Features

Features

• Hybrid cloud migration starts with updating the private cloud

  It might seem counterintuitive, but a key part of hybrid cloud adoption is committing the time and resources to updating your private cloud. These steps will set you up for success.  Continue Reading

• API management platform trends to watch in 2018

  As major vendors move to acquire and integrate API management platforms, business should get to work crafting a holistic API strategy.  Continue Reading

• Application delivery controllers evolve to meet new demands

  ADC devices have evolved to deliver a wide range of functionality, including web application firewall, denial-of-service protection, SSL offload and scalable performance.  Continue Reading

• Words to go: Basic cloud computing terms

  New to cloud computing? Use this list of basic terms to familiarize yourself with common deployment models, service categories and top providers.  Continue Reading

• Factors to consider before evaluating hybrid storage systems

  The right hybrid flash storage can help an organization maximize its storage capacity and improve performance. Learn what factors to consider before evaluating hybrid storage arrays.  Continue Reading

• Catch the IT automation technology wave

  IT automation is taking over in operations as tasks get bigger and more complex, handling distributed systems. Stay current with these five big trends.  Continue Reading

• Are DevOps responsibilities in production unfair to developers?

  When Nike.com gave developers live production support responsibilities, the shakeup unearthed fundamental questions about app design and support processes.  Continue Reading

• Key factors that affect NAND flash memory endurance

  Program/erase cycles, write amplification and even garbage collection contribute to faster NAND flash wear-out. But wear leveling and bad block can help.  Continue Reading

• Choose a loosely coupled architecture for DevOps success

  To successfully pivot your organization toward DevOps and cloud, carefully evaluate and fine-tune your architecture first, and then think about tool sets.  Continue Reading

• Hypervisor software and your hyper-converged infrastructure

  The hypervisor layer in HCI is becoming an expected feature, but it is important to know what role it plays and how it can affect the rest of the components.  Continue Reading

• IT ops pros predict routes to DevOps efficiency in 2018

  Operations admins have a lot on their plates already, and they'll pile on more in 2018. These IT pros and analysts share what's coming and how to handle it.  Continue Reading

• Persistent storage-class memory to revolutionize data centers

  Since it doesn't lose data during power outages, persistent memory will revolutionize direct-attached storage in particular and the cost/performance ratio of computing overall.  Continue Reading

• What's behind the rise of the software-defined storage market

  The software-defined approach to storage is catching on. However, for now, enterprises prefer preconfigured SDS products bundled with hardware for easier deployment.  Continue Reading

• Eight data storage startup vendors to watch in 2018

  Even as other storage startup companies fail, newcomers have appeared to take on established enterprise vendors. Can they ride the momentum for flash, hybrid cloud and SDS?  Continue Reading

• Five AWS tips and tricks to advance cloud app development

  Developers in 2017 continued to embrace Lambda and containers, as AWS added more support and services. Review SearchAWS' top development advice from last year to prepare for 2018.  Continue Reading

• The future of AWS holds new tech, heated competition

  As the world rings in a new year, AWS moves forward in a contentious cloud market. Our experts speculate whether edge, IoT and machine learning will help AWS maintain its lead.  Continue Reading

• Top five solid-state, cloud storage tips of 2017

  In 2017, SearchStorage readers cared most about SSD lifespan, 3D XPoint technology and the difference between SAN and NAS. Check out our most-read articles of the year here.  Continue Reading

• Make the case to follow a container strategy at your company

  Sorting through container management software can be overwhelming. Determine what your organization actually needs in terms of security and cloud capabilities before leaping in.  Continue Reading

• Taking the software-defined data center market pulse

  Most organizations understand the benefits of the SDDC by now, but widespread adoption hasn't hit yet. Challenges such as complexity and internal talent could be to blame.  Continue Reading

• Software-defined data center architecture basics for beginners

  The physical, virtualization and management layers of an SDDC make it possible to pool the physical components into logical resources, regardless of the underlying hardware.  Continue Reading

• NVMe SSD storage costs won't hinder market takeover

  Storage vendors agree that NVMe will become the default for solid-state drives, but it must still overcome cost and configuration challenges.  Continue Reading

• Hybrid storage arrays join multiple storage types to cut costs

  Despite being more complex than all-flash or all-hard disk drive systems, hybrid systems offer the speed and low latency of flash and the economy of HDDs, tape or cloud.  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage providers: What should you look for?

