Storage arrays are big, expensive, and difficult to manage. Plus, concentrating storage in a single device puts everything at risk if there is an outage. So why buy a storage array at all? Arrays do a few things very well, and this often makes up for the difference, on balance.
Who Will Support SMB 3.0, and Which Features Will They Support?
I’m really thrilled about the improvements Microsoft is making to the core SMB protocol in Windows Server 2012. But it won’t really matter if nobody but Microsoft supports the new protocol. So I like to call out to all the enterprise storage vendors: Let me hear your support for SMB3.0!
SMB 3 is Going to be Huge, in both Scope and Impact
Microsoft is about to release the third major revision to their ubiquitous network storage protocol, SMB. Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3 will really highlight this technology, and I predict it will transform the way people think about networked storage for Windows systems. But SMB 3 is big in another way, too: there are tons of new features, and not all will be implemented by everyone.
Is SolidFire out in Left Field, or Are They Playing a Whole New Ballgame?
When I say “cloud storageâ€, you probably think of Amazon S3: Big, slow, cheap, and distributed. That’s probably why the people I talk to about SolidFire usually start shaking their heads and denouncing the company. After all, who would be crazy enough to create an all flash storage array for cloud storage applications? But maybe it’s not so crazy; maybe SolidFire is simply playing a different ballgame.
Microsoft Adds Data Deduplication Savings Evaluation Tool to Windows Server 8 Beta
The latest beta of the server version of Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 8 operating system includes a handy tool related to the new data deduplication feature. DDPEVAL will test a given dataset using the new deduplication and compression engine and report the savings to be expected. And it works even on non-Windows 8 systems!
Kaminario Announces Next-Generation DataProtect Operating System
The drumbeat of solid-state storage announcements continued today, as Kaminario introduced the next generation of their DataProtect operating system. New features like snapshots and replication extend the companies K2 storage systems further into the mainstream, while a new data protection scheme dubbed RAID 10HD and availability enhancements will likely please customers as well.
GreenBytes introduces Solidarity, an all-SSD storage array
GreenBytes has evolved from software company to storage array company and proven itself able to survive in the cutthroat storage market. It remains to be seen whether the they can convince customers to take Solidarity seriously, but the introduction of this product was the right move for the company. We will be watching and hoping that they will add VMware compatibility and more capacity.
Where Did Blade Servers Come From?
Most folks credit RLX Technologies with inventing the modern blade system, but the history of this technology began well before RLX was founded. Companies like Egenera, Cubix, and Sun were influential in the history of blade servers as well.
What Is a Blade Server?
In the server space, one of the biggest shifts was the form factor of the servers: From tower to rack-mount to blades. But what makes a blade server anyway? Let’s consider this for a moment, as we watch another shift in progress.
“Our Storage Array Is Compatible with VMware…” Says Who?
I talk to dozens of companies every week, and every one says the same thing: “Our product is compatible with VMware!†But not everyone’s definition of “compatible†is the same, and some are not compatible with the requirements of production data centers. Therefore, I present to you my spectrum of compatibility for VMware.