Virtualisation and storage

Unsecured Elasticsearch server breached in eight hours flat

Comparitech’s Bob Diachenko wanted to find out how long it would take for hackers to find and attack an unsecured, public internet-facing database, so he set up a honeypot Continue Reading

Kaminario offers cut-price virtual SAN in the cloud

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

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

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

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

Dell EMC launches PowerStore NVMe container-based storage array

PowerStore controller software is based on container modules for SAN and NAS storage, while the mid-range array is all-NVMe and aimed at performance-hungry use cases such as Splunk Continue Reading

Storage 101: Replication vs backup, and synchronous vs asynchronous

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

StorageOS v2 puts ‘mini brains’ in Kubernetes storage volumes

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

Red Hat-VMware rivalry intensifies with OpenShift virtualisation

New virtualisation features in OpenShift point to an emerging Kubernetes platform war between Red Hat and VMware Continue Reading

Snapshots 101: Array vs backup software

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

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

Nutanix expands virtual desktop service in APAC

Nutanix has expanded its Xi Frame virtual desktop service to five more cloud regions in Asia-Pacific amid the Covid-19 outbreak Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

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

Kubernetes storage 101: Container storage basics

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

CW APAC: Expert advice on container storage

In this handbook, focused on storage in the Asia-Pacific region, Computer Weekly looks at how container applications can make companies more agile, the cost benefits of data storage and the most common data storage myths that need to be debunked. Continue Reading

Veeam Availability Suite v10 adds NAS backup and cloud tiering

Availability Suite is mostly about consolidating the company’s data management platform idea, but it has added incremental forever NAS backup, cloud tiering and recovery to vSphere Continue Reading

Isilon’s multi-dot upgrade to OneFS 8.2.2 masks big changes

The latest quarterly update to OneFS sees maximum file size grow to 16TB, brings in data deduplication in real time for HDDs, better load balancing and a new Kubernetes CSI Continue Reading

Time to rethink IT for containerized workloads

Employing IT tools that span on- and off-premises hybrid environments is a first step toward optimizing infrastructure design and management for container-based environments. Continue Reading

Veeam pushes subscription licensing in cloud-centric ‘Act II’

Backup specialist wants to “win the cloud” as it pushes towards a cloud-focused vision that includes pay-for-what-you-use and multicloud after its acquisition last month Continue Reading

Caribbean island hospital rebuilds after hurricane with DataCore

Hurricane Irma tore the roof off a server room and flooded IT hardware, but that was an opportunity to rebuild redundant IT using DataCore’s SANsymphony software-defined storage Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

$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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best of VMworld 2019 Europe User Awards: The winners

Find out who won what, including the best of show prize, at the 2019 VMworld Europe User Awards in Barcelona Continue Reading

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

Virtual Instruments is now Virtana and aims at cloud, containers

Searches for “Virtual Instruments” returned too many synthesizers, so storage monitoring pioneer went through a blue sky ordeal. It has new plans for cloud and container capability, too Continue Reading

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

UK and Middle East PR firm ditches NetApp for Nutanix and Talon Fast

Four Communications needed better connectivity for collaboration between the UK and its gulf sites, so dumped server/storage for hyper-converged and a distributed file system 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steel firm adds steel to resilience with Scale hyper-converged

Carrs Tool Steels had to move on from legacy servers and found hyper-converged infrastructure from Scale Computing the ideal fit for a small business that couldn’t afford downtime Continue Reading

CW APAC: Buyer’s guide to NVMe storage

In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at how NVMe storage is gaining popularity in the race to reduce latency and speed up application performance, and throws light on seven misconceptions around the use of NVMe. Continue Reading

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

Komprise to add Deep Analytics to unstructured data management

New functionality will allow customers to create and interrogate virtual data set from potentially petabytes of unstructured data across multiple shares and physical storage Continue Reading

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

V.Pharma swaps Data Domain for Quantum and cuts backup costs

Belgian pharmacy’s Data Domains had reached end-of-life and it wanted to remain in-budget. Quantum DXi worked out a lot cheaper and easy to manage, with good support Continue Reading

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

Reduxio’s Magellan charts course to storage in containers

Reduxio makes its storage product functionality available via microservices in containers aimed at container-native deployments, in an initial closed customer beta Continue Reading

APAC buyer’s guide to NVMe storage

NVMe storage is becoming popular among Asia-Pacific enterprises that want to reduce latency and speed up application performance Continue Reading

Datrium rebrands hybrid cloud data platform as Automatrix

NVMe pioneer Datrium announces ControlShift disaster recovery automation as a service, while bundling its data platform offerings as Automatrix, and lauds the benefits compared to siloed IT Continue Reading

Hyper-converged infrastructure vs NAS and SAN shared storage

Can compute, storage and networks in one box be a better option than shared storage? And which organisations can most benefit from it, and for what scale of deployment? Continue Reading

JetStream DR cloud replication aims to make backup redundant

JetStream’s IO Filter allows for continuous replication to the cloud of VMware virtual machines and virtual disks instead of scheduled snapshots or backups, and with a near-zero RPO Continue Reading

Datrium makes European push as it targets storage ‘big guys’

NVMe pioneer turned hybrid cloud and “data platform” provider makes a push for the enterprise and wants to take scalps from those selling “1990s SAN technology” Continue Reading

Cranfield gets Rubrik backup plus Nutanix in drive to the cloud

Research-led university goes hyper-converged across the board with Rubrik backup appliances and Nutanix in a move to rationalise on-site physical needs and drive to the cloud Continue Reading

Azure Stack HCI: Hyper-converged, but not as Azure as you’d think

Microsoft has re-branded Windows Server Software Defined to put hyper-converged to the fore, but Azure Stack HCI isn’t totally in sync with the Azure Stack on-premise cloud platform Continue Reading

