Integration software and middleware
IT integration is an important but often complex aspect of IT strategy, and is essential to any organisation that require efficient sharing of information between different products sourced from many suppliers. Every major vendor has their own integration software and middleware offerings, including messaging and enterprise application integration, and making the right choice for your organisation is critical. We examine the latest trends and technologies.
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News
20 Jul 2021
Volvo: Our friends in software
We speak to Volvo’s head of software platform about the company’s strategy to build a software-defined car Continue Reading
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News
04 Aug 2020
Nordic enterprises look for SAP price reductions as they navigate Covid-19
Businesses in the Nordics are using SAP Cloud Platform to address Covid-19 challenges and are also seeking price reductions Continue Reading
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Photo Story
13 Jun 2011
Review: Visual Studio ALM
The benefits of making software development more transparent Continue Reading
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News
17 May 2011
IBM qualification courses rolled out in Scottish universities
IBM has introduced qualification courses for its Power systems and System z mainframes throughout Scottish universities and colleges. Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2011
SMB IT spending seeing significant growth
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are increasing IT budgets and recruiting more IT skills Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2011
Troops in danger as outdated systems at the MoD reach meltdown
Outdated IT systems at the The Ministry of Defence (MoD) are reaching meltdown, with the risk of seriously affecting troops' ability to carry out operations, a National Audit Office report has found. Continue Reading
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News
11 Feb 2011
BMW's Aida project on song with DS's V6 PLM system
BMW has selected Dassault Systèmes' V6 product lifecycle management (PLM) software for its cars' future electrical, electronics, and embedded software (E/E)... Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2011
Rackspace launches system administrator app
Rackspace has launched an app that allows a CIO or system administrator to dial up or take down servers and storage moment by moment. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jan 2011
What can businesses learn about real-time monitoring from the BP oil spill?
The full report on the BP oil-well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has been released, revealing that its real-time data monitoring systems need to be improved. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jan 2011
Toptable.com selects Zeus Technology software for traffic management
Restaurant-booking site, Toptable.com, has chosen Zeus Technology's software-based traffic management application to manage its web traffic. Continue Reading
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News
05 Jan 2011
BCS CEO David Clarke talks about the future of the IT industry
David Clarke, CEO of the chartered institute of computing the BCS, talks to Computer Weekly about being awarded an MBE, the future of the IT profession and tackling a membership revolt against his leadership last year. Continue Reading
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News
20 Dec 2010
Government shelves FiReControl
The government’s costly and overrunning FiReControl project has been axed. FiReControl has been cancelled because of serious delays with the EADS contract (now Cassidian) which began in 2004 and cost £225m. Continue Reading
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News
10 Feb 2009
Added critical data protection for SMBs
New technology aiming to solve small and medium size businesses’ perennial problems with protecting business critical data Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Nov 2007
How to select a storage capacity planning tool
To select a storage management and capacity planning tool, first calculate how much storage is available and how much of your total storage capacity is actually being used. Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2007
Riverbed posts profit, but stock slips
Riverbed reports higher sales, but its stock fell 25% on a poor rating from financial analysts. Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2007
DreamWorks draws on storage for animation
DreamWorks' senior technologist says it takes a lot of emerging storage technologies to make an animation movie. Continue Reading
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News
14 Oct 2007
VMware takes on data migration
VMware supports migrating data between disc arrays with Storage VMotion, changing the equation between server and storage virtualisation devices. Continue Reading
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News
04 Oct 2007
Pillar announces support for 1 TB SATA drives
Pillar is one of the earliest to announce 1 TB SATA drives in an enterprise array. IBM's SVC becomes the first storage virtualization product certified with VMware. Continue Reading
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News
16 Sep 2007
3PAR adds tiered storage management tool
The new version of the System Reporter management tool for 3PAR's high-end arrays now includes monitoring for tiered storage environments. Continue Reading
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News
28 Aug 2007
Data archives overview
When a file is lost due to user error, or data is corrupted because of system problems, the affected data can be restored from a backup. An archive is different from a backup because the data may not be used for months, even years, but must be accessed quickly when needed. There is simply no time to search through burgeoning volumes of tape or optical media to locate important files. Traditional backup platforms are poorly suited for archival data storage, and users are relying on disk storage systems for a mix of performance and reliability. Files can be archived to any disk storage system, but content-addressed storage (CAS) technology has appeared to support archiving efforts. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Aug 2007
Backup reporting expands to add capacity planning
