Manage

Manage

Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

• Peering into the future of enterprise storage for 2018

  Rich Castagna takes a crack at the annual rite of prognostication with a bold look -- unfettered by truth, reality and sanity -- at data storage trends in the coming year. Continue Reading

• Data storage considerations for a DevOps environment

  Having good storage can make all the difference when it comes to DevOps. As more organizations get on the DevOps bandwagon, see how storage has changed to match. Continue Reading

• Features disaster recovery-as-a-service providers must offer

  A cost-effective disaster recovery as a service lets organizations of all sizes implement a dependable disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery-as-a-service providers replicate or back up customer data to cloud data centers and then -- should ... Continue Reading

• Explosion in unstructured data storage drives modernization

  Increasing amounts of unstructured data are a key part of modern secondary storage environments with their distributed file systems and a scale-out object storage design. Continue Reading

• Navigating cloud-based data storage requires some caution

  Cloud services are economical and easy to use -- if you know the ropes. Approach cloud computing issues with caution; you just might run into familiar on-premises storage problems. Continue Reading

• Dell EMC acquisition: The deal of the century a year later

  A year has passed since the Dell EMC acquisition, the biggest transaction in the history of IT. With the benefit of hindsight, we examine the positives, negatives and uncertainties of the deal. Did Dell buy the world's biggest storage vendor, or did...Continue Reading

• How can I guarantee the best Ceph performance?

  Ceph object storage performance is largely based on network speed, but journal disks and the right file system for object storage devices also play a role.Continue Reading

• Can I replace HDDs with SSDs to support in-memory storage?

  Replacing all your HDDs with SSDs won't solve the storage issues associated with in-memory databases. Look to hyper-convergence and NVDIMMs instead.Continue Reading

• Back-end storage considerations for in-memory processing

  Storing hot data in main memory removes the latency associated with hard disk and solid-state storage operations; it's the best option for need-it-now data.Continue Reading

• Your enterprise data management strategy needs a superhero

  Data management products are the Superman, not the Batman, of storage. They have built-in superpowers that provide the innate power needed to manage data.Continue Reading

• Persistent storage readied for containerized applications

  Traditional application architectures are limited in their ability to scale and meet the demands of today's fast-growing data, cloud and IT environments. Containerization -- with its support for Agile design, development and deployment methodologies...Continue Reading

• The power and benefits of encouraging IT disruption

  IT can't remain a reactive cost center and cheerful help desk, but must become a competitive, cutthroat service provider and powerful champion of emerging disruptive technology.Continue Reading

• How to determine the true cost of flash

  If you want to add flash storage, it's important to consider the cost per IOPS and gigabyte compared to HDD volumes, as well as the difference between consumer and enterprise SSDs.Continue Reading

• Private cloud implementation guide

  Wondering how to pull off a private cloud deployment? Plan ahead, design for the future and make sure you have built up the right knowledge base.Continue Reading

• Should I be concerned about SSD lifespan?

  HDD and RAID vendors have stirred up FUD around the lifespan of SSD drive cells, but companies considering solid-state don't have to worry about arrays wearing out.Continue Reading

• Disaggregation enables on-demand resource pool management and creation

  Disaggregation may not be a new concept, but it has become more important to IT in recent years. Here, it means breaking computers down to the core elements of compute, memory, I/O, storage, cache, network fabric and so on, to enable resource pool ...Continue Reading

• Everything you need to know about OpenStack modules

  OpenStack continues to evolve in an effort to compete with AWS. The modules that are available now make OpenStack a viable enterprise option.Continue Reading

• Making the case for an all-flash data center

  Companies should ditch hard disk drives and outfit their data centers entirely with flash storage; vendors have solved old solid-state problems, such as wear time and cost.Continue Reading

• Object storage use cases coming to a data service near you

  Object storage, unlike traditional file and block storage, is well-suited to manage vast amounts of unstructured data.Continue Reading

• ECX 2.6 includes intelligent data management

  Catalogic Software's approach to snapshot creation and management delivers pragmatic features to DevOps and more with the release of ECX 2.6.Continue Reading

• How is private cloud support divided between IT and providers?

  When companies choose a private cloud storage provider, it's important that they understand what the internal IT department is responsible for, as opposed to what the provider will support.Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of private cloud over popular alternatives?

