Virtualisation software
Virtualisation has been one of the hottest IT topics in recent years, with many IT managers seeing the benefits of reducing cost and improving systems management in their storage, server and desktop environments. Virtualisation is also an important step towards making the most of the opportunities offered by cloud computing. We examine the latest trends in virtualisation software and technology.
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E-Zine
03 Sep 2024
The politics of techno-refusal
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we learn about the politics of techno-refusal and the lessons to be learned from a group of IT workers who spent the early 1980s sabotaging tech infrastructure. Following the controversy around Broadcom’s purchase of VMware, we examine some alternative virtualisation solutions. And our latest buyer’s guide looks at the state of software-defined wide-area networking. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Sep 2024
Storage technology explained: Kubernetes, containers and persistent storage
In this guide, we look at the market-leading container platform Kubernetes, how it works, the challenges with persistent storage and backup, and how they have been overcome Continue Reading
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Definition
19 Aug 2024
What is LXD (Linux container hypervisor)?
LXD, pronounced 'lex-dee,' is a unified platform for managing system containers and virtual machines (VMs). Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jul 2024
Kubernetes at 10: The long road to mastery of persistent storage
Jan Safranek of Red Hat saw containers emerge as an exciting new way of deploying applications, but it took several additions to make it the mature enterprise platform it is today Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Jul 2024
Kubernetes at 10: From stateless also-ran to ‘platform to build platforms’
Sergey Pronin of Percona was all for ‘Kubernetes for stateless’ at a time when it was hard to provision storage and day-two services – then Operators and Stateful Sets came along Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Jul 2024
Kubernetes at 10: When K8s ‘won’ and life now as a ‘surly teenager’
We talk to Datastax’s Patrick McFadin about Kubernetes’ success against competitors and how StatefulSet and operators solved key challenges, but why there are still obstacles to clear Continue Reading
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Podcast
28 Jun 2024
Podcast: Storage for AI needs scale, hybrid cloud and multiple integrations
We talk to NetApp’s Grant Caley about AI and data storage, the need for scale, performance and hybrid cloud, and to move, copy and clone data for wrangling for inference runs Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jun 2024
Kubernetes at 10: Building stateful app storage and data protection
Google engineer Michelle Au was involved in Kubernetes storage early, as the container orchestration platform was developed to support data protection operations such as snapshots Continue Reading
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Blog Post
16 Jun 2024
Green coding - Nord: Software lifecyles should now detail greenhouse gas emissions
Nord has detailed its annual impact report for 2023 with a first-ever calculation of greenhouse gas emissions, social initiatives and wider details related to a state-of-the-art office opening. The ... Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Jun 2024
The sustainable office in the age of hybrid work hotelification
For many, the phrase ‘hotelification’ may raise some hackles, yet in the context of the office, the concept has continued apace since the pandemic struck. The move towards creating a more sustainable workspace, however, remains rather more muted Continue Reading
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News
14 May 2024
NetApp upgrades AFF all-flash as it targets AI storage
New AFF arrays offer performance boost for artificial intelligence, while NetApp trumpets its advantages as a provider of sustainable and intelligent infrastructure for all kinds of workloads Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Mar 2024
What is the metaverse? An explanation and in-depth guide
The metaverse reached the peak of hype and has been left for dead, but make no mistake, the technologies that will power this 3D internet are firing on all cylinders. Continue Reading
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News
12 Mar 2024
March Patch Tuesday throws up two critical Hyper-V flaws
Two critical vulnerabilities in Windows Hyper-V stand out on an otherwise unremarkable Patch Tuesday Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Feb 2024
Virtualising urban environments and smart cities with digital twins
As cities increasingly try to integrate smart features and applications into their operations, digital twins will become powerful enablers in designing and developing smart cities Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Feb 2024
What is beauty tech? 10 trends shaping the cosmetics industry
Explore how beauty tech trends are reshaping the beauty industry. Explore new trends and the latest CES innovations, from virtual try-ons and 3D-printed makeup to AI skincare. Continue Reading
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Definition
26 Jan 2024
Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool for clustering and scheduling Docker containers. Continue Reading
