Server and StorageIO: IT Industry Trends and Perspectives

Blog Post: August 2010 StorageIO Newsletter

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:29:45

August 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to the August Summer Wrap Up 2010 edition of the Server and StorageIO Group (StorageIO) newsletter. This follows the June 2010 edition building on the great feedback received from recipients.
Items that are new in this expanded edition include:

Out and About Update
Industry Trends and Perspectives (ITP)
Featured Article

You can access this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions. Click on the following links to view the August 2010 edition as an HTML or PDF or, to go to the newsletter page to view previous editions.

Follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here.

You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

Cheers gs

Blog: While HP and Dell make counter bids, exclusive interview with 3PAR CEO David Scott

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:43:21

Last week Dell announced (read previous and related posts here) that they were buying 3PARb for $1.15B USD, then HP offered a counter bid, this morning Dell countered with a $1.6B USD bid only to be followed by HPs counter counter counter bid of $1.8B which almost seems like an Ebay autobid raising the question of what is the buy it now price.

Meanwhile, I was asked today to be the guest co host of the Storage Monkeys Infosmack Podcast with regular host Greg Knieriemen filling in for the regular co host Marc Farley who happens to be a 3PAR employee while we interviewed special guest CEO David Scott.

Click here to listen to this exclusive interview with 3PAR CEO David Scott during the midst of the bidding between HP and Dell for some insight into 3PAR, their technology as well as get an inside insight discussion with the man who is the current Belle of the Ball in this current IT industry merger and acquisition bidding battle along with related industry trends and perspective insight commentary.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: My Favorite Late Summer Reading Material

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:15:14

No it is not the Tape Times, or the Oracle Sun times, or IBM Magic Moments, or EMC Money Magazine, nor is it the Oracle Law Journal review. Sorry to say that it is not the Dedupe Discovery Debate Diaries, nor is it the Virtual Vanity Fair or NetApp Networking News.

My favorite late summer reading is not the eDiscovery Entertainment this week, or Mens Metadata Monthly and it is not the Cisco Chronicles let alone the HP national inquirer Pages.

No my favorite late summer reading is not Business Barons, NFL weekly wrap up nor Virtualization Hyperventilation Health tips. Neither is it the editorials, advertisements or cheerleading sections in the Cloud Crowd Confusion Chronicles, its not million miler monthly and it is not Green IT Eggs and Spam. While all good reads, it is not Wine Snob Weekly, or the Great Grape Gazette or Beer Brewers News, Minnesota DNR news, Virtual Motor head Monthly, or Freshwater Dock Yachting Yearly review, Aviation Leak and Space Technology nor Rolling Stone.

It is also not one of the local news papers or national ones for that matter although the Singapore Shipping Times is a good diversion read that reminds me of my past visits there.

Click here to read more.

Ok, now Im hungry have to go.

BTW: What is your favorite late summer reading material (and/or relaxation activity, music, food or beverage)?

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Dell Will Buy Someone, However Not Brocade (At least for now)

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:44:55

Earlier this week Dell announced that they were buying 3APR for $1.15B USD

As a follow up to this, this and this recent posts, I keep getting asked in different forums, venues, via email, telephone calls and in person who will or should Dell buy next, and will Dell buy Brocade, who will buy Brocade or anyone else for that matter.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Back to school shopping: Dude, Dell Digests 3PAR Disk storage

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:33:44

No sooner has the dust settled from Dells other recent acquisitions, its back to school shopping time and the latest bargain for the Round Rock Texas folks is bay (San Francisco) area storage vendor 3PAR for $1.15B. As a refresh, some of Dells more recent acquisitions including a few years ago $1.4B for EqualLogic, $3.9B for Perot systems not to mention Exanet, Kace and Ocarina earlier this year. For those interested, as of April 2010 reporting figures found here, Dell showed about $10B USD in cash and here is financial information on publicly held 3PAR (PAR).

Who is 3PAR
3PAR is a publicly traded company (PAR) that makes a scalable or clustered storage system with many built in advanced features typically associated with high end EMC DMX and VMAX as well as CLARiiON, in addition to Hitachi or HP or IBM enterprise class solutions. The Inserv (3PARs storage solution) combines hardware and software providing a very scalable solution that can be configured for smaller environments or larger enterprise by varying the number of controllers or processing nodes, connectivity (server attachment) ports, cache and disk drives.

Unlike EqualLogic which is more of a mid market iSCSI only storage system, the 3PAR Inserv is capable of going head to head with the EMC CLARiiON as well as DMC or VMAX systems that support a mix of iSCSI and Fibre Channel or NAS via gateway or appliances. Thus while there were occasional competitive situations between 3PAR and Dell EqualLogic, they for the most part were targeted at different market sectors or customers deployment scenarios.

What does Dell get with 3PAR?

A good deal if not a bargain on one of the last new storage startup pure plays
A public company that is actually generating revenue with a large and growing installed base
A seasoned sales force who knows how to sell into the enterprise storage space against EMC, HP, IBM, Oracle/SUN, Netapp and others
A solution that can scale in terms of functionality, connectivity, performance, availability, capacity and energy efficiency (PACE)
Potential route to new markets where 3PAR has had success, or to bridge gaps where both have played and competed in the past
Did I say a company with an established footprint of installed 3PAR Inserv storage systems and good list of marquee customers
Ability to sell a solution that they own the intellectual property (IP) instead of that of partner EMC
Plenty of IP that can be leveraged within other Dell solutions, not to mention combine 3PAR with other recently acquired technologies or companies.

On a lighter note, Dell picks up once again Marc Farley who was with them briefly after the EqualLogic acquisition who then departed to 3PAR where he became director of social media including launch of Infosmack on Storage Monkeys with co host Greg Knieriemen (@Knieriemen). Of course the twitter world and traditional coconut wires are now speculating where Farley will go next that Dell may end up buying in the future.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Kudos to HP CEO Mark Hurd for dignity to step down from his post

Sat, 7 Aug 2010 13:45:43

Yesterday (Friday) late afternoon, HP announced (or read here) that their CEO Mark Hurd was resigning due to improprieties uncovered during an internal investigation.

HP is far from being alone in the corporate world involving investigations, lawsuits by governments or allegations of bribes and impropriety.

However what stands out is that of the CEO stepping down.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Data footprint reduction (Part 1): Life beyond dedupe and changing data lifecycles

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 21:12:34

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a flurry of IT industry activity around data footprint impact reduction with Dell buying Ocarina and IBM acquiring Storwize. For those who want the quick (compacted, reduced) synopsis of what Dell buying Ocarina as well as IBM acquiring Storwize means read this post here along with some of my comments here and here.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Data footprint reduction (Part 2): Dell, IBM, Ocarina and Storwize

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 21:12:34

Part II of a two part series. Over the past couple of weeks there has been a flurry of IT industry activity around data footprint impact reduction with Dell buying Ocarina and IBM acquiring Storwize. For those who want the quick (compacted, reduced) synopsis of what Dell buying Ocarina as well as IBM acquiring Storwize means read the first post in this two part series as well as some of my comments here and here.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Availability or lack there of: Lessons From Our Frail Aging Infrastructure

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:20:20

I have a new blog post over at Enterprise Efficiency about aging infrastructures including those involved with IT, Telcom and related ones.

