Storage management and strategy

Nodeum to add S3 connectivity to LTFS-powered tape archive

Belgium-based Linux-plus-LTFS startup adds S3 capability to allow customers to add cloud as a tier and data portability between on and off-premises archiving Continue Reading

Storage 101: Object storage vs block vs file

We recap the key attributes of file and block storage access and the pros and cons of object storage, a method that offers key benefits but also drawbacks compared with SAN and NAS Continue Reading

Private cloud: Orchestration, storage and containers

We look at the key requirements and components of private cloud – including the use of container platforms – and the impact of private cloud on storage in the datacentre Continue Reading

CW Benelux: Is there a Dutch digital delusion?

On government and business levels, the Netherlands aspires to be a digital leader in Europe, but it may be losing ground because of a lack of research and development investment. Also in this issue, IT decision makers based in the Benelux region are less confident than their European neighbours that IT budgets will increase in 2017, and Dutch bank ING, which used digital technology to reinvent itself after the financial crash, is about to reinvent itself again. Continue Reading

Storage 101: Queue depth, NVMe and the array controller

We look at queue depth and fan-out and fan-in ratios. With NVMe they could become a thing of the past, but for now there’s still a bottleneck at the storage array controller Continue Reading

NVMe: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2

We talk NVMe form factor choices – add-in card vs U.2. vs M.2 – and their uses, for primary storage or cache, with Server StorageIO founder and analyst Greg Schulz Continue Reading

World leaders discuss risks of social unrest from advances in technology

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the fears raised at the World Economic Forum in Davos over the potential for social unrest as new technology such as AI transforms working practices and eliminates jobs. We hear from the CIO at the World Health Organization about how IT helped tackle the Ebola crisis. And we look at progress in companies adopting big data analytics. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Hybrid cloud 101: Using the cloud as a storage tier

We look at what’s possible when it comes to hybrid cloud, what types of data and what hybrid cloud architectures can combine on-premise and cloud storage capacity Continue Reading

Backup 101: Incremental vs differential vs synthetic full backup

Backup methods pros and cons: Full, incremental, differential, synthetic full, incremental forever, and reverse incremental. We set out the advantages and drawbacks of each Continue Reading

Top 10 virtualisation and storage stories of 2016

Flash storage has held onto the headlines in 2016, but hyper-converged infrastructure, containerisation, software-defined storage and VMware’s plans for the hybrid cloud are rising themes Continue Reading

European law enforcement seeking smart ways to fight cyber crime

Cyber criminals are always likely to be better resourced than law enforcement. Now, national and regional police forces in Europe are switching tactics to even the odds. Under-resourced law enforcement needs a smarter approach as cyber crime becomes increasingly prevalent and sophisticated, backed by the money and expertise of organised crime groups set up and run as well-resourced and efficient professional business organisations. Cyber crime operations typically have teams dedicated to looking at open source intelligence, targets’ physical environments, weaknesses in supply chains, and potential collaborators inside target organisations to enable sophisticated, blended attacks that involve a combination of actions against a range of vulnerabilities, making them difficult to detect and defend against. Continue Reading

NVMe over fabrics vs Fibre Channel, Ethernet, Infiniband

NVMe over fabrics takes the built-for-flash advantages of the PCIe-based protocol, and allows NVMe to be sent via Fibre Channel, Ethernet and Infiniband networks Continue Reading

Disaster recovery testing: technology systems to test DR

In this concluding part of a two-part series, Computer Weekly looks at ways of testing disaster recovery plans, with methods including array-based replication and hypervisor-based approaches Continue Reading

Tape backup: Often old and confused, but quite cheap

Survey results show those with tape are likely to have old tapes, multiple formats, including defunct ones, and no way of knowing what is on them. But tape is still quite cheap for most Continue Reading

Top 10 ANZ enterprise IT stories of 2016

Here is a rundown of Computer Weekly’s most popular ANZ enterprise IT articles for 2016 Continue Reading

Storage briefing: NVMe vs SATA and SAS

NVMe brings blistering performance gains over existing HDD-era disk protocols, and is a straight swap-in for PCIe server-side flash with array and hyper-converged products on the way Continue Reading

Disaster recovery testing: A vital part of the DR plan

Disaster recovery provision is worthless unless you test out your plans. In this two-part series, Computer Weekly looks at disaster recovery testing in virtualised datacentres Continue Reading

Australia’s IFC Logistics virtualises storage to prevent further outages

Australian logistics firm moved to virtualised storage through a managed service after a serious outage Continue Reading

