Enterprise storage, planning and management

Tips from our judges

This article offers 10 tips on how to submit a product for consideration in the TechTarget Storage Products of the Year awards. Continue Reading

TechTarget Storage Products of the Year judging criteria

This article discusses how products are judged for the TechTarget Storage Products of the Year awards. Continue Reading

A primer on SSD response time, other performance benchmarks

Consider several SSD performance benchmarks, including SSD response time as a key unit of measurement. Also, note the difference between benchmarks and load generators. Continue Reading

Cache vs. RAM: Differences between the two memory types

Cache memory and RAM both place data closer to the processor to reduce latency in response times. Learn why one can be faster, along with other key variables in cache vs. RAM. Continue Reading

5 steps to creating a strong data archiving policy

There's a lot to consider in your data archive plan. From compliance to data integrity and retention, following these best practices will improve your data protection. Continue Reading

5 considerations before buying data center backup software

Backup and recovery software should support various OSes and environments such as VMware, as well as applications running in public cloud IaaS and SaaS platforms. Continue Reading

Startup raises $60 million to grow Datrium DVX business

Datrium's latest $60 million funding will fuel its hybrid cloud computing and data management product line and business expansion into Europe. The Series D funding round boosted the Sunnyvale, ... Continue Reading

New HPE SAN switch is based on Cisco Gen 6 FC technology

It may not set off fireworks, but Hewlett Packard Enterprise heads into the July 4 break with a finalized portfolio of Cisco-based StoreFabric Fibre Channel switching gear for its all-flash arrays. ... Continue Reading

HPE storage still on its Nimble high

Hewlett Packard Enterprise extended its impressive storage turnaround last quarter. For the second straight quarter, HPE storage revenue increased 24% year-over-year – jumping to $912 million for ... Continue Reading

Ctera Networks CEO: enterprise subscriptions spiking

Ctera Networks claimed subscription revenue for its enterprise file services platform more than doubled in fiscal 2017, pushing the company to record results for the year. As a private company, ... Continue Reading

Pivotal move: Chad Sakac says Dell EMC in ‘rear-view window’

The question ‘Where is Chad Sakac?’ got answered this week: by Chad Sakac. The former president of the Dell EMC converged infrastructure division (formerly known as converged platforms) said he ... Continue Reading

Dell EMC all-flash surge collides with softening storage demand

Growth in Dell EMC all-flash storage is one of the bright spots in what remains a tough slog for legacy array vendors. Dell Technologies on Thursday reported consolidated revenue of $19.6 billion ... 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

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

Back-end storage considerations for in-memory processing

Storing hot data in main memory removes the latency associated with hard disk and solid-state storage operations; it's the best option for need-it-now data. 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

Cloudian CEO sees favorable trends in object storage market

Cloudian CEO Michael Tso notes favorable trends for object storage: Capacities are increasing to petabytes, and customers want to use different clouds for different workloads. Continue Reading

Your enterprise data management strategy needs a superhero

Data management products are the Superman, not the Batman, of storage. They have built-in superpowers that provide the innate power needed to manage data. Continue Reading

The power and benefits of encouraging IT disruption

IT can't remain a reactive cost center and cheerful help desk, but must become a competitive, cutthroat service provider and powerful champion of emerging disruptive technology. 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

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

Hedvig storage upgrade adds flash tier, encryption options

Hedvig software-defined storage enables 'all-flash hybrids' by supporting tiering across different types of solid-state media inside of commodity hardware systems. 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

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

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

New WekaIO file system incorporates flash, object store

WekaIO launched its scale-out file system, which is optimized for server-based flash storage and designed to tier data to cheaper object storage on premises and in public clouds. 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

CEO Harr predicts Panzura storage shift to software deployments

Panzura CEO Patrick Harr predicts more customers will shift from using the company's physical appliances to VM-based software deployments in the cloud by year's end. 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 getting used to. That's why it's important to carefully assess hyper-converged infrastructure vendors and the HCI appliances they offer when making this change. We'll show you ways to simplify the process.

Today, we mostly store unstructured data on NFS-based NAS file servers. More efficient, flexible and practical object storage is a rising alternative, however, particularly in products that layer file-based interfaces on top of object-based storage for the best of both worlds.

Tiering and caching can make a huge difference in active data storage performance. These two processes work in different ways, however. Tiering is about more than distributing data into hot, warm and cold tiers, while caching increases the speed of reads and writes. Both tiering and caching require choices.

 Continue Reading

Object storage use cases coming to a data service near you

Object storage, unlike traditional file and block storage, is well-suited to manage vast amounts of unstructured data. 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

Formation Data Systems exits crowded software-defined market

Formation Data's recent demise shows the challenges startups face in differentiating products in a crowded software-defined storage market, industry analysts say. Continue Reading

Virtual Instruments adds storage monitoring to 32 Gb FC

Virtual Instruments tools that help organizations monitor storage gain deeper integration in the new family of Load DynamiX 32 Gb FC and 40 GbE Workload Generation Appliances. Continue Reading

Integrate Ceph object storage in a VMware vSphere environment

It can be challenging to integrate Ceph in a VMware environment, but with the right interface, vSphere administrators can reap the rewards of object storage. Continue Reading

DDN IME flash cache, SFA operating system get updates

DataDirect Networks focused on performance and resilience in updates to its Infinite Memory Engine flash cache and Storage Fusion Architecture operating system. 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

MapR Technologies launches enterprise file storage product

MapR expands beyond analytics into the enterprise storage market with an exabyte-scale data store designed to manage files and containers in data centers and across clouds. 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. Fortunately, a plethora of options exist to lengthen the life of or implement a wholesale replacement of current enterprise-class storage.

Rapid advancements and developments such as memory-based flash DIMMs, the emergence of nonvolatile memory express, greater densities and lower prices enable flash data storage to meet the requirements of the most demanding enterprise-class storage use cases.

The varied and competitive world of cloud-based disaster recovery has changed the way we protect and secure data to recover from disaster. Discover the must-have features to consider when shopping for a disaster recovery-as-a-service provider to protect enterprise-class storage.

 Continue Reading

Three approaches to strategic data management: Good, better and best

It's time organizations take a more mature and sophisticated approach to data management techniques and make the most of the data they generate and consume. 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

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

Hitachi Content Platform 8 focuses on cutting storage cost

Hitachi Data Systems updates its HCP object storage system with support for 10 TB helium HDDs, geographically distributed erasure coding, KVM hypervisors and new licensing options. 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

OpenStack Ocata storage projects add enterprise features

The Cinder, Swift and Manila OpenStack storage projects focused on performance, stability, scalability and enterprise-level capabilities in the latest Ocata release cycle. Continue Reading

OpenStack release sees drop in storage vendor contributors

OpenStack's Cinder, Swift and Manila storage projects experience a decline in vendor contributors heading into the upcoming release of the latest iteration, Pike. Continue Reading

Snowden, Cinder demo give OpenStack Summit storage twist

BOSTON -- Storage is rarely a focal point at OpenStack Summit keynotes, so it was interesting this week to see a Cinder block storage demo -- even if it failed -- and Edward Snowden discussing data ... 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

Micron SolidScale NVMe-oF-based storage architecture emerges

Micron Technology launched its SolidScale storage architecture based on NVMe-oF technologies, with plans for branded appliances to start shipping later this year. 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 technology tiers -- such as tape and high-capacity HDDs -- and the cloud can still save plenty of money and resources. So how much flash is enough? It depends.

IT resources must remain continuously available nowadays. Establishing data center resiliency through technologies like replication and erasure coding, as well as implementing continuous backup and instant recovery, is only a start. Learn how to develop a resiliency plan of your own.

An increasing array of backup, disaster recovery and archiving services has turned the public cloud into a favorite target for secondary and tertiary data. Advances have also made the cloud a viable option as a primary storage tier in the storage hierarchy. Particularly if tier-two or tier-one workloads could benefit from the scalability, resilience and broad accessibility the public cloud delivers. Here's why.

 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

Red Hat Gluster Storage integrated with OpenShift on AWS

Red Hat integrated Gluster storage with the OpenShift Container Platform on Amazon Web Services to provide consistent storage for on-premises and cloud application deployments. Continue Reading

X-IO storage pivots to the edge with NVMe-based Axellio

New storage strategy for X-IO centers on Axellio appliance with FabricXpress architecture. NVMe flash atop a PCIe edge storage switch allows analytics as data is ingested. Continue Reading

Flash storage market shifting, Kaminario CEO says

Dani Golan of Kaminario sees NVMe as the next big disruptor in the flash market; says Kaminario focuses on cloud and SaaS, while legacy vendors fight over shrinking IT budgets. Continue Reading

New Virtual Instruments software improves NAS, flash models

Version 5.3 of Virtual Instruments' Load DynamiX 5 software supports time-based NFSv3 workloads, eases preconditioning of flash arrays and improves the user interface. 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

Elastifile builds file system for cloud, flash storage

Elastifile's distributed file system designed for use with flash hardware and on-premises and public-cloud storage is adding CloudConnect capabilities for AWS and Google. Continue Reading

Datrium DVX adds converged turnkey option

Datrium plans to release a major update adding key enterprise storage features such as snapshots and replication and a new 'open converged' Rackscale turnkey system option. 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 all-flash arrays and SSDs also rated highly. Hyper-converged interest, meanwhile, nearly doubled over 2016. See how your 2017 shopping list compares to today's IT spending trends.

When SSDs supplanted HDDs, it revealed many deficiencies in the traditional RAID array model. Storage vendors changed course, leading to the highly scalable, fast and reliable hyper-converged systems of today. Is it time to go all-in with hyper-convergence?

IT is rapidly evolving to keep pace with today's data-intensive business apps and trends, such as the internet of things. For storage, this means newer silicon tech, inherent analytics, embedding hybrid cloud tiering and (often) convergence with or hosting of core data processing directly, and new management techniques.

