Shall We Play a Game?
October 09, 2012 11:03 AM
Gamification is moving from the consumer Web into the enterprise as employers seek to influence employee behavior. Startups such as Badgeville are ready to play.
Remote Backup Replication Continues to Gain Momentum
October 05, 2012 10:59 AM
A recent survey shows increasing adoption of network-based replication of backup data, which is key to a robust data protection and disaster recovery strategy.
Amazon's Glacier Cloud Service Puts Data in the Storage Deep Freeze
September 14, 2012 09:00 AM
The new cloud storage-as-a-service option from Amazon should bring attention to the too-often neglected area of "cold" storage. Learn why it's a good option for data you won't need right away.
Big Data's Evolving Role in E-discovery: What Is Predictive Coding?
August 17, 2012 10:07 AM
Predictive coding is helping to speed up the often laborious and intense e-discovery process. Learn more about the technology, and why organizations are still taking a measured approach.
EMC's Data Science Summit 2012: Envisioning the Future of Data
July 13, 2012 13:51 PM
Data scientists provide useful analysis and visualization of big data, but David Hill thinks they need to reach a wider audience.
IBM Keeps a Sharp Edge with Smarter Storage
June 25, 2012 15:27 PM
IBM rolls out its Smarter Storage concept, which joins Smarter Computing, SmartCloud and Smarter Analytics. Discover its three key principles and more about Smarter Storage.
The Enterprise Cloud: Are We There Yet?
June 14, 2012 14:13 PM
Our blogger suggests that companies working their way toward the enterprise cloud take a look at EMC's IT organization and its approach to IT as a service.
The Role of Storage in IBM’s New PureSystems
April 27, 2012 09:00 AM
In the PureSystems launch, we saw the opening salvo in IBM’s use of expert integrated systems to reduce IT complexity and reduce costs. PureSystems strengthens an already strong bond between the company’s system "horse," which does the CPU pulling, and the storage "carriage," which carries the information payload.
Virsto’s Storage Hypervisor Enables Storage to Play Nicely with Server Virtualization
April 05, 2012 09:00 AM
On the whole, server virtualization has been a blessing due to physical machine to logical machine consolidation that leads to better system and CPU utilization and attendant improved IT cost economics. But servers are only part of broader interlocked “systems” of hardware components (including networks and storage) and software (including operating systems and applications) that must work in harmony together. And any change in one component (in this case, servers) may cause complications or problems (such as performance and capacity utilization) with another component (in this case, storage). This is yet another instance of the law of unintended consequences. However, Virsto’s chosen role is to repeal that instance of the law through the use of its storage hypervisor.
Intel/InMage Delivers Business Continuity to the Lilliputian Server World
April 02, 2012 09:00 AM
Many IT vendors tend to focus on the mid-market to enterprise market space, yet there is a sizable SMB market where customers actively purchase physical servers on a one-at-a-time basis. This might be called (in fond memory of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels) the Lilliputian server market.
WWPass: Only The Just May Pass the Authentication Test
March 22, 2012 09:00 AM
Security has many facets, but the one that is most familiar is the username/password authentication process that allows users to login to a protected application or Website. For some, that may simply seem to be an inconvenience, but the authentication process helps reduce possible security exposures.
IBM Pulse 2012: A New Storage Hypervisor
March 15, 2012 09:00 AM
IBM is promulgating a storage management concept that it calls a “storage hypervisor” though the final product name has not been determined. The company claims the technology will offer benefits – such as better storage utilization – leading to better storage cost economics, and data mobility – leading to increased flexibility, such as non-disruptive storage refreshes – and parallels the acceptance of server hypervisors and virtualization. But there are also broad implications about how storage will be deployed and managed under IBM’s hypervisor solutions and strategy that you may find worthy of attention. Let’s see why.
Kaminario’s K2 Climbs the SSD Storage Performance Mountain
March 09, 2012 09:00 AM
One of the most exciting development areas for the ICT (information and communications technology) industry is in the attempt to address the I/O gap challenge, whereby servers are often frustrated in their attempts to read and write data as fast as they would like from traditional storage. Various approaches using solid-state devices (SSDs) are targeting the problem. Innumerable smaller companies have been attempting to address the I/O gap, and more recently large IT vendors--notably, EMC with its VFCache and IBM with SSD caching for its XIV storage systems--have been joining the fray. The smaller vendors want to shout out, "Don’t forget about us!" Many of those companies are worth paying attention to, including Kaminario, which has a clear and solid vision.