The march of the robot workers

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how artificial intelligence is being used to automate existing jobs, including roles as varied as IT administrators and customer service agents. Capital One’s European CIO talks about how to create an agile business. And we offer tips on how to deal with an Oracle software audit. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

The future of connected cars

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine how software is reshaping the car industry, with internet-connected cars presenting challenges and opportunities for the sector. IT suppliers are putting up prices in the UK as the value of the pound falls – we look at the implications. And Eurostar’s digital chief talks about overhauling IT to meet demanding passenger expectations. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

VMware VSAN 6.5 supports containers and physical servers via iSCSI

VMware Virtual SAN now supports containers with persistent storage and allows physical server storage access to its shared pool of capacity via the iSCSI SAN protocol Continue Reading

Quantum refreshes Scalar tape library family with i3, i6 and AEL6

Quantum’s StorNext universe boosted by new tape libraries – the i3, i6 and AEL6 – with increased data density on the back of denser storage and improved robotics Continue Reading

CW ANZ: Harnessing the power of server/storage architecture

In this month’s CW ANZ, read about how a council in south-east Queensland swapped its compute and storage systems for cloud services. Redland City Council CIO Glynn Henderson explains why the organisation went for a hybrid cloud system. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

CW ASEAN: The power of all-flash arrays

In this month’s CW ASEAN, we take a look at how efficiencies from storage suppliers and enhanced benefits to total cost of ownership have made the commercial and technology value propositions for all-flash arrays the choice for primary workloads even more compelling to customers. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Enterprise NAS performance challenges and how to resolve them

NAS storage can be used for mission critical workloads but NFS-based storage comes with performance challenges. Jim Bahn of Virtual Instruments outlines the main ones Continue Reading

Docker storage: how to get persistent storage in Docker

Docker, by default, doesn’t come with persistent storage, which presents an issue to some workloads customers that want to run in containers – however, there are ways to achieve persistent storage Continue Reading

Digital knowledge at the British Library

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out about the technology plans at the British Library as it aims to store the UK’s printed and digital history. Graph database technology is being used to help improve food safety throughout the supply chain – we examine how it works. And tech leaders tell us how to architect IT infrastructure for moving to the cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Hypergrid adds metered usage and networks to hyper-converged kit

Hyper-converged appliance maker will allow customers to pay for what they use in hardware that will now add networking Continue Reading

Essex hospital trust upgrades IT infrastructure

Mid Essex NHS Trust upgrades its storage infrastructure to keep up with increasing volumes of data Continue Reading

Italian bottle maker deploys 88TB of Syneto hyper-converged storage

Serioplast gets reliable disaster recovery as it replaces NetApp plus remote physical servers with Syneto hyper-converged infrastructure at factories across Europe, Africa and Asia Continue Reading

Blockchain and the promise of cooperative cloud storage

Blockchain technology allows distributed retention of encrypted data and is at the heart of cooperative cloud storage Continue Reading

Cloud firm Backbone relegates X-IO SAN with Atlantis tiered storage

London-based Backbone uses Atlantis USX as storage virtualisation layer on top of PCIe flash and X-IO and as a stepping stone to hyper-converged infrastructures Continue Reading

Rubrik backup appliance adds physical platforms to hybrid cloud

Flash-powered backup appliances add MS SQL and Linux physical server to VMware backup and hybrid cloud archive in Firefly release, with more physical and endpoint support promised Continue Reading

SAP Hana storage 101

If you're starting down the road towards SAP Hana in-memory analytics you'll need to understand its storage requirements. Here are some basics to get you started Continue Reading

Nutanix adds storage for containers, physical servers and all-flash

Hyper-converged infrastructure maker Nutanix adds container support with persistent storage, offers block iSCSI storage for physical servers and allows all-flash across the product range Continue Reading

Shadow data and the risks posed by cloud storage and apps

Cloud storage and apps can open up an organisation to risks of data leakage. Computer Weekly looks at key areas of vulnerability and what you can do to prevent your data going viral Continue Reading

CW ANZ: June 2016

Read how scientists at a major Australian university are benefiting from the latest storage technology to help them get the most out of advanced IT already in place. More than 100 scientific teams share the sophisticated high-performance computer facilities at Monash University’s eResearch Centre in Melbourne, Australia. To help scientists get the best from the computing facilities, Monash built a state-of-the-art software-defined storage cluster using open source technologies and cost efficient hardware from Dell. Continue Reading

CW ASEAN: June 2016

In this issue we look at a software-defined approach to storage management that combines storage, compute, networking and virtualization technologies. We find out how popular these hyper-converged and converged storage systems are among organizations in Southeast Asia and consider why organizations would move production systems to these. Also read whether Asian CIOs are ready for Docker and container technology. Containers are all the rage among developers. They are well suited to DevOps best practices due to their portability, fast deployment times and standard units of operations. We look at whether Asian CIOs are ready to use this open source technology to build, test and run applications in their organizations. Continue Reading

