cloud storage Archives page 2 of 4 – Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Caringo Bulks Up CAStor For Cloud Services

October 26, 2010 By Stephen 2 Comments

Now that the hype of “cloud everything” is subsiding, organizations are getting down to work deploying cloud storage to do actual useful tasks. The march from CAS to cloud to object storage has seen high-profile high-end flare-ups (think EMC Centera and Atmos) but the bulk of work is done by more pedestrian (think lower-cost) hardware and software. Through it all, Paul Carpentier has been at the forefront. Now his company, Caringo, is back in the news, delivering much-needed storage service features like multi-tenancy, named objects, dynamic caching, and web services.

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Everything, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage Tagged With: caching, Caringo, CAS, CAStor, Centera, cloud storage, Dell, Dell DX, EMC, multi-tenancy, Paul Carpentier

From CAS to Cloud: Revolutionary Storage

October 26, 2010 By Stephen 3 Comments

We need to move beyond fake disks and deploy application-centric storage

Change is not a word normally associated with storage, and revolution is practically unheard of. Today’s modern enterprise storage systems and networks employ massive resources to do one simple thing: Emulate the basic hard disk drives used over three decades ago. But cracks are appearing in our mausoleum of fake disks: Application developers are discovering the value of object storage, and storage systems are appearing to support this need.

Filed Under: Computer History, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon S3, Asigra, Atmos, Caringo, CAS, Centera, Cirtas, cloud storage, EMC, MaxiScale, Mezeo, Nasuni, Nirvanix, Paul Carpentier, S3, Seven10, StorageNetworks, StorSimple, Twin Strata, XAM

CommVault Simpana 9 Takes Backup To A New Level

October 5, 2010 By Stephen 1 Comment

CommVault is one of those enterprise IT companies that likes to go their own way. A spin-out of AT&T’s famed Bell Labs, CommVault’s Simpana software integrates many aspects of data management, from backup to e-discovery, under one umbrella. Last year, the company impressed me by adding cloud storage as a backup target equal in status to disk and traditional tape. Now the company is doing the same for storage-based snapshots, accelerating data protection for virtual machines.

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage Tagged With: archiving, backup, cloud storage, CommVault, deduplication, migration, NetBackup, Simpana, Simpana 9, snapshots, TSM, VADP, VMware, VSS

Amazon Redefines Durability with Reduced Reliability Storage (RRS)

May 19, 2010 By Stephen Leave a Comment

Before Google could even take to the stage to announce their new “Google Storage for Developers” cloud storage offering in their I/O conference keynote, Amazon hit back with a new low-cost “Reduced Redundancy Storage” option for S3. The titans are at war, and cloud storage is the new battle ground. But what was really announced? And should you care?

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage Tagged With: Amazon, availability, cloud storage, durability, Google, public cloud, RRS, S3, Werner Vogels

Why Do I Ignore NAS?

May 7, 2010 By Stephen 4 Comments

Why does network-attached storage (NAS) have such a poor reputation? This isn’t what the vendors want to be talking about, but some recent product announcements and discussions led to this thought. IT folks as a whole don’t trust NAS for real work, and 20 years of effort from big names like Sun, Microsoft, NetApp, IBM, and the rest hasn’t changed that.

Filed Under: Apple, Computer History, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage Tagged With: AFP, Apple, best practices, BlueArc, Celerra, CIFS, cloud storage, EMC, iSCSI, Microsoft, NAS, NetApp, REST, Samba, SCSI, SMB, Storage Decisions

Review: Will Drobo FS Take The NAS Market By Storm?

April 6, 2010 By Stephen 1 Comment

The new Drobo FS brings native file sharing capability and a whole world of add-on "apps"

Data Robotics is back with yet another member in the rapidly-expanding Drobo family of “storage robots.” The newly-announced Drobo FS brings gigabit Ethernet, file-sharing protocols, and installable apps to the platform’s industry-leading flexibility and data protection. But Drobo FS is no slam dunk: It’s expensive, not found in (many) stores, and the value proposition can be difficult to comprehend. Will Drobo FS sink or swim?

Filed Under: Apple, Features, Personal, Terabyte home Tagged With: Amazon S3, BeyondRAID, Big5, cloud storage, Drobo, Drobo FS, Drobo S, DroboElite, drobopro, DroboShare, featured, Iomega, ix4-200d, LaCie, Mozy, NAS, Nirvanix, Oxygen Cloud

Thin Provisioning and Cloud Storage: My Interop 2010 Topics

March 16, 2010 By Stephen Leave a Comment

I’m pleased to be heading back to Interop this spring with two sessions on enterprise storage. Although significantly changed from the old “Networld + Interop” days, the event is enjoyable and technical, with many interesting sessions and speakers. And the New York show at least had plenty of end user attendees!

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage Tagged With: 3PAR, Apple, BlueArc, cloud storage, Compellent, conferences, data robotics, Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, Interop, Las Vegas, NetApp, Networld, Pillar, Symantec, T10, thin provisioning, VMware

Extreme Tiered Storage: Flash, Disk, and Cloud

February 3, 2010 By Stephen 1 Comment

In this video, I present the shortcomings of traditional tiered storage and propose a solution: Although merely using different disk types will never deliver the goods, adding flash and cloud to an integrated, automated solution will be truly revolutionary. I look forward to the day when all of today’s buzz-worthy technologies (flash, cloud, thin provisioning, automated tiering, post-RAID) are mixed together to form a really revolutionary storage system.

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Personal, Virtual Storage Tagged With: BoinxTV, cloud storage, flash, Ilja Coolen, SSD, Storage Expo NL, tiered storage, tiering, VNU

CommVault Gives Cloud Storage A Seat At The Adult Table

February 1, 2010 By Stephen 3 Comments

CommVault calls their new integrated cloud storage "Farline" - like "Nearline", get it?

Only mature technologies are taken seriously and granted equal status when enterprise architectures are defined. That’s why I’m pleased to see today’s announcement that CommVault has completely integrated API-driven public cloud storage with Simpana, their impressive data protection and archiving suite. Now there are three equal backup targets: Tape, disk, and cloud.

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage Tagged With: Amazon S3, archiving, backup, cloud storage, CommVault, data protection, EMC Atmos, Iron Mountain, Microsoft Azure, Nirvanix, Simpana

Is GDrive Finally Being Launched?

January 12, 2010 By Stephen 3 Comments

Today, Google announced that their existing Docs platform will soon open up to storage of all file types. This was widely anticipated, as Google evolved the Docs service over the past year and added references to “Files” rather than specific document types. This could be the next step towards the long-rumored “GDrive” storage offering.