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,…
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 my last three columns I have analyzed the Leader, Visionary, and Challenger sections of the Gartner Magic Quadrant. In this column we will take a look at the most confusing part of the Gartner chart, the Niche section. Section…
The next generation data center requires a fundamental change in the way we implement and manage storage. IT professionals who are trying to implement these various changes have two basic options: Clean Slate or Augment. The problem is that both…
Short of buying a new storage system with storage efficiency (deduplication and compression) built in, it is difficult to add the technology to an existing storage array. Today there are two ways to accomplish this. First, you can wait for…
In our prior article, we discussed how enterprise data centers have a need for software defined object storage technology that can leverage commodity hardware to drive down data center costs and to enable businesses to refresh their storage infrastructure with…
Various industry sources estimate that unstructured data (user files, PDFs, email, rich multimedia, machine sensor data, etc.) accounts for upwards of 90% of all new data growth. Software-defined object storage offers an alternative approach to NAS/SAN systems. But many organizations…
Despite the hype and the promises, most data centers are still “hardware defined”. Are we getting closer to the software defined data center through the use of software defined storage technologies? Or is traditional shared storage that tightly integrates hardware…
Nexenta is a software-only, software-defined storage (SDS) solution that enables users to create storage systems with the x86-based hardware of their choice and disk or flash-based arrays, with support recently added for all-flash arrays. Based on the ZFS file system,…
Most IT professionals go to a trade show to learn, after all, knowledge is the stock in trade for our industry. But what about the professionals in the storage eco-system, the individuals that actually create the solutions that IT professionals…
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