Storage management and strategy

Paris post-product studio uses Atempo Miria for live restores

France-based À La Plage Studio decided on tape as a medium to store its visual production work, with Atempo ADA/Miria as a means to access and restore data to work on Continue Reading

RAID, flash and erasure coding: What works best with solid state?

We look at RAID and flash to highlight key choices when it comes to drive data protection. What RAID levels work best with solid state and when is erasure coding a good choice? Continue Reading

Brain researchers get NVMe-over-RoCE for super-fast HPC storage

French neurological researchers deploy Western Digital OpenFlex NVMe array for super-fast HPC storage with Ethernet-based NVMe-over-Fabrics connectivity across several floors Continue Reading

Pure adds block, Azure and convergence to as-a-service offerings

Pure customers can get its storage on-premise, in colocation or the cloud, and now it has added FlashArray C// block capacity and Flash Stack converged infrastructure to the catalogue Continue Reading

Need to know: Five key things about backup testing

We look at five key things to consider when it comes to backup testing – what to test, how often, making sure backups work, whether recovery is effective and ensuring processes are consistent Continue Reading

How Mastercard is taking digital payments into a new era

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to Mastercard about how the credit card giant is using new technologies to take digital payments into a new era. After months of unprecedented uncertainty, we ask CIOs how they are planning for the next 12 months. And we examine how the growth in remote working will affect IT salaries. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Intel Optane Persistent Memory aims to fill the gap DRAM can’t

We look at Optane and its PMem product that Intel believes will fill a big gap between memory and storage that DRAM technology just cannot deal with Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2020: Covid-19 consolidates storage push to cloud

The emphasis on home and remote working has been felt in storage and backup as in all areas of IT, with continued evolution towards the cloud and as-a-service storage and backup Continue Reading

Using digital twins to cut costs and improve safety at Shell

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at Shell’s digital twin strategy, which combines AI, internet of things and big data to improve safety and cut costs. Our latest buyer’s guide examines the best practices and technologies in business process automation. And we find out why securing DNS is critical to fighting cyber crime. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Optimal architectures for intelligent storage systems

Explore the best, most optimal architectures for intelligent storage and how these systems improve storage performance/utilization to help get more bang out of your data set buck. Continue Reading

Slot of the Antarctic: Tape the best option for polar survey backup

Tape deemed the best medium for backup on board the Antarctic research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough, with Quantum’s Scalar i3 chosen in a fully redundant deployment Continue Reading

The UK government’s ‘flawed and misleading’ Covid-19 data

In this week’s Computer Weekly, the coronavirus data relied upon by the UK government is ‘flawed and misleading’ say experts – we examine the implications. Ikea talks about how it turned to the cloud to deal with the impact of the pandemic. And we look at the digital transformation underway at credit card giant Capital One. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Commvault launches Metallic backup service in Europe

Backup giant adds backup as a service, with cloud-to-cloud backup and e-discovery functionality that can work across on-site datacentres and the AWS and Azure clouds Continue Reading

Unified file and object storage: The best of both worlds?

Unified file and object storage tackles growing volumes of unstructured data in a way that’s compatible with traditional and cloud-era applications, and friendlier to analytics Continue Reading

Podcast: Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Covid-19 and storage

We look at how organisations can use Cybersecurity Awareness Month as an opportunity to revisit their handling of data and compliance, especially with changes brought by Covid-19 and home working Continue Reading

CW APAC: Trend Watch – storage

Many organisations turn to cloud to cut storage bills, but the options available and potential costs are many and varied. In this handbook, Computer Weekly takes a peek at future storage technologies, such as helium and DNA, and offers some valuable tips on how to keep cloud storage costs under control. Continue Reading

A peek into the future of storage

Flash-based storage is here to stay and will continue to be enhanced, even as helium and DNA are being primed for use in the distant future. Continue Reading

A peek into the future of storage

Flash-based storage is here to stay and will continue to be enhanced, even as helium and DNA are being primed for use in the distant future Continue Reading

