Primary storage devices

Toshiba ships capacity-optimized 8 TB HDD

Toshiba has started volume shipments of its MG Series 8 TB HDD -- the largest capacity-optimized, 3.5-inch enterprise HDD the company has ever produced. The 7,200 rpm, 6 Gbps SATA HDD improves ... Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Flash, hybrid RealStor added to Seagate storage arrays

Hybrid and all-flash Seagate RealStor arrays are sold to original equipment makers to build branded storage systems. The all-flash pricing is pegged at less than $50,000. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Microsemi upgrades controllers based on HPE technology

Semiconductor maker Microsemi unveils SmartROC 3100 and SmartIOC 2100 SAS and SATA technology gained in the PMC-Sierra acquisition. The chipset is used to build custom server boards. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Qumulo funding set for sales/marketing expansion

Qumulo closed a $30 million funding round today, which the scale-out NAS startup will likely use to hire more former Isilon employees. Qumulo is striving to replace Isilon as the scale-out NAS ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Purchase of NAS arrays driven by need for capacity, desire to expand

As unstructured data continues to lead storage growth, businesses are opting for scale-out NAS arrays to handle current and future capacity. Continue Reading

By

• James Alan Miller, Senior Executive Editor

Red Hat Gluster Storage 3.2 boosts performance, containers

Red Hat's latest Gluster storage update improves performance, deepens container support and introduces space-saving alternative to three-way replication to ensure data integrity. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Purchase of NAS arrays driven by need for capacity, desire to expand

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ZeroStack gives Intelligent Cloud Platform Nimble back-end

ZeroStack's "private cloud in a box" software is now available on Nimble Storage boxes. The vendors this week launched a joint partnership to sell ZeroStack Intelligent Cloud Platform software on ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

New Drobo NAS eyes home business, department workgroups

Low-end NAS specialist Drobo is pushing further down market, launching a performance-oriented hybrid NAS aimed at small businesses and distributed collaboration. The five-bay 5N2 Drobo NAS is a ... Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

HPE acquisition of Nimble gives it another SAN platform

Surprising HPE acquisition snares hybrid flash vendor Nimble Storage for proposed $1.2 billion. HPE picks up Nimble arrays and vaunts InfoSight storage analytics and monitoring. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now

Solid-state flash is the most sought-after technology for primary storage, as storage area networks remain the main focus of increasing capacity for most enterprises. Continue Reading

By

• James Alan Miller, Senior Executive Editor

Data storage infrastructure starts with science-fiction inspiration

Find out what happens when you take a cue from an old science-fiction movie and build an 'interocitor' that becomes its own storage infrastructure. Continue Reading

By

• Jon Toigo

SAN arrays maintain primary data storage dominance, for now

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Nexsan Unity adds compliance archive appliance

Nexsan Unity arrays integrate optional secure compliance archive for petabytes of unstructured data. Data files written to primary storage are immediately copied to the archive. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

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 each category receiving bronze, silver or gold. Judges graded finalists on innovation, performance, manageability, ease of integration and use, functionality and value.

Modern storage arrays may offer previously unheard of max capacities, but that doesn't mean you won't have problems meeting today's ever-increasing storage capacity and performance requirements. We explore how to squeeze more bits and bytes out of storage systems without negatively affecting storage network performance through best practices for evaluation and configuration as well as tools to help with monitoring and management.

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Zadara Storage Cloud

Zadara Storage Cloud provides block, file and object storage-as-a-service either on-premises hardware managed by Zadara, in the cloud, or both. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Avere Systems Cloud-Core NAS (C2N)

Building on its NAS Edge filer technology, Avere rolled out Cloud-Core NAS (C2N) product, which puts file and object storage in one system that spans on-premises and the cloud. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Best data storage products 2016: Products of the Year

Learn more about the best data storage products for 2016 in backup/DR software, backup hardware, storage and SAN management, server-based storage, and all-flash and disk/hybrid. Continue Reading

Future of the Ethernet drive may hinge on NVMe over Ethernet

Despite their debut two years ago, drives that connect via Ethernet have been mostly a curiosity. The Ethernet flavor of NVMe over Fabrics may change that. Continue Reading

By

• Jim O'Reilly

Quantum video storage customers range from police to pot growers

Quantum's scale-out storage business is growing like a weed, with the help of a large weed grower. While Quantum's DXi disk backup library increased the most of all its product lines last quarter, ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Data storage systems: 2016 Products of the Year finalists

We've culled through the entries for this year's Products of the Year competition and narrowed the field to these 54 finalists in six data storage systems categories. Continue Reading

HPE launches new XP7 based on Hitachi technology

Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched its high-end enterprise storage array upgade today at the same time as Hitachi Data Systems. The HPE XP7 and HDS Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) use the same ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Seven tips to improve data storage efficiency