 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

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

Red Hat Gluster Storage 3.2 boosts performance, containers

Red Hat's latest Gluster storage update improves performance, deepens container support and introduces space-saving alternative to three-way replication to ensure data integrity. Continue Reading

Flash, cloud top data storage options for storage pros

 Continue Reading

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

 Continue Reading

Oracle cloud storage embraces ZFS Storage Appliance

New Oracle operating system update enables ZFS Storage Appliance to transfer file- and block-based data to Oracle Storage Cloud without an external cloud gateway. 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

Primary Data DataSphere update improves scalability

Primary Data updates its DataSphere metadata engine to boost scalability and performance, support more hardware options, and connect to multiple Amazon S3-based cloud buckets. 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 (flash DIMM) -- promise to keep solid-state storage ahead of the curve, however. We discuss these technologies and more as we explore the current and future states of flash storage performance.

DevOps allows developers to rapidly create, develop, amend and deploy applications using Agile methodologies. DevOps resources, including storage, are consumed differently, though, taking more of a cloud-like approach.

Security and compliance concerns are big obstacles to public cloud storage adoption. Reliability, data movement and poor application performance, frequently from irregular spikes in network latency, are other important caveats. We provide tips on how to overcome these and other issues.

 Continue Reading

A cure for secondary data storage services blues

Effective user-centric data storage management eases copy data management and object storage uptake while enabling secondary storage services to evolve. 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

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

SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now

 Continue Reading

A cure for secondary data storage services blues

 Continue Reading

Classification of data can solve your data storage problems

 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

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

The data storage industry will turn upside down in 2017, or will it?

Rich Castagna reviews the prognostications offered by data storage vendors on the future of data storage technology in 2017. Continue Reading

Announcing the best data storage products of 2016!

This year marks the 15^th edition of the Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com Products of the Year awards, recognizing the best storage products of the past year. Nominated products competed across six categories, with the top in each category receiving bronze, silver or gold. Judges graded finalists on innovation, performance, manageability, ease of integration and use, functionality and value.

Modern storage arrays may offer previously unheard of max capacities, but that doesn't mean you won't have problems meeting today's ever-increasing storage capacity and performance requirements. We explore how to squeeze more bits and bytes out of storage systems without negatively affecting storage network performance through best practices for evaluation and configuration as well as tools to help with monitoring and management.

 Continue Reading

The data storage industry will turn upside down in 2017, or will it?

 Continue Reading

Best data storage products 2016: Products of the Year

Learn more about the best data storage products for 2016 in backup/DR software, backup hardware, storage and SAN management, server-based storage, and all-flash and disk/hybrid. Continue Reading

Panzura controller, OS updates extend cloud options

The new Panzura controller has a bigger cache and an improved operating system with enterprise features. Hybrid Cloud Controller model also offers new enterprise support options. Continue Reading

Enterprise flash storage to speed up in 2017

CTOs at leading storage vendors predict speed and latency breakthroughs with new NVMe-based enterprise flash and upcoming memory technologies in 2017 and beyond. Continue Reading

Cloud storage for enterprise use should spike in 2017

Storage CTOs predict enterprise cloud adoption will increase in 2017, with a boost from new development and management technologies to assist with planning and deployment. Continue Reading

Enterprise storage market poised for more disruption in 2017

CTOs share enterprise storage predictions for 2017. Cloud, server-based storage, HCI, and growing use of containers and analytics will spur further disruption. 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

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 these changes will tell us a lot about the short- and long-term future of data center storage. Find out what to watch out for with each of these data storage vendors as the year unfolds.

On-demand object, block and file storage as a service from the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure is a standard part of today’s IT toolkit. Cloud storage isn’t the exclusive domain of the public cloud, however. You can gain the same convenience, flexibility and agility by building your own internal storage cloud. We present the resources enterprises can use to construct one of these, and how to integrate it with existing storage and computing resources as well as public cloud storage.

 Continue Reading

Storage and SAN management tools: 2016 Products of the Year finalists

The six finalists in the 2016 Products of the Year storage and SAN management tools category run the gamut from network probes to complete SAN control software. Continue Reading

Server-based storage: 2016 Products of the Year finalists emerge

2016 Products of the Year finalists revealed for category encompassing hyper-converged appliances and software-defined storage that runs on commodity server hardware. Continue Reading

Data storage systems: 2016 Products of the Year finalists

We've culled through the entries for this year's Products of the Year competition and narrowed the field to these 54 finalists in six data storage systems categories. Continue Reading

Making a storage capacity plan that doesn't bust your budget

Storage capacity is growing at a rapid rate and by using the latest innovations in storage technologies it is possible to meet demands without growing your storage budget apace. Continue Reading

Five data migration approaches for cloud archiving

Administrators can take several approaches to migrating data to a cloud archive, from manual migration to using cloud-integrated storage. Continue Reading