The future of storage

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine emerging technologies in storage such as helium disks and DNA. Ransomware is becoming more sophisticated and the attackers more tactical. And as the EU’s top court challenges the UK over surveillance, we ask what this means for data privacy after Brexit. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Carhartt shifts old data to the cloud with Komprise

US-based workwear manufacturer cuts storage costs from $1 to $0.25 per gigabyte as it deploys data management software and shifts old files to Microsoft Azure Blob and Cold storage Continue Reading

NVMe-over Fabrics: How NVMe-oF revolutionises shared storage

NVMe brought super-fast flash storage to the datacentre, but it needs NVMe-oF to allow it to bring the benefits of rapid access and low latency to SAN and NAS shared storage Continue Reading

Veeam buys Kasten to get a boost in Kubernetes backup

Virtual machine backup pioneer sees $150m purchase of Kasten and the addition of Kubernetes backup to its portfolio as key to becoming a ‘$2bn company’ Continue Reading

Backup audit: What is a backup audit and why do we need them?

Backup and recovery are vital components to protect against data loss, whether technical or causes such as ransomware. So how can a backup audit help protect our key assets? Continue Reading

A peek into the future of storage

 Continue Reading

Red Hat rivals VMware and Nutanix with hyper-converged OCS 4.5

Red Hat’s OpenShift 4.5 extended container orchestration to virtual machines. The arrival of OCS 4.5 moves the solution into the realm of hyper-converged systems Continue Reading

The race to get data analytics right

This is a guest post by Sunil Chavan, vice-president for FlashBlade at Pure Storage Asia-Pacific & Japan In evolutionary theory, the red queen hypothesis suggests that species must constantly ... Continue Reading

Top five ways backup can protect against ransomware

Ransomware threatens to put your data beyond reach, so the best way to prepare is to have good-quality data you can restore from backup. We look at the key things to consider Continue Reading

Nutanix boosts storage performance by 50% with BlockStore

Hyper-converged infrastructure pioneer Nutanix boosts access to NVMe and potentially Optane storage with BlockStore, which avoids the need to access the deepest layers of the OS Continue Reading

India’s storage market takes hit but hasn’t lost its shine

The slower growth in storage spending in India amid the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to be mitigated by digitisation efforts by financial services and manufacturing firms Continue Reading

Top five ways to benefit from tape today

We look at the benefits that tape can bring, including in backup and recovery, long-term and ‘warm’ archiving, compliance and WORM use cases and ‘air gapping’ to protect data Continue Reading

Pure flashes the cash, paying $370m for Portworx

Flash storage pioneer believes container storage is the next frontier and pays big money for container persistent storage software provider Portworx in deal set to close this month Continue Reading

A peek into the future of storage

Flash-based storage is here to stay and will continue to be enhanced, even as helium and DNA are being primed for use in the distant future Continue Reading

Broadcom launches Brocade gen7 Fibre Channel switches

New generation Fibre Channel doubles performance to 64Gbps with switches and HBAs now available. But what future for Fibre Channel with NVMe-over-fabrics hitting the datacentre? Continue Reading

NHS whistleblowers at risk due to poor IT policies

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our investigation into NHS practices shows how poor IT policies are putting whistleblowers at risk. Our buyer’s guide examines the networking implications of the surge in remote working. And we assess how well the public cloud giants responded to the demands of the coronavirus pandemic. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Dutch bank set to save €5m via Veeam backup upgrade

Rabobank ditched legacy backup where patching took months and restores took hours. Those times are now cut down massively and the bank has a readily available test environment Continue Reading

Pure aims at unified file and object and launches new QLC storage

Flash storage maker says unified storage in file and object is what is needed for contemporary analytics and AI workloads, while it launches a new all-QLC version of FlashArray//C Continue Reading

Storage analytics: How AI helps storage management

We look at storage analytics products that measure key metrics in storage hardware, single-vendor and multi-vendor tools, and how AI-based storage management and AIOps is emerging Continue Reading