Dell Adds AppAssure to Its Storage Portfolio
March 05, 2012 09:00 AM
Dell recently announced the acquisition of AppAssure, which it describes as a next-generation data protection solution because it deals not only with physical IT assets, but also with virtual and cloud environments. Dell plans to integrate the AppAssure software product with its Fluid Data architecture. AppAssure is the first acquisition that Dell has made since the creation of its new Software Group and will be part of its enterprise storage and software portfolio. This acquisition is another significant signpost that Dell is aggressively attacking the storage and storage management market, and the software market overall, more broadly.
PerspecSys: Removing a Key Security Barrier to Public Cloud Adoption
February 23, 2012 13:00 PM
Several months ago, an IT trade publication (which will remain nameless) published an article whose title stated that public cloud security remains "mission impossible." While the article was well-reasoned and backed off from the title's hyperbolic assertion, the damage had already been done. Actually, the title should have been something more like, "Public cloud security is mission possible, but proceed cautiously."
EMC VFCache: Project Lightning Strikes
February 13, 2012 09:00 AM
EMC's recent announcement of the culmination of the code-named Project Lightning resulted in the new VFCache solution, a server-based flash cache, which may be used as a complement or alternative to flash storage that appears as if it were a disk drive. This lightning strikes twice, though not in the same spot. The first is dramatically improved I/O performance for customers and the second is the challenge that VFCache brings to competitors trying to distinguish their own flash storage solutions.
dinCloud: Making a Big Impact in the Cloud
February 06, 2012 09:00 AM
Have you reached the saturation point yet on the cloud? The endless cacophony of cloud messages seems to have transformed into white noise, where trying to distinguish and differentiate among competitive cloud offerings can leave one in either a state of decision-making paralysis or trusting that familiar vendors know what they're talking about without, perhaps, the full measure of due diligence that is appropriate. Enter dinCloud, which plans to break through the droning blather and show how its approach to cloud is different.
Scale Computing: New Twists To Scale-Out Storage For The Mid-Market
January 27, 2012 15:30 PM
Startup Scale Computing delivers scale-out, unified storage for the mid-market, meaning users can access SAN/NAS resources from the same, scalable pool of disk storage. Scale Computing is by no means alone in doing this, but the company goes beyond just delivering storage in a box to delivering a data center in a storage box. And that is very interesting.
Dell Moves Ahead Fluidly in Storage
January 20, 2012 12:32 PM
The IT industry is always adapting to new trends, from client-server and the PC revolution of the '80s and '90s to cloud computing and big data today. These trends inspire successful new vendor entrants, but they can also be problematic for established IT vendors. Over time, some leaders don't adapt and die (see Digital Equipment Corporation), while others swoon and survive in a reduced state by being acquired by larger saviors (see Sun Microsystems).
GridIron Systems: Mining Big Data 'Gold' in a Flash
January 12, 2012 09:27 AM
Trends in the IT industry sometimes resemble gold rushes as vendors pan for revenue "nuggets." The use of solid state devices (SSDs)--most notably, flash memory--is the central point of one of these, but just as with the real 19th century gold rushes in California and Alaska, not all prospectors (that is, vendors) will be successful. Where the claims are staked can make all the difference in the world, and GridIron Systems is staking one with a focus on accelerating big data analyses.
Best of the Web
VXLAN termination on physical devices
VXLAN is an Experimental IETF draft of protocols to enable the creation of a large overlay, multi-tenant network.
ONF Deadly Serious About OpenFlow-Based SDNs
: OpenFlow is poised to reach over-hyped status, yet there are practical, useful reasons for keeping an eye on Openflow. The biggest cloud players are involved and driving the feature creation.
Practical Introduction to Applied OpenFlow
Get a primer on the Openflow protocol and what it can do for networking.
On Resilience of Spit-Architecture Networks
This research papers investigates the practical issues in split-architecture networks and the placement of the controllers, such as Openflow controllers, in the network.