As a society, we face growing problems repairing and maintaining the vital infrastructure we once took for granted.

Most of these incidents involve aging, worn-out physical infrastructure desperately in need of repair or replacement. But infrastructure doesn't have to be old or even physical to cause problems when it fails.

The IT systems and applications all around us form a digital infrastructure that most enterprises take for granted until it's not there. Bottom line, there really isn't much choice.

You can either pay up front now to update aging infrastructures, or, wait and pay more later. Either way, there will be a price to pay and you can not realize a cost savings until you actually embark on that endeavor.

Here is the link to the full blog post over at Enterprise Efficiency.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: July 2010 Odds and Ends: Perspectives, Tips and Articles

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:33:44

Here are some items that have been added to the main StorageIO website news, tips and articles, video podcast related pages that pertain to a variety of topics ranging from data storage, IO, networking, data centers, virtualization, Green IT, performance, metrics and more.

These content items include various odds and end pieces such as industry or technology commentary, articles, tips, ATEs (See additional ask the expert tips here) or FAQs as well as some video and podcasts for your mid summer (if in the northern hemisphere) enjoyment.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: A Storage I/O Momentus Moment

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:44:55

I recently asked for and received from Seagate (See recent post about them moving their paper head quarters to Ireland here) a Momentus XT 500GB 7200 RPM 2.5 Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) to use in an upcoming project. That project is not to test a bunch of different Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), HHDDs, Removable HDD (RHDDs) or Solid State Devices (read more about SSDs here and here or storage optimization here) in order to produce results for someone for a fee or some other consideration.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Two companies on parallel tracks moving like trains offset by time: EMC and NetApp

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 22:33:44

I see some similarities and parallels between two competing companies. Those companies happen to be in the same sector (e.g. IT data storage) however offset by time (about a decade or) subject to continued execution by both.

Those two companies are EMC and NetApp.

Some people might assert that these two companies are complete opposites. Perhaps claiming that one is on the up swing while the other on the down path (have heard claims and counter claims of both being on the other path). I will leave the discussion or debate of which is on the up and which is on the down path to the twittervile and blogsphere ultimate tag team mud wrestling arena or You Tube video rooms.

I see EMC and NetApp a bit differently which you can take it for what that is, simply an opinion or perspective having been the competitor and partner of both when I was on the vendor side of the table and later covering the two as an industry analyst.

Click here to read more as well as cast your vote on if they are similar paths or not.

Cheers gs

Blog Post: Gregs StorageIO Out and About Update: June 2010

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:33:44

With the 2010 summer solstice having occurred in the northern hemisphere that means it is time for a quick out and about update. It has been a busy winter and spring in the office, on the road as well as at home.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Blog Post: Supreme Court Rules Sarbox intact, Oversight Board Changes

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:43:21

Today the US Supreme Court ruled on a Nevada case involving constitutionality of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox) accounting regulations pertaining to appointments to the independent public company accounting oversight board.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Sarbox regulations or law remains intact, however the process or controls around the oversight board must change.

My interpretation and perspective from reading a few different reports is that Sarbox as you know and love (or hate) it is essentially still intact. However what has changed or will be is that individual board members can now be removed or at least in an easier manner.Instead of the request to strike down the Sarbox regulations, the Supreme Court instead appears to have left the regulations intact instead ruling that board members can be changed or removed.

What does this all mean?

Perhaps not much other than firms who have been making money on Sarbox now having something else to talk or consult about (Hmmm, a Sarbox stimulus?).

On the other hand, with the ability to have Sarbox board members more easily removed, perhaps we will see a new board installed that could influence the thinking and thus applicability of Sarbox activity.

Near term, I can see this as being non news for some, and for others, confusion and lets not forget that in chaos or confusion there is opportunity.

Here are some links to read more

US Supreme Court website and other news

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Accounting Board

Court Strikes Down Part of Sarbanes-Oxley

Nuff said about this for now, whats your take?

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Initial Virtumania Appearance (Episode 14) with fellow vExperts

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:12:34

This past week I was invited to join some fellow vExperts as a first time guest on Rich Brambleys (@rbrambley and VMETC) podcast show called Virtumania.

Episode 14 (Virtualization and Networking Turf Wars) had as a theme as you can guest themes around physical, logical and virtual networking for virtual servers along with some of the politics and turf battles associated with managing those entities.

Also on the show were cohost Marc Farley (@3parfarley) of 3Par and StorageRap.com as well as regular guest Rick Vanover (@rickvanover) of RickVanover.com and other special guest David Davis (@davidmdavis) vmwarevideos.com in addition to myself.

For some fun, there is even some reference to rival gangs dancing for superiority in the Michael Jackson music video "Bad" which was produced by Greg Knieriemen (@knieriemen) of Chi Corporation for this Infosmack Production.

Check out the show here or here.

BTW: Is it just me or does Rich Brambley sound a little bit like Tom Petty without the accent?

Thanks guys, enjoyed being a guest on the show as well as talking with you all, hope to be able to do it again sometime soon.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: VMware vExpert 2010: Thank You, Im Honored to be named a Member

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:12:34

This week while traveling I received an email note from John Troyer of VMware informing me that I have been nominated and selected as a VMware vExpert for 2010.

To say that I was surprised and honored would be an understatement.

Thus, I would like to thank all those involved in the nominations, evaluation and selection process for being named to this esteemed group.

I would also like to say congratulations, best wishes and hello to all of the other 2010 vExperts. Im Looking forward to being involved and participating in the VMware vExpert community.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: June 2010 StorageIO Newsletter

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 01:23:45

June 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to the June 2010 edition of the Server and StorageIO Group (StorageIO) newsletter. This follows the Spring 2010 edition building on the great feedback received from recipients.
Items that are new in this expanded edition include:

Out and About Update
Industry Trends and Perspectives (ITP)
Featured Article

You can access this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions. Click on the following links to view the June 2010 edition as an HTML or PDF or, to go to the newsletter page to view previous editions.

Follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here.

You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives Blog Series

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is the first in a series of ongoing short industry trends and perspectives blog post briefs. These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

I often get asked by people what Im seeing or hearing new (aka what is the Buzz).

Sometimes when I tell those who ask about new things or what they have not read or heard about yet, I get interesting as well as varied sometimes even funny reactions. In most cases unless the person does not agree or like the trend, the reaction shifts to one of wanting to know more including what is driving or causing the activity, its impact along with what can be done.

