Evaluate

Evaluate

Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.

• Compare different vCenter Server editions to find what fits

  Compare and contrast vCenter Server licensing options, and choose what's best based on how much support you need and how many ESXi hosts you want to manage. Continue Reading

• Software-defined storage: Making sense of the data storage technology

  Use this guide to help understand what vendors mean by 'software-defined storage,' what experts think of it and how to use it in your environment. 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

• Get serious about patch validation and deployment -- fast

  Zero-day exploits are more dangerous than ever, but so is applying an untested patch to live systems. Without a strategy to quickly validate patches -- outside of production -- you're playing with fire. Continue Reading

• Do users need 3D NAND flash memory?

  The population of users who need 3D NAND flash chips on their computers is limited to those who run extremely large workloads, such as big applications or multiple virtual machines. Continue Reading

• Microsoft roadmap covers practical and wishful technology

  The latest innovations on the Microsoft roadmap include familiar enterprise products, but its wager on an ambitious technology could one day alter the face of computing.Continue Reading

• What you'll build with software-defined architecture

  It's been two years since Gartner declared that the future of the data center was software-defined. And while we're still a ways from that reality, there's plenty of reason to think IT is indeed moving toward the software-defined architecture.

  ...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

• Guide to DevOps Enterprise Summit 2017

  Industry giants are coming together once again for the annual DevOps Enterprise Summit. Learn what is trending in DevOps, IT ops, AI and machine learning.Continue Reading

• Features disaster recovery-as-a-service providers must offer

  A cost-effective disaster recovery as a service lets organizations of all sizes implement a dependable disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery-as-a-service providers replicate or back up customer data to cloud data centers and then -- should ...Continue Reading

• Are you ready for NVMe storage and the future of flash?

  Three factors to consider beyond technical capabilities before designing and investing money and resources in a low-latency NVMe flash storage network.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

• Solid-state drive performance metrics go beyond latency, IOPS

  In determining performance and lifespan of an SSD, companies must consider the drive's architecture, the storage controller and write amplification in addition to IOPS and latency.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

• To build or to buy? That is the DevOps toolchain question

  An organization should assess its strengths and weaknesses before choosing a DevOps toolchain. A pre-made pipeline is simpler than individually collected tools, but it sacrifices flexibility.Continue Reading

• Compare two types of cloud automation and orchestration tools

  There are two camps of tools for automation and orchestration in cloud: provider-native and third-party. To pick the right one, know your future needs, especially for multi-cloud.Continue Reading

• Hard disk vs. flash storage: The fight of the century?

  When deciding which storage method you want in your corner, the benefits of flash storage are very appealing. But should you forget about hard disk arrays entirely?Continue Reading

• Container OS options abound: Make the right selection

  There is an assortment of OSes that support containerized applications, so go into the decision with a set of wants, needs and must-avoids.Continue Reading

• Network validation a first step to intent-based architecture

  Network validation is an important first step for enterprises evaluating intent-based networking. Unless you know how things really work, you won't succeed.Continue Reading

• Gen 6 Fibre Channel helps support flash, but lacks adoption

  Sixth generation Fibre Channel has the potential to solve fabric-level bottlenecks, but companies tend to choose Ethernet because it has evolved more rapidly.Continue Reading

• What are the pros and cons of contract QA jobs?

  Contract QA jobs can pay more than staff positions, but only if you're a good negotiator. Expert Amy Reichert helps explain the differences between staff QA and contractors.Continue Reading

• Secondary data storage: A massively scalable transformation

  Capitalize on flash with interactive, online secondary data storage architectures that make a lot more data available for business while maximizing flash investment.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

• A long hot summer for the enterprise storage market

  Use of magnetic tape in enterprise storage is set to break out, even as the cloud market slows and software-defined storage and hyper-converged infrastructure stumble.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

• Investigate how copy data management systems curb data sprawl

  The top copy data management vendors offer innovative products to reduce the staggering amount of data that organizations create by replicating multiple copies of production data.Continue Reading

• Carrier cloud could create bigger roles in future for SDN and NFV

  Increasing carrier cloud deployment could be the key that drives SDN and NFV technologies forward in the future of virtual networking -- not the other way around.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

• Standardize configuration management software for smoother DevOps

  If your organization uses different configuration management software for development and operations, you're not alone. Even better, it's no engineering feat to migrate to one main tool.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