It makes sense to go hyperscale/hyper-converged

Hyperscale computing and storage are the norm for web giants. Hyper-converged scenarios make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain the advantages of combined server/storage nodes Continue Reading

Software-defined storage the power behind Monash University microscopes

Australian academic institute uses the technology to help it deal with huge – and still growing – storage demands Continue Reading

Amazon S3 storage 101: Object storage in the cloud

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) has emerged as a de facto standard for accessing data in the cloud. We run the rule over S3, its key attributes and what you need to know to use it with your applications Continue Reading

How IT in a portacabin supports £1bn London Bridge station overhaul

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how a temporary IT set-up based in a portacabin is supporting the UK’s largest critical infrastructure project – the £1bn redevelopment of London Bridge train station. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at converged infrastructure products. And we analyse research showing data protection topping the list of UK security priorities. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

CW@50: Storage – From punched cards to flash and the cloud

Since the launch of Computer Weekly in 1966, we have moved from a world of punched cards and paper tape to one where flash and the cloud have revolutionised data storage Continue Reading

Britain to pay billions for monster internet surveillance network

New questions raised about Britain’s snoopers’ charter after Denmark abandons its own UK-style surveillance programme for a second time Continue Reading

CW Europe: February 2016

In Europe cloud is restricted and hybrid setups make use of local compute and storage. Continue Reading

Case study: SEO startup uses Elastichosts’ containers to solve cloud app scalability issues

Search engine optimisation startup talks about the challenges of running unpredictable, resource-hungry applications in the cloud Continue Reading

How AstraZeneca saved $350m by insourcing IT

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to find out why it brought its outsourced IT back in-house, and how it saved $350m per year as a result. As the data protection debate rages around Europe, we ask if the new EU/US Privacy Shield agreement will protect citizens’ data. And we examine the relative merits of datacentre colocation and the cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cloud storage appliances: What they are and who provides them

We look at the cloud storage appliance market – everything from local gateway presentation of the cloud, via hybrid cloud, to the new generation of cloud-resident appliances Continue Reading

Unaligned I/O: A storage performance killer

As the stack piles higher – with virtual servers, their virtual disks and guest operating systems – the scope for unaligned or misaligned I/O to affect performance increases Continue Reading

NAS vs object: Which one for large volumes of unstructured data?

Both NAS and object storage offer highly scalable file storage for large volumes of unstructured data, but which is right for your environment? Continue Reading

How open source is beating proprietary software

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide assesses the impact of open source software on corporate IT and how its growth is underpinning the digital revolution. We examine the prospects for cloud in financial services as regulators give their approval. And we ask if Uber is really part of a new business model for the so-called sharing economy. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Top 10 storage stories of 2015

The year 2015 in storage was dominated by the continued rise of flash and Dell’s purchase of EMC, but there were steady upticks in trends such as hyper-converged and software-defined storage Continue Reading

Disaster recovery planning: Where virtualisation can help

The disaster recovery planning process is not fundamentally technology-centric, so when can virtualisation make it quicker and easier to restore services after an unplanned outage? Continue Reading

Top five things to know about flash and storage tiering

Automated storage tiering boosts storage efficiency and saves money, but why is tiering different from caching, why is it suited to use with flash and how do suppliers differ? Continue Reading

Snapshots: Hypervisor vs Array

Snapshots are a valuable part of the data protection toolkit, but where is it best to run them from – the hypervisor or the storage array? We look at the pros and cons Continue Reading

Object storage: Cloud vs in-house

Object storage is a rising star in data storage, especially for cloud and web use. But what are the pros and cons of cloud object storage or building in-house? Continue Reading

VMware reacts to the cloud and containerisation

At VMworld Europe, VMware restates products and roadmap visions that see it react to the perceived inevitability of the cloud, while also getting a grip on containers Continue Reading

Virtualisation and disaster recovery: DR features in Hyper-V

We run the rule over the key functionality in Microsoft Hyper-V that can help with disaster recovery, including backup, migration, high availability and replication Continue Reading

Legal documents reveal HP's failings over Autonomy

The board of Hewlett-Packard (HP) knew about Autonomy’s failings – yet voted the $11.1bn acquisition through regardless, internal memos have revealed Continue Reading

Flash in NAS file access storage: Does it need it – and, if so, how much?