As some are new or emerging they may not yet be being covered in other venues, research, surveys, studies or reports. Thus do not be surprised or alarmed if there is something listed here or in one of the subsequent series post that you have not seen or read elsewhere yet while others may already be familiar. Some are emerging trends perhaps even being short lived while others will have longer legs to evolve.

Some general trends that I am seeing and hearing from IT professionals include:

Click on the above links to read more about these the first in a series of quick Industry Trends and Perspectives posts as well as watch for more in the coming weeks and months.

That is all for now. I hope you find these ongoing series of current or emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: 6Gb SAS

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

Blog: Industry Trends and Perspectives: 6GB SAS and DAS are not Dumb A$$ Storage

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

With 6G that increases performance as well as connectivity flexibility, more servers are supporting SAS natively while storage system continue to add support for 3.5" and 2.5" small form factor high performance and large capacity SAS drives. Shared SAS DAS storage systems are being deployed for consolidation attached to two or more servers as well as for clustered solutions.

Another area where shared SAS DAS storage is being deployed is in cloud, scale out NAS and bulk storage environments as a price performance alternative to iSCSI or Fibre Channel solutions.

Keep an eye on these and other trends including converged systems, server, storage and networking management along with associated tools.

Related and companion material:
Article: Green and SASy = Energy and Economic, Effective Storage
Article: The Many Faces of SAS: Beyond the DAS Factor

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Tiered Hypervisors and Microsoft HyperV

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

Blog: Industry Trends and Perspectives: 6GB SAS and DAS are not Dumb A$$ Storage

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

The topic of this post is a trend that I am seeing and hearing about during discussions with IT professionals pertaining to the use of two or more server virtualization hypervisors or what is known as tiered Hypervisors.

A trends tied to server virtualization that I am seeing more of are that IT organizations are increasingly deploying or using two or more different hypervisors (e.g. Citrix/Xen, Microsoft/HyperV, VMware vSphere) in their environment (on separate physical server or blades).

Tiered hypervisors is a concept similar to what many IT organizations already have in terms of different types of servers for various use cases, multiple operating systems as well as several kinds of storage mediums or devices.

What Im seeing is that IT pros are using different hypervisors to meet various cost, management and vendor control objectives aligning the applicable technology to the business or application service category.

Of course this brings up the discussion of how to manage multiple hypervisors and thus the real battle is or will be not about hypervisors, rather that of End to End (E2E) management.

A question that I often ask VARs and IT customers if they see Microsoft on the offensive or defensive with HyperV vs. VMware and vice versa, that is if VMware is on the defense or offense against Microsoft.

Not surprisingly the VMware and Microsoft faithful will say that the other is clearly on the defensive.

Meanwhile from other people, the feelings are rather mixed with many feeling that Microsoft is increasingly on the offensive with VMware being seen by some as playing a strong defense with a ferocious offense.

Related and companion material:
Video: Beyond Virtualization Basics (Free: May require registration)
Blog: Server and Storage Virtualization: Life beyond Consolidation
Blog: Should Everything Be Virtualized?

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Storage Virtualization and Virtual Storage

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

The topic of this post is a trend server virtualization and recent EMC virtual storage announcements.

Virtual storage or storage virtualization has been as a technology and topic around for some time now. Some would argue that storage virtualization is several years old while others would say many decades depending on your view or definition which will vary by preferences, product, vendor, open or closed, hardware, network, software not to mention feature and functionality.

Consequently there are many different views and definitions of storage virtualization some tied to that of product specifications often leading to apples and oranges comparison.

Back in the early to mid 2000s, there was plenty of talk around storage virtualization which then gave way to a relative quiet period before seeing adoption pickup in terms of deployment later in the decade (at least for block based).

More recently there has a been a renewed flurry of storage virtualization activity with many vendors now shipping their latest versions of tools and functionality, EMC announcing VPLEX as well as the file virtualization vendors continuing to try and create a market for their wares (give it time, like block based, it will evolve).

One of the trends around storage virtualization and part of the play on words EMC is using is to change the order of the words. That is where storage virtualization is often aligned with product implementation (e.g. software on an appliance or switch or in a storage system) used primarily for aggregation of heterogeneous storage, with VPLEX EMC is referring to it as virtual storage.

What is interesting here is the play on life beyond consolidation a trend that is also occurring with servers or using virtualization for agility, flexibility and ease of management for upgrades, add, move and changes as opposed to simply pooling of LUNs and underlying storage devices. Stay tuned and watch for more in this space as well as read the blog post below about VPLEX for more on this topic.

Related and companion material:
Blog: EMC VPLEX: Virtual Storage Redefined or Respun?

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Pot: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Converged Networking and IO Virtualization (IOV)

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

The trends that I am seeing with converged networking and I/O fall into a couple of categories. One being converged networking including unified communications, FCoE/DCB along with InfiniBand based discussions while the other being around I/O virtualization (IOV) including PCIe server based multi root IO virtualization (MRIOV).

As is often the case with new technologies the trend of some saying these are the next great things thus drop everything and adopt them now as they are working and ready for prime time mission critical deployment. Then there are those who say no, stop, do not waste your time on these as they are temporary, they will die and go away anyway. In between, there is reality which takes a bit of balancing the old with the new, look before you leap, do your homework, and do not be scared however have a strategy and a plan on how to achieve it.

Thus is FCoE a temporal or temporary technology? Well, in the scope that all technologies are temporary however it is their temporal timeframe that should be of interest. Thus given that FCoE will probably have at least a ten to fifteen year temporal timeline, I would say in technology terms it has a relative long life for supporting coexistence on the continued road to convergence which appears to be Ethernet.

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Tape, Disk and Dedupe Coexistence

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

The topic of this post is a trend that I am seeing and hearing about during discussions with IT professionals pertaining to how tape is still alive despite common industry FUD.

Not only is tape still very much alive with recent enhancements including LTO5 with an extended range roadmap, it is also finding new roles. In addition to being deployed in new roles, tape is coexisting and complimenting dedupe or other disk based backup and data protection approaches and vice versa.

Hearing tape is alive in the same sentence as dedupe deployments continuing may sound counter intuitive if you only listen to some vendor pitches.

However if you talk with IT customers particularly those in larger environments or with VARs that provide complete solution offering focus you will hear a different tune than tape is dead and dedupe rules. Tape is still alive however its roll is changing. Watch for more on this and related topics.

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: RAID Rebuild Rates

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

There is continued concern about how long large capacity disk drives take to be rebuilt in RAID sets particularly as the continued shift from 1TB to 2TB occurs. It should not be a surprise that a disk with more capacity will take longer to rebuild or copy as well as with more drives; the likely hood of one failing statistically increases.

Not to diminish the issue, however also to avoid saying the sky is falling, we have been here before! In the late 90s and early 2000s there was a similar concern with the then large 9GB, 18GB let alone emerging 36GB and 72GB drives. There have been improvements in RAID as well as rebuild algorithms along with other storage system software or firmware enhancements not to mention boost in processor or IO bus performance.