When algorithms don’t play fair

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we report on the auditing of algorithms to countervail bias. We examine what CISOs can learn from Covid-19. And in our buyer’s guide to modern software development, we assess how competent artificial intelligence is at building applications that deliver the best possible customer experience. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Panasas launches storage tiering by size instead of usage

Dynamic Data Acceleration moves data to media dependent on file size and claims performance advantage over rival as it gets the best out of flash and spinning disk hard drives Continue Reading

10 top hyper-converged infrastructure vendors and products

Determining which hyper-converged infrastructure platform is right for your organization should include analyzing your workloads and assessing technology from top HCI vendors. Continue Reading

Nutanix launches Clusters in AWS for hybrid cloud hyper-converged infrastructure

HCI pioneers launches Nutanix Clusters, which will provide hyper-converged deployments across customer datacentres and the Amazon cloud, but only in Acropolis and on AWS for now Continue Reading

Cloud storage costs: How to get cloud storage bills under control

Many organisations look to the cloud to cut storage budgets, but the potential costs are many and varied. So what are the key ways to cut cloud storage costs? Continue Reading

Five on-premise and cloud options for network-attached storage

We look at five options for file access storage, from ‘traditional’ NAS in a standalone appliance to distributed hybrid cloud file storage and NAS cloud gateways Continue Reading

Backblaze takes aim at ‘costly and complex’ AWS cloud storage

Backblaze offers free transfer to its S3-based cloud storage – which it claims costs a fraction of AWS et al – as long as it’s more than 50TB and you commit to at least 12 months Continue Reading

Storage skills in the age of the cloud and convergence

Storage skills was a discrete area in the IT jobs market, but that’s being eroded by the cloud, hyper-convergence infrastructure, and virtualisation. So, what are the key storage skillsets today? Continue Reading

Decision points in storage for artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data

Artificial intelligence and machine learning storage is not one-size-fits-all. Analytics work differs, and has varied storage requirements for capacity, latency, throughput and IOPS. We look at key decision points Continue Reading

Fujifilm software allows S3 access to LTO tape libraries

Fujifilm Software Defined Tape allows tape libraries to act as an S3-based object storage archive accessible as a tier of storage on-premise or in the cloud Continue Reading

Qumulo hybrid cloud NAS provides special effects for Cinesite

Hybrid cloud scale-out NAS from Qumulo used to offload Active Directory lookups and other workloads to the AWS cloud that had suffered in peak times when on Isilon Continue Reading

6 storage resource management tools offer insights, optimization

Software for managing storage resources provides in-depth information on capacity and performance to help enterprises proactively manage their storage infrastructure. Continue Reading

Unlocking value in the railway network’s data

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how the rail industry is working to improve its use of data to deliver better services to passengers. Is flash the saviour of the storage universe? Our buyer’s guide assesses the choices for IT managers. And we examine the failure of the government’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Qumulo Shift opens up scale-out NAS to AWS S3 in the cloud

Qumulo Shift will automatically convert file data on its NAS arrays to S3 object storage format in the AWS cloud. The functionality will be free to customers from July Continue Reading

Nebulon emerges with software-defined storage, but from the cloud

Startup to offer on-site storage with local I/O and some controller functionality in the cloud, combining software-defined and cloud to bring “fleet management at scale” Continue Reading

SoftIron aims at data too valuable for commodity storage

UK array maker hopes to be the storage provider of choice for those that really value their data, with highly optimised Ceph-powered hardware aimed at HPC users and enterprises Continue Reading

Cloud flash storage: SSD options from AWS, Azure and GCP

We look at the flash storage options available from the big three cloud providers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform – that can help narrow the gap between on-site and cloud workloads Continue Reading

US buildings firm saves big on HDDs with Nasuni cloud NAS

APi Group dumps first-generation file sharing for Nasuni, which allowed it to save ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ with standard hardware deployments and cutting local storage Continue Reading

Cloud storage on-site hardware: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

We look at the big three cloud vendors’ on-site offerings: AWS’s Outposts, Gateway and Snow hardware, Azure’s Stack and Arc appliances, and Google Cloud’s software-defined Anthos Continue Reading

