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...]
“Our Storage Array Is Compatible with VMware…” Says Who?
February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I talk to dozens of companies every week, and every one says the same thing: “Our product is compatible with VMware!” But not everyone’s definition of “compatible” is the same, and some are not compatible (I couldn’t resist) with the requirements of production data centers. Therefore, I … [Read more...]
EMC VFCache (aka “Project Lightning”) Is One Small Step, But an Important One
February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
EMC will today unveil a new product, and will no doubt attract a great deal of press. The modest technical capabilities of VFCache 1.0 limit its use case, but the announcement is big news, since it marks EMCs first foray into the hot server-attached storage market. EMC VFCache is a Simple Read … [Read more...]
Nimbus E-Class: The First Big, Redundant, All-Flash Enterprise Array
February 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Today’s announcement of the E-Class storage array is an important milestone for Nimbus Data and solid-state storage in the enterprise. Until now, most solid-state storage arrays have been fairly small-scale, focused on point performance rather than enterprise-wide capacity. But the E-Class, which … [Read more...]
Virtual Machine Mobility: Of What, and to Where and in What State?
February 8, 2012 by 1 Comment
Stepping out of a subway car is an entirely different matter when it's moving! Mobility of virtual machines is a sticky wicket. As open systems infrastructure becomes increasingly virtualized, administrators and managers wish to use the technology to balance workload, ease migration, and … [Read more...]
Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?
February 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
For a massive IT company, Dell sure doesn’t get the kind of respect given their competitors. Time and again, I’ll hear the sneers about Dell being little more than a “box shifter” who doesn’t “get” real enterprise IT needs. After a series of acquisitions in storage and … [Read more...]
Eight Unresolved Questions About FCoE
February 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It's not going to be this easy to bridge Fibre Channel and Ethernet! Before the holidays, I posed a question on Google+ that generated quite a bit of interest and feedback. Now that it has settled down a bit I’d like to summarize the unresolved elements to make FCoE truly a world-class … [Read more...]
Microsoft Adds Data Deduplication to NTFS in Windows 8
January 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Windows 8 server editions will include a filter driver for NTFS for data deduplication The next version of Microsoft Windows Server includes integrated data deduplication technology. Microsoft is positioning this as a boon for server virtualization and claims it has very little performance … [Read more...]
The Terrifying True Story Of Virtual Machine Mobility
January 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
It isn't always easy to get where you need to go! Consider the following situation: You go to lunch with your good friends, John and Mary. Halfway through a rousing discussion of the latest Hollywood movie, Mary starts talking about the fantastic action sequences while John criticizes the … [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...]