However not all storage systems are equal even if they use the same underlying processors, IO busses, adapters or disk drives. Some vendors have made significant improvements in their rebuild times where each generation of software or firmware can reconstruct a failed drive faster. Yet for others, each subsequent iteration of larger capacity disk drives brings increased rebuild times.

If disk drive rebuild times are a concern, ask your vendor or solution provider what they are doing as well as have done over the past several years to boost their performance. Look for signs of continued improvement in rebuild and reconstruction performance as well as decrease in error rates or false drive rebuilds.

Related and companion material:
Blog: RAID data protection remains relevant
Blog: Optimize Data Storage for Performance and Capacity Efficiency

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Tiered Storage, Systems and Mediums

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

Two years ago we read about how the magnetic disk drive would be dead in a couple of years at the hand of flash SSD. Guess what, it is a couple of years later and the magnetic disk drive is far from being dead. Granted high performance Fibre Channel disks will continue to be replaced by high performance, small form factor 2.5" SAS drives along with continued adoption of high capacity SAS and SATA devices.

Likewise, SSD or flash drives continue to be deployed, however outside of iPhone, iPod and other consumer or low end devices, nowhere near the projected or perhaps hoped for level. Rest assured the trend Im seeing and hearing from IT customers is that some will continue to look for places to strategically deploy SSD where possible, practical and affordable, there will continue to be a roll for disk and even tape devices on a go forward basis.

Also watch for more coverage and discussion around the emergence of the Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) that was discussed about four to five years ago. The HHDD made an appearance and then quietly went away for some time, perhaps more R and D time in the labs while flash SSD garnered the spotlight.

There could be a good opportunity for HHDD technology leveraging the best of both worlds that is continued pricing decreases for disk with larger capacity using smaller yet more affordable amounts of flash in a solution that is transparent to the server or storage controller making for easier integration.

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Industry Trends and Perspectives: Public and Private IT Clouds

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:30:20

This is part of an ongoing series of short industry trends and perspectives blog posts briefs.

These short posts compliment other longer posts along with traditional industry trends and perspective white papers, research reports, solution brief content found at www.storageio.com/reports.

Are you clear on cloud conversation issues, topics and trends? Or, are you confused and looking for clarification of what is (or not) a public vs. private cloud? If you are part of the second group, welcome to the majority of IT professionals that includes customers as well as some VARs and vendors not to mention press, media or bloggers as well as analysts and other industry pundits.

A couple of customer trends that Im seeing are that public clouds in terms of backup as a service (BaaS), Backup Service Provider (BSP), Managed Service Provider (MSP), Cloud Backup Service (CBS) or hosted backup among other terms or acronyms continues to be popular for smaller consumer, SOHO and SMB as well as ROBO environments with some larger scale adoption. Likewise there continues to be some early adoption of cloud archive however this is mainly as a storage target or medium where data goes.

Some vendors or VARs are touting cloud archive as the silver bullet for cloud adoption however unless they can address the fundamental archive challenge all they are doing is competing on price to shift the location of where data gets parked. The real archive challenge is not necessarily the hardware where data is housed or its subsequent management, nor is the real cost or barrier archiving software for databases, email or file systems.

The real or more common barrier is that of someone identifying and approving not to mention indemnifying those involved of what can be moved when, where as well as for how long. This means that professional services and business buy in for establishment of policies along with tools for classifying applications and data are needed. Thus before automated movement and migration tools to leverage various tiers of local and remote including cloud archive storage can be used, the fundamental barriers to archive need to be addressed.

Im also seeing continued skepticism in addition to confusion around clouds in general, however there is also curiosity wanting to know or learn more about clouds and traditional IT coexisting. Consequently Im seeing while still low, more interest in private clouds by IT professionals as it is closer to their real world.

The common theme around interest in private clouds is that of enhancing IT efficient and effectiveness along with service delivery. Thus there is a growing interest in identifying costs of providing a given level of service that meets various RTO, RPO, QoS and other SLA objectives.

Likewise, Im seeing more interest around public clouds by vendors, investors or some business where the focus is more around near term monetization or addressing an opportunity when seen. Public clouds tend to be more fun for the industry to talk about or speculate upon compared to legacy boring IT (at least in the minds of those outside of core IT).

There are many different types as well as definition of clouds based on various products, initiatives and viewpoints. By their nature and how clouds have been used as a metaphor or symbol for abstracting complex items in IT for decades. Consequently, similar to virtualization which also has multiple meanings it should be no surprise that there is cloud confusion. After all, in chaos and confusion there is opportunity for the industry at large to develop and provide services or products that need to be promoted and marketed which require coverage and discussion along with advice or consultation as well as implementation.

With all of the conversations around cloud as a metaphor for describing IT services, products and functions, that could beg the question of if these different approaches are a Stairway to Heaven, Hotel California (you can check in however never leave), Road to Hell or Highway to Hell or perhaps a journey to Yellow Brick Road.

My general thinking and perception of both public and private IT clouds continues to be that of dont be scared, however look before you leap. Look at how cloud IT are not a replacement, rather are a compliment to your existing environment as another tier of resource (server, storage, network, software or other service) used to address various needs or issues. Likewise is private cloud another name for in sourcing of IT?

That is all for now, hope you find this ongoing series of current and emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives interesting.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Event Announcement: Industry Trends and Perspective European Seminar

Thu, 20 May 2010 16:12:34

Event Seminar Announcement:

IT Data Center, Storage and Virtualization Industry Trends and Perspective
June 16, 2010 Nijkerk, GELDERLAND Netherlands

Event Type	Training/Seminar
Event Type	Seminar Training with Greg Schulz of US based Server and StorageIO
Sponsor	Brouwer Storage Consultancy
Target Audience	Storage Architects, Consultants, Pre-Sales, Customer (technical) decison makers
Keywords	Cloud, Grid, Data Protection, Disaster Recovery, Storage, Green IT, VTL, Encryption, Dedupe, SAN, NAS, Backup, BC, DR, Performance, Virtualization, FCoE
Location and Venue	Ampt van Nijkerk Berencamperweg Nijkerk, GELDERLAND NL
When	Wed. June 16, 2010 9AM-5PM Local
Price	Euro 450
Event URL	LinkedIn: http://events.linkedin.com/Greg-Schulz-Brouwer-Storage-Consultancy/pub/321477
Contact	Gert Brouwer Olevoortseweg 43 3861 MH Nijkerk The Netherlands Phone: +31-33-246-6825 Fax: +31-33-245-8956 Cell Phone: +31-652-601-309 info@brouwerconsultancy.com
Abstract	General items that will be covered include: What are current and emerging macro trends, issues, challenges and opportunities. Common IT customer and IT trends, issues and challenges. Opportunities for leveraging various current, new and emerging technologies, techniques. What are some new and improved technologies and techniques. The seminar will provide insight on how to address various IT and data storage management challenges, where and how new and emerging technologies can co-exist as well as compliment installed resources for maximum investment protection and business agility. Additional themes include cost and storage resource management, optimization and efficiency approaches along with where and how cloud, virtualizaiton and other topics fit into existing environments. Buzzwords and topics to be discussed include among others: FC and FCoE, SAS, SATA, iSCSI and NAS, I/O Vritualization (IOV) and convergence SSD (Flash and RAM), RAID, Second Generation MAID and IPM, Tape Performance and Capacity planning, Performance and Capacity Optimization, Metrics IRM tools including DPM, E2E, SRA, SRM, as Well as Federated Management Data movement and migration including automation or policy enabled HA and Data protection including Backup/Restore, BC/DR , Security/Encryption VTL, CDP, Snapshots and replication for virtual and non virtual environments Dynamic IT and Optimization , the new Green IT (efficiency and productivity) Distributed data protection (DDP) and distributed data caching (DDC) Server and Storage Virtualization along with discussion about life beyond consolidation SAN, NAS, Clusters, Grids, Clouds (Public and Private), Bulk and object based Storage Unified and vendor prepackaged stacked solutions (e.g. EMC VCE among others) Data footprint reduction (Servers, Storage, Networks, Data Protection and Hypervisors among others.