Cloud storage 101: NAS file storage on AWS, Azure and GCP

We look at NAS file storage options in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. All three offer native-based and NetApp-based file storage, with Azure adding single namespace cache services Continue Reading

Churchill gets Ctera hybrid cloud NAS and dodges 3PAR disk spend

Potteries-based ceramics maker faced the choice between expanding its HPE SAN at great cost or deploying Ctera hybrid cloud NAS. It saved thousands by heading for hybrid cloud Continue Reading

Digital transformation held back by lack of skilled people

Veeam survey finds digital transformation a hot topic, but 44% of firms are held back by skills shortages. Meanwhile, the cost of downtime is found to be $67,651 per hour for the most important apps Continue Reading

Kaminario offers cut-price virtual SAN in the cloud

Flash pioneer Kaminario builds its VisionOS out to the cloud and says its cloud block storage is much cheaper than what is available from the native cloud services of the big three providers Continue Reading

Cloud storage 101: File, block and object storage in the cloud

We run the rule over file, block and object storage from the big three public cloud providers: AWS, Azure and GCP. We look at what’s on offer and the use cases they are aimed at Continue Reading

VxRail vs. Nutanix: HCI heavyweights square off

Learn how leading hyper-converged infrastructure systems from Dell EMC and Nutanix stack up in this in-depth comparison. Continue Reading

Can Lady Gaga and Madonna get people to take IT security seriously?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, after hackers threatened to release data from a US law firm’s celebrity clients, will people finally take cyber security seriously? Designing software for older users makes systems better for all – we examine how. And the IT chief at TSB explains how the bank recovered from its 2018 IT disaster. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Mainframe storage: Three players in a market that’s here to stay

Far from disappearing, the mainframe market and the storage it needs is here to stay for some time. The three key array makers compete with high-end flash-equipped products Continue Reading

Infinidat sees containers and S3 as key to join storage big guns

But that’s not all. The array maker – that brings flash performance with massive amounts of HDD plus cache – plans for NVMe-over-fabric and use of 20TB hard drives too Continue Reading

Portworx to add application profiles to persistent container storage

Kubernetes persistent container storage that runs from inside the cluster will add application storage profiles for applications such as Apache Kafka, Elasticsearch and Postgres Continue Reading

Storj app builds QNAP NAS into its Uber-like cloud storage network

QNAP NAS users can use the Storj app to configure spare capacity as part of the Tardigrade S3 cloud, which offers storage at half the cost of the main providers Continue Reading

Dell EMC vs. NetApp: Comparing converged infrastructure systems

The Dell EMC VxBlock and NetApp FlexPod converged infrastructure platforms can help IT reduce the complexities of implementing and maintaining data center systems. Continue Reading

Podcast: UK SME planning and compliance for ‘the new normal’

We look at how UK SMEs face a “new normal” following the coronavirus lockdowns and how they can plan for compliance with more remote working and a new data landscape Continue Reading

Storage 101: Replication vs backup, and synchronous vs asynchronous

Storage 101: Can replication replace backup? What are the pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous backup? What’s the best way to mix backup and replication? Continue Reading

StorageOS v2 puts ‘mini brains’ in Kubernetes storage volumes

StorageOS persistent software-defined storage for Kubernetes distributes control plane decisions to volumes in a cluster and takes away the impact on centralised scheduler Continue Reading

Podcast: How to get cyber accountability on the board agenda

We look at how boards should carry out strategic and operational risk profile assessments and plan for compliance on an ongoing basis to avoid fines and damage to the business Continue Reading

Snapshots 101: Array vs backup software

We run the rule over snapshots in storage arrays and backup software and find a range of capabilities that go from mere support to fully snapshot-centric approaches Continue Reading

Is digital transformation in the public sector making progress?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we assess the progress of digital transformation across the public sector. IT contractors face a double whammy from backdated tax payments and loans being recalled – we explore the growing scandal. And we assess the benefits of computational storage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Dark data is contributing to carbon emissions

