Evaluate

Evaluate

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

• How NVMe technology and NVMe over Fabrics will change storage

  NVMe-oF is taking NVMe's benefits to the next level, letting devices based on the technology be used over distances and scaling to a larger number of devices. Continue Reading

• NVMe-oF and its many benefits take NVMe to the next level

  NVMe over Fabrics is revolutionizing the storage market by making full use of data center capacity and becoming an effective replacement for SAN environments. Continue Reading

• NVMe flash storage is shaking things up

  The development of the nonvolatile memory express protocol is a huge step forward in allowing enterprises to maximize the benefits inherent to flash storage. NVMe puts storage closer to the CPU, reduces latency and increases the amount of parallel ... Continue Reading

• Catch the next wave of digital IT transformation: Learning tech

  IT learning technologies, such as machine learning and AI workloads, are gaining traction and could be the next wave of IT investment that drives competitive advantages. Continue Reading

• Understanding data storage and its import eludes younger IT folks

  Jon Toigo has a lot to say about the consistent disparagement and disregard many young people in the IT industry show toward data storage technology and management. Continue Reading

• The challenges of flash enterprise storage and how to beat them

  Blazing fast all-flash data centers raise important issues. It's expensive to equip DR sites and then there's all that stale data. Find out how to counteract these issues.Continue Reading

• NVMe market and technology rapidly evolve

  The tipping point of NVMe acceptance is fast approaching as more enterprises consider adopting the technology to maximize SSD flash investment and performance.Continue Reading

• How NVMe technology will rock the enterprise storage boat

  NVMe flash speeds up storage and radically alters server connectivity. How will enterprises adopt NVMe storage and how well will it work with existing technologies?Continue Reading

• Storage conferences aren't what they used to be

  If you're an IT pro looking for a good storage user conference these days, you'll probably have to go through one or more of your storage vendors to find one.Continue Reading

• Storage networking technologies explained

  Make sure you know the differences among network fabrics, such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand, before making decisions about your storage network infrastructure.Continue Reading

• 5D data storage and the future of optical technology

  Researchers say revolutionary 5D optical storage could protect hundreds of terabytes of data for billions of years, far beyond the capabilities of current storage media.Continue Reading

• 3D NAND technology: What it is and where it's headed

  Following a recent NAND flash shortage, 3D NAND is seeing renewed interest from consumers and vendors. Discover what makes the technology a compelling flash memory option.Continue Reading

• Why object storage is becoming an alternative to RAID

  RAID is a well-established storage technology, known for being reliable and secure. But as data volumes grow, more flexible, effective RAID alternatives are gaining a following.Continue Reading

• Storage Spaces Direct requirements you need to know about

  Microsoft's architecture uses commodity hardware to create highly available, software-defined storage. But success depends on following the vendor's rules and recommendations.Continue Reading

• Adoption of 32 Gbps Fibre Channel being driven by flash

  Flash, along with more and bigger workloads and more demanding applications, is driving businesses to switch from 8 Gbps and 16 Gbps FC to 32 Gbps FC storage environments.Continue Reading

• Clarifying what cloud and virtualized data storage really mean

  Cloud storage doesn't always mean the public cloud. Virtualization and virtualized data storage aren't always about virtual servers and desktops. Find out what's really going on.Continue Reading

• A deep dive into guest clustering for shared virtual storage

  When using shared VHDX files to host a guest cluster shared volume, there are some considerations to take into account, such as physical connectivity and potential limitations.Continue Reading

• Molecular memory could boost HDD density

  Researchers working with molecular storage have discovered a way to create smaller hard drives with more density. But don't expect to see the technology on the market anytime soon.Continue Reading

• Container applications need backup: Who knew?

  The concept of containers, ephemeral applications running across private and public clouds, has grown in popularity over the last few years. It has quickly become clear that the transient nature of containers and container applications isn't ...Continue Reading

• Use object storage technology to fight ransomware infection

  Done right, object storage reduces the likelihood of a successful ransomware attack and, in some instances, lets you get data back without paying a ransom.Continue Reading

• Office 365 data protection, the enterprise and you

  Gain a better understanding of Microsoft Office 365 security and storage management features and how the popular cloud-based productivity and collaboration suite really works.Continue Reading

• MAMR hard drives could shake up the storage industry

  Microwave-assisted magnetic recording technology may be the next breakthrough HDD technology, promising lower cost and higher reliability than heat-assisted magnetic recording drives.Continue Reading

• Edge computing technology can ease bandwidth pressure points

  Stockpiling data at endpoints makes sense in a growing number of applications. With storage at the edge, concerns about storage bandwidth and data costs can be mitigated.Continue Reading

• Charge trap technology advantages for 3D NAND flash drives

  Flash drive cells based on charge trap technology are less likely to leak electrons than the older floating gate cell technology. But they have reliability issues to be aware of.Continue Reading

• The storage administrator skills you need to keep up today

  To meet changing enterprise IT needs, storage admins must acquire a new set of skills. If not, they risk being bogged down in an outmoded, outdated career rut.Continue Reading

• Block, file and object storage interfaces enable integration

  Explore the capabilities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, of some storage vendors' products that support and integrate block, file and object interfaces.Continue Reading

• Managing storage for IoT data at the enterprise edge

  Edge computing, the cloud and internet of things data are changing the way businesses store, analyze and manage all the information generated at the perimeter of the enterprise.Continue Reading

• Does SSD overprovisioning have storage benefits?

  While overprovisioned SSDs have less usable capacity available, that space is put to good use. The majority of SSD manufacturers overprovision their drives, and for good reason.Continue Reading

• The AFA market faces unprecedented and rapid commoditization

  Prices of all-flash arrays have nosedived. Massive discounts due to fierce competition are contributing to rapid and unprecedented commoditization of all-flash arrays and changes in the AFA market. Meantime, the demand for AFAs is shrinking because ...Continue Reading

• IT spending priorities for 2018 include cloud and flash storage

  More than half of respondents to our survey have larger IT budgets this year, and their storage spending is focused on ways to manage massive data growth.Continue Reading

• IoT initiatives and other emerging workloads force data center change

  Internet of things projects and other new technology, such as analytics and machine learning, are tied to software-defined storage and public cloud use, changing the face of IT.Continue Reading

• Many enterprises aren't prepared for a cloud service outage

  Some businesses have no idea what a cloud outage will cost them and who takes responsibility for restoring data and workloads, the customer or the cloud service provider.Continue Reading

• Three trends causing the rapid commoditization of AFA storage

  Advancing technology and changing market forces have shifted the dynamics in the all-flash array market, opening it up to new challengers and benefiting customers.Continue Reading

• NVMe technology is but a first step toward bigger things

  NVMe is an inevitable move forward for flash technology that begins the transition to storage-class memory and will lead to even more significant storage advances.Continue Reading

• AFA storage tackles big data analytics challenges

  The latest generation of all-flash array storage is delivering the high performance and low latency required to support petabyte-scale big data analytics workloads.Continue Reading

• Demystifying the hybrid storage array buying process

  Hybrid flash storage offers numerous benefits over using just SSDs or HDDs. Learn how to assess your organization's needs for a hybrid storage array and how to evaluate the different hybrid arrays to find the right fit.Continue Reading

• How open source Ceph compares to Linux Ceph products

  Ceph software-defined storage is available for free, thanks to its open source nature. However, in some situations, a commercial Linux Ceph product could be the way to go.Continue Reading

• SSDs vs. HDDs: When is all-flash storage overkill?