Learn about other events involving Greg Schulz and StorageIO at www.storageio.com/events

Site Related: Additions and Updates have been made to interesting links page

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:43:21

Several new companies and links have been added as well as others updated on the StorageIO interesting links page now with over 700 entries. Click here to read more and view the links

Blog Post: EMC VPLEX: Virtual Storage Redefined or Respun?

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:43:21

In a flurry of announcements that coincide with EMCworld occurring in Boston this week of May 10 2010 EMC officially unveiled the Virtual Storage vision initiative (aka twitter hash tag of #emcvs) and initial VPLEX product. The Virtual Storage initiative was virtually previewed back in March (See my previous post here along with one from Stu Miniman (twitter @stu) of EMC here or here) and according to EMC the VPLEX product was made generally available (GA) back in April.

The Virtual Storage vision and associated announcements consisted of:

Virtual Storage vision Big picture initiative view of what and how to enable private clouds
VPLEX architecture Big picture view of federated data storage management and access
First VPLEX based product Local and campus (Metro to about 100km) solutions
Glimpses of how the architecture will evolve with future products and enhancements

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Apple iPad: Is it a Business iTool or iToy?

Tue, 4 May 2010 16:54:32

Apple iPad via www.apple.com

With the formal release and availability of the Apple iPad (See previous post here) along with networking capabilities including 3G and WiFi, needless to say there has been plenty of buzz in the tech sphere and beyond on both what you can do, as well as what you can not do with the new Apple iProduct. Similarly, there has been buzz from Apple co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs defending why there is no Adobe flash capabilities on the iPad or perhaps a different way, attaching flash as a non standard which is ironic for those who see many Apple products as being non standard.

What has also been getting some buzz and discussions is if the iPad is a business iTool or iToy including a recent discussion on the StorageMonkeys Infosmack 48 podcast with hosts Greg Knieriemen @Knieriemen, Marc Farley @3parfarley, guest emeritus Mark Twomey @Storagezilla and Chris Weil LeBlanc @c_weil .

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Happy Earth Day 2010!

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:55:44

Here in the northern hemisphere it is late April and thus mid spring time.

That means the trees sprouting their buds, leaves and flowering while other plants and things come to life.

In Minnesota where I live, there is not a cloud in the sky today, the sun is out and its going to be another warm day in the 60s, a nice day to not be flying or traveling and thus enjoy the fine weather.

Among other things of note on this earth day 2010 include:

Minnesota Twins new home Target Field was just named the most Green Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium as well as greenest in the US with its LEED (or see here) certification.
Icelands Eyjafjallajokull volcano continues to spew water vapor steam, CO2 and ash at a slower rate than last week when it first erupted with some speculating that there could be impending activity from other Icelandic volcanos. Some estimates placed the initial eruption CO2 impact and subsequent flight cancellations to be neutral, essentially canceling each other out, however Im sure we will be hearing many different stories in the weeks to come.

Image of Iceland Eyjafjallajokull Volcano Eruption via Boston.com

Flights to/from and within Europe and the UK are returning to normal
Toyota continues to deal with recalls on some of their US built automobiles including the energy efficient Prius, some of which may have been purchased during the recent US cash for clunkers (CFC) program (hmm, is that ironic or what?)
Greenpeace in addition to using a Facebook page to protest Facebook data center practices is now targeting cloud IT in general including just before the Apple iPad launch (Heres some comments from Microsoft).
Vendors in all industries are lining up for the second coming of Green marketing or perhaps Green Washing 2.0

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Seagate to say goodbye to Cayman Islands, Hello Ireland

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:18:18

Seagate (NASDQ: STX) corporation, the parent of the company many people in IT and data storage in particular know as Seagate the disk drive manufacturer is moving their paper headquarters from the Cayman Islands where they have been based since 2000 to Ireland.

Let me rephrase that as Seagate is not moving their Scotts Valley California headquarters of operations or any design, manufacturing or marketing to Ireland that is not already there. Rather, Seagate as a manufacturing company is moving where it is incorporated (paper corporate headquarters) from the Cayman Islands to the Emerald Island of Ireland.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Spring 2010 StorageIO Newsletter

Wed, 7 Apr 2010 20:12:34

Welcome to the spring 2010 edition of the Server and StorageIO (StorageIO) news letter.

This edition follows the inaugural issue (Winter 2010) incorporating feedback and suggestions as well as building on the fantastic responses received from recipients.

A couple of enhancements included in this issue (marked as New!) include a Featured Related Site along with Some Interesting Industry Links. Another enhancement based on feedback is to include additional comment that in upcoming issues will expand to include a column article along with industry trends and perspectives.

Spring 2010 Newsletter

You can access this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions. Click on the following links to view the spring 2010 newsletter as HTML or PDF or, to go to the newsletter page.

Follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here.

You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

Also, a very big thank you to everyone who has helped make StorageIO a success!.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: March Metrics and Measuring Social Media

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:34:54

What metrics matter for social media and networking?

Of course the answer should be it depends.

Click here to read more.

What is your take on metrics that matter, which is of course unless they do not matter to you?

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Its US Census time, What about IT Data Centers?

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:43:21

It is that once a decade activity time this year referred to as the US 2010 Census.

With the 2010 census underway, not to mention also time for completing and submitting your income tax returns, if you are in IT, what about measuring, assessing, taking inventory or analyzing your data and data center resources?

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: March Metric Madness: Fun with Simple Math

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:54:32

Its March and besides being spring in north America, it also means tournament season including the NCAA basket ball series among others known as March Madness.

Given the office pools and other forms of playing with numbers tied to the tournaments and real or virtual money, here is a quick timeout looking at some fun with math.