Aptare adds capacity planning for primary data storage to its product line, joining Symantec in recent attempts to broaden the appeal of reporting software. Continue Reading
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News
17 Aug 2007
HDS, HP simplify high-end disk array pricing
Users of the new USP-V disk array from HDS and the XP24000 disk array from HP will now pay less for attaching external storage, as well as capacity. Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2007
Data backup copies overview
How do you choose a storage copy technology? The best choices usually involve need and cost, vendor support, and technological compatibility/longevity. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2007
Buying Guide for NAS management software
Learn the key evaluation factors for purchasing NAS management software in this Buying Guide. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2007
NAS appliance purchase considerations
NAS appliances are frequently touted for bringing convenience and simplicity to network storage. Appliances include their own dedicated disks for storage and RAID, and most NAS appliances can be upgraded with more or larger disks for additional storage space. However, NAS appliances do pose some disadvantages. Consequently, the choice of NAS appliance requires careful evaluation. Now that you've reviewed the essential issues involved in any NAS product, this guide focuses on specific considerations for dedicated NAS appliances. You'll also find a series of specifications to help make on-the-spot product comparisons between vendors. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2007
Sun adds virtual tape library to Thumper
Analysts say the combo of FalconStor's software, Solaris and Thumper is a good sign of integration from Sun after a disorganised year, but it's unclear if users will be convinced. Continue Reading
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News
08 Aug 2007
NAS appliance specifications
NAS appliances are noted for their convenience, offering dedicated internal storage that is relatively straightforward to identify and manage. The biggest issue for NAS appliances is avoiding network bottlenecks and supporting expansion without having to proliferate additional appliances across the network. The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of major NAS appliance products. Continue Reading
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News
07 Aug 2007
Application-aware storage promises intelligence and automation
Storage professionals overbuy both performance and capacity in an effort to forestall potential storage problems. Tiered storage was one way to address this problem -- matching storage resources and costs with the value of data. Today, storage is poised to build on this notion with application-aware storage, using business policies to bring autonomy and intelligence to enterprise storage. Still, there is a great deal of confusion surrounding this technology, its capabilities and its deployment. Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2007
Fixed-content data archiving products get a boost
Caringo, EMC and HDS spruce up their fixed-content data archiving products as buzz around compliance and legal discovery continues. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jul 2007
EMC reports Clariion surge, data archiving slump
EMC's revenues are up this quarter, attributed in part to a big boost in Clariion sales, but CEO Joe Tucci is critical of the company's execution in data archiving. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2007
Hifn buys Siafu for storage security, data reduction
Chipmaker Hifn is looking to get into storage systems. It says OEMs are already lined up for encrypted iSCSI SAN and primary storage data reduction products. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2007
XenSource embeds Symantec storage software
Server virtualisation firm XenSource embeds Symantec's storage management software into its hypervisor Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Jul 2007
Data migration product specifications
Part of the Tiered Storage Buying guide focusing on product specifications for data migration tools. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jul 2007
Data storage startups emerge from stealth
Three new storage firms have come out of stealth mode this June. Analysts predict the next new crop of startups will focus on wireless storage, reporting and alternatives to RAID. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Jun 2007
State agency tiers records storage with Compellent
The South Carolina attorney general's office estimates it will save thousands by storing millions of paper records in digital format using Compellent's automated tiered storage. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jun 2007
IBM chief engineer talks green storage
IBM engineer Clod Barrera discusses the growing energy crisis in storage, the need for better power efficiency metrics and the future for "green" products. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Jun 2007
Storage Decisions Downloads: Executives' storage guide
Ideas of where firms' storage should be and where it's headed. Also key ways to integrate new technologies, processes and ideas without going over budget. Continue Reading
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News
24 May 2007
Symantec, Huawei form joint storage, security company
Symantec has formed a joint venture with storage and networking hardware company Huawei and indicated jointly developed products are coming to the US Continue Reading
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News
21 May 2007
EMC users push for better power consumption
EMC announces a 1.8 PB VTL, deduplication for VMware and bare-metal restore for servers as users caution the company to stay focused on everyday problems, such as power consumption. Continue Reading
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News
10 May 2007
EMC buys Indigo Stone for bare-metal restore
EMC has been hush-hush about adding Indigo Stone, a bare-metal restore software company, to its stack of acquisitions. Continue Reading
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Feature
10 May 2007
ISCSI TCP/IP TOE card specifications
Key specifications for a cross-section of popular iSCSI TOE cards. Continue Reading
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News
07 May 2007
Is RAID in general an obsolete technology today?
