Entries categorized under “SSD”

Last week's acquisition of NexGen Storage by Fusion-io was greeted with quite a bit of fanfare by the storage industry. But as an individual who has covered Fusion-io for many years and talked one-on-one with their top executives on multiple occasions, its acquisition of NexGen signaled that Fusion-io wanted to do more than deliver an external storage array that had its technology built-in. Rather Fusion-io felt it was incumbent for it to take action and accelerate the coming data center transformation that it has talked and written about for years. (read more)

Hybrid storage arrays use flash memory in combination with hard disk drives to create storage that balances performance, capacity and cost. Because the majority of the data will ultimately be stored on slower HDD instead of flash memory, the trick is to achieve consistently high performance without 100% flash. The secret sauce the Hybrid Storage Array vendors bring to the table is a combination of storage architecture, hardware, and software features. (read more)

In May 2010 DCIG released its first-ever Midrange Array Buyer's Guide in which we covered 70+ models from over 20 vendors. Fast forward just three (3) short years later and DCIG is on track to release not one, not two, not three no, not even four Buyer's Guides on enterprise midrange arrays but five distinct Buyer's Guides on this topic! So what has changed in just three (3) short years that DCIG feels the need to produce so many? To understand this requires a closer look at the forces that are driving the evolution and revolution in enterprise midrange arrays. (read more)

DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of its inaugural DCIG 2013 Flash Memory Storage Array Buyer's Guide that weights, scores and ranks 85 features of 34 different storage arrays from ten (10) different storage providers. (read more)

2012 saw a lot of discussion--some would say hype--over flash memory-based storage for the enterprise. Vendors are promoting various approaches to bringing flash memory storage to the data center. DCIG believes that Flash Memory Storage Arrays are poised to address not only special I/O-intensive use cases, but to begin displacing traditional storage arrays in many data centers. (read more)

Bad news is only bad until you hear it, then it's just information followed by opportunity. Information may arrive in political, personal, technological and economic forms. It creates opportunity which brings people, vision, ideas and investment together. When thinking about a future history of 2013, three (3) opportunities come to mind. (read more)

I have disclosed the blog entries that have earned an honorable mention on DCIG's website for the number of page views they received in 2012. I have also already revealed the Top 5 blog entries written in 2012 that were the most frequently read in 2012. So it is time today to begin to reveal the Top 10 most frequently viewed blog entries on DCIG's website in 2012 regardless of what year they were published, starting with numbers 6 - 10. (read more)

One of the unique aspects about running a blog site that primarily does analysis as opposed to commenting and covering today's news is that the most read blog entries on DCIG's site each year are rarely from the current year. This year was no exception as only one of the Top 5 blog entries written in 2012 made it into the Top 10 of DCIG's most read blog entries of 2012 that I will start to reveal in tomorrow's blog entry. (read more)

It is no secret that almost any enterprise with performance intensive applications wants to host them on flash memory storage sooner rather than later. Yet what precludes some enterprises from hosting these applications on flash memory storage are concerns about flash memory's cost, application disruption and even how the data is protected once it is placed there. Using Symantec Storage Foundation in conjunction with flash memory solutions such as the Fusion ioDrive helps to put these concerns to rest. (read more)

SNW 2012 revealed a dynamic industry that is innovating across all storage tiers. From incorporating super-low-latency flash memory into the data center to new tape formats that essentially turn tape libraries into high-latency disk drives, lots of talent is being applied to meet the growing demands that enterprises have for their storage systems. (read more)

Companies are creating more data, storing it on disk and keeping it accessible for longer periods of time than ever before. The problem this creates is that many of the underlying technologies that have powered storage systems for the past 20 years are still being used today even though the capacity and performance of today's storage systems have largely outstripped the capabilities of these technologies. In part I of this interview series with NetApp's Vice President of Worldwide OEM Sales, Dave Mooney, we examine how the clock is ticking on decades-old storage technologies which is exposing companies to new risks in their IT infrastructure. (read more)

As DCIG makes its final preparations for the release of its inaugural Purpose-Built Flash Memory Appliance Buyer's Guide, we have had a number of conversations internally about what the criteria for product inclusion and exclusion in this Buyer's Guide will be. As we do so, our conversation almost always turns to ways in which these purpose-built flash memory appliances will impact organizations and their decision making and buying habits. (read more)

Flash memory arrays have already earned a reputation as being the most highly performing and energy efficient storage systems available. However the level of trust that enterprises have in the storage management software on these arrays is still being built which results in enterprises being reluctant to use flash memory arrays for hosting anything but a few performance-intensive applications. By Violin Memory now integrating key Symantec Veritas Storage Foundation storage efficiency and storage management technologies into its flash memory arrays, enterprises get the performance and energy efficiencies they want with the proven software stability and reliability they need. (read more)

To say with any degree of certainty what technologies will be hot in the next 6 - 12 months generally takes equal amounts of smarts and industry insight coupled with a little bit of luck sprinkled in to get it right. So as I compare what I forecast earlier this year to what I see taking place now, I was certainly right on some points but premature in predicting others. So today with the midpoint of 2012 upon us, I thought I would take a look at the five specific technology trends impacting organizations right now. (read more)

NetApp's entrance in the storage industry 20 years ago could be no more humble: it started by offering a fast, reliable and simple to manage purpose-built appliance targeted at engineering workgroups. Since then it has continually innovated and evolved with the objective of becoming the predominant storage player with offerings for all size organizations - small or large. This week at its annual Analyst Days event NetApp laid it out for all to see that in order for it to achieve that objective it has effectively broken its storage infrastructure offerings in two. (read more)

Being the last calendar day of 2008, I thought it only appropriate to take a moment and look back at the most viewed blog entries on the DCIG website for the past year. While some were topics that I expected to receive a lot of attention when the blog was posted, others were blog topics that essentially came out of nowhere to garner a large number of page views. To be honest, I never thought that entries on topics like cable management and cable labeling would resonate with readers but ended up capturing a couple of the top spots for 2008. Meanwhile topics like the FTC's Red Flag Rules were so popular on DCIG's web site that it led me to write columns that eventually were picked up by websites like Network World and BusinessWeek. (read more)

Right now many companies are feeling a little despondent as they go into this holiday season and look to 2009. Many are looking at the possibility of or have already completed workforce reductions and now are trying to figure out how to reshape the company going forward. So while the near-term outlook appears grim, there are two ways companies can respond that are probably best summed up by two Chinese expressions. Companies can look at this situation and view it as hopelessly perilous or one that, if properly taken advantage of, can create new opportunities. (read more)

The ongoing success of virtual server environments is unprecedented in terms of shrinking the footprints of servers in data centers, decreasing the time to deploy new applications and delivering needed cost savings to corporate IT organizations. Yet one component of the virtual environment that is often overlooked, and that can introduce new levels of complexity, is the backup and recovery processes required to protect virtual server environments. In fact, it is only now that significant advances are occurring that are making the protection of virtual servers a simple and straightforward operation. (read more)

Recently I had an opportunity to attend an interesting presentation by John Mallery of BKD, LLP that was given to a group of IT industry professionals regarding how to protect trade secrets and the use of forensics to identify wrongdoing. A large part of his speech focused on eDiscovery and FRCP and how companies must understand the importance of having an eDiscovery strategy. But, the part that really struck home with me was when the presenter asked the crowd of around 60 or so participants who knew what eDiscovery and FRCP was. Stunningly, only three people, including myself, raised their hands. Now this is by no means a scientific measurement of companies and their knowledge of eDiscovery, but it was surprising to me none the less and, unfortunately, it is probably closer to reality than most of us would like to admit. (read more)

Despite what happens out on the pitch, the Premier League is experiencing a small awakening amongst its clubs - and some unexpected harmony - for their IT disaster recovery solutions. The challenges, demands and expectations to deliver a robust backup and recovery solution for these clubs is just as pronounced as any other corporate datacenter. However, faced with meeting the escalating salaries of their best football players, the IT staff often comes out on the short end in these organizations. (read more)

The general economic malaise of the past few months is not going unnoticed by anyone as it seems every day more companies are cutting back and tightening their belts in anticipation of a lean 2009. Just in the last months, numerous companies including 3M, Dow Chemical, and Hewlett-Packard, just to name a few, have announced cutbacks in staffing. But for those individuals that remain, the task does not get any easier. Most if not all end-users that I talk to are getting a hard push by their IT executives to cut costs as the days of simply purchasing more infrastructure is an unacceptable solution. (read more)

There is no question that the current economic uncertainty will continue to impact organizations on a global scale for some time to come and every organization is taking a much harder look at their IT budgets for 2009. Gartner notes that the projected IT budgets in 2009 will increase a meager 2.3 percent, down from the earlier projection of 5.8 while IDC has slashed how much it forecasts US IT budgets to grow to below 1% growth for 2009. But just because IT budgets for 2009 are getting cut does not mean the government is going to cut companies any slack in regards to meeting new compliance requests or giving them more time to satisfy them. (read more)

Not too long ago, we can recall checking our voice messages and finding 30 to 50 messages in our respective inboxes every day. We would listen to them and then delete some or all of them, making notes along the way until we reached the end of the mailbox. While some of the messages were irrelevant, some were very important in that they conveyed corporate direction or pseudo-contractual agreements. Given that same scenario today in the financial industry, companies need to exercise extra caution as regulatory agencies and courts heighten requirements for companies to make documents of any type available, including audio recordings (telephone messages, voice mail, etc.). (read more)

With all the debates going on out there today about which vendor offers the best deduplication approach, one wonders, "How is a customer supposed to make the right deduplication decision?" Of course, any approach that demonstrates real-life space reductions ratios makes the technology worth purchasing. But even in this scenario, there are several different camps about the best way to deduplicate data and where the deduplication should occur. Should companies deduplicate data on the client; should they do it using in-line processing; or, should they deduplicate data using a post-processing algorithm? (read more)

As 2009 approaches, the traditional benchmarks for enterprise backup software such as the management of physical tape libraries, support for multiple operating systems and SAN backups are yesterday's news. Instead support for backup to disk, continuous data protection (CDP), protection for laptops and desktops and a common repository where protected data is stored, deduplicated and available for rapid access and search is how enterprise data protection software is now defined and measured. Yet even when one factors in these new benchmarks for enterprise data protection, how products such as Atempo Time Navigator play in this rapidly evolving space, and in which verticals they best play, are less than intuitive to the untrained eye. (read more)