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.
If Storage Vendors Were Automakers…
Posted by Stephen in Computer history, Enterprise storage, Personal on 07. Aug, 2009 | View Comments
If the enterprise storage market was the auto market, who would be who?*
Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009
Posted by Stephen in Everything on 04. May, 2009 | View Comments
There were some interesting events and blog posts last week. This new weekly feature highlights those!
Enterprise IT
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Your Reliance On Backup Tapes – What’s wrong with backup tapes? They’re inaccessible, making them unsuitable for most applications. My latest post for my Enterprise Storage Strategies blog.
Is Licensing Turning vSphere Into Vista? – A [...]
Storage Changes in VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage on 31. Mar, 2009 | View Comments
Like clockwork, VMware has cranked out another update to their flagship enterprise product, ESX 3.5. The last update came out in early November, 2008, and included some major new functionality. What’s in store this time to intrigue storage folks? Not much.
For more information on earlier updates, see my articles:
Storage Fixes in VMware ESX Server 3.5 [...]
Sun Launches Their Own Cloud, But For Which Market?
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage on 19. Mar, 2009 | View Comments
While the bulk of Sun-related news this week relates to reported talks of a buyout by IBM, the company took a break from negotiations to introduce their own cloud computing and storage infrastructure, challenging Amazon, Google, Rackspace, and perhaps VMware, Microsoft, and Nirvanix.
Who Will Capture the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Crown?
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage on 19. Dec, 2008 | View Comments
Today, Brocade announced that it has completed its acquisition of Foundry Networks. This is just the latest move in the strategic game to control the next generation of Ethernet, and possibly all local connectivity, including storage. Although 1 Gb Ethernet, 4 and 8 Gb Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand are all still going strong, the attention of the industry, [...]
Top Ten Coolest Enterprise Storage Flops
Posted by Stephen in Computer history, Enterprise storage on 06. Dec, 2008 | View Comments
This is the second entry in my Top-Ten in Storage series.
Not every innovative product can succeed in the market, and no matter how good some ideas seem, they can fail to make much of an impact. The truth is, people buy solutions, not technologies.
This list includes products so cool, so ahead of their time, that [...]
Is Flash A Disk Or A Cache?
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage on 22. Oct, 2008 | View Comments
There is a battle shaping up in the enterprise storage industry. On one side are those who see flash storage as an upgrade for the disk drive, and on the other are those who see it as a cache between the CPU and the drive. It’s a fundamental difference of opinion – flash chips can [...]
SSD: So Close and Yet So Far
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage on 15. Oct, 2008 | View Comments
Solid state (NAND flash) storage is all the rage right now, but there are many lingering questions regarding its true performance, reliability, and cost. But no question is more important in determining its ultimate usefulness than that of location: Where should flash storage be placed to maximize return on investment?
Storage companies have argued that flash [...]
Compellent Does Enterprise SSD Right
Posted by Stephen in Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage on 13. Oct, 2008 | View Comments
Yes! Compellent has just announced at Storage Networking World that they’ll be adding enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) to their excellent fully-virtualized storage arrays. Why is this worth shouting about? Simply because their automated block-based tiered storage architecture ought to be able to really take full advantage of the performance offered by SSDs. If you’ll [...]
