Entries categorized under “Storage Management”

The main theme at this year's EMC World is "Lead the Transformation" that EMC is illustrating through the use of superhero characters. The superheroes are represented as end users who come up with solutions to manage today's complex storage environment while the villain is pictured as "Doc Lock-in" who requires our superheroes to "lock-in" on a single vendor to mitigate this complexity. Yet for those users who think strategically about their storage acquisitions, Doc Lock-in may not be the full-fledged villain that EMC World portrays him to be. (read more)

Using cluster file system software on virtual machines (VMs) in VMware environments has always been a bit problematic at best. While it could be done with techniques like Raw Disk Mappings (RDMs) and 3rd party cluster file system software, organizations need to sacrifice "desirable" virtualization features like vMotion to achieve it. (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)

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)

The IT infrastructure that most enterprises want is pretty obvious: it is a private cloud. Less intuitive, however, is how enterprises will transition from simply hosting file, print and web servers in their private clouds today to hosting business critical applications tomorrow. Successfully navigating this transition requires that enterprises introduce a new set of proven technologies that deliver the agility and cost-savings that they have come to expect from private clouds with the availability, performance, manageability and visibility they need for their business critical applications and data. (read more)

Virtual storage appliances (VSAs) are emerging as an ideal way for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) to keep their storage hardware costs under control while retaining the benefits that networked storage systems have to offer. But as VSA offerings proliferate, determining which vendor's VSA solution is the right one for an SMB to adopt becomes more difficult. Helping to make that decision easier is the latest series of enhancements that HP adds to its StoreVirtual VSA making it arguably the best VSA solution available today. (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)

People who are on the outside looking in at a data center often assume that it runs like clockwork with everyone knowing exactly what hardware is located where, what applications are running on the hardware and that the hardware is properly utilized. Yet as anyone who actually works in a data center knows, making that perception a reality requires the right software, a lot of hard work and more than a little bit of luck. The release of Veritas Operations Manager Advanced 5.0 from Symantec gives enterprises the software platform they need to make this perception a reality while serving to take some of the hard work and chance out of the management equation. (read more)

Most enterprises are confident that they are going to virtualize much of their infrastructure so as to create a private cloud. However they are probably just as confident that once they have this private cloud in place they will have little or no insight into how well the resources in their private cloud are being used, if the resources could be better utilized and where the bottlenecks reside. Giving companies increased visibility and better control over their private clouds is what Symantec Veritas Operations Manager 5.0 provides. (read more)

Storage tiering as a strategy is gaining a lot of momentum as a way to optimize available storage capacity and bring storage costs under control. But many small and midsized businesses (SMBs) still question if storage tiering is right for them and, if so, what steps they should take to implement it. To answer these concerns, there are three tips for SMBs to follow to ensure implementing storage tiering is the right choice for them and that they do it correctly. (read more)

EMC's VFCache announcement caused a lot of the buzz in the storage industry a few months ago as it was seen by some to be done in direct response to Fusion-io's very disruptive ioMemory architecture. Today in the conclusion of my interview series with Fusion-io's CMO Rick White, he provides his take on EMC's recent VFcache announcement and how he sees this impacting both Fusion-io and EMC. (Editor's Note: This interview with Rick was conducted when EMC's VFCache was still known as "Project Lightning.") (read more)

It's no secret that 'Big Data' is becoming a 'Big Problem' for organizations from a data and storage management perspective. However what organizations may fail to realize is that the best way to solve their Big Data problems is NOT by mindlessly throwing more resources at them. Rather it is to look at Big Data more strategically and then tackle the data management problems it creates in one fell swoop using software like CommVault® Simpana® and its OnePass technology. (read more)

New found agility, reduced CAPEX and OPEX and centralized IT infrastructure management are driving the adoption of private clouds. But as organizations enter them their dark side of management complexities becomes more plainly seen. This is where HP's heightened integration with Microsoft Systems Center 2012 with its Virtual Machine Manager component comes into play. (read more)