The fun is showing how simple math can be used to show relative growth for IT resources such as data storage. For example, say that you have 10Tbytes of storage or data and that it is growing at only 10 percent per year, in five years with simple math yields 14.6Tbytes.

Now lets assume growth rate is 50 percent per year and in the course of five years, instead of having 10Tbytes, that now jumps to 50.6Tbytes. If you have 100Tbytes today and at 50 percent growth rate, that would yield 506.3 Tbytes or about half of a petabyte in 5 years. If by chance you have say 1Pbyte or 1,000Tbytes today, at 25% year of year growth you would have 2.44Pbytes in 5 years.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Hard product vs. soft product

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:23:45

In the IT industry space and data storage or computers and servers particularly so, mention hard product or software product and what comes to mind?

How about physical vs. virtual servers or storage, hardware vs. software solutions, products vs. services?

By contrast, in the aviation and airline industry among others, mention hard vs. soft product and there is a slight variation, which is the difference between one providers service delivery experience.

For example, two or more different airlines or carriers may fly the same aircraft perhaps even with the same engines, instrumentation, navigation electronics and base features, all part of the hard product.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Who or what is your sphere of influence?

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:23:45

Disclosure: I used to be an IT customer working in different organizations, than worked for various vendors, than for an analyst firm before starting StorageIO. Thus I have been at various seats around the proverbial IT table, having listened to as well as being part of various stories from different vantage points, thus my view and sphere or focus or influence may be different than yours.

Who is your sphere or circle of influence?

If you listen to vendors your perceptions will be one thing, if you listen to customers, your perceptions will be different. Or, if you simply read and obtain information and perspectives via the media and depending upon their sources or opinions, guess what!

Taking a step back for a moment.

Recently I have been attending either in person, or via virtual means various vendor briefings and announcements, as well as meeting and talking with IT professionals face to face or via phone and other means. Likewise I see and read various industry related material via printed (yes some still exist), online, web, blogs, podcasts, videos, tweets from different sources ranging from traditional media or journalist organizations using in house staff or a combination of staff and freelance writers as well as upstart new media, to vendors and vars, research analyst among others.

What jumped out at me as a perspective is something that should be as clear as seeing through both pairs of eyes or listening with two ears (assuming no ailments). That is, if all you listen to are vendors guess what your thought and perspective basis will be.

Likewise, if all you do is listen to users guess what the perspective is going to be? Another angle is that if you are in academia or research areas, and those that you associate with are also only in that venue, guess what? Or, how about if all you do is listen to particularly media or blog venues, to vars or specific analysis, or, get your info second or third hand hopefully you start to see the picture here. How about if all you do to get your information is by reading press releases or customer case studies, while providing some information, what about the story behind the story and what it all means?

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Virtual Storage and Social Media: What did EMC not Announce?

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:39:56

Synopsis: EMC made a vision statement in a recent multimedia briefing that has a social networking angle as well as storage virtualization, virtual storage, public and private clouds.

Basically EMC provided a vision preview of in a social media networking friendly manner of a vision being refereed to initially as EMC Virtual Storage (aka twitter hash tag #emcvs) which of course sounds similar to a pharmacy chain.

The vision includes stirring up the industry with a new discussion around virtual storage compared to the decade old coverage of storage virtualization.

The underlying theme of this vision is similar to that of virtual serves vs. server virtualization including the ability to move servers around, so to should there be the ability to move data around more freely on a local or global basis and in real or near real time. In other words, breaking the decades long affinity that has existed between data storage and the data that exists on it (Figure 1). Buzzword bingo themes include federated storage, virtual storage, public and private cloud along with global cache coherency among others.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Inaugural StorageIO Newsletter

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:45:54

Welcome to the winter 2010 edition of the Server and StorageIO (StorageIO) news letter. This inaugural edition of the StorageIO news letter coincides with our 5th year in business along with recent web site and blog enhancements.

In an age of social media including facebook, twitter, blogs and video, some might ask the question of why a news letter, after all, is that not old school or non social media?

For those who are immersed into twitter, blogs, facebook, feeds and other Web 2.0 means of communication, a traditional newsletter might not be in vogue.

You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com

Winter 2010 Newsletter (Inaugural Edition)

However, realizing that there is still a large percentage of the population which also means a vast number of visitors and guest of StorageIO web sites and blogs or viewers of articles along with other content that do not use twitter, facebook, LinkedIn or RSS feeds, I realize that there is still a role for a newsletter.

Thus, it makes sense to bring info to those of you who prefer a traditional news letter format via email or other subscription, however this newsletter is available in HTML or PDF formats.

You can access this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions. Click on the following links to view the inaugural newsletter as HTML or PDF or, to go to the newsletter page.

If you are not already doing so, follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here.

Enjoy this inaugural edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

Also, a very big thank you to everyone who has helped make StorageIO a success!.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Technorati tags: StorageIO

Blog Post: Green IT, Green Gap, Tiered Energy and Green Myths

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:34:56

There are many different aspects of Green IT along with several myths or misperceptions not to mention missed opportunities.

There is a Green Gap or disconnect between environmentally aware, focused messaging and core IT data center issues. For example, when I ask IT professionals whether they have or are under direction to implement green IT initiatives, the number averages in the 10-15% range.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Post Holiday IT Shopping Bargains, Dell Buying Exanet?

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:54:32

For consumers, the time leading up to the holiday Christmas season is usually busy including door busters as well as black Friday among other specials for purchasing gifts and other items. However savvy shoppers will wait for after Christmas or the holidays altogether perhaps well into the New Year when some good bargains can become available. IT customers are no different with budgets to use up before the end of the year thus a flurry of acquisitions that should become evident soon as we are entering earnings announcement season.

However there are also bargains for IT organizations looking to take advantage of special vendor promotions trying to stimulate sales, not to mention for IT vendors to do some shopping of their own. Consequently, in addition to the flurry of merger and acquisition (M and A) activity from last summer through the fall, there has been several recent deals, some of which might make Monty Hall blush!

Some recent acquisition activity include among others:

Dell bought Perot systems for $3.9B
DotHill bought Cloverleaf
Texas Memory Systems (TMS) bought Incipient
HP bought IBRIX and 3COM among others
LSI bought Onstor
VMware bought Zimbra
Micron bought Numonyx
Exar bought Neterion

Click here to read more about Dell and Exanet.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Does IBM Power7 processor announcement signal storage upgrades?

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:33:44

IBM recently announced the Power7 as the latest generation of processors that the company uses in some of its mid range and high end compute servers including the iSeries and pSeries.

Click here to read more what the Power7 and DS8000 storage systems may have in common.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Technology Tiering, Servers Storage and Snow Removal

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 12:34:56

Granted it is winter in the northern hemisphere and thus snow storms should not be a surprise.