Almost six million tonnes of carbon dioxide will be pumped into the atmosphere this year as a result of dark data, Veritas research finds Continue Reading

Storage 101: Snapshots vs backup

We go over the basics of snapshots. They are a quick and accessible way of protecting data, but they are not a substitute for backup. So how do you combine the two? Continue Reading

Podcast: Remote compliance assessments and how they are done

Remote working adds to IT compliance risks, but doesn’t remove the need to assess compliance. How are remote compliance assessments carried out and how can you prepare for them? Continue Reading

Podcast: Ruthlessly prioritise applications during Covid-19

We talk to Alex McMullan, CTO international at Pure Storage, about scaling up storage and compute for remote working and why that means prioritising applications Continue Reading

Multicloud storage 101: Pros, cons, pitfalls and strategies

Not putting all your eggs in one basket can be helpful to an enterprise’s resilience strategy. We look at multicloud storage and the benefits and pitfalls it brings Continue Reading

NAS backup: Which suppliers have gone post-NDMP?

NAS backup with NDMP has many drawbacks so some vendors have moved to a data management approach that tracks changes and allows for incremental forever protection Continue Reading

Podcast: Covid-19, compliance risk, remote assessment and training

We talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about why organisations cannot drop their guard on compliance during the increased risks faced as a result of the coronavirus crisis Continue Reading

Top five compliance concerns for UK business in 2020

We look at the top five legal and regulatory compliance concerns for UK businesses in 2020. It’s a list that includes GDPR, the DPA, PECR, PCI-DSS and the CCPA Continue Reading

Podcast: Covid-19, remote access, storage and compliance

We talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about ensuring access and compliance for organisations that need to massively ramp up remote working during coronavirus social distancing Continue Reading

Smartbox move to Nutanix HCI a catalyst for IT team revamp

Gift supplier reorganises IT team structures as Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure helps sweep away legacy architecture for hybrid cloud and containerised operations Continue Reading

What’s the problem with NAS backup?

NAS backup has always been problematic, but what exactly are the issues with NDMP, and what are backup suppliers doing to make a decades-old storage staple easier to protect? Continue Reading

Computational storage: What is it and what are its key use cases?

Computational storage brings the CPU to the storage and so boosts system performance by tackling processing tasks, such as near the edge or in AI/machine learning workloads Continue Reading

Container storage 101: What is CSI and how does it work?

We look at the container storage interface, which provides an interface to persistent storage in the products of storage array makers, and how it relates to Kubernetes Continue Reading

Molotov.tv streams 24/7 with Dell EMC and Scality object storage

France-based Molotov.tv has offered streaming TV services on digital platforms since 2016, based on Dell EMC servers with GPU acceleration and Scality Ring object storage Continue Reading

Podcast: ‘The human element’ in compliance at RSA 2020

We review RSA 2020 and discuss the human element in compliance, plus network and data management, trust, Covid-19 and its implications for organisations, and GDPR and CCPA Continue Reading

Cache vs tier: What’s the difference between cache and storage?

We look at the key distinctions between cache and tiers of storage, and where the line has become blurred with fast flash, 3D Xpoint and storage class memory technologies Continue Reading

Flash storage tiers: Performance, cost and use cases

We look at performance, cost and potential use cases for the key flash storage types available, such as Nand flash, 3D Xpoint and Intel Optane, plus SAS, SATA and NVMe connectivity Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2020: Cloud storage key but SAN/NAS alive and well

In the Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT Priorities survey cloud dominates storage spending priorities for 2020, but on-premise technologies such as SAN and NAS are still key to IT Continue Reading

Kubernetes storage 101: Container storage basics

We look at the basics of creating storage and specifying it for applications in container storage using Kubernetes Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims Continue Reading

IBM unifies storage arrays under FlashSystem brand

IBM to bring together all non-mainframe storage arrays as FlashSystem product, with options from entry-level to petabyte-scale with NVMe flash and storage class memory 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

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

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