Thin Provisioning and Cloud Storage: My Interop 2010 Topics
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage on 16. Mar, 2010 | View Comments
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!
The Spectrum of Vendor Blogs
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage on 19. Jan, 2010 | View Comments
There is a spectrum of vendor-oriented blogging in various IT infrastructure areas: Some are more or less open about where they work, some focus on common technology, and others work in marketing. Bloggers are wise to keep these in mind as they move to new companies!
Vendor Bloggers 1: Why Does It Matter?
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage on 18. Jan, 2010 | View Comments
What does it mean for the community when independent bloggers go to work for vendors? The Internet has changed the old game of leveraging publications for PR. Can you still trust what you read?
Are Microsoft and EMC beginning a renaissance of geek respect?
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Personal, Virtual Storage on 08. Jan, 2010 | View Comments
What’s the difference between naughty and nice when it comes to IT companies? Microsoft and EMC would definitely not have made the nice list over the last decade, but things are changing. With their competition taking dents in the ongoing battles, Microsoft and EMC just don’t look so bad anymore.
My 2009 IT Industry Predictions
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 24. Dec, 2009 | View Comments
Predictions are perilous: Get it right and you look like a mere trend-watcher; get it wrong and you look like a fool. So I’m doing something different this year: I’m going to make predictions for 2009 now that it’s over, and reflect on just how smart I am (not) to have made them.
The Dumb Disk Fallacy
Posted by Stephen in Computer history, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Terabyte home on 13. Oct, 2009 | View Comments
I am spending a few weeks examining the truths and fictions that bind our industry together. Let’s start with one of my favorite old canards: That enterprise storage must be overpriced because bare disk drives are so cheap.
I have seen this straw man argument set up by so many throughout my career that it has [...]
Iomega ix2-200 Adds iSCSI, Sync To Dual-Drive SOHO NAS
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 07. Oct, 2009 | View Comments
EMC’s low-end storage specialist, Iomega, today introduced a two-drive version of their iSCSI-capable StorCenter NAS line. The ix2-200 also adds native Time Machine support, data synchronization (including a QuickTransfer button), spin-down for its new low-power drives, and will soon boast VMware and Hyper-V compatibility certification. It also sports a more modern (and much less ugly) [...]
The Truth About HP’s Tech Day
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Everything, Gestalt IT, Personal, Virtual Storage on 01. Oct, 2009 | View Comments
HP and Ivy did a darn fine job of putting together a set of sessions to tell us what they have. They presented folks who really knew their stuff, warts and all. They invited a variety of independent voices and let us ask and say anything we wanted with no expectations, let alone an NDA. This was a stellar event, and every other IT company should be asking why they didn’t do it first.
Iomega’s ix4-200d: A Killer Desktop Storage Array
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage on 27. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
Iomega is well into its second coming as EMC’s entry-level storage division. First, they applied EMC’s compact and full-featured LifeLine home storage software to existing gear, giving birth to the Home Media Network Hard Drive, StorCenter ix2, and StorCenter Pro ix4-100. Then they wooed the small-business community with the rack-mount StorCenter ix4-200r, adding iSCSI target [...]
EMC V-Max FAST: Coming in December … And 2010!
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Everything, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage on 17. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
EMC’s Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) was one of the most welcome annoucements made during the Symmetrix V-Max introduction. It would be a significant modernization of EMC’s Symmetrix line, and would be one of the first unique features of the Symmetrix V-Max line. But many, including me, were disappointed to learn in May that FAST [...]






