Enterprise storage, planning and management

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

By

• Jeff Byrne, Taneja Group

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

By

• James Alan Miller, Senior Executive Editor

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

By

• Rich Castagna

SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now

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A cure for secondary data storage services blues

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Classification of data can solve your data storage problems

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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

By

• Logan G. Harbaugh, Independent consultant

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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Rich Castagna

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.

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

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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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Scott Sinclair, Practice Director

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.

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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

By

• Rodney Brown, TechTarget

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

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Jim O'Reilly

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

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Smart storage systems smart for business

Mike Matchett explains how data-aware storage combined with application awareness is leading to a new wave of intelligent data storage. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Hedvig storage update offers multicloud capabilities

Hedvig outlined its vision for a Universal Data Plane spanning public and private clouds, as it announced an updated version of its software-defined storage. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• George Crump

Servers and storage become inextricably linked

The rise of flash storage and convergence technologies makes it tougher to see storage and servers as separate entities in a software-defined world. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

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 examine flash technology form factors, interfaces, protocols and capacities, as well as use cases, advantages and limitations.

Disk-based backups revolutionized data protection. While far more expensive to deploy and maintain than tape, a growing list of vendors are consolidating backup with other secondary storage requirements into appliances that make disk-based backup more cost-effective.

Although tape may no longer be the storage medium of choice for backup and disaster recovery, it still has a solid place in enterprises as an archive tier and as a transportation and sharing format for certain industries. In this issue of Storage magazine, we explore the state of the art of tape and its potential use cases today.

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Servers and storage become inextricably linked

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New Dell SC Series operating system adds dedupe, QoS

Dell launches an operating system update for its SC Series storage arrays, featuring dedupe, QoS, Live Migrate, VVOLs support and new management capabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Get the most from cloud-based storage services

Enterprise data storage managers are in position to help their companies get more from cloud storage services. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Hadoop Distributed File System helps tackle big data

Hadoop Distributed File System storage systems are being enlisted to tackle big data thanks to vendors like EMC, Hitachi, IBM and NetApp, and Apache. Continue Reading

By

• John Webster, Evaluator Group

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

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

Storage pros see high demand in 2016 salary survey

Storage magazine has tracked storage salaries for 13 years, polling readers to gather data about pay, benefits and other influences on job satisfaction. Our 2016 salary survey shows demand for storage savvy IT pros is still high as reflected by the overall average salary of nearly $98,000. We look at how geography, education, experience and other factors affect storage salaries in our 2016 salary survey.

When virtual servers first appeared in data centers, storage generally wasn't up to the task. Today, most vendors have tuned their wares to better support virtual environments. But you still might have to get under the hood to fix a bottleneck or two. We'll tell you what to look for and how to fix it.

Few companies are ready to give up their on-premises storage resources in favor of cloud storage. Hybrid setups that integrate on-premises with the cloud are the most desirable arrangements and vendors are beginning to sit up and take notice.

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Vendors, analysts guess future of data storage in 2016

After Rich Castagna offered his look at the future of data storage in 2016, vendors and analysts shared their guesses on what will happen this year. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Data Dynamics Inc. StorageX 7.6

Judges found the 2015 upgrade to Data Dynamics Inc. StorageX file management software brought significant improvements including extended integration and added features. Continue Reading

By

• Sarah Wilson, Associate Site Editor

Companies use caution with cloud file sync and share

Though nearly half of companies are using cloud file sync-and-share services, those who aren't using it have taken a wait-and-see approach. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Purchasing an enterprise SAN: Top-tier products compared

Expert Jacob Gsoedl drills into eight top-tier enterprise SAN products and how each one performs in seven technical areas. Detailed charts make the information easy to digest. Continue Reading

By

• Jacob Gsoedl

Evaluating IoT data storage in the cloud

Organizations increasingly need to store data generated from the Internet of Things, which means deciding between cloud and on-premises IoT data storage is more important than ever. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

Big data analytics applications impact storage systems

Analytics applications for big data have placed extensive demands on storage systems, which Mike Matchett says often requires new or modified storage structures. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Cost savings for virtualizing servers not yet reality

Though you've heard for years that virtualizing servers will save money, Jon Toigo argues that the cost of virtualization hasn't lowered. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Formation Data Systems tries out storage virtualization

Formation Data Systems CEO Mark Lewis offers a sneak peek of new data and storage virtualization software to move to the "cloud storage generation." Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Commodity hardware is a myth

Software-defined storage vendors preach the concept of commodity storage hardware, but beware: the hardware is just as important as the apps. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

VMware prepares VSAN 6.1, promises dedupe next

VMware launches VSAN 6.1 and prepares beta for the next version of the hyper-converged software, which will finally deliver data deduplication. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

What is eventual consistency in object stores?

