Storage management and strategy

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Robert Sheldon

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Rene Millman

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Big storage meets cloud in the datacentre 'as-a-service' revolution

Cloud is mainstream but the datacentre’s here to stay. This has resulted in a trend towards as-a-service in the datacentre where big storage array makers and the cloud giants meet Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

$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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Rene Millman

Scale’s HE150 the first of a big push to small edge HCI hardware

Scale Computing aims to scale to micro-sized hyper-converged with a lightweight operating system it claims its competitors can’t match for edge and remote location deployments Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to buy hyper-converged infrastructure

Simplicity, high availability, scalability and reduced cost are among the benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure. We survey the benefits, pitfalls and the key suppliers Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

NetApp’s Keystone hybrid cloud storage ‘try-before-you-buy’ for on-prem

Keystone on-premise and cloud subscription model will cost more than buying hardware so will be best suited to customers that want to try NetApp on-site before committing to purchase Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

AWS Outposts debuts in Australia

Amazon Web Services rolls out Outposts in Australia, enabling enterprises to run a consistent version of the AWS platform at locations that require low latency Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Beverley Head

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Is facial recognition happening too fast?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the information commissioner calls on police forces to slow down the introduction of facial recognition, we examine the issues. We look at what the use of DevOps methods means for storage strategy. And we talk to Microsoft’s global cyber security chief. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

DataCore adds file and S3 object storage with vFilO

Software-defined storage specialist DataCore has added file storage and S3 object storage access with vFilO, which lets customers create virtual pools from on-site and remote datastores Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

NVMe-over-TCP brings super-fast flash over standard IP networks

TCP is the latest transport protocol that can be used to connect NVMe flash storage. We explain how NVMe-over-TCP works and the key advantages for datacentre customers Continue Reading

By

• Eric Ebert

The importance of digital accessibility

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine what retailers need to do to make their digital channels accessible for disabled people. We look at the rise of alternative desktop productivity tools to Microsoft Office. And our new buyer’s guide covers next-generation programming tools such as no-code/low-code development. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

What is QLC flash and what workloads it is good for?

QLC flash offers low per-gigabyte costs and lots of capacity, but can be limited by endurance and I/O performance. It can be a good disk replacement for several workloads, however Continue Reading

By

• Rene Millman

Scality APIs connect Azure Stack to Ring object storage on-site

Object storage specialist continues its cloud integration journey by adding Microsoft Azure Blob API connectors to allow use of Ring as bulk storage for Azure edge data Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Is NVMe flash the right choice for you?

NVMe flash storage boosts performance for I/O-hungry operations, but how does it work, where can organisations best deploy it, and what are the key uses cases where it can make a difference? Continue Reading

By

• Rene Millman

How to monitor NetApp quotas for disks with PowerShell

NetApp's PowerShell module provides a fast and easy way to automate and monitor NetApp quotas for disks. Learn how with this step-by-step tutorial. Continue Reading

By

• Dan Franciscus

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Total saves £95,000 a year with Nutanix hyper-converged

Gas and electricity supplier struggled with ageing traditional infrastructure, but moved to hyper-converged for projects that include containers and DevOps deployments Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

CW APAC: Expert advice on storage

The creation of ever-increasing volumes of data is posing escalating problems for storage. In this issue of Expert Advice, Computer Weekly looks at how APAC firms are dealing with storage management issues in the cloud age, NVMe flash as a storage choice for artificial intelligence applications, and how to set up containerised storage. Continue Reading

Key differences between cloud storage offerings

Cloud storage offerings are often largely similar. We run through the key areas where they can differ, such as location, range of services and data protection Continue Reading

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

DevOps and storage: APIs and flexibility key

The details of back-end storage are irrelevant to DevOps engineers, but they need enough of it, when they want it, and the ability to manage it programmatically is key Continue Reading

By

• Eric Ebert

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

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Kim Loohuis

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

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Storage and DevOps: What is required for agile development?

DevOps brings continuous and agile application. Storage has to fit in and make itself just as responsive to development that does away with the inertia of stifling hierarchies Continue Reading

By

• Eric Ebert

Pure Storage sees stellar growth in APAC

Pure Storage is expanding its footprint in key markets such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, even as it proceeds with caution in China Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Pure Storage outlines growth momentum, bolsters cloud play

Pure Storage CEO talks up the storage supplier’s competitive edge in a largely stagnant market dominated by larger rivals Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

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

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

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

Spectra tilts at HSM with StorCycle storage management software

Spectra Logic unveils newly-developed storage management platform and two-tier file access and object storage with all data visible to all users for restore Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

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

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Virtual Instruments brings automated VM right-sizing in v6.2

Storage and app performance specialist can now change virtual machine compute and network resources according to workload, with increased shift to analytics and proactive monitoring Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

On-premise object storage: Key products and use cases

We run the rule over on-premise object storage, key use cases and suppliers, take a closer look at an organisation that has deployed object storage, and assess cloud compatibility Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Pierre Berlemont

Virtual Instruments to add cloud monitoring with Metricly

Storage monitoring specialist Virtual Instruments buys Metricly to add monitoring of AWS compute CPU, memory and resource utilisation to save customer costs Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to deploy NVMe flash storage for artificial intelligence

We run the rule over NVMe flash as a storage choice for AI applications and the key decision points in form factor and hardware specification Continue Reading

By

• Eric Ebert

Storage: How ‘tail latency’ impacts customer-facing applications

Henry He of Virtual Instruments looks at tail latency, the small percentage of storage I/O that could be causing big and costly problems for business applications Continue Reading

By

• Henry He, Virtual Instruments

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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Australia to upgrade supercomputer in HPC boost

The Gadi supercomputer at the Australian National University will run 10 times faster than its predecessor, giving researchers access to high performance computing resources to solve the toughest research problems Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Analytics and GDPR compliance: How to achieve it

Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, looks at technologies such as pseudonymisation that can help organisations stay GDPR-compliant while gaining value from analytics on customer data Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Computer Weekly – 16 July 2019: Reaping the benefits of digital transformation at Defra

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we check out the digital transformation at Defra, and see how the government department is preparing for Brexit. The new technology chief for the NHS explains how he’s going to bring the health service into the digital age. And we examine how to make a success of enterprise social media platforms. Read the issue now. 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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

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

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

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

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

Unstructured data compliance: Obstacles and solutions

Stored unstructured data could be a black hole full of unknown risk. We look at the key dangers to compliance in unstructured data and some ways of mitigating the risks Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard