Evaluate

Evaluate

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• DevOps doesn't need stateful containers with storage, but apps do

  DevOps is giving up its hold on the container world, as persistent storage makes the stateless environment work for end-user applications, not just developers.Continue Reading

• Solving enterprise-class storage challenges in the age of convergence

  In this age of data center convergence, with technology evolving faster than ever, planning how to transition from traditional yet rigid environments to more agile software-defined ones is among the trickiest challenges facing IT shops today. ...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

• Price of cloud storage may be fuzzy

  Cloud storage services offer convenience and can cut IT spending, but not in every case. Make sure to do the math before you commit to putting your critical data in the cloud.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

• Speeds of storage networking technologies rise as flash use spikes

  Speeds of storage networking technologies are rising as faster flash storage is gaining adoption, giving IT organizations more options to meet their performance needs.Continue Reading

• Private cloud technology presents promising prospects

  The benefits of a private cloud implementation are becoming increasingly obvious as costs continue to decline and interoperability with its public relatives continues to improve.Continue Reading

• What new storage capabilities are coming in OpenStack Pike?

  OpenStack Swift, Cinder and Manila storage project leaders discuss the tools' most requested features, and offer insight into capabilities coming in the next Pike release and beyond.Continue Reading

• Phase change memory technology: Where is it headed?

  With the release of Intel's Optane, a product based on phase change memory is finally on the market. Where PCM goes is dependent on quite a few factors.Continue Reading

• Optane memory: Opening the window on Intel's latest technology

  Now that Optane products are on the market, the future of fast memory for storage and processing looks bright. But will Optane match the claims Intel has been making?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

• Planning is paramount for a private cloud environment

  Almost any organization of any size can enjoy the flexibility and cost savings that often accompany a private cloud implementation. It's not just for startups.Continue Reading

• Helpful steps toward an easy private cloud implementation

  There are many aspects of an overall private cloud infrastructure that affect your organization's cloud storage plans, and knowing what to look for is vital.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

• All-flash data center still an idea in development

  The concept of the all-flash data center isn't new, and as the cost of SSDs continue to decline, vendors are pushing the of the all-flash data center like never before. Reality is a different matter, though. When it comes to older data, slower ...Continue Reading

• Data center storage architecture gets smarter with AI

  Trends, such as event-triggered computing, as exemplified by Lambda Architectures, converge on data center storage to hasten data center intelligence evolution.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

• 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

• Symbolic IO IRIS a breakthrough in server, storage architecture

  Intensified RAM Intelligent Server from newcomer Symbolic IO questions fundamental and often unstated foundations of contemporary server and storage design.Continue Reading

• Evolution of storage technology ending one-size-fits-all approach

  Some storage vendors want you to think that one type of storage will work for all scenarios and enterprises. Thanks to changes in storage technology that's not always the case.Continue Reading

• All-flash storage arrays: Are they killing hybrids?

  The debate still rages over whether all-flash arrays will make hybrid arrays obsolete, and cost is not all that matters when reviewing storage array options.Continue Reading

• Tier 0 storage moves to NVMe to meet demand for speed

  Tier 0 has been fast and proprietary, but nonvolatile memory express is changing that second part as a standard programming interface for PCIe SSDs.Continue Reading

• The status of NAND flash memory now and in the near future

  Flash memory chips have driven a revolution in storage, and faced a recent shortage because of huge demand. That's easing, and advances in NAND technology show a great future.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

• Everything you need to know about NVMe storage

  The NVMe protocol started out as a faster way to access data from speedy SSDs in a PC, but enterprises quickly saw the value in extending it to the storage network.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

• 2017 IT spending trends for data storage

  For the 15^th year, Storage magazine has surveyed storage pros to learn about their IT spending trends for the coming months. As you'd expect, the cloud continues to pick up steam for both primary and secondary projects, while ...Continue Reading

• Scale-out software-defined storage market menaces traditional storage

  Scale-out software-defined storage is on the rise to the detriment and decline of traditional storage products and arrays.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

• Secondary data storage takes center stage

  Once considered a necessary evil, secondary storage systems are now providing much more than just backup protection.Continue Reading

• Take a deep dive into software-defined storage products

  Understanding the software-defined storage market is key to getting real value from an implementation, as is proper research and planning before making any product or vendor decisions.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

• 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

• The state of flash storage performance

  All-flash arrays have virtually eliminated flash storage performance issues, for now. But applications and user expectations will eventually catch up. Innovations in flash technology -- such as nonvolatile memory express and storage-class memory (...Continue Reading

• Infrastructure provisioning made easier with hybrid cloud storage

  Storage provisioning delays slow down IT initiatives and negatively impact both revenue and the bottom line, which make hybrid clouds a realistic and attractive option.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

• 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

• Data storage infrastructure starts with science-fiction inspiration

  Find out what happens when you take a cue from an old science-fiction movie and build an 'interocitor' that becomes its own storage infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Classification of data can solve your data storage problems

  Having a data classification process in place can make your data smart enough to know what to do with itself, allowing you to attain the holy grail of enterprise data storage.Continue Reading

• GlusterFS (Gluster File System)

  GlusterFS (Gluster File System) is an open source distributed file system that can scale out in building-block fashion to store multiple petabytes of data.Continue Reading

• AFA storage has total cost of ownership advantages over HDDs

  All-flash array storage TCO advantages, including reduced power and cooling and increased performance, can help an organization justify its use to store their active workloads.Continue Reading

• AFA storage advances may mean the end of the hybrid market

  Flash price drops and speed boosts make the all-flash array the smart choice over hybrid storage arrays for most enterprise users, not just those with high-performance computing needs.Continue Reading

• Storage Spaces Direct a key option in Windows Server 2016 features

  Windows Server 2016 includes new and updated capabilities with Storage Spaces, Storage Replica, Storage Quality of Service, data deduplication and Resilient File System.Continue Reading

• Hyper-convergence: It's for more than primary data storage

  The lines between primary and secondary storage and applications such as hyper-convergence remain blurry. But they are a starting point for further discussion.Continue Reading

• Businesses use enterprise file sync-and-share market to collaborate

  Enterprise file sync and share solves numerous business problems by offering organizations a way to provide more secure document sharing and collaboration.Continue Reading

• 'Holistic' data protection tools, a marketing meme on the rise

  Though vendors are calling their data protection products 'holistic,' they should blend security and disaster recovery services to improve their functionality.Continue Reading

• Future of the Ethernet drive may hinge on NVMe over Ethernet

  Despite their debut two years ago, drives that connect via Ethernet have been mostly a curiosity. The Ethernet flavor of NVMe over Fabrics may change that.Continue Reading

• How to navigate the public cloud service provider selection process

  Learn how to determine if your organization could benefit from public cloud storage and how to select the public cloud provider that will best meet your needs.Continue Reading

• A look at the services the leading public cloud vendors provide

  Examine the leading public cloud service providers and the features each offers, including backup and recovery, archival, hybrid cloud storage and cloud analytics.Continue Reading

• All-flash array market advances outpace demand, create opportunities

  Scott Sinclair says high-density, high-capacity all-flash storage arrays are a disruptive technology ahead of customer demand for now, but businesses will realize they need it.Continue Reading

• How to build a private storage cloud

  Building internal cloud storage must account for elasticity, choosing the right platform, allowing for workflow, and stack deployments and public cloud integration.Continue Reading

• Top enterprise storage vendors to watch in 2017

  Check out our comprehensive forecast of what challenges and opportunities the top enterprise storage vendors are expected to face in the coming year.Continue Reading

• A dozen data storage vendors to watch in 2017

  Hyper-convergence, solid-state, software-defined storage and the cloud have revolutionized the way we deploy, manage and secure storage. How the dozen leading data storage vendors presented here navigate the challenges and opportunities created by ...Continue Reading

• Start your hybrid cloud implementation off on the right foot

  Hybrid cloud storage has garnered a lot of interest because it offers cost savings and scalability. But there are some key concerns to think about before you dive in.Continue Reading

• Keep tabs on the following data storage startup vendors in 2017

  Our list of the top data storage startups to watch offers products for containers, data analytics, in-memory databases, NVMe flash and object storage.Continue Reading

• Four criteria for evaluating public cloud storage providers

  Prior to selecting a public cloud service provider, it's essential that you understand what each vendor offers and how their services can best meet your organization's needs.Continue Reading

• Focus attention on a cognitive data management system

  Jon Toigo advises paying less attention to storage component stories and more to system-focused narratives such as a cognitive data management process.Continue Reading

• Hyper-convergence meets private cloud platform requirements

  Infrastructure choice and integration are fundamental to capitalizing on all that a private cloud environment has to offer your organization.Continue Reading

• How eMMC 5.0 can improve your organization's small storage needs

  The latest eMMC specification puts the tiny flash storage devices on a level playing field with many SSDs when it comes to speed -- but eMMC is still the smallest flash drive.Continue Reading

• Differences between SSD caching and tiering technologies

  Brien Posey looks at popular ways of using SSD as cache, including write-around, write-through and write-back, as well as how the technology compares with SSD tiering.Continue Reading

• With on-premises storage, storage administrators must adapt or perish

  Storage admins show increased interest in and adoption of on-premises storage technologies such as software-defined storage and hybrid clouds.Continue Reading

• Flash storage caching boosts application performance, requires balance

  Chris Evans discusses the benefits to caching flash storage, the trade-offs involved and flash cache models, as well as a handy cheat sheet.Continue Reading