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Definition
22 Jan 2024
3D mesh
): A 3D mesh is the structural build of a three-dimensional model consisting of polygons. 3D meshes use reference points in X, Y and Z axes to define shapes with height, width and depth. Continue Reading
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News
24 Aug 2023
NHS SBS to launch £1.5bn digital workplace solutions framework
NHS Shared Business Services is planning on a second iteration of its digital workplace solutions framework before the current one expires in August 2024 Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Jul 2023
Immersive technologies advance training and design
Building on a similar discussion on the emerging metaverse at the iconic cultural event a year ago, this year’s SXSW saw a select group of experts discuss how immersive technologies could be a driver for future societies Continue Reading
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News
05 Jul 2023
Dassault Systèmes, Cranfield collaborate on 3DExperience centre of excellence
Partnership between tech firm and university aims to provide centre for experiential, lifelong learning with connected 3D engineering platform to accelerate digital and sustainable transformation of aerospace and defence industry Continue Reading
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Definition
31 May 2023
Parallels
Parallels is a software company best-known for its software that allows users to run Microsoft Windows systems on Apple Macintosh computers. Continue Reading
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Definition
12 Apr 2023
Microsoft App-V (Microsoft Application Virtualization)
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) is an application virtualization client that makes an application available to end users without installing it on a personal computer (PC). Continue Reading
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News
20 Feb 2023
Veeam bundles backup products into Veeam Data Platform
Backup and data protection specialist Veeam upgrades and rebrands, with a focus on the challenges of ransomware and rapid recovery, and a claimed 500 new functions Continue Reading
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News
20 Dec 2022
Top 10 emerging storage trends stories of 2022
There’s a seismic shift to the cloud. In its wake, object storage, unstructured data, analytics, unified file and object, and consumption models of procurement have all been boosted Continue Reading
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News
22 Nov 2022
Pure aims at near bare metal I/O with Portworx PX-Fast
PX-Fast is driven by customer need for scale and high performance in containerised environments and sees reworking of Portworx data architecture to slash storage access time Continue Reading
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News
03 Oct 2022
BT Group sees network gains through AI Accelerator
Telco announces new platform to orchestrate, accelerate and monitor artificial intelligence model deployments developed by its data community and to drive efficiencies Continue Reading
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News
07 Sep 2022
VMware’s vSAN 8 gets a rebuild for the solid-state storage era
At VMware Explore 2022, we interview VMware’s John Gilmartin about the new, faster vSAN, plans to use DPUs, the vSAN+ cloud offering, and VMware Ransomware Recovery Continue Reading
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Definition
19 Jul 2022
purple screen of death (PSOD)
A purple screen of death (PSOD) is a diagnostic screen with white type on a purple background that's displayed when the VMkernel of a VMware ESXi host experiences a critical error, becomes inoperative and terminates any virtual machines (VMs) that are running. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jul 2022
NetApp Ontap to be sole vSAN storage alternative in the cloud
NetApp Ontap storage will provide file access capacity to extend VMware data stores in AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google clouds as a cheaper alternative to VMware vSAN Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Jun 2022
Legislation and certification of XR applications: challenges to adoption and diffusion
Virtual and augmented reality may be changing the game, but such cutting-edge applications run ahead of many regulatory issues. How can the metaverse avoid uncertainties that could slow the adoption of XR and related enabling technologies? Continue Reading
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Podcast
31 May 2022
Podcast: How to get truly portable Kubernetes storage
We talk to NetApp CTO Grant Caley about what is needed from storage to really deliver in a world of Kubernetes containerisation and microservices portability in hybrid cloud working Continue Reading
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Definition
31 May 2022
virtual networking
Virtual networking is the abstraction of network resources from the underlying physical network infrastructure. Continue Reading
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News
09 May 2022
Ctera opens up its storage to third-party analytics via APIs
File system software builds pools of NAS-like storage accessible from anywhere, with APIs to third-party tools to interrogate data for business processes, anomaly detection and more Continue Reading
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Blog Post
12 Apr 2022
Citrix and Microsoft: who’s really leading the transformation agenda?