Eventual consistency in object stores can be an issue because object storage is spread over many nodes and up-to-date data may not always be available. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Performance counts when buying a solid-state storage device

More than half of our surveyed companies are using flash now, with plans to use it for more than just mission-critical apps. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Nexenta Systems CEO discusses upcoming product launches

Nexenta Systems CEO says NexentaEdge object storage demo will happen at upcoming OpenStack Summit, NexentaFusion management beta launch will follow Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

HDS storage strategy centers on Internet of Things

The Hitachi Data Systems strategy runs along two tracks -- software-defined storage and social innovation. How will HDS storage connect the dots and align with the Internet of Things? Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

orthogonal

Orthogonal concepts have their roots in advanced mathematics. They are also associated with software development, storage and networking. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Vendors predict the future of data storage 2015

The future of data storage isn’t easy to predict. While some vendors see it clearly, others prove that, going into 2015, their crystal balls may be a little hazy. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Best data storage products 2014: Products of the Year

A panel of users, analysts, consultants and Storage magazine and SearchStorage editors voted these 19 products the best of 2014. Continue Reading

How do hardware profiles work in Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager?

The Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager allows the creation of hardware profiles, which help to provision virtual storage. Brien Posey explains how to use the tool. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

How is big data changing data archiving strategies?

Analyst Jon Toigo explains why performing analytics on big data sets means that data is no longer considered cold, reducing the importance of archives. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

What are the most obvious object storage use cases for my system?

Object storage is latency-prone, making it a bad option for production data, but there are several areas where it's incredibly useful. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

SAN storage systems purchases driven by capacity, performance

Anticipated year-over-year capacity growth of 24% and the need to boost the performance of existing applications is driving new SAN storage systems. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

The need for application-aware storage

Server virtualization leads to unpredictable workloads. Application-aware storage could be the answer. Continue Reading

By

• Terri McClure

How do I increase cache memory?

Increasing cache memory in your environment might help allocate CPU processes, but it doesn't necessarily result in better performance. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

What is the relationship between cache technology, CPU and RAM?

As flash memory caching is on its way in because of its cost and non-volatile nature, RAM may be on its way out the door, says analyst Jon Toigo. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

What is the difference between a storage snapshot and a clone?

Cloning and snapshotting can both be good approaches to disaster recovery. Learn what environments are best suited to each. Continue Reading

By

• Greg Schulz, The Server and StorageIO Group

Keys to a painless data migration process

Moving data from array to array has always been a difficult process, but new techs and techniques make your data migration process easier than ever. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

What is object storage technology (and why should you care)?

Object technology offers scalability, economical operation and better data management; but it's very different from file and block storage systems. Continue Reading

By

• Phil Goodwin, IDC

Deconstructing the storage algorithm

Jon Toigo examines the four steps of the storage algorithm, and concludes that the current storage equation just doesn't add up. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Three considerations to ensure data storage efficiency

Vendors often claim their products cut out storage inefficiency, but administrators can make a difference as well with some planning. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Effective storage service management rests on well-allocated features

Jon Toigo explains how proper management of value-added storage features can make a data center more efficient. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Flash storage: Guide to all-flash storage arrays

TechTarget's all-flash storage array guide navigates the hotly contested market with a comparison chart and snapshot profiles of 15 products. Continue Reading

Six things that can wreck storage system performance

Performance bottlenecks can occur in different places in a storage system. Here's how to identify and eliminate them. Continue Reading

By

• Ashar Baig

Violin 6000 arrays feature proprietary flash modules, memory fabric

Violin 6000 Series all-flash storage arrays use proprietary flash modules, memory fabric architecture and RAID to improve performance and latency. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Why isn't Windows Server allowing me to create a storage tier?

Microsoft expert and SearchStorage.com contributor Brien Posey addresses key challenges to creating storage tiers in Windows Server 2012 R2. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Working with OpenStack storage: Tips on Cinder, Swift and the cloud

This guide explores the block, object and cloud storage offerings from OpenStack, one of the most sought-after open source storage platforms. Continue Reading

How does a scale-out NAS environment affect storage management?

Phil Goodwin explains how scale-out NAS systems simplify storage management through a single point of control and by combating performance problems. Continue Reading

By

• Phil Goodwin, IDC

Are SSDs necessary to perform analytics on big data efficiently?

Storage expert Phil Goodwin explains how SSDs can speed up analytics, but solid-state technology is only needed in certain types of environments. Continue Reading

By

• Phil Goodwin, IDC

Three key strategies to prevent RAID failure

In this tip, analyst Jon Toigo shares several ways storage admins can proactively prevent the failure of RAID arrays. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

What is the top storage challenge with in-memory databases?