Storage networks, server-side flash, network cache, software-defined storage and all-flash or hybrid arrays help storage performance and efficiency. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

Seagate, WD see exabyte growth with high-capacity enterprise HDDs

Unit shipments of hard disk drives (HDDs) may be on the decline, but the exabytes that Seagate Technology and Western Digital are shipping with their high-capacity enterprise HDDs is spiking. ... Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

RDMA over Fabrics: a big step for SSD access

Shared storage access for servers has been the most basic requirement for storage networks. Performance demands for multiple systems accessing data continually increase due to improvements in ... Continue Reading

By

• Randy Kerns, Evaluator Group

Storage Spaces Direct builds on Windows Storage Spaces

With the new Direct feature, Windows Storage Spaces can use local storage for failover clusters. It also supports JBOD storage. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Servers and storage become inextricably linked

The rise of flash storage and convergence technologies makes it tougher to see storage and servers as separate entities in a software-defined world. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

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

By

• Terri McClure

Servers and storage become inextricably linked

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Data storage technology trends debated in inaugural Tweet Chat

Data storage industry professionals discussed the appeal of technologies such as all-flash arrays, hyper-convergence and cloud storage during the first SearchStorage Tweet Chat. Continue Reading

By

• Sarah Wilson, Associate Site Editor

Nexsan storage software brings Unity to its hardware

Unity software supports Nexsan with NST block devices, Assureon object storage and Transporter cloud sync functionality that it picked up from Connected Data. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

How do RDMA storage systems improve latency reduction?

RDMA technology can help speed up I/O in storage environments by bypassing copy processes in the software stack when data is called up from a system's memory. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

Complete guide to server-based storage in its modern forms

From hyper-convergence to the cloud, better understand direct-attached storage and its many forms with this essential guide. Continue Reading

NetApp and Synology top NAS storage systems survey

A storage pioneer and relative newcomer land top honors in our 10^th Quality Awards NAS storage systems survey of midrange and enterprise users. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Brocade VP: Flash spurs coordinated Gen 6 Fibre Channel launch

Brocade, QLogic and Broadcom coordinated this week’s shipments of the first switches and adapters to support Gen 6 Fibre Channel storage networking technology. We caught up with Jack Rondoni, vice ... Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Panzura Global File System gets management upgrade

Panzura builds a new console that centralizes maintenance for its controllers and Global File System. The Google Maps-based monitoring and reporting tool manages cloud storage. Continue Reading

By

• Sonia Lelii, TechTarget

Caringo adds support for Microsoft Azure to its Swarm software

Caringo has expanded its Swarm object storage to Microsoft Azure. The company recently said its object storage software, which already has Amazon S3 support, now is available on the Azure cloud so ... Continue Reading

By

• Sonia Lelii, TechTarget

Enterprise hard disk/hybrid storage systems: 2015 Products of the Year finalists

The 14 finalists in the hard disk/hybrid storage systems category of the 2015 Products of the Year competition blend flash configurations with traditional spinning media. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Companies use caution with cloud file sync and share

Though nearly half of companies are using cloud file sync-and-share services, those who aren't using it have taken a wait-and-see approach. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance system overview

Oracle ZFS Storage uses mechanical and flash storage. The ZS3-2 and ZS4-4 models offer a variety of software for storage management, encryption and security. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

HPE StoreEasy 1000 Storage family product overview

The Hewlett Packard Enterprise StoreEasy 1000 Storage family -- formerly HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage -- has four mid-level NAS models, management tools and BitLocker Drive Encryption support. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

NetApp FAS2500 series: Technical overview

The NetApp FAS2500 series includes the FAS2554, FAS2552 and FAS2520. The NAS systems support hybrid flash setups for environments with mid-tier network storage needs. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

Hitachi NAS platform 4000 overview

The Hitachi NAS platform 4000 series consists of four product models that use a discrete controller that can be attached to almost any Hitachi storage system. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

EMC VNXe3200 midrange NAS system technical overview

The VNXe3200 from EMC is a NAS system for environments that require midrange network storage solutions. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

EMC Isilon X-Series NAS: Isilon x200, x210 and x410

The Isilon X-Series is a lineup of NAS systems that support hybrid flash setups. The products are designed for environments with mid-tier network storage needs. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

EMC Isilon S-Series NAS: Isilon S210 and Isilon S200

The Isilon S210 and S200 are part of the EMC Isilon S-Series line of NAS systems for data storage environments that require mid-level network storage offerings. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

EMC Isilon NL400 NAS platform

The EMC Isilon NL400 is a midrange NAS platform with a maximum raw capacity of 210 TB per node. The array is designed specifically for environments that require near-line storage. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

HUS VM SAN array platform

The Hitachi Unified Storage VM is a storage array designed for enterprise SAN environments requiring high storage capacities. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

