Storage

CW ANZ: June 2016

Read how scientists at a major Australian university are benefiting from the latest storage technology to help them get the most out of advanced IT already in place. More than 100 scientific teams share the sophisticated high-performance computer facilities at Monash University’s eResearch Centre in Melbourne, Australia. To help scientists get the best from the computing facilities, Monash built a state-of-the-art software-defined storage cluster using open source technologies and cost efficient hardware from Dell. Continue Reading

CW ASEAN: June 2016

In this issue we look at a software-defined approach to storage management that combines storage, compute, networking and virtualization technologies. We find out how popular these hyper-converged and converged storage systems are among organizations in Southeast Asia and consider why organizations would move production systems to these. Also read whether Asian CIOs are ready for Docker and container technology. Containers are all the rage among developers. They are well suited to DevOps best practices due to their portability, fast deployment times and standard units of operations. We look at whether Asian CIOs are ready to use this open source technology to build, test and run applications in their organizations. Continue Reading

It makes sense to go hyperscale/hyper-converged

Hyperscale computing and storage are the norm for web giants. Hyper-converged scenarios make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain the advantages of combined server/storage nodes Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

PCIe SSD: Cache vs storage tier

Adding PCIe flash is a popular way of speeding up application response times, with more rapid I/O guaranteed, but should PCIe SSD be added as cache or as a tier of storage? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Lawmaker Vaizey hails UK role in resolving datacentre sovereignty issues

Digital economy minister talks up government’s work in supporting the growth of the UK’s technology sector Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Software-defined storage the power behind Monash University microscopes

Australian academic institute uses the technology to help it deal with huge – and still growing – storage demands Continue Reading

By

• Bill Bennett

Amazon S3 storage 101: Object storage in the cloud

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) has emerged as a de facto standard for accessing data in the cloud. We run the rule over S3, its key attributes and what you need to know to use it with your applications Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

IBM all-flash family gets cloud and enterprise A9000 and A9000R

IBM announces two all-flash arrays – the modular A9000 and rack A9000R, aimed at service providers and enterprises – and the mainframe-connected DS8888 Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

HDS G series arrays get native NAS and cloud as a storage tier

VSP G series enterprise hybrid flash arrays see addition of native NAS functionality on a controller card plus cloud as a storage tier via Hitachi Content Platform Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK poised to lead global fintech sector, says Tech City chair Eileen Burbidge

Tech City chair and venture capital expert says the UK is in a position to become a world leader in financial services and sheds light on how cloud can provide failing firms with a stay of execution Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

How IT in a portacabin supports £1bn London Bridge station overhaul

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how a temporary IT set-up based in a portacabin is supporting the UK’s largest critical infrastructure project – the £1bn redevelopment of London Bridge train station. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at converged infrastructure products. And we analyse research showing data protection topping the list of UK security priorities. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

CW@50: Storage – From punched cards to flash and the cloud

Since the launch of Computer Weekly in 1966, we have moved from a world of punched cards and paper tape to one where flash and the cloud have revolutionised data storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

SimpliVity adds Hyper-V support to hyper-converged products

Hyper-converged appliance maker adds Hyper-V support to VMware ESXi capabilities and upgrades OmniStack software to support workload optimisation on SimpliVity clusters Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Zerto adds file level recovery to Virtual Replication

Cross-hypervisor, storage-agnostic Zerto Virtual Replication version 4.5 allows customers to recover files to any point in time, such as prior to deletion, virus or corruption Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

OSNexus unlocks Ceph object storage in QuantaStor v4

Software-defined storage maker OSNexus adds Ceph-based object storage to its QuantaStor product, adding it to block and file storage from ZFS, Gluster and Ceph Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

GDS preps guidance for third-party suppliers to deliver 'government as a platform'

Government Digital Service (GDS) chief insists "pragmatic extensions" to outsourcing contracts implies nothing permanent in push for "government as a platform" (GaaP) Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

US hospital claims to have fought off a ransomware attack

A hospital in Kentucky claims to have regained control of its IT systems five days after cyber criminals hit it with a ransomware attack Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

