Virtualization pushes traditional storage architectures to their performance limits, prompting companies to look at server-dedicated solutions, typically PCIe and SSD flash, to solve their performance problems. The challenge with server dedicated solutions, since they’re limited to the storage devices that…
Most converged infrastructures are designed to help enterprise data centers rapidly roll-out virtual infrastructures. As we discuss in our column “What Are Converged Infrastructures? – Hardware Convergence” many of these converged systems are a pre-integrated optimization of independent hardware solutions.…
Recent research by IDC predicts that IT professionals will be managing 4-5 times more data per person by 2020, but only 5% of that data will be important. So while a lot of data is being created, it’s not all…
Software Defined Storage (SDS) is still in its infancy. While there are exceptions, like Atlantis Computing, Nexenta and DataCore, vendors in the space are for the most part startups looking to get their first hundred or so customers. FalconStor’s new…
Even though memory has always played a role in the storage infrastructure, the introduction of flash based storage has lead to rapid advancements in the evolution of storage. Today flash use has evolved from simply augmenting disk-based primary storage (hybrid…
IT in companies of all sizes is facing competition from the cloud. Based on a self-service, automated provisioning model, public clouds enjoy efficiencies and economics that few corporate data centers can match today. But internal IT has a distinct advantage,…
Most data centers are not 100% virtualized, in fact most hover around a 50% virtualization level. The remaining physical servers are often business critical servers running applications based on Microsoft SQL or Exchange. IT Planners are looking toward “container” technology…
Storage upgrades and consolidation are a way of life for the modern IT professional. One of the most challenging but overlooked aspects of an upgrade is data migration, a process that’s not as simple as copying files and other data…
For many data centers the most appealing part of the public cloud is the automated provisioning. Users or application owners simply define the type and amount of compute and storage they need and the public cloud automatically provisions the exact…
In our recent article “How Traditional Data Centers Should Use The Cloud” we discussed the concept of starting the application development process in the cloud and then migrating that application on-premises when development is complete. This approach saves the startup…