This is a technology that is so commonly used, so transparent, that we really don't even think about it... Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2007
NetApp VP says storage virtualization overrated
NetApp's vice president of emerging products, Jay Kidd, discusses storage virtualization, competition with Isilon and NetApp's current identity crisis. Continue Reading
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News
24 Apr 2007
Scaling storage networks demands careful consideration
In the Fibre Channel world, scaling often means adding more and faster switch ports to extend the fabric's bandwidth and connectivity. But IP storage (mainly iSCSI) is a growing area of SAN expansion, using ubiquitous Ethernet network technology to pass storage data between storage devices. This requires the use of IP switches and routers, and can involve the deployment of iSCSI TOE host adapters to offload iSCSI traffic from the local server's CPU. This Buying Guide is intended to help clarify the principle considerations involved scaling storage networks and each chapter offers a set of buying points and product specifications that can help readers identify prospective new scaling products. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Apr 2007
Storage consolidation: SRM tools overview
SRM tools are an important part of storage consolidation. They allow admins to monitor the storage environment, allocate and organise available storage, and offer insights into future trends. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2007
Weekly compilation of storage news:Dell LTO-4 drive, new Sun array
Dell is first out of the gate with the new LTO-4 drive, which offers native encryption; Sun unveils new array and deepens its relationship with FalconStor. Continue Reading
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News
17 Apr 2007
Storage consolidation: Disks and disk subsystems overview
Any storage consolidation effort must involve a serious consideration of disk subsystems and the specific disk types that those systems will contain Continue Reading
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News
10 Apr 2007
Capacity planning software specifications
Gauging storage needs over time is one of the biggest challenges faced by IT administrators, and a new generation of capacity planning tools is emerging to help forecast growth and utilisation of storage resources. Continue Reading
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News
27 Mar 2007
Storage newcomers fight uphill battle
Gresham is newly marketing its VTL product to mixed U.S. reviews, and Australian file management player Moonwalk is inching its way onto U.S. radar screens. Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2007
What are some of the other options available to help manage unstructured data?
Eliminate unnecessary data from your production storage. This typically involves moving the unnecessary data to a different tier or deleting the data entirely... Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2007
Should I use data deduplication to manage unstructured data?
Absolutely; there are two areas where data deduplication, or single-instance storage, can help... Continue Reading
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News
22 Mar 2007
Midrange storage array purchase considerations
A Buying Guide focusing on specific considerations for midrange disk array systems. Also find a series of specifications to help make on-the-spot product comparisons between v Continue Reading
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News
22 Mar 2007
Midrange storage array specifications
Product snapshots highlighting key specifications for a cross section of midrange storage array products. Continue Reading
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News
14 Mar 2007
Emulex launches storage virtualization appliance
Emulex has packaged a chip from its Aarohi acquisition into an appliance that could be a lower cost hardware platform for storage virtualization software products. Continue Reading
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News
13 Mar 2007
NEC reveals HydraStor grid storage
NEC announces its HydraStor array for secondary storage, touting its grid storage architecture, automated policies for data management and scalable deduplication. Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Mar 2007
Is RAID outdated?
I would suggest that perhaps it is time for us to retire RAID in its current form. Continue Reading
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News
19 Feb 2007
When security firms merge, some users are losers
Some users see their services improve when IT security vendors merge with other companies or get acquired. Others say they've been left out in the cold. Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
What are the disadvantages of unified storage over independent block and file systems?
There are some compromises that you'll need to make; there are certainly some control granularity issues. The pattern of access for file-based data and block-based data is significantly different... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
Is there any reliability difference with unified storage?
There are a few minor differences, but usually not a significant difference... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
What does unified storage really mean?
This can often be confusing once you read vendors' marketing materials. Simply stated, unified storage [or multiprotocol storage] refers to a single storage system that can support both file and block access... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
What is the advantage of having unified storage?
