Software Defined Storage promises adventurous IT professionals increased flexibility and potentially easier management of storage resources. And in many cases SDS delivers on that promise. But what about the legacy storage hardware and software already in the data center? Do…
This week Storage Switzerland attended SimpliVity’s first analyst and influencer day. The event provided the company with a chance to impress the press and analysts on the capabilities of the product, gave a glimpse into upcoming capabilities, and provided a…
Those considering the purchase of a storage system that advertises deduplication as a feature need to know what real inline dedupe is, because it matters quite a bit. According to the online SNIA dictionary, there are two types of deduplication:…
Last month I attended Storage Field Day 9, which included a two-hour presentation at NetApp headquarters. My summary statement of what I learned from the briefing is that NetApp is pivoting. By that I mean that they seem to have…
There are generally three ways we create snapshots in this world: copy-on-write, redirect-on-write, and VMware’s way. As a result, you should delete VMware snapshots as soon as possible – preferably within a few minutes of their creation. A previous post…
There are two very different ways to create snapshots: copy-on-write and redirect-on-write. If IT is considering using the snapshot functionality of their storage system, it is essential to understand which type of snapshot it creates and the pros and cons…
Most IT professionals are fully aware that if they have a storage performance problem that a flash based storage system is the answer for them. Flash, to some extent, makes performance a commodity. Almost any flash system can deliver more…
Hyperconvergence is capturing the attention of IT professionals. The apparent simplicity of the technology is certainly appealing to an IT staff that is often stretched too thin to properly manage the environment. As a result the IT staff is often…
The longer you keep data, the more it makes sense to move it off of primary storage and into a different kind of system. It makes financial sense, as discussed in the previous blog entry. It also makes sense for…
For most data centers, periodic storage refreshes are a way of life. Many times, the storage vendor causes the refresh by pricing out-year maintenance renewals to the point that it is more cost effective to buy a new system than…
