Storage

Ubuntu's marketing kick: Is Canonical the next Apple?

Another six months has passed and another version of Ubuntu Linux has been released, right? Wrong. Ubuntu 11.04 ‘Natty Narwhal’ arrived today and so did a new marketing direction from its parent company and principle sponsor, Canonical. And its flavour has a hint of Apple.

By Rodney Gedda | 29 April, 2011 14:20

Tags: Apple, app stores, canonical, cloud computing, desktop linux, Linux, music, ubuntu, unity

EMC gets Data Domain, now what?

NetApp Inc. said "uncle" yesterday after EMC Corp. outbid it for a second time in its quest to acquire Data Domain Inc, but some industry observers believe EMC, in its zeal to acquire the deduplication vendor, may have overpaid for the prize and could have a difficult time realizing a return on its investment.

By Lucas Mearian | 10 July, 2009 07:18

Tags: data domain, EMC, netapp

Data deduplication for SMEs: What to look out for

Data redundancy is a primary contributor to the explosive growth in data. Initially deduplication focused on eliminating data redundancy in specific cases like full backups, e-mail attachments, and VMware images. Over time, however, customers have noticed the pervasiveness of duplicated data.

By Paul McClure | 22 April, 2009 14:40

Tags: backup, commvault, deduplication, storage

How a flash drive could be the solution to laptop security

Why is Sony bothering with entertainment when it could be using flash drives to dramatically improve laptop data security?

By Mike Elgan | 12 December, 2008 12:38

Tags: security, sony, storage

Big savings with MAID 2.0 storage technology

For years companies have been deploying Massive Arrays of Idle Disks technologies to reduce data-storage energy costs. The on/off or spin/no spin approaches reduce energy consumption by putting power-hungry disk drives to sleep when they are not being used.

By Bob Woolery | 26 November, 2008 10:22

Tags: MAID

Reinventing storage virtualization

The initial approach to storage virtualization, which has been around for years, was to address it in the storage-area network because the SAN sat between the storage and servers, and would cause the least disruption to these systems. However, after nearly a decade, this approach has not taken off while server virtualization has become widely accepted. What needs to be changed to make storage virtualization as ubiquitous as server virtualization?

By Hu Yoshida | 02 October, 2008 10:26

Tags: storage virtualisation

The other guy's job -- disaster recovery

Mother Nature has wrought havoc in the Gulf and many of us were once again faced personally with worries over friends and family in harm's way and professionally with concerns about organizations facing uncertainty over their ability to continue or even recover their businesses. In a timely coincidence, I happened to be attending a disaster recovery (DR) conference on the west coast, and, appropriately, Hurricane Ike occupied center stage for much of the discussion. A number of would-be participants never made it to the conference as they were attending to more pressing matters back home.

By Jim Damoulakis | 23 September, 2008 09:17

Tags: backup, disaster recovery

Disaster-recovery planning: You can't live without it

In our daily lives we try to protect ourselves from the worst. We buy insurance for our cars, homes and health and we safeguard personal information. Shouldn't business owners and IT managers treat their networks and critical infrastructure the same way?

By Jeff Godlewski | 22 September, 2008 09:32

Tags: backup, disaster recovery

The naked laptop

Naked home workers may be the stuff of fantasy, but flexible working is now a corporate reality. Ready availability of broadband combined with the reliability and speed of wireless communications has transformed home and remote working.

Demystifying deduplication

Of the assortment of technologies swarming around the storage and data protection space these days, one that can be counted on to garner both lots of interest and lots of questions among users is deduplication. The interest is understandable since the potential value proposition, in terms of reduction of required storage capacity, is at least conceptually on a par with the ROI of server virtualization. The win-win proposition of providing better services (e.g. disk-based recovery) while reducing costs is undeniably attractive.

Debating the merits of SSDs, part two

Healthy debate is often necessary to get a balanced view of an emerging technology. Somewhere between endorsements and detractions, a realistic understanding of the long-term outlook for a technology arrives. As such, I have decided to turn to a guest once again for the second installment in what I hope to be an ongoing debate over the merits of flash SSDs (solid-state drives).

Managing storage from your mobile phone

Being an optimist, I like to think that storage management is or will be getting better. It's hard, however, to ignore the fact that many admins don't know much about what's going on in the storage boxes they are sitting on. And it's not their fault, as management has been the Cinderella of storage apps for many years, and she hasn't found a prince to rescue her quite yet.

Exchange for the rest of us

Like the presidential seal that vanished without comment from a politician's press podium, the competitive marketing brickbat that Apple flung at BlackBerry -- that BlackBerry's push e-mail works only with Microsoft Exchange, as if Exchange were an onerous burden -- quietly vanished from Apple's campaign.

Debating the merits of SSDs

Would you pay several times more for a technology that yields only dubious performance advantage? How about if that technology is experiencing a high rate of product returns from early adopters?

Can ITIL save storage?

I have a nightmare vision of storage administrators becoming clones of the mail carrier Newman from the TV sitcom Seinfeld, who once bemoaned the endless pressures of his job, crying, "The mail! It just keeps on coming and coming!"

Ironclad Windows backup on a budget

Creating an effective backup for Windows is a challenge -- largely because the OS lacks a powerful, simple tool like Linux's dd, for example. However, there are many options for establishing a worthwhile backup system for Windows, some of which are free or rather inexpensive.

Archiving with Lotus Notes? Consider native and ISV capabilities

Many Lotus Notes users are concerned with how to manage their employees' growing Notes mail files and the associated impact on storage, servers and database performance. This article looks at the key requirements for archiving and how the functionality available in Lotus Notes and Domino can help address those needs.

Going green, virtually speaking

Broadly speaking, there are two main reasons for companies to go green. The first is to reduce energy costs, thereby saving the company money. As one IT executive put it to me recently, "Green computing is all about saving greenbacks."

Dell delivers eco-friendly SAS server for SMBs

As the old saying goes, "When you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail." For me, this means more than just seeing a storage angle everywhere I look. Lately, it also means seeing the environmental impact of every product I review.

How green is your provisioning?

Reaping the fat savings of thin provisioning may have gotten a little easier, as IBM this week announced new features for managing SVC (SAN Volume Controller). And depending on your strategy for implementing SVC's new thin-provisioning capabilities in your storage environment, the news could come with a green lining.