Storage performance

Buying wisely and tuning your storage infrastructure for the best possible storage performance is vital to ensure the business is adequately supported. Understanding storage performance starts when you begin to evaluate manufacturers’ products and continues as you set up, configure and tune storage hardware to suit your workloads.

Feature 30 Nov 2023
The all-flash datacentre: Mirage or imminent reality?

Some say disk is dead and we’re on the cusp of the all-flash datacentre. But when will flash capacity and cost hit a point where it is suited to more than just high-tier storage? Continue Reading
News 22 Nov 2023
Nebulon upgrades SPU to Medusa2 with Nvidia DPU hardware

Nebulon aims to replace HCI with its OS on an offload card that it claims reduces server resource use by 25%. Medusa2 uses Nvidia DPU hardware and its own cloud control plane Continue Reading

News 21 Jun 2018

CDO interview: Andrei Belevtsev, Gazprom Neft

Russian oil giant will harness the latest technologies right across its business, says chief digital officer Continue Reading
E-Zine 20 Jun 2018

CW ANZ: Object storage hits a sweet spot

Enterprises in Australia are only getting started on object storage, which does away with the traditional file directories, making it easier to access and move data in a heterogeneous IT environment. In this issue of CW ANZ, we look at how Australian companies are dipping their toes into object storage, the challenges they are facing and the state of the market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
News 20 Jun 2018

San Francisco 49ers add pace to the team with NVMe flash from Datrium

US NFL football team plans high-performance NVMe flash to power in-game statistics and video decision-making, plus access for scouts to player databases during draft Continue Reading
News 14 Jun 2018

Case study: Mercedes F1 team makes gains with Pure Storage all-flash

Two years ago, the Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team deployed Pure Storage all-flash arrays in its datacentre and in mobile racks out on the circuit. It’s a bet that has paid off for the racing team Continue Reading
Feature 11 Jun 2018

Intel Optane DIMM aims at persistent storage on the motherboard

Intel to make 3D Xpoint flash available to applications in a tier below RAM and above storage, with in-memory databases, analytics and high performance computing set to benefit Continue Reading
Feature 31 May 2018

Storage 101: The final flash generation? QLC vs MLC, TLC, SLC

QLC flash products have arrived in the market, but with a limited performance profile, has NAND flash come up against the realities of the physics that make it possible? Continue Reading
News 29 May 2018

Pure debuts new FlashArray //X arrays with NVMe across the range

Pure is set to replace //M series boxes with FlashArray //X arrays in which NVMe is standard with NVMe-over-fabrics connectivity to servers and expansion shelves Continue Reading
News 23 May 2018

Technicolor speeds up movie production with Excelero NVMe flash

Film giant Technicolor had to duplicate workstreams or schedule access to movies being worked on, but Excelero NVMe allows concurrent access to 10 or more workstations at a time Continue Reading
News 21 May 2018

Micron first to market with QLC flash drive 5210 QLC SSD

Micron’s 5210 QLC SSD is aimed at analytics and content delivery in cloud and web-scale operations that currently use 7,200rpm spinning disk in huge Raid sets to gain IOPS Continue Reading
News 21 May 2018

IBM adds deduplication to Spectrum Virtualize, and Storwize arrays

IBM has added data deduplication to Spectrum Virtualize and array products that run it. It has also upgraded array analytics and the cloud version of Spectrum Virtualize Continue Reading
News 09 May 2018

Nutanix builds hooks to SDN and cloud with Flow, Era and Beam

Hyper-converged pioneer builds in functionality from acquisitions with Flow software-defined networking, Beam cloud monitoring and Era database provisioning and data protection Continue Reading
News 07 May 2018

ASEAN seeks to tame data deluge with object storage

Led by Singapore and Thailand, the object storage market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow at a double-digit rate in the next few years Continue Reading
Podcast 01 May 2018

Podcast: How the internet of things affects storage and compliance

We look at the impact on storage and compliance of the rise of IoT, with tips from Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, on how to manage endpoints in an internet of things environment Continue Reading
News 24 Apr 2018

Unitrends launches ‘Veeam killer’ VM Backup Essentials

Backup specialist Unitrends says Veeam has become “arrogant” and abandoned large elements of its customer base. VM Backup Essentials aims to fill gap for VMware users Continue Reading
Feature 20 Apr 2018

Storage class memory set to upset hardware architectures

Storage class memory and persistent memory products are set to add a layer of superfast storage media between bulk drives and memory, pushing performance to five million IOPS Continue Reading
News 18 Apr 2018

Backup 101: Incremental vs differential backup

In this Backup 101 article, we look at incremental versus differential backup and walk through the advantages and disadvantages of these two key backup strategies Continue Reading
News 12 Apr 2018

Security Center of Iceland dumps EMC big iron for StorMagic SvSAN

Icelandic security company threw EMC VNXe “in the bin” and deployed StorMagic software-defined storage SvSAN to gain 4x boost in IOPS and slashed admin overhead Continue Reading
Feature 05 Apr 2018

Who needs hybrid cloud object storage?