  The SSD vs. HDD analysis isn't as simple as it looks. SSD prices are falling, and capacities increasing. But HDDs are still a good deal and fine for many noncritical workloads.Continue Reading

• Four situations where a multi-cloud strategy makes sense

  Many businesses can benefit from using multiple cloud services, especially if they need to ensure reliability, protect privacy, remain flexible and optimize the cloud experience.Continue Reading

• Reasons to choose Ceph storage over traditional alternatives

  The flexibility and multitude of interfaces available in a Ceph environment make it a tempting option and have some organizations ditching their current storage setup.Continue Reading

• Leading hybrid storage arrays offer flexibility, scalability

  By examining how leading hybrid storage systems address scalability, system management and company size, your organization can select the array that will best meet its needs.Continue Reading

• Seven ways to unlock the power of all types of unstructured data

  New storage services have emerged to help IT pros maintain and deliver access to ever-larger and more valuable data sets, particularly all types of unstructured data. These include data sets for big data analysis, DevOps, storage self-service and ...Continue Reading

• How to get the full benefits from NVMe flash storage

  Consolidate and increase the density of your organization's workloads in a flash storage system to take full advantage of NVMe's parallelism and reduced latency.Continue Reading

• Latest data storage technology takes application-centric approach

  These data storage strategies support the use cases customers want without breaking the bank or forcing them to buy technology they don't really need.Continue Reading

• SAN purchase and deployment criteria by the numbers

  Capacity and application needs drive businesses to deploy new storage area network systems, while criteria such as number of LUNs and multipathing are key to purchasing decisions.Continue Reading

• Learn storage techniques for managing unstructured data use

  Rearchitect storage to maximize unstructured data use at the global scale for larger data sets coming from big data analytics and other applications.Continue Reading

• A multi-cloud strategy provides more options and headaches

  The days of the cloud as a single, homogenous entity are long gone. Going forward, you'll likely have a multi-cloud storage strategy and work with multiple service providers.Continue Reading

• Hybrid storage array vendors offer simplicity, ease of use

  Although hybrid arrays are similar in functionality from one system to another, subtle differences in features can make one array more appropriate for a given application.Continue Reading

• Ten ways to protect intellectual property and trade secrets

  Industrial espionage is on the rise, and more data means more risk. Find out how to control the growth of data stores and secure your organization's most valuable assets.Continue Reading

• Primary storage optimization overcomes a range of challenges

  Enterprises turn to different products, technologies and tools to optimize primary storage, overcome data storage challenges and make networked storage deployments more efficient.Continue Reading

• NVMe SSDs: Is there a need for all this speed?

  Everything you should know to decide if nonvolatile memory express is right for your enterprise and, if it is, how to plan for the future of flash storage.Continue Reading

• The danger of ageism in the tech industry and ignoring the past

  Monolithic storage rules the day in spite of the advent of software-defined storage, because vendors and enterprises ignore data storage history and discount experience.Continue Reading

• The future of flash storage: Is NVMe right for your enterprise?

  Cracks in the SAS and SATA protocols started to appear with the rise of SSDs and the exponential performance improvements they delivered over HDD technology. This led to the development of the nonvolatile memory express protocol to exploit flash's ...Continue Reading

• Is demand for data storage or supply driving increased storage?

  Figuring out whether we're storing more data than ever because we're producing more data or because constantly evolving storage technology lets us store more of it isn't easy.Continue Reading

• Embrace IT digital transformation and the new tech landscape

  The digital economy is increasingly defining business, and IT's relationship to business and the bottom line is becoming tied together more tightly.Continue Reading

• Ceph vs. Swift: Two object storage systems for different needs

  Some cloud object storage experts think that Ceph is better than Swift, but that isn't true. The fact is that both options can work, but your workload needs matter.Continue Reading

• Five reasons to consider data warehouse as a service

  DWaaS offers benefits that are unmatched by on-premises counterparts, including improved agility and cost-effective big data storage.Continue Reading

• Software-defined storage benefits to sway SDS holdouts

  Software-defined storage is often misunderstood, yet the technology offers some advantages over traditional storage systems for many organizations.Continue Reading

• Violin Systems and StorOne lead way to shared storage

  Two companies head toward a future of shared enterprise storage resources, moving away from siloed software-defined and hyper-converged approaches.Continue Reading

• Market for software-defined systems due for a correction

  Software-defined storage seems to relegate hardware to the sidelines, but that may change as hardware-centric offerings become attractive alternatives to software-on-COTS options.Continue Reading

• The best enterprise storage systems and services of 2017

  For 16 years, Storage magazine and SearchStorage have recognized the best enterprise storage systems with our annual Products of the Year awards. For this year's competition, vendors submitted new and upgraded products from the past year ...Continue Reading

• Time for a flash storage system refresh: What's next?

