Entries categorized under “Networked Storage”

Any time that anyone in any size business starts to talk about how to improve IT efficiency while driving down costs the topic of server virtualization inevitably comes up. But enterprise companies need to take that conversation to another level and make sure they talk about selecting the right networked storage solution to support their virtualized servers as the wrong storage solution may negate whatever benefits that server virtualization provides. (read more)

Now that the acquisition of 3PAR by HP is a done deal, there are three big questions on the minds of many. How will 3PAR's InServ Storage Servers fit into HP's overall storage portfolio? Is HP's relationship with HDS over? Does HP keep its EVA line of storage? These are some of the questions I was able to get answered this week when I met with Craig Nunes, the new HP Director of StorageWorks Marketing at Storage Networking World (SNW) 2010. (read more)

One of the trends in the upcoming decade in storage management is already taking shape: Automation. This trend is driven in large part by the new storage management features that have been introduced in the previous decade to address specific application challenges, but that have - in the process - created their own set of challenges in managing these features. It is these challenges that today's release of Veritas Operations Manager 3.1 is designed to address. (read more)

The introduction of Database Availability Groups (DAGs) into Microsoft Exchange 2010 has been a godsend for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with less than 1000 employees as it gives them the same Exchange availability and reliability features once reserved primarily for large enterprises. But for enterprises with more than 1000 users, Exchange 2010 DAGs creates new storage challenges in SAN environments unless these three techniques for optimizing SAN storage utilization and performance are followed. (read more)

Now that the bidding war between Dell and HP for 3PAR has subsided with HP emerging the victor, the question becomes, "Which storage company is on Dell's 2010 Christmas shopping list?" While there are still a good number of storage companies available, when one takes a hard look at which companies are the best fit for Dell, the list gets pretty short pretty quickly. (read more)

After a final flurry of exchanges yesterday with Dell first outbidding HP and then HP re-upping its bid for 3PAR to $33, Dell's management finally announced that it was pulling out of the bidding for 3PAR leaving HP the likely victor in the battle for 3PAR unless some last minute suitor appears. But now that the bidding for 3PAR appears to be over, there are two important questions to be answered. First, was HP's bid as haphazard as it appeared? Second, what does this acquisition mean for HP? The news is better than most have been led to believe. (read more)

The bidding war for 3PAR between Dell and HP continued yesterday with 3PAR first announcing that it had reached an agreement to be purchased by Dell for $24.30 a share and then, before the end of the day, HP countered with a $27 per share price offering. This back and forth has captured the attention of many of those who follow storage and even those who do not. But what is puzzling to many is, "What is so interesting about 3PAR that it is prompting Dell and HP to fight over it?" (read more)

The introduction of Database Availability Groups (DAGs) into Microsoft Exchange 2010 is being hailed by many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) as a key technology to making high availability (HA) accessible and affordable since it enables the use of hard disk drives (HDDs) that are internal to a physical Exchange server. However the fact that SMBs can now use internal HDDs as part of Exchange HA solution does not necessarily mean they should. (read more)

Over the years storage virtualization solutions have frequently been adapted (CDP, NAS, VTL, etc.) to function in specific ways but until now it really has not been viewed as the perfect fit for any specific application. But now thanks to the rapidly growing adoption of desktop virtualization technologies such as VMware View in organizations, storage virtualization may have finally found its perfect match. (read more)

A few months ago DCIG released its first ever Buyer's Guide - the Midrange Array Buyer's Guide - to gauge the interest of such a guide among users and vendors alike. Needless to say, DCIG has been overwhelmed with the positive response and has received numerous requests to produce more like that one. But due to the amount of research and expertise required to produce these guides in an authoritative fashion in other segments of the storage market, DCIG elected to reach out to other analysts in the industry who have the needed experience to do this task. (read more)

It is no secret that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are still keeping their belts tight in the face of the economic slowdown that has occurred. This is forcing them to change how they do business which means bringing in the right technologies to make sure their employees can still get their work done. As they do, more are bound to find the Overland Storage SnapServer N2000 the right technology to help them meet this objective. (read more)

Usually everyone waits until the end of the year to talk about trends in the storage industry but being fully in the throes of the dog days of summer here in Omaha, I thought I would use this week's weekly recap blog entry to reflect on some of the trends that are taking place in 2010. In doing so, I looked back to a blog entry that I wrote in January 2010 where I forecast six subtle storage trends for 2010 to see how right (or wrong) I was on my predictions. Turns out I was more right than I anticipated but I have encountered some trends that I did not expect. (read more)