Data Dynamics StorageX

Data Dynamics StorageX is a software suite that specializes in data migration and Microsoft Distributed File System management. Continue Reading

By

• Erin Sullivan, Senior Site Editor

HP MSA 2040 storage array

The HP MSA 2040 is a rack-mountable modular storage array for SAN environments that includes increased support for virtualization. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

EMC VMAX Series storage arrays

The EMC VMAX is a family of SAN arrays designed for enterprise environments requiring large amounts of storage. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

A closer look at cloud storage use cases, strategies

Find out how primary storage vendors are closely integrating with cloud storage providers in ways that enable new uses for cloud storage. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

Hewlett-Packard 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Series Storage Arrays

The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series is a line of storage arrays designed for enterprise SAN environments. Continue Reading

By

• Aditya Gune, Senior Products Editor

PernixData FVP adds RAM compression to server-side storage cache

PernixData FVP's latest version compresses data on RAM, and its server-side caching software pools flash and memory resources. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Nimble CS700

Nimble Storage adds a higher-capacity model to its iSCSI hybrid arrays, plus an all-flash shelf to bulk up performance. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Best data storage products 2014: Products of the Year

A panel of users, analysts, consultants and Storage magazine and SearchStorage editors voted these 19 products the best of 2014. Continue Reading

SAN storage systems purchases driven by capacity, performance

Anticipated year-over-year capacity growth of 24% and the need to boost the performance of existing applications is driving new SAN storage systems. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

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

By

• Phil Goodwin, IDC

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

By

• Jon Toigo

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

Figuring out when 16 Gbps Fibre Channel storage networking makes sense

Moving to 16 Gbps FC makes sense for IT shops with new and heavily virtualized servers, solid-state storage and test firm president advises. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Jacob Gsoedl

Data Dynamics resurrects StorageX for file migration

Data Dynamics buys intellectual property of Brocade's StorageX file virtualization software, develops its file migration and management capabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Sonia Lelii, TechTarget

LUN storage: Working with a SAN's logical unit numbers

This guide provides a complete picture of LUN implementations, including best practices for LUN mapping and management. Continue Reading

How can host-based and array-based data replication techniques be compared?

Learn the benefits and drawbacks to host-based and array-based replication methods to determine which one better suits your environment. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

What you need to know about improving iSCSI performance

Storage expert Dennis Martin discusses how technologies like Data Center Bridging, CHAP, IPsec and iSCSI offload adapters affect iSCSI performance. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. 1860 Fabric Adapter

The Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter can partition individual physical adapters into as many as 16 virtual HBAs or virtual NICs with flexible bandwidth allocation. Continue Reading

By

• SearchStorage.com Editors

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. 6510 SAN Switch

The Brocade 6510 SAN Switch has industry-first 16 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) support, flexible port configuration and full-duplex 768 Gbps aggregate port throughput. Continue Reading

By

• SearchStorage.com Editors

What you need to know about SMB SANs

Marc Staimer discusses what to look for in an SMB SANs this Q&A and recent developments in SMB SAN technology. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

EMC combines Clariion, Celerra into VNX unified storage

EMC VNX is the result of the long-awaited consolidation of its Clariion SAN and Celerra NAS platforms into a unified storage system that will sharpen the competition with NetApp. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

NetGear ReadyNAS review: A look at the ReadyNAS 2100

This NetGear ReadyNAS review takes an in-depth look at the ReadyNAS 2100. Learn about the ReadyNAS 2100 features, setup and configurations to determine if it's right for your environment. Continue Reading

Implementing ITIL: Getting started with ITIL v3 service management

Are you implementing ITIL v3 service management? Discover five phases of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library process and the benefits of ITIL. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Woods, Contributor

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) implementation case studies

Learn how three firms tackled management issues in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) implementation; case studies detail potential turf wars, restructuring. Continue Reading

iSCSI storage area networks explained

In part two of our series, we examine the features of an iSCSI SAN to help you decide if it's the best SAN technology for your SMB. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

10 Gigabit Ethernet for iSCSI storage, NAS storage still hinges on cost

While 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) offers greater bandwidth for iSCSI storage or NAS storage, IT shops still have to justify upgrade costs with their needs. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

iSCSI storage: Rising profile in enterprise data centers

Learn why iSCSI storage is infiltrating enterprise data centers, get five best practices for implementing iSCSI SANs in a virtual server environment, and discover some implementation tips. Continue Reading

Director switch comparison: Brocade DCX Backbone versus Cisco Systems MDS 9500

Are you looking for director switch for your SAN? We compare the Brocade DCX Backbone and Cisco Systems MDS 9500 offerings in terms of latency, throughput and FCoE support. Continue Reading

By

• Jacob Gsoedl

virtual SAN appliance (VSA)