While flash is rapidly going mainstream for primary storage with the all-flash datacentre, does NAS file access storage need flash – and, if so, how much? Continue Reading

Cloudian boosts object storage HyperStore compliance features

Distributed object storage software maker Cloudian upgrades HyperStore with added granularity of data protection features that can help meet compliance requirements Continue Reading

Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015 winners revealed

The winners have been announced for the Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015. See who made the top spots Continue Reading

OpenStack Cinder: Block storage on the open-source cloud platform

OpenStack Cinder 101: The fundamentals of Cinder, how it is implemented, how to provision it, how it works with third-party storage arrays, its features and more Continue Reading

VMware vs OpenStack: How they handle storage

The opportunities and challenges presented by the two virtualisation environments when it comes to storage, backup and disaster recovery. Continue Reading

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

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

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

EMC predicts return to double-digit sales growth

Storage giant's EMEA chief claims downbeat first quarter results are as bad as things will get for EMC, and that normal service will soon resume Continue Reading

VCE takes wraps off "hyper-converged" VxRacks to fast-track users to the cloud

EMC-owned converged infrastructure specialist expands portfolio of cloud-enabling platforms Continue Reading

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

Docker storage 101: How storage works in Docker

Docker nails some of the shortcomings of virtualisation, but what about Docker container storage? Continue Reading

Mobile device management (MDM) vs backup

MDM tackles the challenge of mobile devices flooding the enterprise, but it doesn’t mean you can stop worrying about mobile data protection Continue Reading

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

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

$/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

Symantec continues cloud investment in spite of poor Q3 results

Symantec has reported third quarter 2015 revenue of $1.64bn, a drop of 4% compared with $1.70bn over the same period in 2014 Continue Reading

How to combat VM sprawl

VMs are easy to create, but when unmanaged they proliferate around your infrastructure. Here, we explain VM sprawl and how to combat it Continue Reading

Cloud storage: The top five things that go wrong – and how to avoid them

Cloud storage provides cost savings and ease of management, but there are pitfalls – and here are the top five things that can go wrong Continue Reading

Wellcome Trust builds 1,728-core grid for DNA analysis

The Wellcome Trust Centre has deployed a high-performance computing cluster based on Fujitsu servers Continue Reading

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

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

Top five issues in VM backup

Virtual machine backup is a vital task for IT departments. But pitfalls abound. We look at the top five issues encountered in VM backup Continue Reading

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

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

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

Why has HP split?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, HP has announced plans to split the company in two – we look at the reasons and assess the future prospects for the IT giant. We examine the best practice in security policy to support a bring your own device (BYOD) scheme for staff mobile technology. And we find out how one company moved its entire datacentre from Berlin to London. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

The IT challenges facing an independent Scotland

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as Scotland goes to the polls to vote on independence, we assess the IT challenges the country would face. We look at the products available in the fast-growing market for object storage. And we ask if it will be worth migrating to future version of Windows given the rise in mobile usage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Microsoft adds StorSimple hybrid storage arrays to Azure cloud service

Azure users get more storage, archiving and disaster recovery from 1 August 2014 with Microsoft's StorSimple 8000 series hybrid storage arrays Continue Reading

Airbus deploys modular datacentre strategy to boost HPC capacity

The aircraft manufacturer has deployed HP's performance optimised datacentres (PODs) to increase its high performance compute capabilities for its engineers Continue Reading

CW Europe - July 2014 Edition

In this issue of CW Europe we investigate how changing your storage can make the world of difference to your company’s carbon emissions. Continue Reading

Betting on World Cup success

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to gambling site Betfair about the IT challenges of preparing for the football World Cup. We examine the strategy of cloud software pioneer Salesforce.com as it grows its role in the IT department. And we explain erasure coding – an emerging method for protecting storage hardware. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Voice recording compliance: What it is and how to achieve it

Voice recording compliance is subject to the regulation by the FSA, PCI, and Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts Continue Reading

Backup vs replication, snapshots, CDP in data protection strategy

Best practice data protection strategy combines backup with snapshots, CDP and replication for different levels of recovery Continue Reading

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

Erasure coding vs Raid as a data protection method

Erasure coding is mooted as a potential successor to Raid and backup software Continue Reading

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

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

Cloud archive pros and cons and the questions to ask providers

A cloud archive offers a flexible and cost effective alternative to in-house archiving where maintenance is outsourced, but what are the key questions to ask a potential supplier Continue Reading

Cloud storage options in Scandinavia

It has never been faster or cheaper to store data in the cloud and Scandinavian businesses have taken up cloud storage with gusto Continue Reading

CW500 Club in 2013

Computer Weekly's CW500 Club attracts the top IT leaders in the UK to talk to their peers about the topical challenges they face Continue Reading