• Atomic storage offers speed and capacity, lacks intelligence

  Dutch scientists studying atomic data storage claim that 500 TB of data can be stored on one square inch, but data management remains elusive.Continue Reading

• Seven tips to improve data storage efficiency

  Storage networks, server-side flash, network cache, software-defined storage and all-flash or hybrid arrays help storage performance and efficiency.Continue Reading

• Simplifying data storage technologies is hard

  All-flash arrays and hyper-converged storage are two technologies that make it tough to simplify data storage technology.Continue Reading

• Almost time for SSD flash storage to be used with object storage

  As the price of flash SSD storage continues to fall, it becomes more attractive for object storage, which otherwise counts on big, slow and cheap HDDs.Continue Reading

• NAND flash technology is just the beginning

  NAND flash adoption has been as fast as the speed it offers, but faster storage techs such as 3D XPoint and phase-change memory are on their way.Continue Reading

• How to measure flash storage's true value

  Flash storage, or using the broader term, solid-state storage, suffers from an inadequate measure of value. Flash storage provides a step-function improvement in the ability to store and retrieve ...Continue Reading

• Storage Spaces Direct builds on Windows Storage Spaces

  With the new Direct feature, Windows Storage Spaces can use local storage for failover clusters. It also supports JBOD storage.Continue Reading

• Hadoop alternatives now offer data center-grade storage

  Data is growing at record rates with no signs of slowing. But what good is having petabytes of data if you can't gain business advantage from it? Accurate analysis of data can have great positive business results, but requires the right tools and ...Continue Reading

• Server-side flash technology lifts solid-state adoption

  Server-side solid-state storage is more ubiquitous than ever due to growing capacities and rapidly dropping flash technology prices. There are a many ways to install flash technology in a server, though there are decisions to make before you buy. We...Continue Reading

• IT resilience vs. disaster recovery: What's better for your business?

  DR may be dying. The term DR, that is, not the actual process of disaster recovery. There is a move in the industry to replace the phrase with "IT resilience." At last week's ZertoCON business ...Continue Reading

• How do RDMA storage systems improve latency reduction?

  RDMA technology can help speed up I/O in storage environments by bypassing copy processes in the software stack when data is called up from a system's memory.Continue Reading

• Complete guide to server-based storage in its modern forms

  From hyper-convergence to the cloud, better understand direct-attached storage and its many forms with this essential guide.Continue Reading

• NetApp and Synology top NAS storage systems survey

  A storage pioneer and relative newcomer land top honors in our 10^th Quality Awards NAS storage systems survey of midrange and enterprise users.Continue Reading

• The significance of parallel I/O in data storage

  Parallel computing has been around since the 1970s, but the re-emergence of multiprocessor systems may give parallel I/O a big place in the current data storage landscape.Continue Reading

• Five types of storage virtualization: Pros and cons

  Expert Brien Posey discusses five ways to virtualize storage in an organization. Review the pros and cons of each approach to find the best fit for your data center.Continue Reading

• Base enterprise hybrid cloud evaluation on security, cost

  Explosive data growth has organizations looking at hybrid cloud storage to meet their capacity needs. But cloud costs and security issues need to be addressed.Continue Reading

• Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance system overview

  Oracle ZFS Storage uses mechanical and flash storage. The ZS3-2 and ZS4-4 models offer a variety of software for storage management, encryption and security.Continue Reading

• HPE StoreEasy 1000 Storage family product overview

  The Hewlett Packard Enterprise StoreEasy 1000 Storage family -- formerly HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage -- has four mid-level NAS models, management tools and BitLocker Drive Encryption support.Continue Reading

• Will most 3D NAND flash products continue to feature TLC?

  Vendors are using TLC flash in their 3D NAND flash products, which allows for greater capacity at a lower cost, according to Brien Posey.Continue Reading

• NetApp FAS2500 series: Technical overview

  The NetApp FAS2500 series includes the FAS2554, FAS2552 and FAS2520. The NAS systems support hybrid flash setups for environments with mid-tier network storage needs.Continue Reading

• Hitachi NAS platform 4000 overview

  The Hitachi NAS platform 4000 series consists of four product models that use a discrete controller that can be attached to almost any Hitachi storage system.Continue Reading

• EMC VNXe3200 midrange NAS system technical overview

  The VNXe3200 from EMC is a NAS system for environments that require midrange network storage solutions.Continue Reading

• Server-side caching has new data center role

  Some server-side caching products have evolved into complete software-defined storage platforms that can aggregate flash across multiple servers.Continue Reading

• EMC Isilon X-Series NAS: Isilon x200, x210 and x410

  The Isilon X-Series is a lineup of NAS systems that support hybrid flash setups. The products are designed for environments with mid-tier network storage needs.Continue Reading