The ongoing battle for 3Par by HP & Dell tells us much more about the state of the IT Industry than just the desires of two companies to acquire some interesting storage tech. It signals an acceptance that storage is a key feature in the future direction of the IT industry – more important … [Read more...]
Data ONTAP 8.0 – Part III
August 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment
I’ve twice posted now on Data ONTAP 8.0 shortcomings and this evening I did a little more research with the IBM version of Netapp’s hardware, the N-Series products. Fortunately, IBM are slightly more generous and informative in their documentation than Netapp and this document (freely … [Read more...]
Four Pillars – Service: More On Chargeback
June 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
In the previous article I discussed the subject of Billing and Chargeback. This entry discusses some of the issues raised in that post as additional considerations. Chargeback and Standards Implementing efficient standards is a given in any IT organisation. However inevitably what should be a … [Read more...]
Hardware Review: Drobo Elite – Part I
June 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Drobo Elite - Rear View This post is the first in a series covering the DroboElite SMB storage device from Data Robotics Inc. The DroboElite is the most fully featured storage array in the Data Robotics range of devices. Regular readers will know I’ve posted frequently on these … [Read more...]
Four Pillars – Service: Chargeback
May 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment
In any system, resources are finite. There is always a limitation to what is available. However there’s also a truism that states if resources are free then they will be consumed at an infinite rate. So it is with storage. Someone has to pay for the storage resources that are placed on … [Read more...]
Violin Memory Inc Release New All-SSD Array
May 27, 2010 by 1 Comment
I’m not a fan of making press releases on behalf of other companies however once in a while, a news item catches my interest. So it is with the announcement of the Violin Memory Inc. 3200 series of all-memory storage arrays. Why are these interesting? Because I think they are moving and … [Read more...]
Four Pillars – Service: The Service Catalogue
May 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
As discussed previously, the Service Catalogue is a key component of delivering storage as a service. In this post, I’ll explore some thoughts on developing a Service Catalogue and how its abstraction from technology allows the delivery of a more efficient operation. What’s in a Name? Some … [Read more...]
Four Pillars – Service
May 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment
This is a series of posts covering the subject of Storage Management. In this post, I’ll be discussing one of the four foundations, Service and what exactly that means. My Four Pillars of Storage Management are defined in this initial post. To recap, I define Service as: “Offering of … [Read more...]
Why Storage Federation Is What We Need
May 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
You may have assumed from my previous post on VPLEX that I am negative towards the concept of storage federation. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, ever since I was involved in deploying ESX onto enterprise storage infrastructure (some 4 years ago), I’ve been waiting for the … [Read more...]
EMC VPLEX – A Dreary Storage Cluster?
May 14, 2010 by 4 Comments
Those of you with relatively good memories will remember last year’s announcement from Hitachi/HDS, which at the time promised more than it delivered. In fact, the anagram posed by Claus Mikkelsen on his blog and used as part of the press release was “REGRADES OUR CLASSY TREATS” and should … [Read more...]