Ctera teams with HPE to put cloud gateways in Simplivity HCI

X Series appliances marry HPE’s hyper-converged hardware with Ctera’s hybrid cloud file server gateway to provide edge compute with storage tiered to the cloud Continue Reading

SME backup products offer diverse routes to the cloud

We take the temperature on cloud-era SME-focused backup products that come as “traditional” software, replication-centric protection environments and hardware appliances Continue Reading

Career choices for storage admins as technologies converge

There is collateral damage in datacentre convergence, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for storage administrators to stick with storage-centric skillsets. Two solutions exist Continue Reading

Cloud and backup top storage priorities for 2019

Deploying the cloud for primary and secondary storage and backup and archiving project top project priorities in 2019. SAN, NAS and hyper-convergence also prominent Continue Reading

Cloud the rising star of storage: Eight years of text analysis

Tracking word frequency in nearly a decade’s worth of storage content shows how cloud has come of age, flash has gone mainstream and how we don’t talk about virtualisation any more Continue Reading

Payday lender cuts troubleshooting by 30% with Virtual Instruments

Curo Financial thought storage was slowing down its websites, but found virtual machine and network issues were to blame. To fix this, it’s going proactive on storage performance issues Continue Reading

Veritas launches Docker container backup in NetBackup

Docker is becoming an industry standard form of application virtualisation, and with that comes the need to back up Docker environments and data. Veritas joins CommVault and Asigra in doing so Continue Reading

Nottingham Building Society boosts storage and saves power with Nexsan deployment

Building society ditches geriatric IBM storage array to gain reliability, boost capacity by 20 times and make energy savings with Nexsan, but rejects flash storage for spinning disk SAN Continue Reading

Top 10 cloud storage stories of 2018

Top trends in cloud storage in 2018 included key enablers of hybrid- and multi-cloud such as native cloud storage, array makers’ cloud appliances and distributed file systems Continue Reading

Top 10 storage stories of 2018

Key trends in storage in 2018 included hybrid and multicloud storage, container storage, and hyper-converged infrastructure. Meanwhile, flash storage has evolved with NVMe Continue Reading

Data protection, backup and replication in the age of the cloud

A data protection and backup strategy has to take account of the expansion of the sphere of IT, from the datacentre to the public cloud to devices and locations at the edge Continue Reading

Virtual Instruments aims to be “the brain of the datacentre”

Virtual Instruments hopes artificial intelligence and machine learning functionality that helps IT staff spot connections between application and storage performance could put an end to the “war room” Continue Reading

Sixth form college rebuilds after fire with Scale hyper-converged

Xaverian College suffered a server room fire but took the opportunity to build a hyper-converged infrastructure with Scale Computing that did away with costly VMware licence fees Continue Reading

Pure Storage makes big hybrid push with Cloud Data Services

Flash storage pioneer makes a big deal of its object storage architecture as it launches Pure capacity in the AWS cloud, plus replication to the cloud for on-premise hardware Continue Reading

Rubrik adds Oracle, NoSQL and SAP Hana data protection

Scale-out backup appliance maker has already ticked most physical and virtual support boxes and is now filling out the details with enterprise application support Continue Reading

Hammerspace launches with hybrid cloud-era NAS virtualisation

Startup Hammerspace launches from five-year stealth to make NAS files available anywhere, on-prem and in cloud, with technology that splits metadata and payload for lightweight virtualisation Continue Reading

OpenStack storage update 2018: After Rocky

Snapshots and container storage support are among recently added functionality in the open source private cloud platform, but vendor driver support for OpenStack is not universal Continue Reading

GDPR compliance and storage in digital transformation projects

Key considerations when transforming physical data into digital, the impacts on compliance and how to ensure access, encryption to data and safe disposal of physical assets Continue Reading

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

A guide to choosing and using all-flash array storage

We take a look at the considerations when devising an all-flash array storage strategy, and what enterprises can do to get the most out of the technology Continue Reading

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

VMware debuts VMware Cloud on AWS in Australia, cuts entry price

Virtualisation juggernaut VMware rolls out its hybrid cloud service in Australia and has halved the entry price to sweeten the deal for enterprises Continue Reading

Veritas aims to boost NetBackup with simplified UI and setup

Two decades-old enterprise product upgraded with backups that can be set in three clicks, down from 30, plus instant VM workload recovery and capacity monitoring and planning Continue Reading

StorageCraft launches OneXafe scale-out backup appliances

Product revamp sees firm launch OneXafe scale-out secondary and primary storage with ShadowXafe data protection software in backup appliance for physical and virtual environments Continue Reading

Virtual storage appliances in the cloud from the big five

We survey the big five storage hardware makers’ cloud offerings. Virtual storage appliances available range from storage and backup/data protection to nothing at all Continue Reading

Quest goes software-only with QoreStor. Next stop, the cloud

Quest makes backup product software-defined with QoreStor, with dedupe functionality that can be added to other backup products, and plans cloud backup with native storage next Continue Reading

Container storage: Docker in flash, HCI and software-defined

We look at what flash array, hyper-converged infrastructure and software-defined storage makers are doing to provide persistent storage for container-based deployments Continue Reading

How container technology is evolving

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as adoption of containers grows rapidly, we look at the choices and potential benefits of the technology. We examine the efforts being made to secure internet of things devices and ask if legislation is needed. And we assess how the government’s latest Brexit plans will affect the UK tech sector. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

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

Dell/VMware and Nutanix dominate a growing hyper-converged market

As hyper-converged system revenues get set to overtake those of converged systems, Dell/VMware and Nutanix are dominating the market for combined server and storage nodes Continue Reading