Citrix loves Microsoft and Microsoft loves Citrix - OK, maybe I’m exaggerating to make a point, but that’s the gist of the official lines you get from both companies. But looking in from the ... Continue Reading
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Definition
16 Feb 2022
virtual appliance
Considered a software equivalent of a hardware device, a virtual appliance (VA) is a preconfigured software solution. Continue Reading
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News
01 Feb 2022
Dutch software engineers join campaign for research funding
Software researchers from all over Europe are sounding the alarm: to maintain a strong international competitive position, more financial resources must be committed to software research Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2022
Nebulon SmartInfrastructure brings cloud-defined storage to datacentre
Cloud-defined storage allows customers to build private clouds on-site, with pools of storage built from commodity hardware, Nebulon PCIe cards and its browser-based console Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Jul 2021
The beneficial (and frightening) implications of virtualising reality
The mingling of virtual and physical worlds promises many beneficial and entertaining applications, but there are also some truly worrisome implications of augmented reality Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2021
Vast Data will offer containerised storage software, but not yet
Vast Data sticking to its plan to provide no-tier “universal storage” via QLC flash and a 3D Xpoint read/write buffer that uses a containerised control plane Continue Reading
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News
25 May 2021
Valence brings storage virtualisation for the cloud era
Startup 22dot6 launches Valence, software-defined storage that throws a virtualisation layer over any backend storage via multiple nodes that split metadata and storage services Continue Reading
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News
25 May 2021
Oil and gas firm halves backup licence cost with Hycu move
Summit E&P made a strategic move to Nutanix hyper-converged and away from NetApp and VMware and wanted backup that could handle virtual machines and physical servers Continue Reading
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Feature
25 May 2021
Where to run containers? Bare metal vs virtual machines
We look at the key differences between running containers in virtualised environments and on bare metal servers and focus in on the main trade-offs and decision points Continue Reading
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Feature
17 May 2021
Container-native storage: A definition, and what to ask suppliers
We look at container-native storage – aka cloud-native storage – what defines it, and its benefits as a way of bringing persistent Kubernetes storage to containerised applications Continue Reading
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News
13 May 2021
Portworx gets container-native array management for Pure hardware
Container storage player Portworx builds in container-native functionality to allow discovery, provisioning and management from inside Kubernetes cluster, but only on Pure arrays so far Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Apr 2021
Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure
HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too Continue Reading
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News
12 Apr 2021
Ctera KubeFiler to bring Kubernetes storage to its cloud gateways
KubeFiler uses the container storage interface to allow Kubernetes to access persistent storage as if it were from a local NAS device, and while keeping existing access profiles Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Mar 2021
Ski firm dumps ‘motley’ storage for DataCore software-defined
Eurogroup cuts power usage by 70% and rackspace from 84U to 7U as it consolidates multiple physical servers and storage protocols onto SANsymphony software-defined storage Continue Reading
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News
11 Mar 2021
Scottish farm subsidy body slashes dev time with Pure all-flash
Rural directorate ditched hybrid flash EMC SAN for Pure all-flash storage and cut developer time in half, while beta testing Cloud Block Store and planning container project Continue Reading
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News
01 Feb 2021
Netbackup 9 adds flexibility with hyper-converged backup options
Veritas’s enterprise backup flagship is available in hyper-converged infrastructure and has embraced containerisation, for better hardware and application scalability Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Jan 2021
Five key questions about Kubernetes backup answered
We look at when to back up containers, what to protect, the main methods of backup for Kubernetes and the main Kubernetes backup products available in the market Continue Reading
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News
14 Jan 2021
VVOLs and Pure win VM storage beauty parade for French chain
VMware Virtual Volumes and a move from NetApp to Pure Storage saw cosmetics retailer Beauty Success make performance gains and eliminate bottlenecks in ordering and logistics Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Jan 2021
Robin.io aims its Kubernetes storage at databases and big data
Cloud-native storage runs in Kubernetes and pools storage media to present it to application persistent storage needs, including snapshots and backup on top Continue Reading
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News
21 Dec 2020
Top 10 container storage stories of 2020
Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 container storage stories for 2020, when providing persistent Kubernetes storage, backup and disaster recovery became a key challenge for many organisations Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Dec 2020
Five hyper-converged infrastructure use cases to watch
We look at workloads ripe for hyper-converged infrastructure deployment. These include virtual servers and desktops, SMEs/remote offices, Kubernetes, and analytics and machine learning Continue Reading
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News
10 Dec 2020
Cato boosts network management with SASE cloud API
GraphQL-based API designed to extract security and networking information globally with a single request allows enterprises to automate provisioning and management of SASE deployments from third-party platforms Continue Reading
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News
12 Nov 2020
Winners of female-only data hackathon announced
Several firms banded together to run a virtual female-only hackathon to encourage data analysts to use Covid-19 data to solve pandemic-related problems Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Nov 2020
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
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News
05 Oct 2020
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
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News
29 Sep 2020
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
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News
16 Sep 2020
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
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News
07 Sep 2020
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
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Blog Post
18 Aug 2020
Quantum Machines in super position on superposition programming
Quantum computing is complex. So complex in fact that we spend a lot of time understanding the concept of quantum theory, the existence of qubits and the use of superposition to get us to a state ... Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2020
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
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News
15 Jul 2020
University graduates to Nutanix Files hyper-converged NAS
The University of Reading had already deployed Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure so it made sense to add Nutanix Files when its ageing NAS boxes bit the dust Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2020
Worldwide user spending on cloud-based web conferencing technology will grow by nearly 25% in 2020