A virtual SAN appliance (VSA) is a software bundle that allows a storage manager to turn the unused storage capacity in his network's virtual servers into a storage area network (SAN). Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget Contributor

Multiprotocol and unified data storage tutorial for SMBs

In this tutorial, learn how to choose the best multiprotocol storage system, and about the block and file storage protocol options available in the latest offerings. Continue Reading

Fibre Channel switch options for SMBs

Recently, the Fibre Channel industry has become more attractive and affordable for SMBs. This article explores FC switch considerations and products for SMBs. Continue Reading

By

• Alan Radding

Green storage best practices control costs, increase energy efficiency

Green storage best practices control power and cooling costs, and increase energy efficiency in your data center. Tiered storage, consolidating storage arrays, solid-state drives (SSDs) and MAID can help. Continue Reading

By

• James Damoulakis, GlassHouse Technologies

Fibre Channel SAN switches tutorial

Learn all about Fibre Channel SAN switches with these articles on selecting the right switches and the best practices for managing FC switching environments. Continue Reading

ISCSI SAN FAQ

ISCSI storage area networks (SANs) are frequently touted as a solution for small-midsized businesses (SMBs) moving to networked storage. But, why not just use Fibre Channel? Terri McClure, analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group, discusses the pros and cons of iSCSI SANs, the iSCSI SAN market and whether iSCSI SANs are really a good fit for SMBs. Continue Reading

A guide to storage virtualization

Few technologies are more confusing than storage virtualization. Without a guide to explain the different storage virtualization solutions, storage administrators who want to deploy this technology will be lost. Continue Reading

Determining the number of drives in a RAID group

How many drives in a RAID group will it take to give you the performance you need for a database or email or file server, or for that new VMware implementation? Continue Reading

By

• Joel Lovell, Storage Engine

Host bus adapter (HBA) architecture explained

HBAs are integral pieces of a SAN environment -- they connect the server to the SAN -- but few storage administrators know how to configure them. Continue Reading

By

• Bob Violino

How to size a SAN

If your DAS storage infrastructure has reached its limits, or your existing SAN is out of date or just plain end-of-life, your first step will be to know what your storage requirements are. Continue Reading

By

• Joel Lovell, Storage Engine

SAN technology quiz

By taking this exam, you can evaluate your knowledge of storage area network (SAN) technologies. Continue Reading

How to calculate available disk space on a RAID 5

Storage management expert Ashley D'Costa answers a reader's question: "How do I calculate the disk space available on my RAID 5?" Continue Reading

By

• Ashley D'Costa

NAS appliance specifications

NAS appliances are noted for their convenience, offering dedicated internal storage that is relatively straightforward to identify and manage. The biggest issue for NAS appliances is avoiding network bottlenecks and supporting expansion without having to proliferate additional appliances across the network. The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of major NAS appliance products. Continue Reading

NAS management software specifications

Network attached storage (NAS) appliances and gateways must be configured and managed using NAS management software that allows administrators to allocate space, manage RAID and storage behaviors, perform routine maintenance, and other tasks. Management software ideally provides interoperability with a variety of NAS devices from different vendors and can automate many of the routine management tasks that would otherwise demand manual attention. The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of major NAS management software products. Continue Reading

RAID levels defined

This tip offers a listing of the RAID levels in use today and details the characteristics and applications of each. Continue Reading

By

• Greg Schulz, The Server and StorageIO Group

LUN management at the heart of SAN configuration

LUNs are the basic vehicle for delivering storage, but provisioning SAN storage isn't just a matter of creating LUNs or volumes; the SAN fabric itself must be configured so that disks and their LUNs are matched to the appropriate servers. Proper configuration helps to manage storage traffic and maintain SAN security by preventing any server from accessing any LUN. Continue Reading

What are some of the best practices for managing the growth of unstructured data?

It starts with corporate policies around data management ... Continue Reading

What is unstructured data and how is it different from structured data in the enterprise?

Expert Pierre Dorion talks about unstructured data and its impact on the data enterprise. Continue Reading

By

• Pierre Dorion

Block and file access unite with multiprotocol storage

This tip looks at the pros and cons, as well as when and where to deploy multiprotocol storage, which is also referred to as "unified" storage. Continue Reading

By

• Greg Schulz, The Server and StorageIO Group

What is the difference between InfiniBand, SAS and iSCSI and where does each technology fit?

InfiniBand is an interface; just like Fibre Channel (FC) or Ethernet. As an interface, InfiniBand carries different protocols... Continue Reading

Hard zoning vs. soft zoning

SAN expert Greg Schulz explains the difference between hard and soft zoning. Continue Reading

By

• Greg Schulz, The Server and StorageIO Group

hard drive shredder

A hard drive shredder is a mechanical device that physically destroys old hard drives in such a way that the data they contain cannot be recovered. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget Contributor