However between December 2009 and early 2010, there has been plenty of record activity from in the U.K. (or here), to the U.S. east coast including New York, Boston and Washington DC, across the midwest and out to California, it made for a white christmas and SANta fun along with snow fun in general in the new year.

2010 Snow Storm via www.star-telegram.com

What does this have to do with Information Factories aka IT resources including public or private clouds, facilities, server, storage, networking along with data management let alone tiering?

Click here to read more.

Cheers

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE)

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 17:17:17

CCSE Facility and Seminar Series

This past week I had the honor of delivering a keynote presentation in San Diego at the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) as part of their continuing education and community outreach and education, workshop and seminar series. The theme of the well attended event was Next Generation Data Center Solutions of which my talk centered around leveraging Green and Virtual Data Centers for enabling efficiencey and effectiveness. In addition to my keynote, included a panel discussion that I moderated with representatives of the events sponsor Compucom, along with their special guests APC, HP, Intel and VMware.

The CCSE has a focus around Climate Change, Energy Efficienecey, Green Buildings, Renewable Energy, Transportation, Home and Business. Their services and focus includes awareness and outreach, education programs, library and tools, consultant and associated services. Speaking of their library, there is even a signed copy of my book The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) now at the CCSE library that can be checked out along with their other resources.

The CCSE staff and facilities were fantastic with hosts Mike Bigelow (an energy engineer) and Marlene King (program manager) orchestrating a great event.

If you are in the San Diego area, check out the CCSE located at 8690 Balboa Ave., Suite 100. They have a great library, cool demonstrations and tools that you can check out to assist with optimization IT data centers from an energy efficicinecy standpoint. Learn more about the CCSE here.

Click here to read more.

Cheers
gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Industry trends and perspectives thoughts on iPad for business

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 17:17:17

In case you did not hear, Apple announced the iTouch on steroids aka iPad last week.

Is it a phone? No, its not an iPhone

Is it a PC? Well, not in the context of the traditional PC or Mac book

What is the iPad or more importantly, what is the possible business angle?

First as to what is it, it might be easier to describe what it is not.

As mentioned above, it is not an iPhone, granted you can get an iPad with 3G or WiFi for data access (similar to how iTouch has WiFi). Likewise, the iPad is not a PC in the context of running applications traditionally found on Windows PCs or Mac devices.

Does that mean the iPad is simply an iTouch or iPod for entertainment on steroids? Well, Maybe!

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Infosmack Episode 34, VMware, Microsoft and More

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:43:21

Following on the heals of several guest appearances late in 2009 ( here, here, here and here) on the Storage Monkeys Infosmack weekly pod cast, I was recently asked to join them again for the inaugural 2010 show (Episode 34).

Along with VMguru Rich Brambley and hosts Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley we discussed several recent industry topics in this first show of the year which can be accessed here or on iTunes.

Heres a link to the pod cast where you can listen to the discussion including VMware Go, VMware buying Zimbra, Vendor Alliances such as HP and Microsoft HyperV and EMC+Cisco+VMware, along with data protection for virtual servers issues options (or opportunities) among other topics.

I have included the following links that pertain to some of the items we discussed during the show.

Enjoy the show.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author interviews and articles for others soon to be released.

Based on prior trends and looking at forecasts, a simple predictions is that some of the items for 2010 will apply for 2011 as well given some of this years items may have been predicted by some in 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 or, well ok, you get the picture. :)

Click here to read more.

Lets see how they play out.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog Post: EPA Server and Storage Workshop Feb 2, 2010

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:23:45

Following up on a recent previous post pertaining to US EPA Energy Star(r) for Servers, Data Center Storage and Data Centers, there will be a workshop held Tuesday February 2, 2010 in San Jose, CA.

Here is the note (Italics added by me for clarity) from the folks at EPA with information about the event and how to participate.

Dear ENERGY STAR(R) Servers and Storage Stakeholders:

Representatives from the US EPA will be in attendance at The Green Grid Technical Forum in San Jose, CA in early February, and will be hosting information sessions to provide updates on recent ENERGY STAR servers and storage specification development activities. Given the timing of this event with respect to ongoing data collection and comment periods for both product categories, EPA intends for these meetings to be informal and informational in nature. EPA will share details of recent progress, identify key issues that require further stakeholder input, discuss timelines for the completion, and answer questions from the stakeholder community for each specification.

The sessions will take place on February 2, 2010, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM PT, at the San Jose Marriott. A conference line and Webinar will be available for participants who cannot attend the meeting in person. The preliminary agenda is as follows:

Servers (10:00 AM to 12:30 PM)

Draft 1 Version 2.0 specification development overview & progress report

Tier 1 Rollover Criteria
Power & Performance Data Sheet
SPEC efficiency rating tool development

Opportunities for energy performance data disclosure

Storage (1:30 PM to 4:00 PM)

Draft 1 Version 1.0 specification development overview & progress report
Preliminary stakeholder feedback & lessons learned from data collection

A more detailed agenda will be distributed in the coming weeks. Please RSVP to storage@energystar.gov or servers@energystar.gov no later than Friday, January 22. Indicate in your response whether you will be participating in person or via Webinar, and which of the two sessions you plan to attend.

Thank you for your continued support of ENERGY STAR.

End of EPA Transmission

For those attending the event, I look forward to seeing you there in person on Tuesday before flying down to San Diego where I will be presenting on Wednesday the 3rd at The Green Data Center Conference.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Blog post and Poll: RAID Relevance Revisited

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:45:54

Following up from some previous posts on the topic, a continued discussion point in the data storage industry is the relevance (or lack there) of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).

These discussions tend to evolve around how RAID is dead due to its lack of real or perceived ability to continue scaling in terms of performance, availability, capacity, economies or energy capabilities needed or when compared to those of newer techniques, technologies or products.

While there are many new and evolving approaches to protecting data in addition to maintaining availability or accessibility to information, RAID despite the fan fare is far from being dead at least on the technology front.

Sure, there are issues or challenges that require continued investing in RAID as has been the case over the past 20 years; however those will also be addressed on a go forward basis via continued innovation and evolution along with riding technology improvement curves.

Now from a marketing standpoint, ok, I can see where the RAID story is dead, boring, and something new and shiny is needed, or, at least change the pitch to sound like something new.

Consequently, when being long in the tooth and with some of the fore mentioned items among others, older technologies that may be boring or lack sizzle or marketing dollars can and often are declared dead on the buzzword bingo circuit. After all, how long now has the industry trade group RAID Advisory Board (RAB) been missing in action, retired, spun down, archived or ILMed?

RAID remains relevant because like other dead or zombie technologies it has reached the plateau of productivity and profitability. That success is also something that emerging technologies envy as their future domain and thus a classic marketing move is to declare the incumbent dead.

The reality is that RAID in all of its various instances from hardware to software, standard to non-standard with extensions is very much alive from the largest enterprise to the SMB to the SOHO down into consumer products and all points in between.

