What is a storage hypervisor? Are you already using one? A great post by Greg Schulz about storage hypervisors: Storage virtualization (and storage hypervisor) considerations include: What are the various application requirements and needs? Will it be used for consolidation or facilitating IT … [Read more...]
Are you using or considering implementation of a storage hypervisor? (Greg Schulz)
January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Howard Marks and Robin Harris Debate SSD Array Architecture
June 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As if it wasn't obvious already that SSD is the most controversial topic in enterprise storage, here's Howard Marks and Robin Harris with a great back-and-forth about array architecture. We can't wait to read the continuing exchange! Robin started everything with Are SSD-based arrays a bad … [Read more...]
Cisco FabricPath vs. Brocade VCS
May 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Two solid pieces by Joel Knight bring up facts and features of Cisco FabricPath and Brocade VCS. It's nice to see this information so concisely presented, from topology to pros and cons. Good work, Joel! Read more: Five Functional Facts about FabricPath Five Features of Brocade VCS … [Read more...]
What Is a Blade Server?
February 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been watching enterprise IT for over 20 years now, and I’ve seen some radical changes. In the server space, one of the biggest shifts was the form factor of the servers: From tower to rack-mount to blades. But what makes a blade server anyway? Let’s consider this for a moment, as we watch … [Read more...]
BYO(a)D Reaction
December 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The other day (Nov 16, 2011 to be exact), my fellow nerd and Tech Field Day delegate, Tom Hollingsworth crafted a great blog post on the new movement in IT, and business in general… Bring Your Own (Apple) Device to work. If you have not read the post yet… you gotta check it out. This is … [Read more...]
Are You a Hypervisor Hugger or a Storage Stalwart?
November 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The great battle of enterprise storage is on! The time has come to take sides on the core question of storage for virtual servers: Do you want storage intelligence to live in the hypervisor or the array? Most administrators are already lining up on one side or the other, unintentionally casting … [Read more...]
vSphere 5–PXE Installation Using vCenter Virtual Appliance
September 27, 2011 by 2 Comments
The release of vSphere 5 has a lot of little gems. One of which is the availability of a SLES-based vCenter virtual appliance. So, while that is really cool, there is another little nugget of joy waiting for you in the vCenter virtual appliance (‘VCVA’ for all the hip kids)… specifically, your … [Read more...]
EMC FAST and NetApp FlashCache a Comparison
September 21, 2011 by 4 Comments
This article is intended to provide the reader with an introduction to two technologies, EMC FAST and NetApp FlashCache. Both of these technologies are intended to improve the performance of storage arrays, while also helping to bend the cost curve of storage downward. With the amount of data that … [Read more...]
Getting your feet wet in IT
September 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I learned recently that everybody starts somewhere and helping those interested in starting somewhere seems to me to be something those of us who’ve been doing this for a while should be a little more than interested in. Sure there is a need for the experience of IT, rebuilding Windows systems … [Read more...]