AWS and Microsoft UK datacentre plans could upset SME-rich Digital Marketplace, Kable warns

SME G-Cloud providers told to brace themselves for increasing competitive threats from AWS, Microsoft and Oracle once their UK datacentres open Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Britain to pay billions for monster internet surveillance network

New questions raised about Britain’s snoopers’ charter after Denmark abandons its own UK-style surveillance programme for a second time Continue Reading

By

• Duncan Campbell , 2QQ Ltd, Sussex University

AWS at 10: How the cloud giant shook up enterprise IT

A decade on from the launch of its first cloud service, the UK managing director of Amazon Web Services reflects on its first 10 years in business Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Dropbox invests in building out on-premise storage as user numbers soar

Cloud-based file share and sync service reveals details of its hybrid cloud strategy, which has seen it invest large sums in building its own on-premise infrastructure Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Examining the Teradata Data Warehouse

With both relational and columnar options, the Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse gives companies an efficient, scalable appliance they can deploy in-house or in the cloud. Continue Reading

By

• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

CSA outlines CIOs’ top 12 cloud security concerns

Cloud Security Alliance’s research team uncovers the “dirty dozen” off-premise threats Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

AWS cuts cloud data transfer fees for academic and research user groups

Cloud services giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) rolls out discounts in bid to lower the cost barrier to making scientific discoveries Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Datacentre heat reuse: Why aren’t more operators doing it?

With the datacentre industry’s sustainability habits coming under increasingly close scrutiny, we find out why operators are not rushing to reuse their waste heat Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

CW Europe: February 2016

In Europe cloud is restricted and hybrid setups make use of local compute and storage. Continue Reading

What to expect from Oracle Exadata Database Machine

Oracle Exadata Database Machine combines hardware and software to enable analytics, batch, reporting and other tasks to run simultaneously within and across databases. Continue Reading

By

• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

Case study: SEO startup uses Elastichosts’ containers to solve cloud app scalability issues

Search engine optimisation startup talks about the challenges of running unpredictable, resource-hungry applications in the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

How AstraZeneca saved $350m by insourcing IT

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to find out why it brought its outsourced IT back in-house, and how it saved $350m per year as a result. As the data protection debate rages around Europe, we ask if the new EU/US Privacy Shield agreement will protect citizens’ data. And we examine the relative merits of datacentre colocation and the cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Netflix is now 100% all-in on the AWS cloud

Streaming firm details the challenges it faced during seven-year push to wind down its datacentres and move everything into the AWS public cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

The OpenStack Foundation: Building enterprise trust in open-source clouds

With HMRC and the European Commission emerging as OpenStack adopters, the OpenStack Foundation's CEO explains how it has set about winning over the enterprise with its open-source cloud platform Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Cisco recalls Ethernet switches over fault risk

A potential fault on a number of IE-5000 switches could give users a nasty shock, says supplier Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft’s underwater datacentre: The pros and cons of running subsea facilities

Underwater datacentres can help providers save on land costs and cooling, but at what cost to the environment? Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

TfL shifts corporate archive to AWS public cloud in digital preservation push

London transport authority has begun moving its first 3TB of corporate archive data to the AWS cloud with the help of Preservica Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Cloud storage appliances: What they are and who provides them

We look at the cloud storage appliance market – everything from local gateway presentation of the cloud, via hybrid cloud, to the new generation of cloud-resident appliances Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Unaligned I/O: A storage performance killer

As the stack piles higher – with virtual servers, their virtual disks and guest operating systems – the scope for unaligned or misaligned I/O to affect performance increases Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Is government surveillance going too far?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the UK prepares new laws on surveillance and data collection, we hear from security experts on the challenges of balancing privacy and security and their insider view on GHCQ and the NSA. We examine the growing threat of ransomware and how to tackle it. And we look at the implications of new EU data protection rules. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

The National Holocaust Centre uses public cloud for digital preservation project

The National Holocaust Centre and Museum (NHCM) turns to public cloud provider Datacentred to help preserve stories of World War II survivors Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

NAS vs object: Which one for large volumes of unstructured data?

Both NAS and object storage offer highly scalable file storage for large volumes of unstructured data, but which is right for your environment? Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

How open source is beating proprietary software

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide assesses the impact of open source software on corporate IT and how its growth is underpinning the digital revolution. We examine the prospects for cloud in financial services as regulators give their approval. And we ask if Uber is really part of a new business model for the so-called sharing economy. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Interview: James Bamford on surveillance, Snowden and technology companies

Investigative journalist and documentary maker James Bamford was among the first to uncover the secrets of the US National Security Agency and its global surveillance Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Top 10 storage stories of 2015

The year 2015 in storage was dominated by the continued rise of flash and Dell’s purchase of EMC, but there were steady upticks in trends such as hyper-converged and software-defined storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Top 10 cloud computing stories of 2015

Computer Weekly's top 10 cloud computing stories of 2015 Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Case study: Airbus sets out challenges of changing IT supplier

Aircraft manufacturer sets out what it learned from switching IT provider after 12 years of working together. Continue Reading

CW Europe – December 2015

In this issue we study the meteoric rise of flash storage in Europe. Initially perceived as an expensive and high risk investment, flash has become mainstream and by the end of the decade will be present in the vast majority of the continent's datacentres. Continue Reading

Case study: Airbus sets out challenges of changing IT supplier

Aircraft manufacturer sets out what it learned from switching IT provider after 12 years of working together Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Disaster recovery planning: Where virtualisation can help

The disaster recovery planning process is not fundamentally technology-centric, so when can virtualisation make it quicker and easier to restore services after an unplanned outage? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

The most influential people in UK IT 2015

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we announce our sixth annual UKtech50 list of the 50 most influential people in UK IT, and talk to this year’s winner – BT chief executive Gavin Patterson, about the challenges facing the telecoms giant in 2016. Also, we find out how the genomics industry is pushing big data technology to its limits. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Top five things to know about flash and storage tiering

Automated storage tiering boosts storage efficiency and saves money, but why is tiering different from caching, why is it suited to use with flash and how do suppliers differ? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Microsoft steps up efforts to clarify cloud security and privacy policy

Microsoft debuts merged security information hub to make it easier for cloud users to find out more about the privacy and security policies of its hosted products Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Snapshots: Hypervisor vs Array

Snapshots are a valuable part of the data protection toolkit, but where is it best to run them from – the hypervisor or the storage array? We look at the pros and cons Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Equinix rolls out AWS Direct Connect in Slough datacentre

Datacentre provider launches private internet connection to Amazon Web Services to help customers build hybrid clouds Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

DDN revamp adds SFA14K plus hyper-converged and all-flash options

DataDirect Networks upgrades core HPC storage arrays to create SFA14K, and adds hyper-converged SFA14KE plus all-flash IME14K front end to smooth I/O bottlenecks Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Snoopers’ charter will force ISPs to raise broadband prices

The Science and Technology Select Committee hears that ISPs may be forced to put up their service charges to cover the cost of retaining communications data, should the Investigatory Powers Bill become law Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Object storage: Cloud vs in-house

Object storage is a rising star in data storage, especially for cloud and web use. But what are the pros and cons of cloud object storage or building in-house? Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Hewlett Packard Enterprise: think of us as a startup

As Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc finally part ways, UK managing director Andy Isherwood shares some insight on what the future holds for the newly minted enterprise business Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Lack of data classification very costly to firms, says survey

Most data retained by organisations is not identified or classified and gobbles budget spent on storage, as well as being potentially non-compliant, reveals Veritas-sponsored survey Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Commvault drops Simpana brand and adds features

Commvault will drop the Simpana name from the end of 2015 as it opens up to third-party data and attempts to bridge the gap between backup and replication Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Google offers free cloud apps to encourage Office 365 users to ditch Microsoft

Google ups ante in ongoing war to dethrone Microsoft as the enterprise's preferred provider of cloud-based productivity tools Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

VMware reacts to the cloud and containerisation

At VMworld Europe, VMware restates products and roadmap visions that see it react to the perceived inevitability of the cloud, while also getting a grip on containers Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Dell set to buy storage company EMC

Two years after his audacious bid to reinvent the company he founded by re-privatising it, Michael Dell has put in a bid for storage giant EMC Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

EU Data Protection Regulation: What the EC legislation means for cloud providers

With the European Commission's data protection rules set to drop before 2016, take a look at what the changes mean for the cloud and datacentre community Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Virtualisation and disaster recovery: DR features in Hyper-V

We run the rule over the key functionality in Microsoft Hyper-V that can help with disaster recovery, including backup, migration, high availability and replication Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Keeping up with Cassandra, the NoSQL database

What does Call of Duty, the Hive smart thermostats, Social Weather and the William Hill bookie app all have in common? They are all powered by the Apache Cassandra NoSQL database Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Virtualisation and disaster recovery: DR features in VMware

The key areas of functionality in VMware that can help with disaster recovery – including VMware backup, migration, high availability and replication Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Legal documents reveal HP's failings over Autonomy

The board of Hewlett-Packard (HP) knew about Autonomy’s failings – yet voted the $11.1bn acquisition through regardless, internal memos have revealed Continue Reading

Apple's Irish datacentre build hit by possible planning permission appeal delay

A "valid appeal" has reportedly been raised in response to Galway County Council's decision to grant conditional planning permission for Apple's Irish datacentre build Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Flash in NAS file access storage: Does it need it – and, if so, how much?

While flash is rapidly going mainstream for primary storage with the all-flash datacentre, does NAS file access storage need flash – and, if so, how much? Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

UK CIOs lament lack of IT support for cloud services

Research from ElasticHosts suggests most cloud users are unhappy with the level of tech support they receive from their providers Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Cloudian boosts object storage HyperStore compliance features

Distributed object storage software maker Cloudian upgrades HyperStore with added granularity of data protection features that can help meet compliance requirements Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

SanDisk InfiniFlash flash arrays get Nexenta software-defined storage

SanDisk offers its all-flash array InfiniFlash IF100 with Nexenta's storage software on-board in another move in the trend towards choice in storage hardware and software deployments Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Computer Weekly – 25 August 2015: Coping with a crisis

In this week’s Computer Weekly, IT leaders discuss their experiences of dealing with disaster and the importance of planning to ensure business continuity. Jaeger’s CIO talks about bring the iconic fashion brand into the digital age. And we look at the issues around writing supplier contracts for agile software development. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cloud storage service Wuala to close in November

Seagate-owned cloud storage player confirms its closure and gives users three months' notice to remove their data from its servers Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

IaaS providers pin hopes on spending cut reprieve for G-Cloud 7

G-Cloud suppliers are calling on the government to step up, rather than scale back, investment in the framework as spending cuts loom Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Will digital government remain on course?

In this week's Computer Weekly, the UK government's digital chief has announced his shock departure, but what will it mean for the future of digital public services? Dell went back to a private company two years ago – has it proved to be a successful move? And our latest buyer's guide looks at big data appliances. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Netflix shuts down final datacentre to go all-in on public cloud

Netflix is gearing up for the closure of its final datacentre, as it makes good on its earlier pledge to move more of its IT infrastructure to the public cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Data unlocks personalised customer service

In this week's Computer Weekly, we examine how companies are starting to use big data analytics to deliver more personalised customer services. We talk to the government's IT procurement chief about improving public sector tech purchasing. And Volvo's CIO tells us how connected cars will reshape the automotive sector. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

OpenStack Swift 101: the object store for OpenStack apps

We run the rule over the OpenStack Swift object storage architecture, its key components, how it achieves resiliency and the data protection methods in use and development Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

All-flash vs hybrid flash for virtual desktop storage

With massive random I/O and a huge bias towards writes, virtual desktop storage – especially for the more feature-rich VDI 2.0 – requires the speed of all-flash and hybrid flash storage Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

TLC flash storage: What it is and what it's good for

We run the rule over triple-level cell (TLC) flash: What it is, how it performs, what it's good for, why it's a competitor to disk, and how it's all been made possible Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Genomics England rejects open source to deploy EMC Isilon HPC storage

100,000 Genomes Project rejects building open-source parallel file system on x86 servers and opts for EMC Isilon clustered NAS deployed by Capita S3 Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015 winners revealed

The winners have been announced for the Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015. See who made the top spots Continue Reading

By

• Kayleigh Bateman, Computer Weekly

OpenStack Cinder: Block storage on the open-source cloud platform

OpenStack Cinder 101: The fundamentals of Cinder, how it is implemented, how to provision it, how it works with third-party storage arrays, its features and more Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

NetApp adds AFF All-Flash FAS 8000 series storage arrays

NetApp boosts its SSD array portfolio with the addition of AFF All-Flash FAS 8000 series storage arrays built on Data ONTAP, but still no sign of FlashRay general availability Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Veritas plans to revive backup fortunes with big data analytics

Symantec spin-out Veritas plans major backup product releases that leverage metadata to make backups more efficient and unlock valuable information via big data capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Council dodges £300,000 NetApp outlay with Atlantis flash caching

Somerset local authority avoids spending £300,000 on extra hard drives for its NetApp arrays and pays half that for Atlantis ILIO flash caching software that runs VDI from RAM Continue Reading

Which in-memory DBMS best fits your company's needs?

Database expert Craig S. Mullins examines some top in-memory DBMS software offerings to help you determine which is the best fit for your organization. Continue Reading

By

• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

OnApp helps small public cloud firms take on AWS, Google and Microsoft

The OnApp Federation marketplace will help smaller firms compete more effectively with the public cloud giants, it is claimed Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

How to cull old, potentially risky data

Unused data is a potential security risk, with old spreadsheets, reports and email containing industry secrets and laced with company gossip. If it's no longer useful, it's time to delete it Continue Reading

By

• Christian Cawley

The file-sharing face-off: Box or Dropbox

In this week's Computer Weekly, we look at the two most popular tools for cloud-based enterprise file sharing and assess the relative merits of Box and Dropbox. We talk to some of the early pioneers in developing smartwatch apps. And we find out why IT security spending is shifting from prevention to detection and response. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

VMware vs OpenStack: How they handle storage

The opportunities and challenges presented by the two virtualisation environments when it comes to storage, backup and disaster recovery. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

OpenStack Manila: File access storage for the open source cloud

OpenStack Manila is the file level access method in development by the open source cloud platform. What is it, how does it work and when will it be ready? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

CW Europe – June 2015 Edition

Employment across Europe – Why industry has a responsibility to ensure the IT workforce adds to Europe's economic value. Continue Reading

Pure Storage replaces FA series all-flash arrays with FlashArray//m

Pure Storage upgrades FA series all-flash arrays with FlashArray//m series devices Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015 shortlist

Find out who made the Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015 shortlist Continue Reading

By

• Kayleigh Bateman, Computer Weekly

A tale of two boxes: Choosing between Box and Dropbox

Box and Dropbox are in the content and collaboration business, but the two cloud services have taken very different approaches Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

NetApp launches AltaVault hybrid cloud backup appliance family

NetApp repackages the SteelStore hybrid cloud backup appliances it bought from Riverbed as AltaVault physical, virtual and cloud products Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

CIF cloud certification scheme wins European Commission's backing

Cloud Industry Forum's Code of Practice has been added to European list of trusted certification schemes Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Guide to LUN configuration and virtualisation

LUN storage configuration has long been a cornerstone of storage management. The LUN – a chunk of storage created from RAID partitions on a SAN – presents a logical volume of capacity to an individual server. That’s still relevant today in the era of virtualisation. Many users retain physical servers that need a one-to-one connection between host and LUN. But, the role of the LUN is also changing with the rise of server and desktop virtualisation. It now forms a container for the logical objects used by VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V etc. In this guide you will find all you need to know about LUNs, LUN configuration and management, including their use in virtualised environments. Continue Reading

CW Nordics – May 2015 Edition

Nordic countries top list of digital nations in the EU, outperforming others in the areas of broadband infrastructure, IT skills, web use, business digitisation and tech-based public services. Continue Reading