Global workplace restrictions will drive expansion of cloud conferencing user base throughout 2020, but growth will taper off next year Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2020
Mobile industry makes ‘rapid’ progress towards 5G despite Covid-19
BPI Network Survey suggests operators are rethinking security in the light of 5G network traffic, and shows “dramatic” increase in connected devices and new mission-critical use cases Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2020
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
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News
19 May 2020
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
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News
04 May 2020
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
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Feature
16 Mar 2020
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
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Feature
02 Mar 2020
Rook 101: Building software-defined containerised storage in Kubernetes
Rook – think castles, not birds – uses the principles of containerisation and the methods used in Kubernetes to build storage that’s abstracted from the hardware it lives on Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Feb 2020
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
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News
05 Feb 2020
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
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Feature
04 Feb 2020
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
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Feature
22 Jan 2020
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
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News
13 Jan 2020
$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
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Feature
08 Jan 2020
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
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News
07 Jan 2020
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
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News
19 Dec 2019
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
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Feature
09 Dec 2019
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
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News
06 Dec 2019
Qualcomm claims world first for 5G mixed reality
5G-supported extended reality platform is claimed to offer more immersive, intelligent and connected experiences Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Nov 2019
Figeac Aero manages growth with DataCore software-defined storage
Global roll-out sees DataCore software-defined storage deployed on Huawei hardware to HQ and 14 worldwide sites as aero parts maker copes with acquisition and expansion Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2019
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
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News
24 Oct 2019
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
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Feature
23 Jul 2019
The pitfalls of hyper-converged infrastructure and how to avoid them
Hyper-converged infrastructure can be an easy win when it comes to datacentre infrastructure upgrades, but there are pitfalls. We discuss how best you can sidestep them Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2019
Smartodds bets on Rubrik backup appliance with cloud archive
Betting intelligence analytics firm Smartodds replaced its old tape backup infrastructure with Rubrik appliances to cut management time and database restores from hours to minutes Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2019
Scale targets edge workloads with HE500 hyper-converged nodes
Scale Computing adds hyper-converged infrastructure nodes to provide edge compute and storage that is fully compatible with its datacentre-scale HCI appliances Continue Reading
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Feature
30 May 2019
SAN vs NAS vs hyper-converged for virtual machine storage
The pros and cons of file and block access storage arrays vs the new breed of all-in-one server/storage architecture for storage of virtual machine systems and data Continue Reading
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Feature
21 May 2019
Software-defined storage vs NAS/SAN: What are the options?
We look at the pros and cons of software-defined storage and weigh up when it’s a better option than buying NAS and SAN pre-built hardware shared storage arrays Continue Reading
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News
05 Apr 2019
European firms see value in ‘known good’ approach to security
European data protection regulations are driving enterprise interest in an approach to security being championed by virtualisation software maker VMware, says the company’s security lead Continue Reading
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News
17 Sep 2018
Red Hat to throw its hat in with Container Storage Interface
Software maker will add Container Storage Interface support to its existing OpenShift Container Platform and GlusterFS-based scale-out file system container storage Continue Reading
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News
04 Sep 2018
DDN to make enterprise push with Tintri’s VM-aware storage
DDN set to add Tintri’s portfolio of all-flash and hybrid flash arrays to its product offering following the purchase of the VM-aware storage pioneer after it filed for bankruptcy in June Continue Reading
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News
02 Aug 2018
NetApp AI storage packages OnTap all-flash FAS A800, Nvidia
NetApp follows Pure Storage's lead, adds Nvidia GPUs to its all-flash arrays to build a storage product designed for data scientists and others dabbling in artificial intelligence. Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Jul 2018
Data protection for containers: Why and how to do Docker backup
Containers such as those from Docker are agile, lightweight and can be short-lived, but they and their data often need to be protected. We look at the key options available Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Jul 2018
Containers and storage: Array suppliers’ container capabilities
We look at what the big five storage array makers – Dell EMC, Hitachi, HPE, IBM and NetApp – are doing to provide persistent storage for container-based deployments Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2018
VM-aware storage pioneer Tintri on verge of bankruptcy
Recent first-quarter results by the VM-aware storage pioneer throw light on a fragile financial situation that needs new funds or a buyer to avoid bankruptcy by the end of June Continue Reading
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News
08 Jun 2018
Medical firm puts vTax and SAN to sleep to save £30,000 with Scale
Penlon replaces HPE servers and storage and VMware virtualisation to escape the high costs of licensing, and deploys Scale Computing hyper-converged appliances at two UK datacentres Continue Reading
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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
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News
01 Mar 2018
It’s the year of the cloud, says backup giant Veeam
Veeam roadmap adds cloud to virtual and physical backup with acquisitions that bring cloud and hybrid functionality. Object archives, CDP and NAS backup are also planned Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2018
Ideal Standard standardises in Emea with Nakivo virtual backup
Bathroom multinational strips out country-based systems to virtualise across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Nakivo beats Veeam on cost to provide VMware disk-based backup and slashes restore times Continue Reading
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News
23 Jan 2018
Hyper-convergence and containers key storage-related deployments in 2018
Hyper-converged infrastructure and containers are key deployments planned by UK customers in 2018, with flash storage, virtual machine storage and disk backup also prominent Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Jan 2018
Storage in containers: The answer to persistent storage needs?
With compute requirements often fragmented, short-lived and bursty, traditional storage architectures can struggle to cope – so is storage in containers the solution? Continue Reading