Multimedia

Video Interviews

vCatchup with… Stephen Foskett (Feb 2013)
Virtualization a Game Changer in Legacy-Burdened Data Centers, Says Stephen Foskett (Dec 14, 2012)
Edge2012: Stephen Foskett on the state of enterprise storage and server virtualization (June 6, 2012)
The Cube – IBM Edge 2012 – Stephen Foskett (June 6, 2012)

Podcasts

VM-aware storage provides better migration, performance and more (Jan 16, 2013)
Speaking in Tech #38 — Hunger Games meets IT (Dec 12, 2012)
RunAs Radio – Stephen Foskett Builds Virtual Data Centers! (Feb 2, 2012)
RunAs Radio – Stephen Foskett Talks Storage (Jul 12, 2011)
Niketown588: Coffee With Thomas Episode 12 – The Founder of Gestalt IT (Oct 26 2010)
Packet Pushers Show 12 – Get On The Ring! (Jul 18 2010)
Runt Packet — Tech Field Day — What’s That All About? (Jul 12 2010)
Steve Foskett and Lee Johns Explains Unified Storage – Geekazine … (June 29 2010)
Infosmack 40 – HP Blades Day Wrap Up (Feb 28 2010)
Infosmack Episode 35 – I’m with Paco (Jan 24 2010)
Infosmack Episode 22 – HP Tech Day Wrap Up (Oct 5 2009)
Infosmack Episode 15 – VMworld, VMware and storage stories from the dark side (August 16 2009)
Infosmack Episode 6 – HDS USP-V announcement, EMC non-competes and changes at VMworld (May 31 2009)
Infosmack Episode 3 – Sun, Oracle and Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) (May 11 2009)
Infosmack Episode 2 – EMC, David Donatelli and Non-Compete Agreements (May 3 2009)
SAN School Lesson One: Building a SAN (Apr 2008) In this first lesson of Advanced SAN School, Stephen Foskett, Director of Data Practice for Contoural discusses the different types of storage arrays, switches, and software that make up a storage network.
SAN School Lesson Two: SAN Architecture and Topology (Apr 2008) In lesson two, Stephen discusses the evolution of SANs from standalone entities, to islands and beyond. Discover techniques that can make a substantial difference in the way data is moved and processed, as well as in your company’s consolidation plans.
SAN School Lesson Three: SAN Management and Security (Apr 2008) In this Podcast, expert Stephen Foskett, Director of Data Practice for Contoural explains what the options are for management tools. He’ll dissect array management, change management, virtualization and more to help you manage your environment.

Webcasts

The Deletion Dilemma (April 2011) How should your organization deal with the issue of data deletion?
Webcast: Improve your actual storage utilization (Oct. 09, 2003) Join Stephen Foskett, senior consultant, storage management strategies and integration at Glasshouse Technologies for a webcast on how to “Improve your actual storage utilization.”…
Digging into iSCSI : Learn about: 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Continuous Data Protection, Disk Backups (Dec. 21, 2007) This expert Videocast features Stephen Foskett of Contoural. View this presentation as Stephen digs into iSCSI and answers the most pressing questions surrounding this technology.
Business and technical considerations for email archiving (Apr 2008) Because email archiving systems vary in features, the process of matching a solution to an individual company’s architectural, business and legal requirements is very complex. In this webcast, Foskett offers an overview of architectural considerations and major email archiving methods, ranging from managed and hosted solutions to hardware and software combinations. He also provides key questions to ask when sizing and pricing an archiving system.

Videocasts

The Next Wave of Virtualization (June 2008) The next generation of virtualization will have a big impact on storage infrastructures.View this Videocast, featuring storage expert, Stephen Foskett — Director of Data Practice at Contoural to find out the chief storage management challenges associated with a virtualized environment, and get practical tips on how to deal with them.
Where the SAN Stands (May 2008) As SANs grow and expand, understanding the right architecture can be critical in making sure SANs are available and properly utilized. In this expert Videocast, Stephen Foskett dives into the nuts and bolts of SAN architecture and topology.

GPS Time Rollover Failures Keep Happening (But They’re Almost Done)

This is week “1111111111” in the GPS system. Tomorrow morning it will roll over to week “0000000000”. How well will various systems handle this change? Not well, judging by what we’ve seen so far!

Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro

I remain enthusiastic about the iPad Pro, despite getting a scratched screen and my concerns about durability. It’s a worthy successor to the original and offers enough improvements that I’d recommend the upgrade for just about anyone who uses their iPad for serious work. It’s still not yet a laptop replacement, but this is due more to a lack of desktop-class software for iOS than anything in Apple’s control.

A Watch Guy’s Review of the Apple Watch

April 27, 2015

Is the Apple Watch a personal communication revolution like the iPhone, a well-executed gadget like the Apple TV, or a total miss? Does it mark the end of the the world as we know it for watches? And what’s it like to use one? I’m a watch guy and a gadget guy, so perhaps my perspective will be of some value.

The Rack Endgame: Converged Infrastructure and Disaggregation

September 19, 2014

As Iâ€™ve written about what Iâ€™m calling the â€œRack Endgameâ€, the specter of converged infrastructure hasnâ€™t been far from my thoughts. As others have pointed out, disaggregation of servers, networks, and storage doesnâ€™t require a rack-sized stack; it can exist in a rack-mountable chassis and is already on sale!

Marketers: Fudging the Meaning of Buzzwords Matters (To You!)

December 2, 2015

Too many marketers and salespeople play fast and loose with words, but they’re only hurting themselves. Improper usage is embarrassing and causes a loss of credibility with the people they most want to reach. It would be wise to spend a lot more time being correct and a little less time jumping on bandwagons and buzzwords!

A High-Tech Water Heater? Yep! Introducing the A. O. Smith Vertex

November 15, 2012

I justify spending six times more on the Vertex 100 for a simple reason: It’ll keep up with the heavy water use in my house. I’m hoping I’ll never have to worry about hot water as long as I live here. The fact that it saves over $100 per year due to energy-efficient design is just icing on the cake.

A Fairy Tale of Two Storage Protocols

September 23, 2014

It’s clear how this fairy tale ends. So many companies are using “S3 plus” as their standard interface, and even inside their solutions, that it’s safe to say it’s won the cloud storage API battle. But S3 isn’t a finalized spec – the industry will extend and improve it over the coming years. Soon we’ll have a cloud storage standard based on S3, just like we have a LAN file services standard based on CIFS.

10 Mysteries The Lost Finale Definitively Settled

May 25, 2010

The series finale of Lost didn’t settle every question, but it did settle many of the long-running questions raised by fans. Although my live viewing was frustratingly complicated by failed transmission equipment at ABC affiliate, WEWS, I was able to watch the entire episode thanks to iTunes. So let’s settle the things that can be settled regarding Lost.

Mac OS X Lion Adds CoreStorage, a Volume Manager (Finally!)

August 4, 2011

Mac OS X was majorly deficient in that it lacked a volume manager. This wouldn’t seem like a big deal to the average user, but held back the operating system in so many ways. A volume manager brings storage virtualization to an operating system, allowing storage capacity efficiently to be managed and manipulated. But all this has changed in Mac OS X 10.7 â€œLionâ€ with CoreStorage.

How To Keep Your Family Activities In Sync With A Shared Google Calendar

April 18, 2010

Smartphones, computers, and iPads are proliferating in families today. Although my three kids do not (yet) have their own mobile phones, we still have quite a few devices with calendar functions: An iPhone each for me, my wife, and our au pair along with an iPad and a few computers. Using Google Calendar, we have set up an awesome shared calendar to keep all of our activities in sync. Read on for instructions!