• SAM Local enables offline development for serverless apps

  Serverless computing is a draw for developers, though hybrid functionality has been limited. AWS' SAM Local now enables local testing of Lambda functions -- but faces competition.Continue Reading

• Navigating the all-flash array storage buying process

  Companies of all sizes are turning to all-flash storage arrays to meet their storage capacity, performance, reliability and data protection requirements.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

• Comparison of popular technical SD-WAN service models

  Two main SD-WAN service model options exist for users to choose from, but more could be on the way due to regulatory and industry development efforts. Find out what works for you in this comparison.Continue Reading

• Visions of software-defined branch begin to take hold

  Software-based technologies can apply to the vision of a software-defined branch that converges network elements and centralizes management. But getting there will take time.Continue Reading

• PaaS tools on shaky ground as Elastic Beanstalk evolves

  While serverless computing poses a threat to some PaaS offerings, AWS Elastic Beanstalk maintains developer interest, in part because of its integration with services like Lambda.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

• Configuration management processes take down GRC challenges

  Configuration management processes speed deployments, but tools that know effective licenses and data storage details aid in another area that businesses are keen to get right.Continue Reading

• The story of SDN: Control planes, OpenFlow protocol and disaggregation

  When discussing SDN, control planes and programmability are often lumped into the conversation -- along with a dose of OpenFlow protocol and disaggregation.Continue Reading

• Amazon DAX manages database spikes for improved performance

  The DynamoDB Accelerator reduces database latency without tacking on a separate cache. While the service has some early limitations, DAX benefits enterprises with real-time apps.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

• Persistent storage readied for containerized applications

  Traditional application architectures are limited in their ability to scale and meet the demands of today's fast-growing data, cloud and IT environments. Containerization -- with its support for Agile design, development and deployment methodologies...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

• Demystifying flash pricing

  What do math problems and determining the true cost of flash have in common? You need all the facts to get the right answer, and they're both really hard.Continue Reading

• How to determine the true cost of flash

  If you want to add flash storage, it's important to consider the cost per IOPS and gigabyte compared to HDD volumes, as well as the difference between consumer and enterprise SSDs.Continue Reading

• What are the pros, cons of PaaS offerings from AWS, Google, Microsoft?

  Get started with exploring these PaaS offerings: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure. An IT veteran summarizes their pros and cons.Continue Reading

• Real-time vs. near-real-time analytics -- how to choose

  Data is king, but what happens when the data isn't truly real-time? Expert Tom Nolle explains the cloud platform choices when it comes to 'real-time' analytics.Continue Reading

• Selecting the best object-based storage platform for your needs

  Object-based storage systems can provide the scalability needed to meet organizations' increasing unstructured data storage requirements. Learn how to pick the right platform.Continue Reading

• Know how container host machine resources get used?

  What's a container's resource limit? How do they scale? What OS does a host machine need? Answer 10 questions to prove your container deployment knowledge.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference coverage

  Check all the developments from the Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference in Orlando and track the company's strategic moves in its hardware, software and services businesses.Continue Reading

• How should IT manage connected devices?

  As IT teams become tasked to manage connected devices more often, what steps need to be taken to avoid performance and security-related problems?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

• Making the Agile development model current again

  From test automation to software design and empowering leadership, discussions at Agile2017 focused on how to move forward in the current state of the Agile development model.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

• Uptime Institute tier classification system faces new rivals

  Because the Uptime Institute focuses primarily on power and cooling, alternative data center certifications have emerged. Their chances of replacing Uptime, however, seem slim.Continue Reading

• Compare XtremIO vs. Unity all-flash storage system for VDI

  Dell EMC offers two all-flash storage options geared toward VDI shops. One suits companies with fewer than 500 persistent machines, and the other is for larger deployments.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

• Open source network tools compete with shrinking vendor equipment

  Vendor equipment consolidation could limit network operator service automation efforts, but new open source network tools offer options and prevent lock-in.Continue Reading

• Do ops skills fall into an IT engineering job description?

  What are some ways to level up from an IT operations or administration role into an IT engineering one? Will my experience in IT operations translate into engineering tasks?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

• Disaggregation enables on-demand resource pool management and creation

  Disaggregation may not be a new concept, but it has become more important to IT in recent years. Here, it means breaking computers down to the core elements of compute, memory, I/O, storage, cache, network fabric and so on, to enable resource pool ...Continue Reading

• Forget all-flash arrays, aim for flash-optimized storage first

  Look for simple, cost-effective products that are optimized for flash and meet your needs rather than focusing on the all-flash array storage that vendors are pushing.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

• Software-defined storage products don't negate hardware's importance

  Software-defined storage, positioned as the cure-all for vendor lock-in, suggests that hardware may not be as important to IT infrastructure as it once was.Continue Reading

• How to move to a network hybrid cloud architecture

  Learn how to avoid network hybrid cloud architecture problems before a migration, and why uniformity and consistent performance are essential for success.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

• How do deduplication and compression compare to RAID erasure coding?

  RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding, deduplication and compression are similar but distinct concepts that reduce data and maintain storage capacity in virtualized environments.Continue Reading

• Use the Rufus utility to create a bootable VMware ESXi installer

  Rufus -- short for Reliable USB Formatting Utility -- is a free Windows tool that can create a bootable VMware ESXi installer and a custom installation package in mere minutes.Continue Reading

• Everything you need to know about OpenStack modules

  OpenStack continues to evolve in an effort to compete with AWS. The modules that are available now make OpenStack a viable enterprise option.Continue Reading

• Making the case for an all-flash data center

  Companies should ditch hard disk drives and outfit their data centers entirely with flash storage; vendors have solved old solid-state problems, such as wear time and cost.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

• The object storage market is moving beyond the cloud to the enterprise

  The resistance to enterprise object storage may not be futile yet, but advances in software and hardware are moving that day closer, and block and file storage might soon be passe.Continue Reading

• How to use Azure Active Directory differently than classic AD

  Windows administrators can't just whip up an Azure Active Directory deployment and expect it to mimic the classic AD, but Azure AD has several meaningful uses.Continue Reading

• Should you use a private cloud chargeback model?

  The idea of chargebacks is to help organizations use private cloud resources efficiently by making departments pay for what they use, but the practice can backfire.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged infrastructure vendors offer range of storage options

  Hyper-converged infrastructure vendors have integrated software-defined storage, compute and networking into easy-to-use, turnkey appliances. But the transition from a traditional, three-tier architecture to a hyper-converged data center can take ...Continue Reading

• IT infrastructure transformation: Backbone of the digital revolution

  Maximizing the value of incoming and outgoing data as a core business strategy demands transforming your IT infrastructure into a more agile and flexible entity.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

• Wanna laugh? Data protection techniques give ransomware the boot

  Done right, data protection such as cloud-based disaster recovery is the best countermeasure organizations have against insidious ransomware attacks.Continue Reading

• Agentless Ansible structure opens up configuration management potential

  Ansible is easy to use for IT ops pros, and it supports multicloud functionality within its automation structure. This simple walkthrough gets sys admins started with the tool.Continue Reading

• Overcome common IP address issues during a cloud migration

  During a move to the cloud, many organizations overlook potential snags surrounding IP addresses. To start, know how cloud providers manage address assignment.Continue Reading

• Quiz time: Test your knowledge of hybrid cloud computing trends

  Do developers and IT decision-makers cite different factors for moving to -- and staying away from -- a hybrid cloud architecture? See where your opinions line up.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

• AWS GovCloud lags behind private sector, but that's changing

  In the fast-paced world of public cloud, if AWS is the hare, AWS GovCloud is the tortoise. GovCloud launched in 2011 to meet stricter regulatory requirements for federal, state and local ...Continue Reading

• How is private cloud support divided between IT and providers?

  When companies choose a private cloud storage provider, it's important that they understand what the internal IT department is responsible for, as opposed to what the provider will support.Continue Reading

• Server OS patching doesn't have to be as painful as you fear

  OS patching is like a mechanic's job -- you need different tools for different makes and models. SCCM, Satellite and Landscape provide upkeep for IT's sports cars and SUVs.Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of private cloud over popular alternatives?

  Don't overlook the advantages of private cloud when choosing a cloud storage implementation. Security, cost and ease of transition make it a viable option.Continue Reading

• Machine learning algorithms make life easier -- until they don't

  Algorithms govern many facets of our lives. But imperfect logic and data sets can make results worse instead of better, so it behooves all of us to think like data scientists.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

• Telecom vendors feel the pressure of operator transformation plans

  Changes in network operators' buying trends have rocked the status quo for telecom vendors, with pricing pressure, software and chants of 'no more lock-in' driving it home.Continue Reading

• GlusterFS vs. Ceph: Weighing the open source combatants

  When considering open source storage software, GlusterFS and Ceph share that designation and little else. Knowing how each option works can help in the selection process.Continue Reading