Everyone is talking about “software-defined” everything lately, so it was only a matter of time before industry buzz turned to software-defined storage. VMware and EMC really stoked the flames with a constant barrage of marketing directed in this direction. But how exactly do you software-define storage? And what does this mean? It’s always amusing to see how others react … [Read more...] about Making a Case For (and Against) Software-Defined Storage
Hyper-V
Scaling Storage At The Client
All three of the array-scaling approaches I discussed last week preserve traditional client protocols for connectivity, an admirable goal to be sure. But the inflexibility of these protocols holds the storage industry back, often requiring extreme efforts to achieve simple goals like continuous availability. Attempts to evolve protocols to be more flexible have met with a great … [Read more...] about Scaling Storage At The Client
Samba 4.0 is Released with Full Active Directory and Updated SMB Support
Yesterday, the Samba team released Samba 4.0, the culmination of almost a decade of work to create a full open source Active Directory server. Samba is the software that powers many Windows-compatible NAS devices, and the release of Samba 4.0 puts us all on a path toward SMB2 and SMB3 support! Introducing Samba Samba is an open source implementation of the Microsoft … [Read more...] about Samba 4.0 is Released with Full Active Directory and Updated SMB Support
Sub-Standard Deployments: VMware’s Achilles Heel
VMware vSphere is a truly remarkable product that has redefined the idea of "unprecedented disruption" in the IT infrastructure market. On a feature basis, vSphere 5 remains a generation ahead of competing offerings from Microsoft, Citrix, and others, and VMware is in an excellent position to retain and grow this position. But no company is invincible, and VMware's Achilles … [Read more...] about Sub-Standard Deployments: VMware’s Achilles Heel
Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5.1
As I have done since version 3.5, I'm charting the storage changes in VMware's latest release of vSphere, 5.1. Detailed at VMworld but not released as of this writing, vSphere 5.1 is lauded for eliminating the "vTax" and bringing features like replication, a revised backup application, and shared-nothing vMotion. Unlike version 5, which included many new technical storage … [Read more...] about Storage Changes in VMware vSphere 5.1