Entries categorized under “Virtualization”

We have seen a lot of focus in the past twelve to 24 months on enterprise virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and technology investments in storage. All of this emphasis on moving away from the traditional server-based deployments in the data center is putting a major emphasis on virtual server performance and, more specifically, on enterprise storage performance. Today, I begin an interview series with Virsto Software CEO Mark Davis, where we look at how Virsto creates a VMware storage hypervisor in VMware vSphere to give incredible boosts in performance using even traditional hardware. (read more)

The differences between small, midsize and large organizations may be many but when it comes to backup, they all seem to share one thing in common: a desire to speed up and simplify their backups. The challenge is that for each of these organizations to accomplish this they need to take different paths to do so. This universal desire for better ways to do backup was the impetus behind many of enhancements found in today's announcements of Symantec Backup Exec 2012 and NetBackup 7.5. (read more)

In this final installment of our blog series on WhipTail Technologies, a Solid State Drive (SSD) array provider with some impressive features and capabilities, I am continuing my discussion with WhipTail Technologies Chief Technology Officer, James Candelaria. Last time, we looked at how WhipTail implements software RAID on its devices. Today, we will be discussing the different transport protocols supported by the WhipTail array and why the FCoE and iSCSI protocols trump Infiniband in today's SSD deployments. (read more)

Today is part 2 of an interview I recently did with WhipTail Technologies Chief Technology Officer, James Candelaria, an emerging provider of SSD storage solutions. In my last entry, he and I discussed one major roadblock to widespread enterprise SSD adoption: the performance penalty incurred by garbage collection. This time, we'll look at how WhipTail optimizes SSD performance while minimizing the deficiencies of MLC flash. (read more)

About a month ago I started to put some thought and research into what might emerge as the top trends of 2012 by keeping a notebook next to my keyboard so as ideas struck me I could jot them down. Now as I look at the four trends that made today's short list, they ended up being on the surface ones that I hear, write and talk about every day. (read more)

Before DCIG announces its top three blog entries of 2011 tomorrow, this year we thought we would do something different and take a look at some other blog entries that garnered a great deal of attention throughout 2011 but not quite enough to reach the Top 10. That being the case, an honorable mention for these blog entries was in order. Further, what is notable about these entries is that, with the exception of one, they were all published in 2011. (read more)

Today I continue to reveal the Top 10 most read blog entries on DCIG's website in 2011 with these four (4) entries typifying the two extremes of topics that DCIG's readers tend to read the most. At one end of the spectrum are two forward looking blog entries on topics that every organization are examining now: the cloud and virtual server backup. At the other end of the spectrum are two older blog entries on the topics of cable labeling and encryption for which organizations continue to need relevant information. (read more)

In the last few years, the need for backup software to support VMware has become almost a must-have for any backup solution to remain relevant in the years to come. The need for organizations to back up both physical and virtual machines means that addressing data protection has become increasingly complex. This is why the new Revinetix RevOS 4.0 provides an all-in-one solution to bridge the physical-virtual gap that other backup software solutions may not accomplish without increasing complexity. (read more)

Server virtualization is creating new demands for ease and simplicity in managing and scaling storage capacity and performance that go well beyond what traditional single or dual controller storage systems can provide. But what organizations may fail to recognize is that even current scale-out storage systems may NOT be truly optimized to cost-effectively deliver the storage capacity and performance that virtualized environments require. This is the unique value proposition that Gridstore with its vController technology is well positioned to address. (read more)

Today DCIG is very excited to announce the availability of its updated DCIG 2012 Midrange Array Buyer's Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 90 features on more than 50 midrange arrays from 18 different storage providers. However the reason that DCIG believes users will find this guide even more helpful and insightful than the prior DCIG 2010 Midrange Array Buyer's Guide is that it takes an in-depth look into how well each midrange array integrates with VMware and supports its vStorage APIs. (read more)

If there is anything that businesses deplore is a lack of choice and, right now, a perception exists that VMware vSphere is their only hypervisor choice due to some features that vSphere offers that Microsoft Hyper-V does not. However this gap in hypervisor feature functionality closed further with this week's release from Symantec Corporation of Veritas Storage Foundation High Availability 6.0 for Windows. (read more)

Back in the early 2000's as the storage virtualization debate raged HDS took what was then a novel approach to storage virtualization: it decoupled its storage controllers from its back end disks and enabled them to virtualize storage from it and other providers. Fast forward to 2011 and HDS again has given the industry something new to chew on. It offered up a new, three tiered vision for virtualization that builds upon its existing storage controller virtualization approach but which it now expands to also virtualize the emerging content and information layers that enterprises are creating. (read more)