We can all get caught up in the hoopla of new and slick storage technology features and lose sight of some the most important and basic details that keep our storage fabrics up and humming. Among these are the Fibre Channel cabling infrastructures and the distance limitations incurred by continued increases in FC speeds. (read more)

Organizations have a proclivity to look at storage arrays primarily in the context of how much storage capacity do they offer. But as storage arrays add features such as deduplication and thin provisioning, storage efficiency is taking on new importance as an evaluation criteria when selecting a storage array. This is raising questions as to what role, if any, that a storage array's storage efficiency features should play in the final buying decision. (read more)

Storage has gotten much more appealing over the last few years as cloud computing has found its way into the vernacular of the mainstream press. But at its core storage still operates in the same old boring way that it always has - at the SCSI layer. It is for this reason new features are needed from time to time so SCSI can continue to meet the new demands of the emerging virtualized infrastructure which is exactly what is being announced today by vendors like 3PAR and VMware. (read more)

As the economy continues to sputter, all size organizations remain prudent in their storage buying decisions which is leading them to examine enterprise midrange arrays from multiple storage providers. But to make the right choice requires that organizations look beyond obvious points of comparison such as the enterprise midrange array's price and performance to the features that make it operationally efficient. (read more)

It has been rumored that EMC's CEO Joe Tucci has said that EMC's biggest threat comes not from Dell, HDS, HP or IBM but NetApp. It is for that reason that EMC has been looking over its shoulder for some time to see what NetApp is up to in an attempt to stay one step ahead of it from a technology perspective. But after attending NetApp's annual Analyst Days last week, it is time for EMC to stop looking over its shoulder and start looking up because EMC now finds itself in the shadow of NetApp's cloud. (read more)

A few months ago I wrote a blog entry that took a look at how enhancements in the NFS v4 standard have opened the door for NAS file service appliances to be used with more highly available (HA) transaction-oriented applications such as the TIBCO Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). But before organizations adopt a NAS solution that uses NFS v4 for real-time failover, they should be aware of features offered by the Veritas Cluster File System (CFS) solution that NAS with NFS v4 alone does not yet provide. (read more)

Even since 3PAR's inception, it has challenged the traditional assumption that a start up cannot deliver high end storage as it has steadily carved out a growing presence despite the odds stacked against it. Now it is challenging the new assumption that users are going to give preference to vertically integrated stacks over best-of-breed solutions. This defiant attitude was on full display as 3PAR's CEO David Scott squared off with the analysts who were present at 3PAR's first annual Analyst Day. (read more)

The appeal of sub-volume optimization to end-users is plain as it promises to lower storage capacity and management costs while increasing application efficiency. But before users succumb to its allure, they need to verify vendor claims regarding its benefits as vendors are stretching them to make this technology fit your environment. (read more)

No one wants to pay more for less, yet that was exactly the situation that Delta Dental of Colorado was facing as it looked to upgrade its FC SAN to meet new application requirements. Further, new iSCSI SAN alternatives were not that much better as they had some of the same inflexibility and software licensing issues as the company's FC SAN. It was only when Delta Dental brought in the RELDATA 9240i that it found a solution that gave it more for less. (read more)

Sometimes when you find a good thing you have to roll with it and that is exactly what DCIG plans to do with its new line of Buyer's Guide products. Last month DCIG announced the availability of its first ever Buyer's Guide of any kind for either storage or ESI products. Since then its reception among storage providers and end-users alike has so surpassed our expectations that DCIG has decided to expand the scope of these offerings. It is for that reason DCIG is today pleased to announce that it is beginning research and plans to bring to market by the end of 2010 four more DCIG Buyer's Guides. (read more)

Today DCIG is pleased to announce that through a special licensing agreement with Nexsan Technologies, the 2010 DCIG Midrange Array Buyer's Guide is now available for a free download on Nexsan's website for a limited time. This is a full copy of the 105 page Buyer's Guide exactly as it was originally published by DCIG with no additions, deletions or edits. (read more)

Quite a few articles have already been written about the new Iomega StorCenter ix12-300r Network Storage Array with many of them focusing on the disruptive nature that this model is going to have on storage arrays intended for the midsized business space (250 users or less). But as I read many of these articles, they are overlooking some of the key reasons why it will be so disruptive. (read more)

Savings can evaporate as the hidden costs associated with managing a virtualized server environment become known. Among those costs, wasted storage capacity on individual VMs may be the most difficult to control unless an organization puts in place a storage infrastructure that can automate the reclamation of this storage. (read more)