VMware vSphere is clearly trending toward hosting more mission critical applications. However one objection that many enterprises still have to virtualizing these applications is the lack of an enterprise caliber multi-pathing software driver on VMware vSphere. Today the release of Symantec's Veritas Dymanic Multi-Pathing for VMware 6.0 not only overcomes that objection, it opens the door for enterprises to move more mission critical applications to VMware vSphere. (read more)

This past Monday EMC created a fair amount of buzz in the storage industry with its VFCache announcement that in essence validates the emergence of server-based flash technology in the enterprise. But does EMC VFCache go far enough? Fusion-io, who arguably invented this space, argues, "Definitely not!" In this first of a multi-part interview series with Fusion-io's Chief Marketing Officer, Rick White, we talk about server-based flash technology and why it is poised to change enterprise data centers. (read more)

On the server virtualization side, VMware vCenter has emerged as a central console that first detects and then centrally manages VMware VMs across their environment. On the storage side, similar storage array management software like NEC Storage Manager is now available to complement VMware vCenter as it discovers NEC D, M and S Series storage arrays and then administers their advanced storage software features. (read more)

IBM briefed DCIG on the details around its October Active Cloud Engine product announcement on Wednesday, November 16, of this past week. The briefing covered three functional areas, two products, one statement of direction and ironically nothing about the cloud. However, IBM deserves kudos for making a big change to its scale out NAS (SONAS) product during its Active Cloud Engine product announcement. (read more)

Last week the DCIG team attended the Fall 2011 Storage Networking World (SNW) show in Orlando, FL. While there were a lot of cool storage companies, only two meetings left any kind of impression on me: one with IBM and another with SNIA. (read more)

Enterprises have been hearing about the value and veracity of public cloud for years even as Symantec has been getting feedback on its value proposition from its public cloud customers. The message that Symantec has received is that "ripping and replacing" is not an option. Rather enterprises want and need revolutionary infrastructure with evolutionary products and prices. (read more)

Over the years big data has crept into the everyday life of systems administrators. Attempts to solve the big data problem in both block and file storage emerged as data management software. While data management software struggled to get a footing, deduplication and compression took off stunting data management software's growth. Deduplication and compression technologies have well known capabilities in both the storage and information disciplines. However, they differ in a significant way. These technologies do not ease the burden of information management. (read more)

As part of his opening remarks during his keynote on Tuesday morning, Symantec's CEO Enrique Salem shared a comment that was made to him by a Symantec user, "We are in the middle of a time of profound meaningful change." Truer words were never spoken as enterprises of all sizes are facing a broad spectrum of technology changes that are unequaled in this modern era of computing. (read more)

The topic as to what storage management features organizations really need on a storage array continues to be a hotly debated. In the last decade, we have seen a multitude of features propagate on storage arrays including disk striping, thin provisioning, and storage tiering just to name a few. But deciding which of these features are "nice-to-haves" and which ones are really "needed" in a virtual operating environment (VOE) becomes very difficult to make without a close examination of one's environment. (read more)

One of my favorite all time movies is The Terminator. It is one of those timeless classics whose video was less than optional, it had some cheesy special effects and it contained dialog that was highlighted by "I'll be back." Yet despite these flaws what carried The Terminator and still makes it popular to this day was its compelling story line. (read more)

Dynamically moving files from one tier of storage to another has been a feature on the Veritas File System (VxFS) for some time. But to date Oracle DBAs have lacked this same level of data mobility and granular control when managing Oracle database tables. This is no longer the case. (read more)

This is one of my favorite times of the year as I look back on some of the most popular blog entries on DCIG's site in the past year based on the number of page views. What makes it so intriguing for me is that it is similar to looking at a big wrapped gift under the Christmas tree and not knowing exactly what is in it. Every year I am never completely sure until this week which blog entries which will make up the Top Ten on DCIG's site as the most read. This year is no exception. (read more)