As Hadoop scales and the data center begins to count on it, the extra expense required to maintain DAS performance, reliability and scalability often end up being more expensive than the shared storage alternative. In this article we discuss how the multi-faceted capabilities of a scale-out, distributed storage software end up being less expensive than DAS.
When combined with compression and thin provisioning, deduplication makes a backup disk a cost effective strategy and now makes considering a primary storage tier consisting only of flash reasonable. In our on demand webinar Permabit CEO, Tom Cook and I…
An ongoing concern about flash storage is its endurance. In other words, IT professionals are concerned that these systems will wear out due to heavy write activity prior to being fully amortized. All-flash arrays may be an exception. These systems…
At Storage Switzerland we write a lot about storage consolidation. While consolidation can simplify management the initial requirement of refreshing and potentially replacing legacy storage is a show stopper for many data centers. SDS provides a viable alternative if it can be used on existing storage assets so that the management and operation of those devices can be consolidated. In this article we discuss how SDS can provide simplification while being more cost-effective.
Software Defined Storage (SDS) can bring value to almost every data center that has multiple storage systems to manage and that are rapidly expanding. Once those value points are understood and verified, deciding which of the available SDS implementation types is right for your data center is the next step. In this article we provide guidance on how to determine if SDS is right for you, what type of SDS is right for you and when you should make your SDS move.
Since the introduction of flash, two primary methods for addressing application performance have emerged. First, the Hybrid Array that, using algorithms based on a dataset’s frequency of access, caches active data. The challenge with any algorithm that predicts future access…
In this era of the agile data center, the thought of consolidating to a single storage system may seem impossible. But the very technologies, flash and high capacity disk, that lead to storage sprawl can also eliminate it. In this article we discuss how the next generation of storage systems will need to combine flash and disk with software intelligence. This software will need to do more than just automatically move data between these tiers, it will need allow the administrator to set the quality of service policies that will guarantee critical applications consistent performance.
Coho Data Announces All-Flash Nodes All-Flash Array’s (AFA) are a performance sledgehammer for IT Planners looking to address performance issues in their environments. These systems allow data centers to respond faster to the needs of the business and they allow…
As we enter the halfway point of 2015, data reduction (deduplication, compression, thin provisioning) has emerged as the key technology driving flash adoption. Data reduction makes flash affordable and is a requirement for ODMs, OEMs and systems companies entering the…
iXsystems has been a part of the FreeBSD community for years. It developed FreeNAS, one of the most popular open source Network Attached Storage (NAS) software solutions on the market. While FreeNAS can hold its own, feature wise, with almost…
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