Storage

The Post Office IT scandal – cock-up or cover-up?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, the second phase of the Post Office IT scandal inquiry revealed further shocking details at every turn – we review the latest evidence. We examine progress of the roll-out of fast broadband connectivity across the UK. And as the Online Safety Bill returns to Parliament, we look at the ongoing arguments about how to keep the internet safe. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Storage hardware shortage causes and how to mitigate them

We look at the IT supply chain shortages that have hit data storage equipment, their causes and what organisations can do to work more smartly to mitigate them Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Top 10 storage and backup customer stories of 2022

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 storage and backup customer stories of 2022 Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

CIO interview: Steve Capper, CIO, SNC-Lavalin

Engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin has consolidated its global datacentre estate and implemented private cloud to support the unique demands of its business Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Digital Ethics Summit: Who benefits from new technology?

Experts at the 2022 Digital Ethics Summit say expedited development cycles and obviously over-hyped PR material, in tandem with the public’s near-total exclusion from conversations around technology, is creating distrust towards the tech sector Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

CIO interview: Andy Pocock, IT director, TrustFord

The vehicle dealership group has been through a complete digital transformation that embraces cloud, mobile working and automation Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

NHS gets new guidance on public benefits of data sharing

NHS national data guardian Nicola Byrne has published new guidance on how health and social care bodies should approach the task of evaluating public benefit when using data for purposes beyond individual care Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

EU issues draft data adequacy decision in favour of US

The European Commission has concluded that the United States does ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the European Union and will now launch the process towards the adoption of an adequacy decision Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cloud-based fingerprint system for UK police nears completion

Police Digital Service announces that a new cloud-based fingerprint system developed under its Transforming Forensics programme is nearly complete, but data protection concerns around the use of US-based cloud providers remain Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Survey: Most want green IT but many won’t get it soon

IT – and storage in particular – consume huge amounts of energy but sustainability targets are proving to be elusive, according to a survey commissioned by Pure Storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cohesity doubles down on cyber-defence failings via backup

Datahawk service and Data Security Alliance bring clean data restores, ransomware artefact detection, data vaulting and data audit for a clearer understanding of attack impact Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Unstructured data not exempt from compliance requirements

Concerned about regulatory compliance? Data protection teams must be familiar with all regional and industry regulations to back up unstructured data in a compliant manner. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

LastPass probes new cyber incident related to August attack

The August 2022 cyber attack on LastPass seems to have begat another incident, according to company CEO Karim Toubba Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

From capex to opex: Storage procurement options bloom

We look at the growing list of possibilities when it comes to paying for storage infrastructure, ranging from upfront purchases with upgrades to pure pay-as-you-go options Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to stop data retention from killing the planet

In this week’s Computer Weekly, there’s a hidden environmental cost to the vast volumes of data being generated – we examine what can be done to address it. We talk to the CISO of consumer reviews site Trustpilot, about building trust in IT security. And we look at what IT leaders can do if they inherit a toxic team environment. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Panzura partners with AWS on ransomware counter-measures

Panzura might have slipped beneath the waves, but it’s come back reinvigorated, and now boasts integration with AWS with ransomware protection and Outposts hardware Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Data management, backup becoming the CISO's responsibility

More and more CISOs are taking on responsibility for wider data management strategies, and this trend looks set to grow next year Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Meta faces UK lawsuit over surveillance business model

The High Court case against Meta could set a precedent for millions of UK users to object to their personal data being collected and processed for advertising purposes Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Indefinite storage: What it is and why you might need it

Indefinite storage addresses the issue that archived data may need to be kept well beyond the lifespan of the technology it was written for Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

CW Nordics: Icelandic datacentres point way to greener IT

Iceland may soon become even more attractive to firms wanting to minimise their carbon footprint while using high-performance computing services. Read more about it in this issue. Also find out how a robo investment company, Nord Investments, is harnessing open banking to make thing easier for its clients. Continue Reading

Your staff are the frontline in your ransomware fight

As part of a solid cyber defence plan, the CISO must make sure that the frontline within the organisation is prepared for an attack, says Theodore Wiggins of Airbus Protect Continue Reading

By

• Theodore Wiggins, Airbus Protect

Does application modernisation mean what you think it means?

Most people in IT probably think they know what application modernisation is. For many it involves application refactoring - rebuilding the app using technologies such as containers and ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Pure aims at near bare metal I/O with Portworx PX-Fast

PX-Fast is driven by customer need for scale and high performance in containerised environments and sees reworking of Portworx data architecture to slash storage access time Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cloud storage: Key storage specifications

We look at the key specs in cloud storage, including availability – such as five nines – bandwidth, IOPS and latency, capacity and tiering functionality, egress charges and security Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Cyber criminals target World Cup Qatar 2022

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the FIFA World Cup opens in Qatar, we examine the cyber security threats from criminals targeting the event. We report from the Gartner Symposium on the latest predictions for enterprise software development. And we talk to the CIO of Kyiv City Council about managing IT in the shadow of war. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Genome lab puts Vast Data’s rapid I/O to work on patient data

French government-backed SeqOIA ditched its Lustre-based storage after it reached performance limits and files got corrupted. That got fixed by a Vast Data QLC flash-based array Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Ransomware, storage and backup: Impacts, limits and capabilities

We look at the impact of ransomware on storage and backup, how storage and data protection can best be used to combat ransomware, and how they fit in the fight against it Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

How to get structure from unstructured data

We look at how to gain structure from unstructured data, via AI/ML analytics to create new records, selecting object data via SQL and storing unstructured files in NoSQL formats Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Scality Ring 9 brings Storage Accelerator enhanced flash tiers

Scality upgrade to Ring 9 of its object (and file) storage software sees enhancements to tiering, the introduction of Prometheus-based monitoring and hooks into VMware vCloud Director Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Met Police removes nearly two-thirds of people from gangs matrix

Legal action by human rights group Liberty forces Met Police to overhaul its gangs violence matrix database Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

The next decade in enterprise backup

Backup set to adapt to deliver more security, ransomware protection and flash-speed restores, and deal with the complexity of multi-, hybrid cloud and container-based operations Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

All means all when it comes to encryption

Nigel Thorpe, technical director at SecureAge, makes the case for encrypting everything all of the time when it comes to protecting data Continue Reading

By

• Nigel Thorpe

historical data

Historical data, in a broad context, is data collected about past events and circumstances pertaining to a particular subject. Continue Reading

By

• Katie Terrell Hanna
• Ivy Wigmore

A comparison of distributed file systems

There are many different distributed file systems available, so careful analysis of the options, as well as good project management, helps ensure a successful installation. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

How to effectively compare storage system performance

Your power as a buyer is stronger before the sale closes: Ask for what's required to effectively evaluate storage vendors' system performance. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Dropbox code compromised in phishing attack

Cloud storage service says malicious actors successfully accessed some of its code within GitHub, but insists customer data is secure Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NetApp launches BlueXP as single console across on-prem and cloud

BlueXP gives customers monitoring and control over all NetApp storage on-site and in multiple clouds. Meanwhile, its Ontap OS has added S3 object storage access Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Huawei pushes OceanStor’s Arm chip benefits at Paris love-in

Chinese giant trumpets green benefits on its Arm processor hardware with OceanStor Dorado V6 range, which offers huge capacities and performance at the high end Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How the pandemic accelerated tech adoption in hospitality

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how the hospitality sector is turning to technology to rebuild after it was devastated by the pandemic. Google’s cloud business is growing but remains well behind the market leaders – what does its future look like? And we look at the benefits of AIOps for storage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How to build consumer trust with a privacy-by-design approach

Undertaken with the right mindset and technology, privacy by design delivers value to consumers and builds trust for the long term Continue Reading

By

• Emilie Gazeau

The risk of losing our EU data adequacy agreement is real

While some may welcome the government’s ambition to shake up the UK’s data protection regime, Westminster should be wary of drifting too far from the path charted by our US and European partners Continue Reading

By

• Sarah Pearce

The ins and outs of unstructured data protection

Protecting unstructured data requires a few extra considerations for backup admins. Growing storage capacity requirements and regulatory compliance are critical. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Security Think Tank: Container security: why so different?

Done well, container security can be a model for securing the enterprise, and businesses that focus their teams on solving it can help accelerate positive change in other areas Continue Reading

By

• Bernard Brantley

SoftIron’s HyperCloud to ease private cloud deployments

SoftIron claims its technology stack fully automates the provisioning of storage, compute, networking and infrastructure services, providing a fully functioning, multi-tenant cloud Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

How has container security changed since 2020, and have we taken it too far?

While containers are now one of the most popular ways to deploy applications, it is fair to say that the adoption and implementation of security best practice to govern their use has not kept up Continue Reading

By

• Rob Tyler, Turnkey Consulting

Singapore’s met service to get new supercomputer

The Meteorological Service Singapore is getting a new Cray supercomputer to improve weather forecasting and tropical climate research Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Create a flood business continuity plan to stay afloat

In the event of a flood, don't settle for watered-down action plans. Download our free flood business continuity plan template to create a flood-specific recovery strategy. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

5 unstructured data backup challenges and how to handle them

Unstructured data backup requires the management and protection of vast amounts of data while keeping it available and secure. Is your backup strategy up to the challenge? Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

ICO warns against using biometrics for ‘emotional analysis’

ICO warning highlights risk of ‘systemic bias’ and discrimination associated with organisations using biometric data and technologies for emotion analysis Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

cloud NAS (cloud network attached storage)

Cloud NAS (network attached storage) is remote storage that is accessed over the internet as if it is local. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Cloud bursting: Six key steps in planning and decision-making

We explore the key stages in a cloud bursting project: assessing the data and workflows, variants in the mechanism, application suitability, having the right resources, and planning and testing Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory)

EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) is memory that does not lose its data when the power supply is cut off. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati

Microsoft slams external researchers over its own data leak

Microsoft inadvertently leaked customer data after misconfiguring an Azure Blob, but has hit out at the organisation that discovered its error, claiming it is exaggerating the scope of the issue Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

mount point

A mount point is a directory on a file system that is logically linked to another file system. Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Wright

GRAID puts RAID on a GPU for cut-price disk protection and rebuilds

US startup puts its software on Nvidia graphics cards to offload RAID processing and throughput of 110GBps throughput across up to 32 NVMe solid-state drives Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Alibaba Cloud readying dedicated cloud regions for private datacentres

The hybrid cloud offering will provide enterprises with a dedicated Alibaba Cloud region in their datacentres with multiple availability zones Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Is object storage good for databases?

We look at object storage vs block access SAN storage and ask if object storage can be used for database workloads, or is it just good for bulk storage of analytics datasets? Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Bowled out: NVMe flash pioneer Pavilion Data ceases business

Last of the pioneer NVMe flash storage array makers, Pavilion made multiprotocol highs-speed boxes – but it seems to have run out of sources of investment and gone out of business Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cloud bursting: What is it, what workloads, what technologies?

We look at cloud bursting, its benefits and how to deploy it, as well as the limitations in terms of suitable workloads, the technologies needed and the skills to make it happen Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Government bins IR35 reforms – what you need to know

In this week’s Computer Weekly, after the government scrapped its IR35 reforms, we examine what IT contractors need to know. With hybrid working, employee experience is a priority – we look at how it meshes with customer experience initiatives. And we assess the options for unstructured data storage in the cloud and on-premise. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Air gaps for backup and how they help against ransomware

The air gap is a basic of backups and storage. We look at what’s meant by an air gap, the rise of the logical air gap, and its place in the fight against ransomware Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

NFS vs SMB vs CIFS: File storage protocols defined

We take a close look at NFS and SMB – the key file storage access protocols – and weigh up their pros, cons and suitability to differing datacentre environments Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Edge storage: What it is and the technologies it uses

Storage is moving from the datacentre to the edge. We define edge storage, look at the characteristics of edge computing that shape it and the technologies it requires Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

memory management unit (MMU)

A memory management unit (MMU) is a computer hardware component that handles all memory and caching operations associated with the processor. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Carbon copies: How to stop data retention from killing the planet

Our society has a serious digital hoarding problem, which is coming at a cost to the environment. But what can be done to address it? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Merriman

AIOps for storage: Potential huge benefits, but lots of lock-in

Applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to storage can help to predict bottlenecks, diagnose I/O issues and recommend upgrades, but suppliers’ products are largely limited to their own hardware Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

PoINT to offer on-site S3 object storage archive on disk and tape

Archival Gateway can cluster up to 256 tape readers to provide S3 object storage clusters capable of storing 50 billion objects per bucket, and giving throughput of 230GBps Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How AWS is tapping the groundswell in cloud adoption

Phil Davis, managing director of Amazon Web Services in Asia-Pacific and Japan, talks up the company’s growth strategy and how it is retaining customers amid rivals nipping at its heels Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

How to get the most out of cloud database backups

When backing up databases, the cloud can provide a secure, easily scalable target. However, don't forget important features like immutability and encryption when getting started. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Use ISO 22320:2018 to prepare an incident management plan

Incident management is critical to ensure that businesses can deal with unplanned disruptive events. Find out how the ISO:22320:2018 standard can help. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

NAS vs. cloud storage: Which is better for your business?

On-site NAS and cloud-based NAS are the two main file storage options. Organizations need to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each to make the best choice. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware family becoming more dangerous

Researchers from Symantec share fresh insight into the ongoing development of the ransomware-as-a-service family known variously as ALPHV, BlackCat and Noberus Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dr Martens goes feetfirst into cloud-to-cloud backup

Iconic bootmaker laces up for a strategy to move all applications to the cloud, beginning with cloud-to-cloud backup for Microsoft 365 apps plus on-site VMware operations Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

ANZ organisations using antiquated backup and recovery systems

Nearly half of ANZ organisations are still using backup and recovery systems from over a decade ago, hampering their ability to protect their data assets and recover from ransomware attacks Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

NAS gateway

NAS gateway is a NAS (network-attached storage) system in which the storage media are externally attached, typically over a Fibre Channel interface. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of NAS

NAS devices provide file sharing that is easy to manage but may be harder to scale than other storage types. Get to know the advantages and disadvantages of NAS. Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Arel, Former Associate Site Editor

CW APAC: Trend Watch: Cloud networking

Organisations are waking up to the importance of utilising updated cloud services. In this handbook, focused on cloud networking in the Asia-Pacific region, Computer Weekly looks at the technology’s advantages, how Cloudflare keeps its customers protected, Tata’s efforts to strengthen its offerings, and how networking and security might evolve in the future. Continue Reading

scale-out storage

Scale-out storage is a network-attached storage (NAS) architecture in which the total amount of disk space can be expanded through the addition of devices in connected arrays with their own resources. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Tintri pushes for cloud and container storage with Tintri.io

Tintri aims to leverage core technology in its products to meet the needs of containers and microservices with cloud versions of its on-premise appliances Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

CISOs should spend on critical apps, cloud, zero-trust, in 2023

Faced with a global recession next year, security buyers should try to direct investment towards technology that protects customer-facing and revenue-generating workloads, say analysts Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Panasas’s double NAS offer aims at multiple analytics workloads