Hybrid cloud object storage products are an emerging category. But what use cases are driving their emergence? And which suppliers lead the way? Continue Reading
News 27 Mar 2018

Pivot3 Cloud Edition adds backup from hyper-converged to AWS

Hyper-converged infrastructure node maker dips its toes into hybrid cloud operations with Pivot3 Cloud Edition on Amazon Web Services to add cloud backup to HCI Continue Reading
Feature 12 Mar 2018

Storage 101: How to create, share and manage a LUN in SAN storage

Despite pronouncements from some, the days of the logical unit number (LUN) are not over. We look at the LUN in SAN management: How to create, share, provision and manage a LUN Continue Reading
Feature 06 Mar 2018

Disaggregated systems try to unlock the NVMe conundrum

NVMe can unlock the true potential of flash, but storage controllers put a bottleneck back in the I/O path. We look at how suppliers are trying to solve the problem Continue Reading
News 20 Feb 2018

Load Dynamix is now WorkloadWisdom and adds more NAS support

Virtual Instruments enhances NAS testing and monitoring capabilities with SMB and 25GbE support in WorkloadWisdom but hybrid cloud monitoring will remain off limits for now Continue Reading
News 13 Feb 2018

Siemens’ Datrium NVMe flash speeds customer software deployment

Siemens utility metering group deploys Datrium DVX in place of cumbersome LUN-based block storage and cuts customer software roll-outs to a few minutes and data restores to seconds Continue Reading
News 21 Jan 2018

Cloud firm speeds customer analytics with Pure Storage arrays

Cloudhelix replaces Pernix Data storage with Pure Storage FlashArray products to provide “brute force” performance approach for unpredictable customer workloads Continue Reading
E-Zine 19 Oct 2017

CW ASEAN: Juggling in the cloud

More businesses in ASEAN are adopting a multi-cloud strategy to avoid supplier lock-in and take their pick from the best cloud applications, platforms and infrastructure offerings that work alongside in-house systems. In this month’s issue of CW ASEAN, we take a look at what organisations need to do to overcome the complex task of pulling together a seamlessly integrated data management strategy, one that will integrate disparate cloud services and automate movement of data across their cloud ecosystems. Continue Reading
E-Zine 19 Oct 2017

CW ANZ: Rise to the big data challenge

Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, Australian businesses are facing a data explosion as they roll out more digital services for customers. Take IAG for instance. A year ago, the insurance giant had a data store of just over 80TB, but today it manages a collection of 2TB, which is growing by 14TB a month. In this month’s issue of CW ANZ, we look at how Aussie organisations are fine-tuning their storage strategy to keep up with the demands of big data without compromising performance and service levels. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
E-Zine 01 Aug 2017

The fields of Athenry – how Apple’s datacentre plans are causing turmoil in a small Irish town

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look into Apple’s controversial plans to build a huge datacentre in a small town in the west of Ireland, and hear the local arguments it has caused. We find out how the Met Office is managing the vast quantities of data it uses for weather forecasting. And we examine Google plans to bring artificial intelligence tools to the job recruitment market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
News 19 Jul 2017

Charity swaps SAN for Hypergrid hyper-converged to save £1m

Tearfund saves £950,000 by deploying Hypergrid hyper-converged in place of HP servers and SAN, cutting costs on space, power, staff and hardware, and avoiding VMware Continue Reading
News 12 Jul 2017

NVMe flash blocked by array architecture, says Kaminario CTO

Flash pioneer CTO says array controllers are built for a different era and must scale-out as clusters to provide the CPU power needed to allow NVMe to realise its potential Continue Reading
News 06 Jul 2017

Tegile launches Intelliflash tiered all-flash arrays with NVMe

Hybrid flash turned all-flash maker Tegile adds tier of NVMe to SAS-connected flash with all drives encrypted and an all-NVMe array planned for later in 2017 Continue Reading
News 06 Jul 2017

Tape here to stay, says Spectra Logic with LTO-8 2x capacity gain

LTO-8 tape to boost capacity by leveraging HDD head read technology TMR. Spectra gets in early with offer to customers, “buy LTO-7, get LTO-8 when it ships” Continue Reading
News 28 Jun 2017

Finnish government scraps paper and digitises archives

The government in Finland is digitising 94 shelf kilometres of documents to save millions of euros and make the information easier to access Continue Reading
E-Zine 15 Jun 2017

CW ASEAN: Hyper-convergence offers simple yet scalable storage

In this month’s CW ASEAN, we take a look at how TAL Apparel has reaped significant savings in storage and server resources by switching to hyper-converged systems, and we explore the key drivers for the development of hyper-converged systems and how they will transform the way applications are delivered. We also hear from a senior Veritas executive about why extracting more metadata to improve business processes and data management will become more important. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
Feature 08 Jun 2017

NVMe flash storage: What are the deployment options?