Wikibon CTO David Floyer said the greatest challenge with an in-memory database from a storage perspective is recovery in the event of a problem. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Choosing storage for streaming large files in big data sets

Learn how to select storage that can both scale and perform to effectively stream large files in big data environments. Continue Reading

External storage might make sense for Hadoop

Using Hadoop to drive big data analytics doesn't necessarily mean building clusters of distributed storage; a good old array might be a better choice. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Building a better archival storage strategy

This guide walks through important tips and considerations regarding storage archive design strategies and technologies. Continue Reading

Figuring out when 16 Gbps Fibre Channel storage networking makes sense

Moving to 16 Gbps FC makes sense for IT shops with new and heavily virtualized servers, solid-state storage and test firm president advises. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Five questions to ask when choosing a data archiving technology

Many factors need to be considered when determining what the right archiving platform is for you. Jon Toigo highlights the most important in this tip. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Big data storage and analytics

There are two basic types of big data analytics—synchronous and asynchronous—but both have big data storage appetites and specialized needs. Continue Reading

By

• Eric Slack, Evaluator Group

Networking server-based storage

Direct-attached or server-based storage is gaining renewed attention as emerging techs offer ways to pool and share this scalable storage resource. Continue Reading

By

• Jacob Gsoedl

Complete guide to Hadoop technology and storage

Learn how Apache Hadoop works, some of its benefits and drawbacks, and what it means for big data and cloud storage. Continue Reading

Modern backup alternatives

With more data to protect, weekly fulls and nightly incrementals may not be enough. It's time to look at alternatives to traditional backup processes. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Erasure coding tradeoffs include additional storage, disk update needs

Erasure coding tradeoffs include requirement for additional data storage, need to update extra disks for redundancy purposes, UC professor cautions. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Erasure coding brings trade-off of resilience vs. performance

IT's decision on using erasure coding in storage rests on data importance, durability more than amount of data, says storage consultant Marc Staimer. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Wikibon CTO: Erasure coding can help reduce data backup costs

Erasure coding can help reduce the data needed for backups and lower the cost of backup and recovery over the traditional approach, Wikibon CTO says. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Big data storage architecture: Categories, strengths and use cases

We explore distributed nodes, scale-out NAS, all-SSD arrays and object storage as choices for a storage architecture for big data. Continue Reading

By

• Phil Goodwin, IDC

Managing data with an object storage system

Use this guide to understand everything you need to know about object storage systems as they gain popularity in big data and cloud environments. Continue Reading

Hadoop clusters: Benefits and challenges for big data analytics

Brien Posey explains how Hadoop clusters can be extremely beneficial to large amounts of unstructured data, but aren't ideal for all environments. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

RAID alternatives: Will erasure codes rule?

Learn why the reliability of RAID technologies could be related to the increased use of erasure coding by both new and established storage vendors. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

Can object storage systems be used with file-based apps?

Learn how to use applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server with object storage systems on the back end. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

10 ways to improve virtual server storage

Virtual server storage operations can have a profound effect on the storage network. Here are 10 ways to help ensure that your storage yields its best I/O for the VMs it supports. Continue Reading

By

• David Davis

Manufacturing NAND flash chips

NAND flash chips are made in fabrication plants known as fabs. Market oversupply or undersupply can cause manufacturers to alter production plans. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

PowerShell tutorial: Managing Windows Storage Spaces

This PowerShell tutorial shows users how to fully interact with Windows Storage Spaces, which will help them script the storage provisioning process. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Streaming large video files in today's big data environments

Solid-state drives are a good choice for streaming large video files. Other factors to consider include cost and how often video will be accessed. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Can shared storage be used with Hadoop architecture?

Storage expert John Webster discusses three ways to use shared storage together with Hadoop architecture in this Ask the Expert answer. Continue Reading

By

• John Webster, Evaluator Group

Data storage companies focus on flash M&A potential

Find out which data storage companies have made significant flash storage purchases and why. Continue Reading

By

• Ellen O'Brien, Executive Editor

Should you believe vendors’ jaw-dropping solid-state performance specs?

The benefits of solid-state storage are clear -- cool running, space-saving and blistering performance. But just how “blistering” is that performance? Data storage vendors toss previously unheard of numbers around, like millions of IOPS, to show the speed of their hybrid and all-solid-state drive arrays … but are they really that fast? We take a look at how the vendors get their numbers, and what numbers are meaningful for your environment.
Storage tiering’s been around for a while, but has recently received a boost from solid-state. We look at who’s doing what with automated tiering and describe some of the tiering specs that will be most important to you.

And for the seventh year, users register their satisfaction (or disappointments) with midrange and enterprise-class network-attached storage (NAS) systems in the latest installment of our Quality Awards for NAS. Continue Reading

interrupt vector

An interrupt vector is the memory location of an interrupt handler, which prioritizes interrupts and saves them in a queue if more than one interrupt is waiting to be handled. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget Contributor

The storage-for-VDI equation: Capacity, IOPS, TCO, ROI and persistency

A virtual desktop project can bring savings and efficiency to IT operations, but storage for VDI is a complex issue, and the wrong choices can hobble the project. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Five data protection guidelines for business continuity

Storage expert Jon Toigo offers data protection guidelines to help storage admins achieve the best possible results when protecting data in their care. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo