toot toot

Toot toot: Expanding Storage

October 11, 2007 by Stephen Leave a Comment

Yeah, I know it goes against the current shrinking/greening storage meme, but I wanted to point out this excellent article on expanding disk arrays over at SearchStorage. Stephen Bigelow has written a number of these great tutorials, which should be required reading to new storage admins. Oh yeah, and he quotes some Foskett guy in […]

Toot Toot: Email Archiving e-Book Chapter 5

October 10, 2007 by Stephen Leave a Comment

As I mentioned before, I’ve been working with a team at Contoural on an e-Book for TechTarget on the topic of email archiving. Chapter 5, which focuses on product selection, was just published. Go grab a copy for yourself!

Toot Toot: Email Archiving e-Book

August 17, 2007 by Stephen 2 Comments

I’ve been working with a team at Contoural on an e-Book for TechTarget on the topic of email archiving, sponsored by Symantec. Now that four chapters are posted, I thought I would mention it. I’ve written two more chapters, which will probably be posted in the coming months, and will be working on more after […]

Toot toot 3: Quotes in Computer Weekly (UK)

July 26, 2007 by Stephen Leave a Comment

Toot toot again… That iSCSI vs. Fibre Channel article is in Computer Weekly, a UK TechTarget publication…

Toot toot 2: My iSCSI in the Enterprise article is in Storage Magazine

July 24, 2007 by Stephen Leave a Comment

Another bit of self-promotion: My latest article for Storage Magazine, Can iSCSI Crack the Enterprise?, has just been published in the July issue.

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GPS Time Rollover Failures Keep Happening (But They’re Almost Done)

This is week “1111111111” in the GPS system. Tomorrow morning it will roll over to week “0000000000”. How well will various systems handle this change? Not well, judging by what we’ve seen so far!

Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro

I remain enthusiastic about the iPad Pro, despite getting a scratched screen and my concerns about durability. It’s a worthy successor to the original and offers enough improvements that I’d recommend the upgrade for just about anyone who uses their iPad for serious work. It’s still not yet a laptop replacement, but this is due more to a lack of desktop-class software for iOS than anything in Apple’s control.

The Rack Endgame: A New Storage Architecture For the Data Center

September 3, 2014

Top-of-rack flash and bottom-of-rack disk makes a ton of sense in a world of virtualized, distributed storage. It fits with enterprise paradigms yet delivers real architectural change that could “move the needle” in a way that no centralized shared storage system ever will. SAN and NAS aren’t going away immediately, but this new storage architecture will be an attractive next-generation direction!

Deduplication Coming to Primary Storage

September 16, 2008

Although deduplication of storage is nothing new, with Data Domain and other making hay with the technique for years, it has never been ready for prime time – reduction of active primary storage applications like email and databases. Instead, deduplication has been relegated to second- or third-tier status, deduplicating archives and backup data. But change is in the air, and deduplication vendors are starting to bustle towards the bright lights of primary storage.

Microsoft: Kill the Craptops Before They Destroy Windows!

January 7, 2013

Release after release, Microsoft pushes Windows forward. Yet the operating system is continually undermined by the “value-focused” low-end machines pushed by the majority of OEMs. This race to the bottom has tarnished Windows for a decade and now threatens to derail Windows 8. Microsoft must do something to stop the crap before it’s too late!

Sony NEX-5 Camera Review

September 15, 2010

The world of photography is like so many others: A vast gulf separates the amateurs and enthusiasts, from equipment to nomenclature to skills. I am decidedly in the amateur camp when it comes to photography, but I recently upgraded to a new compact interchangeable-lense camera, the Sony alpha NEX-5. It is an excellent match for my needs, allowing me to expand my skills and explore more advanced photographic techniques without sacrificing portability and ease of use.

Why Are PCIe SSDs So Fast?

June 12, 2013

The world of storage can be confusing, with obscure terms hiding massive differences in technology and performance. Such is the case for the latest PCI express SSDs: They are much faster than traditional SAS or SATA SSDs, but many aren’t sure exactly why. In this article, I will try to explain the real difference.

What’s the Deal with Containers?

October 21, 2016

Lately, it seems like everyone just can’t stop talking about containers. But I’m sensing a distinct lack of real understanding of the technology from many people, not to mention lots of confusion about what containers really mean for today’s datacenter folks. So I set about learning more and figuring out for myself what the deal is with containers. Here’s where I’m at.

Co-Processors, GPGPU, and Heterogeneous Computing

June 26, 2017

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about microprocessors, from the many-core CPUs that AMD and Intel introduced recently to the massively scalable GPGPU processing that’s taking machine learning by storm. After years of consolidation on commodity x86 CPUs, it seems that the computing paradigm is turning again to specialized offload processors. This trend towards heterogeneous computing will change the face of hardware, from mobile devices to the datacenter.

Defining Failure: What Is MTTR, MTTF, and MTBF?

July 6, 2011

Most computer industry vendors use the term â€œMTBFâ€ rather indiscriminately. But IT pros know that systems do not magically repair themselves, at least not yet, so MTTR and MTTF are just as important!