  Don't overlook the advantages of private cloud when choosing a cloud storage implementation. Security, cost and ease of transition make it a viable option.Continue Reading

• What to expect in OpenStack releases Pike and Queens

  OpenStack Pike, Queens and Rocky will include much-needed features and updates that will simplify user interfaces and improve the function of existing APIs.Continue Reading

• DevOps doesn't need stateful containers with storage, but apps do

  DevOps is giving up its hold on the container world, as persistent storage makes the stateless environment work for end-user applications, not just developers.Continue Reading

• Container ecosystem needs to expand its persistence of vision

  Persistent storage for containers will become a necessity as the stateless computing method becomes less about just DevOps and more about end-user applications.Continue Reading

• Solving enterprise-class storage challenges in the age of convergence

  In this age of data center convergence, with technology evolving faster than ever, planning how to transition from traditional yet rigid environments to more agile software-defined ones is among the trickiest challenges facing IT shops today. ...Continue Reading

• Three approaches to strategic data management: Good, better and best

  It's time organizations take a more mature and sophisticated approach to data management techniques and make the most of the data they generate and consume.Continue Reading

• New use cases for flash data storage benefit enterprises

  Adoption of protocols such as NVMe and memory bus-based flash DIMMs helps flash storage devices keep pace with the most demanding use cases.Continue Reading

• Four private cloud design pointers to ensure success

  To design a successful private cloud, lay the groundwork: Plan beyond the five-year mark, determine who will manage images and make it highly available.Continue Reading

• Why the NAND flash shortage exists and what to do about it

  The current NAND flash market product shortage means SSD prices won't dip below hard disk drives any time soon. Make sure to ask your vendors about their supply situations.Continue Reading

• Planning is paramount for a private cloud environment

  Almost any organization of any size can enjoy the flexibility and cost savings that often accompany a private cloud implementation. It's not just for startups.Continue Reading

• Helpful steps toward an easy private cloud implementation

  There are many aspects of an overall private cloud infrastructure that affect your organization's cloud storage plans, and knowing what to look for is vital.Continue Reading

• Building an IT resiliency plan into an always-on world

  A multipronged approach is the best protection against unaffordable and unacceptable downtime in today's 24/7 business cycle.Continue Reading

• Tier 0 storage moves to NVMe to meet demand for speed

  Tier 0 has been fast and proprietary, but nonvolatile memory express is changing that second part as a standard programming interface for PCIe SSDs.Continue Reading

• The status of NAND flash memory now and in the near future

  Flash memory chips have driven a revolution in storage, and faced a recent shortage because of huge demand. That's easing, and advances in NAND technology show a great future.Continue Reading

• 2017 IT spending trends for data storage

  For the 15^th year, Storage magazine has surveyed storage pros to learn about their IT spending trends for the coming months. As you'd expect, the cloud continues to pick up steam for both primary and secondary projects, while ...Continue Reading

• Essential elements of copy data management

  The next chapter written in the book of computer science should be all about management of copy data, the core function of IT.Continue Reading

• The state of flash storage performance

  All-flash arrays have virtually eliminated flash storage performance issues, for now. But applications and user expectations will eventually catch up. Innovations in flash technology -- such as nonvolatile memory express and storage-class memory (...Continue Reading

• A cure for secondary data storage services blues

  Effective user-centric data storage management eases copy data management and object storage uptake while enabling secondary storage services to evolve.Continue Reading

• Overcome problems with public cloud storage providers

  Security and compliance concerns are chief obstacles to public cloud storage adoption, as IT managers are hesitant to have their critical data reside outside the data center.Continue Reading

• Storage plays catch-up with DevOps environment

  To deliver an Agile or DevOps environment, the way in which resources, including storage, are consumed and deployed changes to a more cloud-focused approach.Continue Reading

• The state of flash storage systems

  Making flash storage performance even faster has little to do with the media itself and more to do with the storage infrastructure that surrounds it.Continue Reading

• Classification of data can solve your data storage problems

  Having a data classification process in place can make your data smart enough to know what to do with itself, allowing you to attain the holy grail of enterprise data storage.Continue Reading

• AFA storage advances may mean the end of the hybrid market

  Flash price drops and speed boosts make the all-flash array the smart choice over hybrid storage arrays for most enterprise users, not just those with high-performance computing needs.Continue Reading

• Announcing the best data storage products of 2016!

