If there is a universal best practice, it's the simple idiom, "use the right tool for every job". Yet we in IT spend so much time trying to fit square pegs into round holes, it becomes second nature. How else to describe our attempts to solve virtually every business need through added technology? No matter what the request, we think there must be a technological solution. But … [Read more...] about Use Process Solutions For Process Problems, Technical Solutions For Technical Ones
storage utilization
Two New Storage Decisions Sessions for 2009: Capacity Management and Radical Tiered Storage!
I'm pleased to announce that I will be presenting at all four of TechTarget's excellent end user-focused 2009 Storage Decisions conferences in North America! I'm also very excited to be developning two entirely new sessions for the show: Tools and Tricks to Manage Capacity - Knowing how much disk capacity you have allocated, how much is actually being used, and what … [Read more...] about Two New Storage Decisions Sessions for 2009: Capacity Management and Radical Tiered Storage!
Clean Up Your Mac! Essential OS X Tidiness Tools and Techniques
I'm not an inherently tidy person. That's one reason that I upgraded my MacBook Pro's hard disk to 320 GB! But as a storage and data management consultant, I generally keep my computers much cleaner than my office. So I was surprised to see a pop-up window on my Mac telling me that my hard drive was full! It was time to investigate data management applications for OS X. … [Read more...] about Clean Up Your Mac! Essential OS X Tidiness Tools and Techniques
Storage Utilization Remains at 2001 Levels: Low!
I've been talking about storage capacity utilization for my entire career, but the storage industry doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. Every year or so, a new study is performed showing that half of storage capacity in the data center is unused. And every time there is a predictable (and poorly thought through) "networked storage is a waste of time" response. The good news … [Read more...] about Storage Utilization Remains at 2001 Levels: Low!
The Storage Utilization Waterfall: Raw, Usable, and Used
My February 2003 column for Storage magazine focused on the surprising difficulty of measuring storage utilization. I wrote: "A true measurement of utilization would reflect every layer of usage metrics - from raw disk in a shared array to used storage within files. Raw storage for each new frame of reference is contained within the used storage measured above it, so low … [Read more...] about The Storage Utilization Waterfall: Raw, Usable, and Used