ActiveStor Flash and ActiveStor Ultra XL target I/O profiles from rapid AI/ML to processing-heavy modelling but remain firmly on-prem, with object and cloud declared ‘interesting’ Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

VMware’s vSAN 8 gets a rebuild for the solid-state storage era

At VMware Explore 2022, we interview VMware’s John Gilmartin about the new, faster vSAN, plans to use DPUs, the vSAN+ cloud offering, and VMware Ransomware Recovery Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cloud bursting: What it is and what it’s good for

We look at cloud bursting, which allows organisations to meet demand by bursting compute and storage to the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Unstructured vs semi-structured data: Order from chaos

We look at alternatives to relational databases that have emerged to help bring some structure to unstructured data and gain valuable insight by making it semi-structured Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Podcast: Storage the key bottleneck for AI processing

We talk to Panasas about the need for storage that can cope with delivering high volumes of small files for artificial intelligence with the throughput and latency needed to service costly GPUs Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Continuous data protection advantages and disadvantages

Continuous data protection can eliminate your backup window. However, there are many issues to consider, including application and operating system compatibility. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

VMware CEO: Broadcom acquisition is on track

Raghu Raghuram claims VMware customers are getting more comfortable with the Broadcom acquisition while employees are ‘more or less focused’ on the job at hand Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

NetApp storage goes GA for VMware Cloud on AWS

Move will bring up to 50% decrease in TCO for customers running VMware apps in the Amazon cloud, says NetApp. No date yet for extension of the service across other public clouds Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Ride through racetrack memory and its storage implications

IBM is working on a concept called racetrack memory, which is one of a few possibilities for the future of storage. But is it feasible, and when will it be commercially viable? Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

NAS vs. server: Which storage option should you choose?

NAS and server-based storage have unique attributes that support a variety of storage and DR applications, and each can be supplemented by cloud-based storage as needed. Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Flash - Aha - Saviour Of The Universe?

Rarely has the world of IT, regardless of the role within, been more united over the understanding that the IT landscape – from endpoint to data/application repository – has been changing out of ... Continue Reading

By

• Steve Broadhead, Broadband Testing

Cloud storage TCO: Key pitfalls and how to avoid them

Cloud’s flexibility is part of the attraction, but it can also lead to costs that spiral. We look at key elements in cloud TCO and how to intelligently make use of the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

7 guidelines to secure network storage

These practices, including firmware and VPN guidance, protect NAS devices. Use these steps as standalone procedures or incorporate them into your overall security process. Continue Reading

By

• Julia Borgini, Spacebarpress Media

RAID 1 vs. RAID 0: Which level is best for data protection?

RAID 1 and RAID 0 are two of the most basic RAID levels. While one offers better performance, backup admins may choose the level that provides redundancy to better protect data. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Bfloat16: What it is and how it impacts storage

Bfloat16 is an emerging way to handle very large numbers, developed by Google for its machine and neural learning and prediction. We look at what it means for IT and storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Data classification: What it is and why you need it

To be compliant, to ensure data is optimally protected, that it is available, that it can be analysed and that it is stored most cost-effectively – these are reasons why data classification is vital to organisations Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Explore 7 software-defined storage companies

Software-defined storage offerings are all over the map, in uses, features and types of platform. These seven software-defined storage companies include several IT giants. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Where does AI fit into a risk assessment strategy?

AI is a helpful way to take a different look at risk assessment and disaster recovery. AI sifts through massive amounts of risk data without the typical constraints of DR teams. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Understand the Intel Optane shutdown

Intel's upcoming shutdown of Optane follows multibillion-dollar losses. However, some technology benefits came out of the IT giant's effort to improve storage performance. Continue Reading

By

• Jim Handy, Objective Analysis

Huawei sets out its stall for a data-rich world

Businesses need to harness data effectively while keeping carbon emissions down. We see how Huawei is setting out to cope with the strains put on organisations, while mitigating the environmental impact Continue Reading

By

• Maxwell Cooter