  This year marks the 15^th edition of the Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com Products of the Year awards, recognizing the best storage products of the past year. Nominated products competed across six categories, with the top in ...Continue Reading

• The data storage capacity growth survival guide

  You can keep your storage investments in place, allow for capacity increases, and solve performance and application problems, while gathering data to plan for new growth.Continue Reading

• How to navigate the public cloud service provider selection process

  Learn how to determine if your organization could benefit from public cloud storage and how to select the public cloud provider that will best meet your needs.Continue Reading

• Showback the value of your data storage expertise

  To demonstrate value, IT must provide an easy-to-understand cost model to its business leaders. This has fostered IT showback projects. Yet showback isn't easy to achieve.Continue Reading

• Start your hybrid cloud implementation off on the right foot

  Hybrid cloud storage has garnered a lot of interest because it offers cost savings and scalability. But there are some key concerns to think about before you dive in.Continue Reading

• How eMMC 5.0 can improve your organization's small storage needs

  The latest eMMC specification puts the tiny flash storage devices on a level playing field with many SSDs when it comes to speed -- but eMMC is still the smallest flash drive.Continue Reading

• Making a storage capacity plan that doesn't bust your budget

  Storage capacity is growing at a rapid rate and by using the latest innovations in storage technologies it is possible to meet demands without growing your storage budget apace.Continue Reading

• Smart storage systems smart for business

  Mike Matchett explains how data-aware storage combined with application awareness is leading to a new wave of intelligent data storage.Continue Reading

• Why the standalone EFSS market isn't going away just yet

  Enterprise file sync-and-share allows for simpler file access and sharing on the consumer and business level. Success stories like Box may indicate that EFSS is sticking around.Continue Reading

• Hadoop Distributed File System helps tackle big data

  Hadoop Distributed File System storage systems are being enlisted to tackle big data thanks to vendors like EMC, Hitachi, IBM and NetApp, and Apache.Continue Reading

• How can you increase SSD lifespan and keep performance?

  Solid-state drives offer high performance, but their cost remains prohibitive. Here are some ways to prolong your SSD lifecycle while maintaining performance.Continue Reading

• Five types of storage virtualization: Pros and cons

  Expert Brien Posey discusses five ways to virtualize storage in an organization. Review the pros and cons of each approach to find the best fit for your data center.Continue Reading

• Base enterprise hybrid cloud evaluation on security, cost

  Explosive data growth has organizations looking at hybrid cloud storage to meet their capacity needs. But cloud costs and security issues need to be addressed.Continue Reading

• Will most 3D NAND flash products continue to feature TLC?

  Vendors are using TLC flash in their 3D NAND flash products, which allows for greater capacity at a lower cost, according to Brien Posey.Continue Reading

• Server-side caching has new data center role

  Some server-side caching products have evolved into complete software-defined storage platforms that can aggregate flash across multiple servers.Continue Reading

• Top object storage vendor use cases for IT

  Today's object storage vendors provide products that are often the best option for archiving, backup and data lake architectures.Continue Reading

• Big data analytics applications impact storage systems

  Analytics applications for big data have placed extensive demands on storage systems, which Mike Matchett says often requires new or modified storage structures.Continue Reading

• Climb aboard enterprise sync-and-share technology

  Lately, file sync-and-share products are seeing rapid adoption. With more employees taking it upon themselves to use consumer-grade options to collaborate and access data remotely, enterprises are realizing the value that business-class offerings ...Continue Reading

• EMC World 2015: Expect backup, flash, future directions

  EMC will roll out products in its Data Domain, XtremIO and ViPR platforms at EMC World 2015, but what about a CEO succession plan?Continue Reading

• What are protocol endpoints in vSphere VVOLs and how do they work?

  VMware's new VVOLs feature allows storage functionality to be distributed on a per-VM basis. Protocol endpoints are integral to proper allocation.Continue Reading

• Five ways VDI technology is affected by storage

  Managing storage for your VDI infrastructure has progressed, but there are still some snags. Here are five ways to avoid VDI environment issues.Continue Reading

• Four tips to maximize the lifespan of your flash memory storage

  The lifespan of flash memory storage is not the hot-button issue it once was, but you should perform these tasks to prolong the life of your drives.Continue Reading

• How does RDMA work and why is it advantageous with flash?

  Remote Direct Memory Access is a good way to reduce latency in flash environments and works with InfiniBand and some Ethernet connections.Continue Reading

• What you should know about using flash to complement DRAM

  George Crump discusses emerging technology that enables using flash as memory, why it matters and its applicable use cases.Continue Reading

• How do hardware profiles work in Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager?

  The Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager allows the creation of hardware profiles, which help to provision virtual storage. Brien Posey explains how to use the tool.Continue Reading

• What are the most obvious object storage use cases for my system?

  Object storage is latency-prone, making it a bad option for production data, but there are several areas where it's incredibly useful.Continue Reading

• Archiving methods: Smart meta tags, archive in place and FLAPE

  Jon Toigo outlines several archiving techniques, the technologies that make them run smoothly, and explains why data classification is crucial.Continue Reading

• The case for cloud storage: Cloud considerations and strategies

  Before deploying your cloud storage project, learn about cloud storage use cases, how to do a cloud cost analysis and keeping data safe in the cloud.Continue Reading

• Redundant cloud storage ensures high availability

  Redundant cloud storage gateways and redundant WAN links help companies avoid protection gaps that could result in outages or data loss.Continue Reading

• Keys to a painless data migration process

  Moving data from array to array has always been a difficult process, but new techs and techniques make your data migration process easier than ever.Continue Reading

• How do VMware thin provisioning alerts work?

