The time has come for an affordable enterprise grade SSD, and Micron has delivered this with the P400e. Although OEM only, this excellent SSD should find its way into end-user hands as server vendors decide to switch their mainstream offerings from spinning hard disk drives to SSD’s.
Virtual Storage
Are You a Hypervisor Hugger or a Storage Stalwart?
The time has come to take sides on the core question of storage for virtual servers: Do you want storage intelligence to live in the hypervisor or the array? Most administrators are already lining up on one side or the other, unintentionally casting their vote while the rest flounder. But the storage industry must wake up and embrace the divide.
What is VMware VASA? Not Much (Yet)
VMware is adding storage integration features to their flagship vSphere server virtualization product line at a rapid pace. From backup to enterprise array offload, VMware is staking their claim. But information about one new storage feature in vSphere 5 has been scarce: The true nature of the Storage API for Storage Awareness (VASA) is only just beginning to be revealed.
A Complete List of VMware VAAI Primitives
VMware’s introduced the “vStorage APIs for Array Integration†(VAAI) in vSphere 4.1, and block-heads like me went nuts. We’ve been trying to integrate storage and servers for decades, and VMware’s APIs finally allowed this to work in truly seamless fashion. But the world of VAAI is a thicket of bizarre naming and puzzling functionality. Some VAAI primitives are ignored or even hidden! Let’s take a look at the complete list.
Storage Decisions San Francisco 2011: Optimization and Virtualization
Tomorrow, I will be in San Francisco for TechTarget’s Storage Decisions conference. This show does a good job on the editorial side, suggesting timely topics and bringing in folks like Dennis Martin, Mark Staimer, and Jon Toigo. I will have two presentations on data reduction and storage virtualization in the main conference track – both are updated from my New York sessions.
