies per GB, the actual cost of enterprise storage is much higher. Finding a baseline can save you money Continue Reading
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News
25 Feb 2015
Dell adds Nutanix-powered XC630 and XC730 hyperconverged systems
Dell targets range of use cases with XC630 and XC730 Nutanix-powered server/storage nodes Continue Reading
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News
24 Feb 2015
PernixData FVP boosts RAM as host storage with up to 4x compression
Flash caching firm PernixData adds compression to FVP 2.5 for more scope to use RAM as host-based storage for high-performance datasets Continue Reading
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News
20 Feb 2015
IBM moves to MLC in FlashSystem 900 and V9000 all-flash arrays
IBM boosts density with new Micron MLC flash drives in revamped all-flash arrays, the FlashSystem 900 and the V9000 that includes SAN Volume Controller storage virtualisation hardware Continue Reading
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News
17 Feb 2015
Suse launches Ceph-based cloud software-defined storage
Suse launches commercially-supported object, block and file Ceph distribution Enterprise Storage, software-defined storage Continue Reading
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News
03 Feb 2015
EMC launches VSPEX Blue EVO:Rail hyper-converged appliances
EMC announces VSPEX Blue EVO:Rail hyper-converged appliance in general purpose and performance variants Continue Reading
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Photo Story
19 Jan 2015
UK's fastest supercomputer upgrades to 2Pflops and 5PB of tiered storage
The UK's fastest supercomputer upgrades to 4,920 nodes and 2 Petaflops performance with tiered storage including 5PB of direct-attached disk Continue Reading
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News
15 Jan 2015
Amatis Networks waves goodbye to LUN woes and deploys Tintri hybrid flash
Managed service provider Amatis Networks deploys Tintri hybrid flash to slash latency and cut time-consuming LUN storage management overheads Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Jan 2015
Thin provisioning – hypervisor vs array
Thin provisioning can be done at the storage array or virtualisation hypervisor. We look at the pros and cons of each – or both Continue Reading
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News
10 Dec 2014
Hero Group uses vMotion to replace SAN and servers with Nutanix
Baby food, fruit and cereal bar company Hero Group has migrated its Holland operations over to a single virtual platform Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Nov 2014
Flash storage 101: How solid state storage works
Why flash writes are troublesome, why endurance is limited and what suppliers are doing to overcome these issues Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Nov 2014
Key challenges in storage and virtualisation, and how to beat them
Server virtualisation brings benefits but increases storage-capacity needs. Here we survey the key challenges and what to do about them Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2014
Interview: The IT powering animated movie-making
Video special effects require similar processing to oil and gas, but lack the budget, says head of technology at Illumination Mac Guff, Bruno Mahe Continue Reading
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News
22 Oct 2014
EMC buys out Cisco’s stakes in VCE as year-on-year revenue jumps 9%
Storage giant EMC has reported a 9% increase year on year for the third quarter of 2014, thanks to revenue rises across its divisions Continue Reading
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News
02 Oct 2014
DDN launches scale-out NAS GS7K GPFS product bundle
DataDirect Networks launches the GS7K, a pre-configured GPFS scale-out NAS/parallel file system storage product Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Sep 2014
A guide to scale-out NAS: The specialists and startups
Specialist suppliers and startups in scale-out NAS, a technology that’s gone mainstream for its superior ability to scale capacity and performance Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Aug 2014
Scale-out NAS product survey: The big six
We survey the big six storage array makers’ scale-out NAS product ranges Continue Reading
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Feature
31 Jul 2014
Key storage performance metrics for virtual environments
We run the rule over storage performance metrics – latency, throughput and IOPS – that are key to optimising virtual machines Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2014
EMC XtremIO, VMAX and Isilon get new CPUs and data services
EMC boosts XtremIO, VMAX and Isilon with Ivy Bridge CPUs and advanced data services including flash array snapshots Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Jul 2014
Big players target object storage at cloud and archive
All but one of the big six storage vendors have object storage products that target public and private cloud environments and/or archiving use cases Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2014
Facebook shares lessons learnt from deploying Raid in HDFS clusters
Facebook deployed Raid in large HDFS clusters to increase capacity and reduce data replication, but it faced many challenges Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Jun 2014
OpenStack storage: Cinder and Swift explained
is a rising star in private cloud infrastructures. But what about OpenStack storage? We run the rule over OpenStack Cinder and Swift Continue Reading
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Feature
28 May 2014
In-memory databases - what they do and the storage they need
In-memory databases offer high performance data processing, but how do you protect data in volatile DRAM and what kind of storage is needed for longer term retention? Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Apr 2014
Erasure coding vs Raid as a data protection method
Erasure coding is mooted as a potential successor to Raid and backup software Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
HDS upgrades its mainframe-friendly VSP G1000 enterprise storage array
Hitachi Data Systems launches the Virtual Storage Platform G1000 enterprise storage array, which boosts capacity, performance and lifespan for the storage virtualisation platform. Continue Reading
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News
09 Apr 2014
Data set to grow 10-fold by 2020 as internet of things takes off
IDC’s Digital Universe study predicts the world's data will amount to 44 zettabytes by 2020, 10% of it from the internet of things Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Apr 2014
VMware versus Hyper-V storage comparison
VMware versus Hyper-V storage: How do the two leading hypervisors compare when it comes to deploying storage and in terms of their key storage features and functionality? Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Apr 2014
Would the real flash storage successor please stand up?