NVMe offers to unleash performance potential of flash storage that is held back by spinning disk-era SAS and SATA protocols. We run through the key NVMe deployment options Continue Reading
News 23 May 2017

Racetrack Memory products in five years, says IBM fellow

Millennium Prize winner Stuart Parkin says flash and 2D methods of storage are fatally limited – Racetrack Memory offers 100x the capacity without flash’s wear issues Continue Reading
Feature 04 May 2017

Understanding analytics and storage performance

Analytics workloads place specific demands on storage. We take a look at the workload profiles of analytics use cases and the storage platforms available to support them Continue Reading
News 03 May 2017

3D XPoint et al to force architecture and software changes

New solid state technologies such as 3D XPoint will be a second tier of memory, bringing change to hardware architectures and software to be rewritten, says SNIA solid state group chair Continue Reading
Feature 12 Apr 2017

How to tune storage performance for different workloads

We run the rule over what’s needed to get the best storage performance for databases, virtual servers and desktops, web and email servers and analytics use cases Continue Reading
News 12 Apr 2017

Pure Storage launches FlashArray//X with NVMe drives

FlashArray//X has NVMe drives but end-to-end storage-to-host NVMe connectivity will have to wait for an NVMe-over-fabrics (NVMf) version planned for release later this year Continue Reading
Feature 08 Mar 2017

Storage performance 101: Server, array and fabric/network basics

We look at the key performance attributes of storage media in use today, and the choices and basic tuning steps you can take to get the most from your storage Continue Reading
News 07 Mar 2017

HPE buys Nimble Storage to fill an all-flash and hybrid gap

Hardware giant buys Nimble Storage for $1.2bn and plugs a gap below its high-end flash retro-fitted 3PAR arrays with ground-up solid state-based hardware Continue Reading
Feature 06 Feb 2017

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
Feature 06 Feb 2017

Moore’s Law is running out – but don’t panic

Can system performance continue to improve to cope with the burgeoning needs of datacentres Continue Reading
Feature 03 Feb 2017

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
News 12 Jan 2017

IBM refreshes all-flash DS8880 series with PCIe 3.0 enclosures

IBM adds an F to existing DS8884, DS8886 and DS8888 all-flash and hybrid arrays with addition of PCIe 3.0 disk connectivity, but stops short of NVMe capabilities Continue Reading
Feature 12 Dec 2016

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
Feature 01 Dec 2016

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
Opinion 06 Oct 2016

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
Feature 23 May 2016

PCIe SSD: Cache vs storage tier

Adding PCIe flash is a popular way of speeding up application response times, with more rapid I/O guaranteed, but should PCIe SSD be added as cache or as a tier of storage? Continue Reading
News 29 Mar 2016

OSNexus unlocks Ceph object storage in QuantaStor v4

Software-defined storage maker OSNexus adds Ceph-based object storage to its QuantaStor product, adding it to block and file storage from ZFS, Gluster and Ceph Continue Reading
Feature 09 Mar 2016

Examining the Teradata Data Warehouse

With both relational and columnar options, the Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse gives companies an efficient, scalable appliance they can deploy in-house or in the cloud. Continue Reading
Feature 17 Feb 2016

What to expect from Oracle Exadata Database Machine

Oracle Exadata Database Machine combines hardware and software to enable analytics, batch, reporting and other tasks to run simultaneously within and across databases. Continue Reading
Feature 12 Jan 2016

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
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
Feature 11 Jun 2015

Which in-memory DBMS best fits your company's needs?

Database expert Craig S. Mullins examines some top in-memory DBMS software offerings to help you determine which is the best fit for your organization. Continue Reading
Feature 17 Apr 2015

How to determine if an in-memory DBMS is right for your company

Database expert Craig S. Mullins examines the pros and cons of the in-memory database management system, and the criteria you should consider during the request-for-proposal and evaluation period. Continue Reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Feature 14 May 2012

Server SSD guide to form factors and implementations

Server SSD offers immense gains in IOPS and throughput. We look at how it works, form factors available and its advantages and pitfalls, and we survey key vendors in the market. Continue Reading
Feature 15 Sep 2011

Encryption techniques and products for hardware-based data storage security

Encryption techniques can be applied to data on the drive or array, at the host or in the fabric. We survey the key hardware-based methods and products available for data storage security. Continue Reading
Feature 24 Jan 2011

MLC vs SLC: Which flash SSD is right for you?

Which flash SSD you choose depends on the performance you need and the price you want to pay, but the differences are not as great as you may think Continue Reading