Why do we care about thin provisioning? Because storage is not getting cheaper. If you went to buy a disk ten years ago, you’re going to spend about the same as would today, but you’re going to get a lot more capacity – a lot more capacity! The fact that we have terrible utilization of enterprise resources is really not helping us, and it’s not getting any better. It hasn’t improved because they are “doing storage” the same way.
TCO
Is GDrive Finally Being Launched?
Today, Google announced that their existing Docs platform will soon open up to storage of all file types. This was widely anticipated, as Google evolved the Docs service over the past year and added references to “Files” rather than specific document types. This could be the next step towards the long-rumored “GDrive” storage offering.
The Dumb Disk Fallacy
I am spending a few weeks examining the truths and fictions that bind our industry together. Let’s start with one of my favorite old canards: That enterprise storage must be overpriced because bare disk drives are so cheap. I have seen this straw man argument set up by so many throughout my career that it […]
We Hold These (Storage) Truths…
I usually welcome discussion (and even argument) about the things I know best: There is always more to learn, and the best insights come through engaging those who disagree with us. But some ideas have been argued so well for so long that they deserve enshrinement. For example, although non-scientists like to argue about evolution […]
My Cloud Slam Topic: Enterprise Storage (Predictable?)
I am pleased to be part of Cloud Slam ’09, the cloud computing virtual conference! My presentation on Monday evening focuses on the emergence of cloud storage in the enterprise space: Why it’s important, what it is, and how to act on it. I start by talking about the drivers, including the unexpectedly high cost […]