  With so many cloud storage options on the market, it's hard to choose the right one. To start, determine whether you need a business service or if a consumer cloud will suffice.  Continue Reading

• Explore the benefits, tradeoffs of GPU instances in cloud

  While GPU instances can give compute-intensive apps the processing boost they need, not all workloads -- or budgets -- will benefit from these cloud instance types.  Continue Reading

• Trends in data storage 2018: Five hot techs to watch

  Our hot data storage technology trends for 2018 include predictive storage analytics, ransomware protection, converged secondary storage, multi-cloud and NVMe over Fabrics.  Continue Reading

• How to select the best network monitoring tool

  Learn the criteria for choosing the best network monitoring tool for your enterprise.  Continue Reading

• NAND flash memory basics: Comparing SLC, MLC and TLC NAND

  NAND is the most popular type of flash, but there are many different types, and they each serve a different purpose. Do you know your NAND flash basics?  Continue Reading

• With continuous security, SecDevOps deconstructs CI/CD

  Nothing is set in stone when an organization follows a DevOps methodology -- a DevOps security model pushes developers and ops to constantly retune, slow down and speed up.  Continue Reading

• NOR vs. NAND flash memory: What companies need to know

  NOR and NAND flash memory each suit different use cases, and companies looking at a flash memory product need to know the difference before they buy.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise shops look to AIOps for IT root cause analysis

  IT ops pros look to AIOps tools to help find the smoking gun in failing IT stacks, but some call automated root cause analysis more dream than reality.  Continue Reading

• Demand for cold data storage heats up

  The exponential rise in unstructured data is one of many reasons for the upsurge in demand for cost-effective cold storage products, services and media.  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage adoption decisions weigh capacity and cost

  Acquiring storage capacity -- particularly for backup, archiving, DR and collaborative purposes -- dominates as the main reason for storage cloud adoption trends in the enterprise.  Continue Reading

• Hybrid storage arrays offer the best of all storage worlds

  Hybrid flash arrays provide performance benefits over all-flash and all-hard disk storage systems and can address the varying workload demands of today's organizations.  Continue Reading

• Buying NAS: Do you want performance and scalability?

  Although SANs still rule the modern the data center, the NAS array maintains a position high up on tech buyers' shopping lists for new primary storage.  Continue Reading

• A year later: Pros and cons of the Dell and EMC merger

  Our experts take measure of the Dell EMC acquisition, the storage and technology merger of the century, a little more than 12 months after the deal closed.  Continue Reading

• Open source technology promises to alter enterprise storage

  Open source storage software could alter the face of the industry by cutting costs and delivering greater flexibility over existing storage infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• Multicloud storage mitigates risk of public cloud lock-in

  Multicloud storage strategy allows for the shifting of data across public clouds so you can avoid lock-in to a single provider, reduce cost and improve workload efficiency.  Continue Reading

• IaaS benefits broaden as public cloud market evolves

  The benefits of IaaS now range from increased scalability to access to emerging technologies, such as serverless. Review these key benefits, as well as management implications.  Continue Reading

• ITSM processes must take this chance to help the business

  ITSM implementations still have value in today's DevOps world, but only if admins can get their processes aligned with the grander business goals.  Continue Reading

• Deciding between IaaS and PaaS for microservices

  Implementing a microservices architecture requires a stable DevOps team. Whether the target environment is IaaS or PaaS, users must consider needs, costs and culture.  Continue Reading

• Mobile app architecture is nothing without MBaaS

  Many companies today are turning to MBaaS platforms that take the pain out of mobile app architecture by enabling microservices and making API management the center of the system.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between IaaS and PaaS to developers?

  Before making a decision about IaaS vs. PaaS for development, organizations should know the major differences. Here we examine the differences between the two.  Continue Reading

• An IT operations job description written for the future

  Forward-looking IT ops jobs require more Python and less cable management. To reach valued positions in the IT organization, align your skills with these popular job requirements.  Continue Reading

• Early adopters of technology belong in every organization

  In today's rapidly changing tech environment, avoiding new opportunities means falling behind. Thorough research into newly available tools leads organizations to success.  Continue Reading

• Server Core installation offers perks, challenges for IT

  Server Core is a lighter Windows Server deployment that frees up server resources for additional workloads, but the management aspect will put some admins to the test.  Continue Reading

• How NVMe over Fabrics will change the storage environment

  Expect NVMe to supplant SCSI and SAS protocols for SSD storage and NVMe over Fabrics to find a place in high-end networking deployments for transporting data.  Continue Reading

• Persistent data storage in containerized environments

  The most significant challenge to the rise of containerized applications is quickly and easily providing enterprise-class persistent storage for containers.  Continue Reading

• The copy data management market is starting to go mainstream

  Products from copy data management vendors protect and manage production data to lower storage costs, speed data access and streamline self-service access to data copies.  Continue Reading

• The leading object storage vendors offer broad range of options

  Explore how the leading object storage systems can be accessed, how they integrate with the cloud, what data security they provide and the various deployment options they offer.  Continue Reading

• Copy data management vendors expand breadth of offerings

  This roundup of copy management systems from the leading vendors shows the distinct categories and implementation models this cost-saving technology can provide.  Continue Reading

• The mainframe environment: A thing of the past or the future?