  VSphere allows users to set up custom alarms to alert them when capacity or memory is low. Learn how they can be especially helpful when using thin provisioning.Continue Reading

• Are there any downsides to using VMware thin provisioning?

  Storage should be monitored carefully when using VMware's thin provisioning feature to avoid slower performance and potentially maxing out capacity.Continue Reading

• Switching cloud storage service providers comes at a cost

  Analyst George Crump explains the best way to deal with the upfront costs and security issues that come with switching cloud storage providers.Continue Reading

• Three considerations to ensure data storage efficiency

  Vendors often claim their products cut out storage inefficiency, but administrators can make a difference as well with some planning.Continue Reading

• Six things that can wreck storage system performance

  Performance bottlenecks can occur in different places in a storage system. Here's how to identify and eliminate them.Continue Reading

• Working with OpenStack storage: Tips on Cinder, Swift and the cloud

  This guide explores the block, object and cloud storage offerings from OpenStack, one of the most sought-after open source storage platforms.Continue Reading

• Examining the future of the RAID volume

  Expert Jon Toigo provides a set of tips to answer key questions regarding RAID's place in today's storage world, and whether it will be replaced.Continue Reading

• How does a scale-out NAS environment affect storage management?

  Phil Goodwin explains how scale-out NAS systems simplify storage management through a single point of control and by combating performance problems.Continue Reading

• Are SSDs necessary to perform analytics on big data efficiently?

  Storage expert Phil Goodwin explains how SSDs can speed up analytics, but solid-state technology is only needed in certain types of environments.Continue Reading

• Three key strategies to prevent RAID failure

  In this tip, analyst Jon Toigo shares several ways storage admins can proactively prevent the failure of RAID arrays.Continue Reading

• What is the top storage challenge with in-memory databases?

  Wikibon CTO David Floyer said the greatest challenge with an in-memory database from a storage perspective is recovery in the event of a problem.Continue Reading

• Cloud storage investment tips

  Continue Reading

• Choosing storage for streaming large files in big data sets

  Learn how to select storage that can both scale and perform to effectively stream large files in big data environments.Continue Reading

• Comparing performance and cost of DRAM vs. NAND

  George Crump of Storage Switzerland compares the performance and cost of DRAM to NAND flash in this Expert Answer.Continue Reading

• How NAND flash degrades and what vendors do to increase SSD endurance

  Storage Switzerland senior analyst Eric Slack digs into the technical aspects of SSD cell degradation and how vendors are increasing SSD endurance.Continue Reading

• External storage might make sense for Hadoop

  Using Hadoop to drive big data analytics doesn't necessarily mean building clusters of distributed storage; a good old array might be a better choice.Continue Reading

• Building a better archival storage strategy

  This guide walks through important tips and considerations regarding storage archive design strategies and technologies.Continue Reading

• How to create a successful data archiving strategy

  A good archiving process provides the automation needed to deliver the necessary application granularity while minimizing the impact to IT operations.Continue Reading

• Data storage systems: 2013 Storage Products of the Year finalists

  These 52 data storage systems products are finalists for the Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com 2013 Products of the Year awards.Continue Reading

• Alternatives to RESTful API for accessing object storage

  This tip examines other options for connecting to object storage when an application isn't compatible with the RESTful API.Continue Reading

• Is there a difference between traditional tiering and sub-LUN tiering?

  Sub-LUN tiering can help with performance in some environments, but according to analyst Jon Toigo, it can also get complicated with growing capacity.Continue Reading

• Five questions to ask when choosing a data archiving technology

  Many factors need to be considered when determining what the right archiving platform is for you. Jon Toigo highlights the most important in this tip.Continue Reading

• Big data storage challenges associated with rich media files

  Scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) is the primary technology to handle big data needs in the media and entertainment (M&E) space. Using scale-out NAS for rich media files can provide crucial advantages such as scalability, data protection and ...Continue Reading

• Big data storage and analytics

  There are two basic types of big data analytics—synchronous and asynchronous—but both have big data storage appetites and specialized needs.Continue Reading

• Hyper-V storage best practices to optimize your virtual environment

  Microsoft expert Brien Posey walks through the best storage tips and features to make the most out of a Hyper-V environment.Continue Reading

• Networking server-based storage

  Direct-attached or server-based storage is gaining renewed attention as emerging techs offer ways to pool and share this scalable storage resource.Continue Reading