Looking back at the two fall VMworld 2011 conferences, there were more sessions available on how organizations could protect their VMware environments than many could probably attend in a month. Further, each of these sessions presented a number of backup and recovery tips that left organizations the task of sorting through and then prioritizing which ones to implement. Among these tips presented, three emerged that every shop should look to adopt regardless of how they move forward with the protection of their VMware infrastructure as a whole. (read more)

According to IDC, revenue from external disk storage systems totaled over $18 billion in 2010. But what that IDC number does not fully reflect is the growing impact that midrange arrays are having on organizations of all sizes and how well they are positioned to deliver the other key feature that organizations now want in their virtualized environments: Reliability. Among the midrange arrays available, the new NEC M100 storage array is better positioned than most to deliver on these two features. (read more)

Everyone asks, "Is tape dead?" Personally, I think that question is ridiculous. There will always be a demand for tape. The better question is, "How is the tape industry evolving to ensure tape remains relevant as a solution to address current technology trends such as "Big Data," "the Cloud" and virtualization?" This is the more pressing question regarding tape's future to which Spectra Logic provided some excellent answers this past week at its first ever analyst and press event. (read more)

VMware will hit a tipping point with 2011 with VMware customers expected to cross the 50% virtualization threshold by the end of the year. But as VMware adoption accelerates, a hurdle that every organization faces as it looks to implement VMware vSphere is identifying a back-end storage system that delivers the appropriate levels of availability and performance at the right price point. Last week the new Symantec FileStore N8300 v5.7 with its new deduplication feature gave organizations a glimpse into how that may be accomplished. (read more)

Virtualization is sweeping through data centers of all sizes and, as it does, it introduces levels of complexity that organizations are ill-equipped to handle. To mitigate this, reference architectures are emerging as a technique to standardize which hardware and software are deployed, under what circumstances, and how it is managed. (read more)

Anyone who still doubts that Nirvanix is poised to deliver the same type of solution for cloud storage that VMware already delivers for cloud computing got a serious wake-up call this past week. Announcements that both Cerner and IBM entered into strategic relationships with Nirvanix are more than just validations of Nirvanix's cloud storage technology. They signal that Nirvanix is poised to become how enterprises of all size will eventually implement cloud storage. (read more)

Over the past few months my wife and I have contemplated the purchase of some type of tablet (either an Android or iPad.) It was only after a great deal of debate and a fair amount of research that we finally broke down and purchased one opting for the iPad. But after only a few weeks of owning it, I already find myself using it very rarely and having a bit of buyer's remorse because while it is really cool toy, it remains exactly that: a really cool toy. (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)

No one ever gets every decision right the first time. In fact, most of us are lucky to get most of our decisions mostly right most of the time. Yet to date storage administrators have been forced to live in somewhat of an alternate universe where the expectation is that they plan and execute on storage allocations perfectly every time. (read more)

The move from tape to disk as a primary backup target had raised serious questions about what the future held for data protection and recovery management (DPRM) software. The argument was that with disk replacing tape in the backup process, why would anyone need DPRM software? Turns out, the reasons for companies continuing to deploy DPRM software are even more compelling than before. (read more)

I realize VMworld 2011 ended over a week ago and everyone is by now probably looking ahead to the next big thing. But before we leave VMworld 2011 behind in the annals of history, I wanted to take one final look at how VMware went about promoting cloud ownership. Because rather than telling users they should own "VMware's cloud" or "NetApp's Cloud" or "EMC's Cloud" or even some cloud service provider's cloud, it touted "Own Your Cloud." (read more)

As I was sitting in the audience that past Monday at VMworld listening to VMware's CEO Paul Maritz extol the value of mobile devices, I found myself completely agreeing with his vision as to where virtualization was going next. But as with any vision, it comes with a price. In this case it is going to demand even more extensive changes to the back end infrastructure that will support these mobile devices than what we are already seeing. (read more)

The idea that a company - any company - can just "plug-in" a backup solution into their virtual environment and expect it to work sounds far-fetched to any IT administrator accustomed to setting up and configuring backup software. But as more companies move from measuring their IT administrators by how effectively they setup new software to how effectively they manage their virtual machines (VMs), backup solutions by necessity are shifting to 'plug-n-play.' As that transition occurs, Symantec's Backup Exec 3600 exemplifies what enterprises should expect from this emerging class of 'plug-n-play' backup solutions. (read more)