  It made its name in a long-ago era, but even in the time of virtualization and cloud computing, the mainframe hasn't disappeared yet. The IBM z14 aims to keep it that way.  Continue Reading

• What the leading copy data management vendors offer

  Copy management systems from the leading vendors offer unique features that can help IT departments consolidate their secondary storage into a single product.  Continue Reading

• Cloud management platforms offer a unified approach to hybrid IT

  While more cloud platforms can mean more challenges, the right management platform makes an admin's job easier. But with all the options, how do you know which one to choose?  Continue Reading

• How the leading all-flash array vendors meet storage demands

  This in-depth overview of the features and capabilities of the leading AFA storage products can help you determine which configurations may best meet your needs.  Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud technology gets the most out of primary storage workloads

  Learn what to look for in a hybrid cloud platform so you can take advantage of the scalability, agility and cost benefits it has to offer primary storage.  Continue Reading

• Disaggregating network, compute and storage allocation demystified

  Explore the ways disaggregation concepts and principles are being applied to create and allocate pools of compute and storage resources to serve applications on demand.  Continue Reading

• IBM Strategic Imperatives mark a transition into software and services

  IBM's Strategic Imperatives are slowly morphing the server hardware stalwart into a software and services company. But IBM still needs hardware to complete the transformation.  Continue Reading

• AWS Marketplace seller, buyer FAQs

  AWS Marketplace serves Amazon Web Services customers and vendor partners alike. So, how does it work, and what types of software are available?  Continue Reading

• Is enterprise object storage ready to lead?

  As object storage benefits become more enticing to enterprises for internal storage uses and not just for cloud, vendors are overcoming its drawbacks.  Continue Reading

• Analyzing products from the leading object storage vendors

  When evaluating the leading object-based storage systems, it is important to consider which product can best support your uses cases and unique site requirements.  Continue Reading

• Caching vs. tiering: Comparing storage optimization techniques

  There are many factors to consider when choosing between caching and tiering storage techniques to optimize storage. Knowing how and when to use either can make a big difference.  Continue Reading

• Object-level storage poised to replace NAS in the enterprise

  Many vendors offer highly scalable object storage-based products with file interfaces, making the technology more accessible than ever as an alternative to NAS.  Continue Reading

• Chief concerns when buying cloud storage include cost and capacity

  Enterprises look for the best deal from the vendor with the best reputation when turning to the cloud to tame growing data volumes for archiving, backup and more.  Continue Reading

• Determine your requirements before buying a copy management system

  Before evaluating copy data management systems, examine the pros and cons of the deployment models, as well as the most important features to look for in a product.  Continue Reading

• Strategies to accelerate AWS Lambda functions

  In this chapter excerpt from Serverless Architectures on AWS, author Peter Sbarski shares five tricks developers can use to improve Lambda function performance.  Continue Reading

• Securing containers keeps IT jumping through hoops

  Container isolation doesn't cut it in production. Instead, beef up security from the infrastructure to the application code, and be prepared to use some new tools to do it.  Continue Reading

• Container ecosystem needs to expand its persistence of vision

  Persistent storage for containers will become a necessity as the stateless computing method becomes less about just DevOps and more about end-user applications.  Continue Reading

• New use cases for flash data storage benefit enterprises

  Adoption of protocols such as NVMe and memory bus-based flash DIMMs helps flash storage devices keep pace with the most demanding use cases.  Continue Reading

• Multiprotocol unified storage systems poised for growth

  With support for block, file or both types of data on the same device, unified storage architecture is a flexible storage option for the modern data center.  Continue Reading

• Questions to ask object storage vendors before evaluating products

  Before investing in object storage architecture, it is vital to understand your options, including whether you should buy software, hardware or a combination of both.  Continue Reading

• Examining what products the leading all-flash array vendors offer

  Although there are many factors to consider when selecting the right all-flash storage arrays for your organization, the first step is to assess your functional specifications.  Continue Reading

• Choose the best public cloud instances for your apps and budget

  Cloud computing instances can make or break application performance -- and costs. Evaluate your workloads to determine the right instance type and size before deployment.  Continue Reading

• Deploy patches safely and sanely in a CI/CD workflow

  Enterprises engaged in a CI/CD workflow must patch systems and apps strategically. There are multiple technologies to consider, including immutable infrastructure and automation.  Continue Reading

• Object storage systems ease data capacity and archival concerns

  If your organization can identify with any of the object storage use cases noted here, it might be time to consider adding this technology to your storage portfolio.  Continue Reading

• Build a cloud-based infrastructure one layer at a time

  As enterprise IT teams enter the cloud adoption phase, they must understand the technical underpinnings that comprise cloud infrastructure -- from servers to storage to apps.  Continue Reading

