RSSServers & Storage Channel
News and Analysis
Skanska Joins The Data Center Mod Squad
Infrastructure and construction contractor Skanska USA has unveiled what it is calling one of the most efficient, greenest data centers in the world. The Mission Critical Center of Excellence will use Skanska's new modular design strategy, which will deliver a power usage efficiency (PUE) of 1.15, company officials say. Traditional data centers have a PUE of 2.0, says Terry Rennaker, VP of Skanska USA CoE.
More News and Analysis
- HP Reinvents The Industry-Standard Server
- Starboard Seeks To Be The iPhone of SME Storage
- Red Hat Rebrands, Reconfigures Virtual Storage Appliance For Amazon AWS
- EMC Delivers On Server-Based Flash Storage
More News and Analysis in Servers & Storage Channel »
Architectures
Data Center Pricing Schedules: Driving Positive Vendor Behavior
One of the most scrutinized and highly negotiated elements of an IT outsourcing (ITO) agreement for infrastructure is the resource pricing schedule. Like a tax table or any other financial schedule, the ITO rate structure has a significant impact on the behavior of those governed by it--in this case, the service provider.
More Architectures
- Bringing Customer Experience And Business Channel Development Together With IT
- Two Companies Cope With Storage And Transfer Of Large Files
- Cresent Bank Reaps Benefits Of Pano Logic's Desktop Virtualization
- Expanding Role Of Data Deduplication
More Architectures in Servers & Storage Channel »
Reviews & Workshops
Data Center Diversity Drives IT Agendas
For the final chapter in Network Computing's five-part examination of Cisco's role in-- and the implications for--changes transforming the data center, we take a closer look at these changes and what they may mean for the near future. The first key to understanding this brave new world is the private cloud and IT as a service, says analyst David Hill, principal, Mesabi Group.
More Reviews & Workshops
Blogs
FAST Paper Casts Doubt on SSD Future
February 21, 2012 11:00 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
At last month's FAST (File and Storage Technologies) conference researchers from UCSD and Microsoft Research presented a paper, titled The Bleak Future of NAND Flash Memory, that's put the rosy all-flash-all-the-time future predicted by some in doubt for the long term. The gist of the paper's argument is that the physics of flash, and the researcher's testing, indicate that as flash density increases, the life and performance of flash will degrade to the point that by 2024 flash will no longer be a viable solution.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
Nimbus Sets The Stage For Mainstream Enterprise SSD
February 13, 2012 09:00 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
Solid-state array pioneer Nimbus Data's new E-Class array system is a sign that solid-state storage is moving from the high-performance fringe to the mainstream of the enterprise data center. Most first-generation, all-solid-state arrays, including Nimbus Data's own S-class, were best suited to targeted applications where high performance with single points of failure was acceptable. The new asset class, like most midrange disk arrays, has a dual-controller design to satisfy my enterprise reliability requirements.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
EMC VFCache: Project Lightning Strikes
February 13, 2012 09:00 AM
Posted by David Hill
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.
See all blogs by David Hill
Riverbed's Granite Virtualizes Branch Office Storage
February 10, 2012 09:00 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
When Riverbed and others brought WAN acceleration to the market around the turn of the century, many of us hoped that with WAN acceleration we could pull the servers, and the headaches they cause, from branch offices. Unfortunately, many organizations found reasons to keep servers in the branches. Riverbed's new Granite appliance allows organizations to keep servers in their branch offices while eliminating many of the headaches through what Riverbed's calling Edge Virtual Server Infrastructure.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
EMC's Lightning Strikes
February 07, 2012 09:00 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
The storage cognoscenti have been all atwitter this morning as EMC announces the details of Project Lightning, the flash-based server cache solution it previewed last May at EMCworld. The first version of the renamed VFCache is now available, and it's clearly a version 1.0 product. Hopefully, EMC will get some of the road map items out the door, as well as the just announced Thunder, soon.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
HP Storage Tech Day
January 31, 2012 09:45 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
Last week I joined a dozen or so fellow bloggers and storage industry gadflies for a storage field day at HP's Fort Collins, Colo., facility. Much like the more ecumenical Gestalt IT Tech Field Days run by our own Stephen Foskett, HP Tech Days let vendors show off their shiny new products while the street-wise delegates asked tough questions and took no marketing speak for an answer.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
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.