There is debate about that. Many customers may prefer to have just one storage system, avoiding specialized storage systems, like NAS for file-based access or a complicated block-based storage system... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
What about the system features, like snapshot and remote replication?
At this point in time, most customers expect to have these features in both block- and file-based storage products... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
What will be the impact on performance when mixing block and file in the same system?
Caching difficulties are one concern since caching patterns may not be optimized for block-based storage... Continue Reading
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News
05 Feb 2007
Do all the vendors offer unified storage?
No. Some vendors are moving in that direction and others have a limited number of OEM product offerings now. However, several vendors currently offer established products... Continue Reading
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News
04 Feb 2007
HP fills in gaps with product updates
HP announced updates to several of its products, but analysts are wondering what its ultimate strategy will be for storage virtualisation. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jan 2007
Hybrid drives hit NAS boxes
DNF will be making hybrid drives available in all of its storage products, but it doesn't recommend them for IP SANs. Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Jan 2007
Vendors: Cut the hype, truth is what sells
Storage virtualisation technologies have been purchased and implemented successfully for years. The rest of the IT infrastructure must try to catch up and, ultimately, the only thing not virtualised within the datacentre will be the last guy standing. Continue Reading
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News
08 Jan 2007
What has been the impact of storage virtualization on SAN deployments?
I really have not seen storage virtualization driving storage area network (SAN) deployment... Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Jan 2007
Storage Outlook '07: In search of better data management
Brian Peterson, storage architect for a Midwest-based Fortune 100 company, says better data management and business processes will be the main goal in 2007. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Dec 2006
Cleversafe envisions a new world of storage
An organisation led by the inventor of the wireless thin client aims to combine storage and the Internet, and change how we think of both storage and computing. Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Dec 2006
Top storage tips 2006
What's on the minds of storage techies. What's hot, what's not, what works, what doesn't work. These expert tips cover the storage issues that take top honours when it comes to disaster recovery, NAS, SAN, backup and storage management. Continue Reading
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News
30 Nov 2006
Symantec blames piracy for Veritas licensing snafu
Weekly compilation of storage news: Symantec says that software counterfeiting is throwing a wrench in tech support ; FRCP rules take effect. Continue Reading
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News
26 Nov 2006
Storage management tools get more flexible
After a decade of proprietary storage management tools, vendors are finally giving users more choices and freeing them up to buy only what they need. Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2006
Backup software: BakBone upsets in Quality Awards
This year's Diogenes Labs-Storage magazine Quality Awards for backup software had a come-from-behind winner: BakBone's NetVault. Continue Reading
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News
09 Nov 2006
IBM announces 'bulletproofed' midrange arrays
New additions to the DS4000 line will feature built-in batteries and sealed enclosures to be in compliance with the telecom industry's NEBS standard. Continue Reading
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News
08 Nov 2006
Storage virtualization acquisitions need careful consideration
Storage virtualization alleviates traditional storage growth problems by implementing a layer of abstraction between applications and physical storage, allowing storage to be combined and treated as a ubiquitous resource, regardless of location. This buying guide helps you understand the most important considerations involved in storage virtualization product selection, identifies specific points of interest for software, hardware and VSAN product categories, and presents a series of basic product specifications that will start you pick the best product for your organization. Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2006
NetApp to acquire Topio
Six months after EMC acquired heterogeneous replication provider Kashya, NetApp jumps on the bandwagon by announcing plans to acquire Topio for $160M. Continue Reading
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News
26 Oct 2006
What storage managers are buying and why
The second installment of the 2006 edition of Storage magazine's exclusive Purchasing Intentions Survey reveals key storage technology purchasing decisions by storage managers across all industries. Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2006
SATA boosts RAID 6 use
High-capacity SATA disks are driving up the use of RAID 6, which has prompted vendors to create new ways of overcoming the performance hit incurred with dual-parity protection. Continue Reading
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News
14 Sep 2006
Three ways to create clustered storage
Clustered storage systems run on storage servers, NAS gateways and hosts. Here's how to determine which clustered file-system architecture is best for your needs and storage environment. Continue Reading
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News
11 Sep 2006
Data storage compliance's impact on storage product choices
