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News Analysis
Ballmer Bets Microsoft's Future On Cloud Computing
Thursday Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered what was essentially a State of the Cloud address, providing a forward-looking view of what cloud computing will be like for the world in general and for his company, in particular. While much of his talk focused on consumer end-user features like a more interactive Bing Maps and the Xbox gaming console, he also spoke to the future of cloud computing for enterprises.
More News Analysis
- Citrix, Carpathia Launch XenServer Cloud Service
- VMware Acquires EMC Management Apps
- F5 Enters The Virtual ADC Market With LTM Virtual Edition
- Nasuni Brings Speed To Cloud Storage's Low Costs
More News Analysis in Virtualization Channel »
Architectures
Case Study: The Value of Virtual I/O, New England Biolabs
When New England BioLabs realized that it had outgrown its 120 servers, it also soon discovered that options for physical expansion were limited and potentially costly--one option required the building of a tunnel. NEB provides enzymatic products for gene research and drug discovery and had housed its bioinformatics data center in an historic mansion. It was bursting at the seams; port utilization of its blade servers for networking and storage was at an unsustainable 99 percent. To address the problem, Thomas Peacock, IT architect at NEB, knew that the company's old 2U-per-server systems would have to go.
More Architectures
- Nursing Facility Turns To SaaS For Network Management
- SMBs And The Psychology Of Virtualization
- Q&A: HP ProCurve CTO Paul Congdon
- Time To Halt Runaway VM Sprawl
More Architectures in Virtualization Channel »
Reviews & Workshops
Windows 7 Rolling Review: Wrap-Up
Deploying a new operating system across a company is a bit like conducting an orchestra: You need the proper instruments in place, and your timing and execution must be right to evoke harmony. Get it wrong and all you get is noise. So for all those would-be maestros of Windows 7, now is the time to take a close look at OS deployment software, which we've tested in our Rolling Review.
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Blogs
Recovering From RedoLog Corrupt Errors On VMware ESX/ESXi
March 11, 2010 2:50 PM
Posted by Jake McTigue
RedoLog corrupt errors are a common issue on VMware ESX/ESXi machines where machines are snapshotted and the datastore is allowed to run low on space. Use this step by step guide to get your machine back in business.
See all blogs by Jake McTigue
Issues With Automated Tiering
March 10, 2010 2:10 PM
Posted by George Crump
While the industry, myself included, has been busy extolling the virtues of automated tiering, it's important to understand that it's not a be-all-end-all for the storage manager. Certainly there is plenty to like but, there are a few caveats that you should be aware of. From a performance perspective most (if not all) automated tiering systems leverage SSD or RAM to accelerate I/O and reduce latency. The upside of this, as we have discussed, is that it provides an automated way for storage managers to take advantage of SSD. The downside is that the rest of the environment has to be fast enough to take advantage of it. Putting a really fast drive at the end of a wire is not necessarily going to deliver better performance.
See all blogs by George Crump
IBM Reloads Enterprise Branding
March 9, 2010 3:00 PM
Posted by Alexander Wolfe
Global CIO's Bob Evans and I were talking with Rod Adkins, the senior vice president who runs IBM's Systems and Technology Group. That operation is Big Blue's Big Kahuna, accounting for $19 billion in annual revenues and including IBM's chip, server, storage and systems software businesses. Did I mention that Adkins is also responsible for IBM's global manufacturing, procurement and customer fulfillment operations? All of this is by way of saying that, when Adkins speaks, one should listen.
See all blogs by Alexander Wolfe
One Million IOPS: Moving The Data Center Bottleneck
March 9, 2010 10:00 AM
Posted by Frank Berry
The first system administrator to ever upgrade a server undoubtedly experienced a mismatch in performance between the installed server and the new component. Since then, millions of data center managers have experienced first-hand the performance bottleneck constantly moving from one component in their data center to another. Have those years of experience stopped smart people in our industry from challenging whether it makes sense to deploy new generations of faster technology, because the new technology has performance the rest of the system can't use? The answer is no. The latest generation of high-performance converged network adapters is a great case-in-point.
See all blogs by Frank Berry
The Types Of Automated Tiering
March 9, 2010 8:00 AM
Posted by George Crump
Automated tiering, the transparent movement of data between tiers of storage, has several methods of delivery. There is some disagreement as to which is the "real" automated tiering. I'm not sure if from a storage manager's perspective it matters, but understanding the types of automated tiering will help you select the best method for your data center.
See all blogs by George Crump
Is Emulex Running The HP Table?
March 2, 2010 9:00 AM
Posted by Frank Berry
On February 26, Emulex announced that its OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapters are available from HP. This is a massive opportunity, given that HP is the largest OEM consumer of host adapters in the world. It is also significant because time-to-sales will be quick since the new HP-branded products are available for high-volume HP ProLiant rack, tower and blade servers. This also marks a ground floor opportunity for Emulex. These products are the first host adapters available from HP to support Data Center Bridging (DCB) - a technology that underpins converged networks that will dominate the future.
See all blogs by Frank Berry
Best of the Web
Data deduplication: Declawing the clones
Data deduplication is emerging as a critically important new arrow in the storage administrator's quiver to answer hard questions about the increasing problem in storage growth costs.
Compression, Encryption, Deduplication, and Replication: Strange Bedfellows
One of the great ironies of storage technology is the inverse relationship between efficiency and security: Adding performance or reducing storage requirements almost always results in reducing the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of a system.
WAN Optimization Whitelists and Blacklists
Optimization is a fantastic way of saving money and creating really happy customers at the same time, but it doesn't work flawlessly for all applications.
WAN Optimization as a Managed Service: It's Not About the Cost
This insight examines how organizations outsourcing their WAN optimization initiatives to a third-party go about achieving their goals for application performance, reducing operational costs, and streamlining enterprise infrastructure.
