In a recent briefing note we discussed the need for backing up cloud-based productivity applications, also called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), such as GoogleDocs, Office365 or SalesForce.com. People often assume that because these services are storing their data in the cloud, that…
It’s been said that, given the choice, every data center would choose to be all-flash. This is because access to near limitless performance not only increases application scale it also simplifies many day-to-day storage management tasks. This potential has led…
As I discussed in an earlier column “Not All Snapshots are the Same”, storage systems that use a re-directed snapshot technique can typically maintain thousands of snapshots without impacting storage performance. But just because you can maintain thousands of snapshots,…
Using consumer-grade flash drives in datacenter environments is a common practice for saving money. So it wasn’t a big surprise that two-thirds of attendees on a recent StorageSwiss webinar reported that they currently use both enterprise and consumer SSDs in…
Backup appliances have become a popular method for backup software vendors to deliver their software. It eliminates much of the hassle of initial installation and makes on-going support easier, since the vendor is now dealing with a more common foundation.…
In our last few columns, Storage Switzerland has described a data protection solution that allows primary storage to leverage snapshot technology to protect itself. The basic design requires two storage systems, one on-premise and one at a disaster recovery location.…
In an upcoming webinar, Storage Switzerland will make the case for using snapshots as a primary component of data protection. For this strategy to work several things are needed from the storage infrastructure. First, it must be able to keep…
Originally the term “cloud backup” referred to primarily consumer-grade services that backed up PCs and laptops to a cloud-based provider. These services were designed to protect users’ data, mostly digital content like photos and music, but also documents. But business…
File data, also known as unstructured data, is one of the biggest challenges facing IT. Users want seamless access to this data no matter where they are or how old the data is. IT needs to manage the growth of…
In my last column I discussed how cloud usage is approaching the ‘tipping point’, where companies will have to use the cloud in order to meet their expected infrastructure demands. Coupled with the price wars that are going on between…
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