Data storage compliance is having a tremendous impact on the storage organization, as well as the management practices employed to retain, search, certify and destroy data. It's not just regulations like SOX or HIPAA that influence storage -- there are well over 10,000 regulations that affect data storage, backup and protection across a range of industries. But companies are often left alone in their quest to identify the regulations that relate to them, identify what data should be saved and implement storage to meet those regulations. This article covers the essential goals of data storage compliance, examines implementation considerations and obstacles and reviews the impact of compliance on storage. Continue Reading
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News
21 Aug 2006
IBM spruces up storage line
IBM floated a raft of announcements across its storage line, but analysts say they are still waiting for the updates stuck in the research phase. Continue Reading
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News
14 Aug 2006
EMC sheds light on RSA integration plans
As the dust begins to settle on EMC's $2.1 billion acquisition of RSA Security, the hard work of integration begins. What's EMC strategy here? Continue Reading
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News
02 Aug 2006
SRM tools improve storage planning and deployment
Why are storage administrators struggling to identify their storage resources and utilise those resources to their best potential? Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2006
Resellers come around to storage virtualization
Storage virtualisation has been around as a concept for years, but value added resellers are finally finding ways to sell it. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Jun 2006
Storage Word Search: Summer IT fun
How about some summer storage fun? Try out SearchStorage.com's Word Search game. See if you can find the 15 terms listed. Continue Reading
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News
19 Oct 2005
Elements of a data protection strategy
In this excerpt from Data Protection and Lifecycle Management, Tom Petrocelli addresses the importance of securing data for regulatory compliance and outlines the five components of a data protection strategy. Continue Reading
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News
20 Sep 2005
SAS drives product roundup
Serial-attached SCSI (or SAS) drives offer significant storage capacity at a much lower cost, while maintaining reasonable performance. Find out who the vendors are in this market. Continue Reading
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News
12 Jul 2005
Tony Asaro: Blogs and more
Read what Tony Asaro is talking about in this month's blog, and listen to him speak in a number of webcasts. Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Mar 2005
Managed services: Looking to the long term
IT directors looking for an easy way to manage increasing volumes of data by buying more hardware could be storing up problems... Continue Reading
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News
22 Feb 2005
Accommodating arrays
Modern storage arrays offer disk types to meet any need -- costly Fibre Channel (FC) disks for high-end applications requiring superior performance and availability, and lower-priced SATA disks for less-critical data. The arrays also come with mixed RAID configurations. But selecting the right mix of disks and RAID levels requires understanding the impact of those decisions. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Dec 2004
Grid gobbledygook hits storage
Fearful as always of missing the boat, storage vendors are jumping on the grid bandwagon, unveiling visions that are about as useful today as a chocolate teapot. Continue Reading
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News
09 Dec 2004
Data storage history quiz
We tend to take storage for granted these days, and expect bigger, better and faster performance out of our hardware and software. But did you know that storage has a long and illustrious history that started out not so big or so fast? Take our data storage history quiz and see how much you know about the beginning of data storage. You just might be surprised. Continue Reading
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News
31 Oct 2004
Fast Guide: Storage Management
Managing your storage infrastructure has never been harder. Complex systems, unbelievable data growth rates and squabbling vendors are just a few of the issues hampering your ability to manage storage. This Fast Guide to storage management has everything you need to learn how to plan your storage environment, make sure it's running smoothly and stay on top of the trends fueling the next generation of storage management. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jul 2004
Enterprise-class RAID functions, part 2: N-way mirroring, splitting and more
With the convergence of RAID and lower-priced storage technologies, advanced RAID functions can be enjoyed by any small-to-medium sized organization with critical data. Continue Reading
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News
01 Jun 2004
Startup steals a win with thin provisioning
The Allant Group chose 3Pardata for its thin provisioning software, while dirty sales tactics kept EMC out of the deal. Continue Reading
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News
10 May 2004
'Whispering keyboards' could be next attack trend
An IBM researcher's found a way to lift passcodes and other sensitive data by recording the sound of keystrokes. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jul 2002
EMC and HP allow mix and match storage
Rivals EMC and Hewlett-Packard have agreed to expand a cross-licensing agreement for certain storage system application... Continue Reading
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News
10 Jan 2001
SMS to boost open system productivity
Tivoli is promising to bring the benefits of system managed storage (SMS) to the open systems world with its Storage Tank... Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Oct 1999
White Paper: Software solutions for effective network power management
Uncertain power conditions can wreak havoc on small businesses, however, there are ways to limit the risk of computer data loss Continue Reading