Flash storage will hit a wall in development terms by around the end of the decade. But which successor is best placed to replace it: Memristor, MRAM or phase-change memory? Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Mar 2014
Converged stacks: What they are and the benefits they bring
We survey the converged stacks market: Servers, storage and networking in pre-configured product bundles for specific virtualisation and application use cases. Continue Reading
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News
19 Feb 2014
NetApp slims product family with launch of FAS8000 series
NetApp launches FAS8000 line that will replace FAS3000 and FAS6000 series filers Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Feb 2014
Flash storage: What it is and where to deploy it
A guide to the key decisions in flash storage: MLC vs SLC, all-flash vs hybrid, whether to add flash to an existing SAN, flash as a tier vs cache, and more Continue Reading
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News
11 Feb 2014
Atlantis joins the software-defined storage fray with USX
Atlantis ILIO USX software-defined storage allows customers to virtualise commodity to create flash, hybrid and hyperscale storage Continue Reading
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News
06 Feb 2014
B&Q owner Kingfisher dumps Raid rebuilds and saves 40% on disk with X-IO
Kingfisher puts X-IO drives behind IBM SVC storage virtualisation to save 40% disk costs and dispenses with Raid rebuilds in £120,000 project Continue Reading
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Photo Story
04 Feb 2014
Survey: Virtualisation the engine for key storage projects
Server virtualisation drives key storage projects for European and UK IT departments, with disaster recovery and virtual server backup high on to-do lists Continue Reading
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News
30 Jan 2014
EMC brings Hadoop into ViPR upgrade and unifies SRM modules
EMC launches version 1.1 of its software-defined storage/big data platform ViPR by building in Hadoop analytics capability Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Jan 2014
VDI storage basics and persistent versus non-persistent desktops
A look at the fundamentals of VDI storage and how to specify storage for likely workloads and persistent versus non-persistent desktops. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jan 2014
Flash storage alternative MRAM takes another step forward
MRAM, a likely successor to flash storage, takes a step toward easier manufacture and longer life with new structures theorised by scientists in Singapore Continue Reading
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News
28 Dec 2013
Top 10 storage stories of 2013
Users tackle virtualisation and growth of data and suppliers battle over flash storage and software-defined storage, while big data and hyperscale emerge into the mainstream Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Nov 2013
SMB 3.0 brings enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments
SMB 3.0 is Microsoft’s replacement for the “chatty” CIFS file access storage protocol that offers enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments Continue Reading
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News
06 Nov 2013
School gets Nimble hybrid flash and Barracuda hybrid cloud backup
Berkshire private college has revamped data protection with Nimble hybrid flash storage and Barracuda hybrid cloud backup Continue Reading
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Photo Story
04 Nov 2013
Wellcome Trust maps big data genetics with DDN HPC storage
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has invested in DDN SFA10K HPC storage to support petabytes of big data generated by genetic mapping and research into diseases such as malaria Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Oct 2013
Big data storage: Hadoop storage basics
Hadoop changes the game for enterprise storage. We look at how Hadoop crunches big data, its key storage requirements and survey the vendors Continue Reading
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News
12 Sep 2013
Quantum upgrades big data storage to StorNext 5
Quantum’s StorNext big data tiered architecture operating software gets a boost to five billion files and a claimed 10x performance jump via multi-threaded CPU ops Continue Reading
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Opinion
20 Aug 2013
When to use flash SSD instead of SAS or SATA?
When to use flash SSDs instead of SAS or SATA spinning disk is all down to application requirements, says David Boyle, senior consultant at GlassHouse Technologies (UK) Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Jul 2013
LUN storage management for vSphere and Hyper-V
LUN storage partitioning has been transformed with the advent of virtualisation. Find out how it differs between VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V implementations Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Jun 2013
What’s wrong with flash storage: And what will come after?
Flash storage has taken the enterprise by storm, but its days are numbered due to an unfavourable combination of technological obstacles and manufacturing economics Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Jun 2013
Virtualisation and the LUN: Storage configuration for VMs
Virtualisation and the LUN: Storage admins used to match LUNs to physical servers, but that’s all changed. Find out how in this guide to the basics of VM storage Continue Reading
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News
13 Jun 2013
Inadequate datacentre infrastructure is a barrier to big data analytics
Inadequate datacentre infrastructure and siloed work practices are preventing UK enterprises from benefiting from big data analytics, shows study Continue Reading
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News
07 Jun 2013
Users’ top datacentre pain points
Storage, network bandwidth, cost and scalability are among the biggest datacentre concerns, say users at Dell Enterprise Forum US Continue Reading
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Feature
30 May 2013
VMware storage: SAN configuration basics
For VMware storage basics start here – the fundamentals of configuring SAN storage for VMware, such as VMFS, VMDKs, connectivity options and VMware storage features Continue Reading
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Feature
16 May 2013
SSD RAID essentials: What you need to know about flash and Raid
With the advent of flash and high-capacity HDDs, what do today’s storage professionals need to know about Raid and its new variants? Continue Reading
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News
24 Apr 2013
Storage Through the Looking Glass
This analyst report aims to help you take a much needed step away from the technical detail of storage to create some strategic perspective. Continue Reading
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News
18 Apr 2013
World’s fastest supercomputer gets 40PB of DDN storage
The US Oak Ridge lab builds home-grown HPC NAS for 40PB DataDirect Networks with 1TBps of throughput as a SAN to back-end Spider II file system on Titan supercomputer Continue Reading
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News
12 Apr 2013
Real-life disaster recovery boost at video firm with HDS clustered NAS
Special effects video firm The Mill boosts HDS/BlueArc clustered NAS capacity to cope with HD movies and build disaster recovery site at London’s Docklands Continue Reading
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Podcast
08 Apr 2013
Big data storage: Defining big data and the type of storage it needs
Big data storage: What is big data, what compute/storage system configurations are used for big data analytics, and what type of storage infrastructure does it require? Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2013
DDN launches hScaler Hadoop appliance for enterprises
HPC and clustered NAS supplier Data Direct Networks aims at enterprise customers with Hadoop appliance comprising its SFA12K storage and commodity compute components Continue Reading
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News
11 Jan 2013
Whiptail tops the class with flash array plus SAN two-tier strategy
School slashes virtual desktop login times with two-tier Whiptail flash array plus budget Huawei SAN Continue Reading
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News
03 Jan 2013
EMC seals deal with Chinese server giant Lenovo for desktop NAS
Storage giant EMC completes joint venture that will see it provide desktop NAS and SME rackmount storage hardware to Lenovo Continue Reading
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News
28 Dec 2012
Top 10 storage stories of 2012
Top storage stories from 2012 reflect the rapid pace of virtualisation, big data, the proliferation of mobile devices and new twists on storage technologies such as tape and RAID Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Dec 2012
Deduplication and single instance storage cut primary data storage costs
Data deduplication and single instance storage can cut costs in primary data environments, but implementations vary between suppliers. Continue Reading
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News
28 Nov 2012
Whiptail promises four million IOPS all-flash array performance
All-flash array maker Whiptail has upgraded its Racerunner operating system so Invicta arrays can scale to four million IOPS and 360TB of capacity Continue Reading
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News
09 Nov 2012
DataDirect Networks takes aim at clustered NAS with SFA7700
DataDirect Networks (DDN) makes a play for clustered NAS customers with big data needs on its journey from HPC to scale-out supplier Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2012
CERN turns on new NetApp ONTAP clustered NAS capability
CERN turns on NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1.1 clustered NAS functionality for easy scaling and maintenance on its 2PB LHC data storage cluster Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Sep 2012
Tune Raid performance to get the most from your HDDs
Tune Raid performance at the storage controller to match application I/O demands to optimal hard drive (HDD) performance Continue Reading
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Podcast
20 Aug 2012
The pros and cons of NAS as VM storage
Virtual server and desktop environments demand the use of shared storage for maximum efficiency. What are the key advantages of NAS as VM storage? Continue Reading
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Tip
09 Aug 2012
The benefits of an open source file system for storage
An open source file system can bring huge scalability, parallel file system capability and advanced features compared to those bundled with commercial operating systems. Continue Reading
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Podcast
31 Jul 2012
The key capabilities of SAN as virtual machine storage
Virtual server and desktop environments demand the use of shared storage for maximum efficiency, but what are the key advantages of SAN as virtual machine storage? Continue Reading
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Podcast
17 May 2012
SSD RAID array: What it is and how to use it
An SSD RAID array offers the performance and data protection advantages RAID does with spinning disk, but what levels should you use and can you mix flash and HDDs in the same RAID group? Continue Reading
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Podcast
09 May 2012
SSD for laptops and desktop computers: What type and how to install it
Adding SSD to laptop and desktop computers: What form factor, MLC or SLC, SATA or AHCI, and what are the key stages of installation? We answer your questions in this podcast. Continue Reading
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Answer
13 Dec 2011
The reasons for missing hard drive space on storage arrays
If you installed disk and didn’t get the capacity you expected, the missing hard drive space can be a result of operating system calculations, formatting, RAID and use of hot spares. Continue Reading
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Answer
18 Nov 2011
Adding an old hard drive to RAID sets on servers
When adding an old hard drive to RAID sets on servers, it’s important to account for factors such as the number of drive bays in the host. See how to configure the drives to the appropriate RAID format for the workload. Continue Reading
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Podcast
14 Nov 2011
Virtual machine storage and block vs file
Virtual machine storage requires greater performance, capacity and resiliency than with physical servers and requires a careful choice between block and file access. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Nov 2011
Free SAN sizing template and useful guidelines
With the explosion in data volumes, optimal SAN design and SAN sizing is key. Use these practical SAN sizing tips and SAN sizing template to get there. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Nov 2011
How to choose a NAS
Choosing a NAS might be complex but there are a few things you can do to simplify the choice Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Sep 2011
ATA over Ethernet offers SAN storage on a budget
ATA over Ethernet offers SAN storage on a budget, at 20% of the cost of Fibre Channel and half that of iSCSI SANs. But, does being a one-vendor protocol mean it’s a non-starter? Continue Reading
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Answer
15 Aug 2011
Key steps for a successful SAN migration
For a successful SAN migration, it’s key to understand your current environment and the future state of the SAN, as well as to carry out a testing phase against each platform and migration strategy. Continue Reading
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News
01 Aug 2011
Bad sectors – Storage news from Dell, Zerowait and Waikato District Health Board
Dell plans to bring its vStart pre-packaged infrastructure stacks to Australia later this year, while ZeroWait has scored an Australian customer for its SimplStor product. Continue Reading
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Podcast
12 Jul 2011
SAN migration strategy, preparation and execution
Learn what preparation goes into a SAN migration, how to handle the execution of the migration as well as the most difficult challenges, such as recabling in a fabric replacement. Continue Reading
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Answer
05 Jul 2011
Choosing a RAID level depends on capacity needs and data criticality
In this Ask the Expert, Steve Pinder talks about which RAID level to choose, depending on the criticality of your data or the capacity required. Continue Reading
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Answer
16 Jun 2011
Planning a NAS migration project
NAS migration requires careful planning around the needs of your organization. In this Ask the Expert, find out which approach to use for an effective migration. Continue Reading
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Answer
05 May 2011
RAID 5 explained: Sharing a 10 MB file among 5 drives
Find out how RAID 5 handles sharing data shares data in a 10 MB file among five drives, including how striping and parity data figure into the equation. Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Apr 2011
Clustered NAS vs traditional NAS solutions
Clustered NAS offers file visibility across petabytes of storage and is hugely scalable with the ability to increase throughput, IOPS or disk space by adding extra nodes. Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Apr 2011
Object-based storage promises scalability and flexibility for static, unstructured data needs
Object storage gets rid of traditional file system hierarchies and puts in place a flat access structure that provides a good basis for hugely scalable unstructured data access. Continue Reading
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Answer
06 Apr 2011
How to set up a Dell EqualLogic configuration in a VMware environment
Find out what the key steps are for setting up a Dell EqualLogic configuration for an iSCSI SAN in a VMware virtual server environment. Continue Reading
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Answer
07 Mar 2011
SAN troubleshooting: What are the key steps and best practices when troubleshooting a SAN?
Learn which tools you need to perform SAN troubleshooting, which metrics point to a sign of trouble, and why granular and regular data collection is important. Continue Reading
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Answer
14 Feb 2011
How does the RAID 5 calculation work?
Learn how to determine how much capacity you'll have in a RAID 5 drive configuration. Continue Reading