  The second wave of flash storage systems in the enterprise must be about optimizing flash performance and density, not just IOPS, and being faster than its hard disk predecessor.Continue Reading

• Best data storage products 2017: Products of the Year

  Storage magazine names winners of 2017 Products of the Year awards for best storage products in backup and DR, software-defined storage, storage arrays and management tools.Continue Reading

• WekaIO Matrix

  Startup WekaIO's Matrix parallel, scale-out file software pools the fast flash storage in application servers and offloads cold data to public and private clouds.Continue Reading

• Excelero NVMesh 1.1

  Startup's NVMesh software virtualizes nonvolatile memory express-based storage and lets applications access pooled storage resources at high speed and low latency.Continue Reading

• DataCore SANsymphony PSP6

  The latest release of DataCore's software-defined storage offering, SANsymphony PSP6, enhances REST API integration, container support and cloud replication.Continue Reading

• Infinidat InfiniBox 3.0

  InfiniBox 3.0 stores data on disk, deploying a small amount of flash as an acceleration tier. Its caching algorithm ensures the hottest data is on the fastest storage media.Continue Reading

• Pure FlashBlade

  Pure Storage FlashBlade is optimized for unstructured data analytics. Its system-on-a-chip architecture uses custom NAND flash blades to accelerate data and its metadata.Continue Reading

• IoFabric Vicinity 3.0

  Vicinity 3.0 from IoFabric uses artificial intelligence to cut storage costs and also creates a seamless, live instance of data between on-premises sites and the cloud.Continue Reading

• Caringo FileFly Secondary Storage Platform

  FileFly Secondary Storage Platform from Caringo works with Windows Server and NetApp OnTap, adding intelligent data transfer to scale-out secondary storage while reducing cost.Continue Reading

• Datrium DVX 3.0

  Datrium impresses judges and wins top honors with its DVX storage architecture, designed to sidestep latency and deliver performance and speed at scale.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

• Storage startup trends: Vendors to watch in 2018

  Another year is behind us, and 2017 wasn't kind to enterprise-storage startups, as a bunch went belly up or sold off their assets. Not deterred by this recent history and startup trends, a new group of companies has emerged to try and make an impact...Continue Reading

• Future of data storage technology: Transformational trends for 2018

  Risk-averse enterprises finally accepted the cloud in 2017, and we didn't even notice. Expect the same for these data storage technology trends in the new year.Continue Reading

• IT infrastructure automation boosts digital initiatives

  Embracing automation through concepts like composable infrastructure cuts back on the use of manual IT tasks, which inhibit the success of digital business.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

• NVMe flash storage doesn't mean tape and disk are dying

  The advent of NVMe, software-defined storage and other newer storage technologies doesn't mean we'll be looking at all-silicon-based storage any time soon.Continue Reading

• SDS, HCI and CDP are key to dream enterprise storage system

  Easy to implement and manage may be the buzzwords of the day for enterprise data storage systems, but too often daily experiences of IT professionals belie that rosy scenario.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

• The hottest data storage technology trends for 2018

  For the past 15 years, Storage magazine has identified the hottest data storage technology trends you'll want to follow in the coming year. All of our selections may be "newish" tech, but they're also tried and true, having demonstrated their...Continue Reading

• Four rules to craft an enterprise data archiving strategy

  Follow these four rules to redesign your data archiving system in a way that ramps it up gradually, keeps data flowing from primary storage to the archive and makes everyone happy.Continue Reading

• Is Caringo leading the next wave in object-level storage?

  Caringo facilitates and simplifies cross-platform data movement by bridging its proprietary object storage system to Microsoft Azure object storage service.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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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