XAM Archives – Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

January 30, 2012

We Need a Storage Revolution

April 30, 2011 By Stephen 5 Comments

Storage protocols continue to mimic direct attached storage, with the concepts of block and file at its core. No amount of virtualization, and no new protocol, will fix this – we need a storage revolution.

Filed Under: Apple, Computer History, Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage Tagged With: Amazon, Apple, BigTable, CAS, data management, Fibre Channel, Files-11, Google, Hadoop, HFS, Metadata, Microsoft Office, NAS, nas storage, network attached storage, network storage, RAID, SCSI, SharePoint, SQL, storage management, Sunday series, updated, VMS, volume manager, XAM, ZFS

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

There Are Two Kinds…

July 30, 2007 By Stephen Leave a Comment

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world, and those who don’t.” This week, EMC’s Chief Development Officer, Mark Lewis, posted a thoughtful blog “episode” supposing that there are two kinds of data in this world: OLTP and all of the rest. It’s an [...]

Filed Under: Enterprise storage Tagged With: data classification, EMC, ILM, XAM

Latest Content

How My Blog Became Infected With MW:JS:150 Malware (And How I Fixed It)

January 26, 2012

This week, two blog readers let me know what Google Chrome was warning them of malware on my blog. I dived in and discovered that, indeed, a nasty, obfuscated JavaScript attack had made its way into my site. Although I was disappointed by the lack of clarity about how to fix it, I believe I was able to remove it last night.

Cheap, No-Contract 4G Data: Clear’s Undocumented Daily- and Weekly-Pass Plans

January 23, 2012

Although Clear clearly wants buyers to sign up for monthly service, they also have “secret” on-demand 2-hour, daily, and weekly plans. Here’s how to get online cheap!

HP’s Mighty Stumble

January 19, 2012

HP stumbled mightily in 2011, and it had nothing to do with product or people. Even sales remained strong, though the PC business is changing. HP’s mighty stumble was a crisis of confidence due to a chain of shenanigans at the very top. This culminated with the short reign of Léo Apotheker, leaving HP to reassure the market of its strategy.

Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?

January 16, 2012

For a massive IT company, Dell sure doesn’t get the kind of respect given their competitors. Time and again, I’ll hear the sneers about Dell being little more than a “box shifter” who doesn’t “get” real enterprise IT needs. After a series of acquisitions in storage and networking, Dell is trying to stake a claim as a serious competitor to HP, IBM, Oracle, and the like. But why should anyone take Dell seriously, especially in enterprise storage?

The Case of the Missing Letters: Another Obnoxious Bug in Dragon Dictate

January 16, 2012

Any time OS X corrects your spelling or (more likely) inserts appropriate accent marks, Dictate loses its mind and can no longer correctly enter some random letter. There are two ways to fix this problem (apart from just restarting Dictate all the time).

Virtual Machine Mobility: Of What, and to Where and in What State?

January 16, 2012

Moving cold virtual machine images from system to system, or even across great distances, is one of the main selling points of server virtualization. But it becomes much more difficult to manage movement of virtual machines that are still running, especially outside cluster or across WAN links. When talking about virtual machine mobility, it is important to consider what is being moved, the state it is in, and where it is going.

How to Prepare Your AT&T Phone for Travel Abroad

January 7, 2012

The difference between American and European mobile phone providers are vast, and the modern traveler is likely to run afoul if they are unprepared, running up a surprisingly large bill! Here’s a rundown of my standard techniques to prepare my American mobile phone for travel abroad.

What Is an XQD Card? The New Media for Pro Cameras!

January 6, 2012

The CompactFlash Association announced a new media card format last month, and now Sony and Nikon have introduced the first media and digital cameras, respectively. But what exactly is an XQD memory card? Read on for the details.

Eight Unresolved Questions About FCoE

January 5, 2012

What elements remain unresolved to make FCoE truly world-class? What should the vendors be prioritizing?

When Incandescent Bulbs Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Incandescent Bulbs

January 4, 2012

Although they are ridiculously inefficient, incandescent lightbulbs seem to have a huge number of fans. Despite the romance of the glowing filament, many governments are moving to ban the use of incandescent light bulbs in many applications. Here in the United States, the federal government intends to encourage the use of more efficient light bulbs but there is no outright ban.

We Need a Storage Revolution

There Are Two Kinds…

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Latest Content

How My Blog Became Infected With MW:JS:150 Malware (And How I Fixed It)

Cheap, No-Contract 4G Data: Clear’s Undocumented Daily- and Weekly-Pass Plans

HP’s Mighty Stumble

Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?

The Case of the Missing Letters: Another Obnoxious Bug in Dragon Dictate

Virtual Machine Mobility: Of What, and to Where and in What State?

How to Prepare Your AT&T Phone for Travel Abroad

What Is an XQD Card? The New Media for Pro Cameras!

Eight Unresolved Questions About FCoE

When Incandescent Bulbs Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Incandescent Bulbs