• Quantifying the benefits of investing in copy management technology

  There are many benefits to implementing copy data storage, including cost reduction and increased operational efficiency while maintaining service-level objectives.  Continue Reading

• EarthLink SD-WAN helps Dunn-Edwards Paints connect with customers

  When Dunn-Edwards Paints decided to explore software-defined WAN, they looked to their service provider, EarthLink. The latter's new managed SD-WAN service was a hit.  Continue Reading

• Use the cloud to enhance the functions of primary storage

  Learn some of the best ways to leverage public cloud as a storage tier to complement primary storage and make data centers more efficient.  Continue Reading

• Building an IT resiliency plan into an always-on world

  A multipronged approach is the best protection against unaffordable and unacceptable downtime in today's 24/7 business cycle.  Continue Reading

• Scalability drives SAN market growth

  Better performing, more scalable and capacious storage area networks are required for ever-growing amounts of unstructured data, demanding applications and big data analytics.  Continue Reading

• Is an all-flash data center worth it?

  The elevated cost of flash technology is a reason to limit flash usage. Find out what other factors go into a flash purchase and how it's used in today's data centers.  Continue Reading

• DevOps lab: Build Vagrant VMs to learn immutable infrastructure

  This article is part of a series to help IT ops professionals learn DevOps by building a home lab. In this first step, a cluster of Vagrant VMs represents immutable infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• Learn DevOps techniques and tools in this home lab setup

  This DevOps lab uses Linux VMs and Docker containers to teach administrators the basics of immutable infrastructure, configuration automation and other modern IT concepts.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft Azure App Service lets developers build cloud applications

  For businesses looking to modernize legacy apps, Microsoft Azure App Service hosts several features that let users create web, mobile and Azure API apps in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Copy management systems reduce data consumption and storage costs

  Copy management systems offer a range of options for reducing excessive storage consumption and improving performance by eliminating the creation of redundant data copies.  Continue Reading

• How an object storage architecture can help reduce storage complexity

  An object storage architecture tackles traditional storage limitations by offering a file structure that is ideal for storing and protecting large amounts of unstructured data.  Continue Reading

• The present and likely future of the NVMe protocol

  The NVMe and PCIe combination of protocol and interconnect was an inevitable development once solid-state drives were created, as was moving NVMe to fabrics.  Continue Reading

• Smarter storage starts with analytics

  Storage smartens up to keep pace with data-intensive business applications embedding operational analytics capabilities.  Continue Reading

• Purchase of NAS arrays driven by need for capacity, desire to expand

  As unstructured data continues to lead storage growth, businesses are opting for scale-out NAS arrays to handle current and future capacity.  Continue Reading

• Flash, cloud top data storage options for storage pros

  Cloud is popular among data storage priorities for primary and backup storage, while most say they will use flash in primary data storage.  Continue Reading

• Advanced shell scripting for IT ops professionals: Free chapter

  Shell scripts can improve speed and automation for sys admins beyond what's possible with graphical user interfaces. Dana French's books cover advanced shell scripting for experienced users.  Continue Reading

• Five factors to consider before buying all-flash storage arrays

  Before purchasing all-flash array storage, you should determine whether your site plans to integrate AFA storage into its existing infrastructure or to start a new storage silo.  Continue Reading

• HPE Unified Functional Testing allows for application test automation

  The HPE Unified Functional Testing platform provides users with interactive tools for creating and executing automated app testing tasks on desktop, mobile and web platforms.  Continue Reading

• An overview of the eggPlant testing tool for test automation

  The eggPlant testing tool provides developers and testers with software to create, schedule and execute automated testing and debugging tasks on a variety of mobile platforms.  Continue Reading

• Building a business case for all-flash array storage

  To make a business case for purchasing AFA storage, you must first understand what your applications need in terms of IOPS, latency and throughput.  Continue Reading

• Overcome problems with public cloud storage providers

  Security and compliance concerns are chief obstacles to public cloud storage adoption, as IT managers are hesitant to have their critical data reside outside the data center.  Continue Reading

• Storage plays catch-up with DevOps environment

  To deliver an Agile or DevOps environment, the way in which resources, including storage, are consumed and deployed changes to a more cloud-focused approach.  Continue Reading

• SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now

  Solid-state flash is the most sought-after technology for primary storage, as storage area networks remain the main focus of increasing capacity for most enterprises.  Continue Reading

• The state of flash storage systems

  Making flash storage performance even faster has little to do with the media itself and more to do with the storage infrastructure that surrounds it.  Continue Reading

• SDN service for sale ... from a healthcare provider?

  Early NSX adopter BayState Health is weighing the possibility of a future as an SDN service provider -- using multi-tenancy to run other organizations' networks parallel to its own.  Continue Reading