Ok, so what is your take?

Click here to read more and to provide your feedback, comments and perspectives.

Check back soon to see how the results play out...

Here are some additional related and relevant RAID links of interests:

Stay tuned for more about RAIDs relevance as I dont think we have heard the last on this.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks, Designing Flexible and Scalable Data Infrastructures (Elsevier)

Twitter @storageio

Blog Post and Poll: Networking Convergence, Ethernet, InfiniBand or both?

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:54:32

I just received an email in my inbox from Voltaire along with a pile of other advertisements, advisories, alerts and announcements from other folks.

What caught my eye on the email was that it is announcing a new survey results that you can read here as well as below.

The question that this survey announcements prompts for me and hence why I am posting it here is how dominant will InfiniBand be on a go forward basis, the answer I think is it depends...

It depends on the target market or audience, what their applications and technology preferences are along with other service requirements.

I think that there is and will remain a place for Infiniband, the question is where and for what types of environments as well as why have both InfiniBand and Ethernet including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) in support of unified or converged I/O and data networking.

Click here to read more and to provide your feedback, comments and perspectives.

Oh, and for what its worth for those concerned about FTC disclosure, Voltaire is not nor have they been a client of StorageIO, however, I did used to work for a Fibre Channel, iSCSI, IP storage, LAN, SAN, MAN, WAN vendor and wrote a book on the topics :).

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and "Resilient Storage Networks, Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures" (Elsevier)

twitter @storageio

Blog Post: Upcoming Events and Activities Update V2010.1

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 03:33:33 GMT

The end of year christmas and new years holiday season has come and gone which means of course that 2009 is a wrap along with the travel from being out and about.

In addition to getting some time to relax a bit (playing Wii resort, snow plowing, cooking etc.), I have also been catching up on developing some new content including articles, blogs (some yet to be post), tips as well as podcasts along with some custom research advisory projects.

Check out some recent tips, articles, videos and podcasts here along with perspecitives and comments on indusitry news here.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Recent tips, videos, articles and more update V2010.1

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 03:33:33 GMT

Realizing that some prefer blogs to webs to twitters to other venues, here are some recent links to articles, tips, videos, webcasts and other content that have appeared in different venues since August 2009.
Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Cheers - gs Greg Schulz - Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: StorageIO in the News Update V2010.1

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 03:33:33 GMT

StorageIO is regularly quoted and interviewed in various industry and vertical market venues and publications both on-line and in print on a global basis.
The following are some coverage, perspectives and commentary by StorageIO on IT industry trends including servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, services, virtualization, cloud, cluster, grid, SSD, data protection, Green IT and more since the last update. Realizing that some prefer blogs to webs to twitter to other venues, here are some recent links among others to media coverage and comments by me on a different topics that are among others found at www.storageio.com/news.html:
Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Cheers - gs Greg Schulz - Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:12:34 GMT

Following up on previous posts pertaining to US EPA Energy Star for Servers, Data Center Storage and Data Centers, here is a note received today with some new information. For those interested in the evolving Energy Star for Data Center, Servers and Storage, have a look at the following as well as the associated links.

Here is the note from EPA:

From: ENERGY STAR Storage [storage@energystar.gov]
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 8:00 AM
Subject: ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage Initial Data Collection Procedure

Dear ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage Stakeholder or Other Interested Party:

The U.S. Environmental Production Agency (EPA) would like to invite interested parties to test the energy performance of storage products that are currently being considered for inclusion in the Version 1.0 ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage specification. Please review the attached cover letter, data collection procedure, and test data collection sheet for further information.

Stakeholders are encouraged to submit test data via e-mail to storage@energystar.gov no later than Friday, February 12, 2009.

Thank you for your continued support of ENERGY STAR!

Attachment Links:

Storage Initial Data Collection Procedure.pdf

Storage Initial Data Collection Cover Letter.pdf

Storage Initial Data Collection Data Sheet.xls

For more information, visit: www.energystar.gov

For those interested in EPA Energy Star, Green IT including Green and energy efficient storage, check out these following links:

Watch for more news and updates pertaining to EPA Energy Star for Servers, Data Center Storage and Data centers in 2010.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC)

Blog Post and Poll: What was hot in 2009 and what was not, cast your vote

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:01:23 GMT

This is the time of year when people make their predictions for the next year.

Building on some recent surveys and polls including:

Whats your take on Windows 7

Is IBM XIV still relevant

EMC and Cisco Acadia VCE, what does it mean?

What do you think of IT clouds

Whats Your Take on FTC Guidelines For Bloggers?

Not to mention those over at Storage Monkeys and the customer collective among others

Before jumping to what will be hot or a flop in 2010, what do you think were the successful as well as disappointing technologies, trends, events, products or vendors of 2009?

Click here to cast your votes along with nominations for what was hot and what was not in 2009.

Feel free to vote early and often, however be advised, you will have to be creative in doing so as single balloting per IP and cookies are enabled to keep things on the down low.

Check back soon to see how the results play out...

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC)

Blog Post: Behind the Scenes, SANta Claus Global Cloud Story

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:54:32 GMT

There is a ton of discussion, stories, articles, videos, conferences and blogs about the benefits and value proposition of cloud computing. Not to mention, discussion or debates about what is or what is not a cloud or cloud product, service or architecture including some perspectives and polls from me.

Now SANta does not really care about these and other similar debates I have learned. However he is concerned with who has been naughty and nice as well watching out for impersonators or members of his crew who misbehave.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: What do NAS, NASA and NASCAR have in common?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:45:43 GMT

The other day it dawned on me what do NAS, NASA and NASCAR have in common?

Several things in addition to all starting with the letters NAS it turns out.

For example, they all deal with round objects, NAS or Network Attached storage involved with circular spinning disk drives, NASA or National Aeronautical Space Administration besides involved with aircraft that have tires that go round and round, or airplanes circling waiting for landing.

In the case of NASA they are also involved with sending craft or devices to circle other planets or moons and land or crash into them. Sometimes NAS along with other storage systems have disk drives that crash, similar to how NASCAR events see accidents.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Is MAID Dead? I dont Think So!

Wed, 8 Dec 2009 14:43:21 GMT

Some vendors are doing better than others and first generation MAID (Massive or monolithic Array of Idle Disks) might be dead or about to be deceased, spun down or put into a long term sleep mode, it is safe to say that second generation MAID (e.g. MAID 2.0) also known as intelligent power management (IPM) is alive and doing well.

In fact, IPM is not unique to disk storage or disk drives as it is also a technique found in current generation of processors such as those from Intel (e.g. Nehalem) and others.

Other names for IPM include adaptive voltage scaling (AVS), adaptive voltage scaling optimized (AVSO) and adaptive power management (APM) among others.

The basic concept is to vary the amount of power being used to the amount of work and service level needed at a point in time and on a granular basis.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: EMC Storage and Management Software Getting FAST

Wed, 8 Dec 2009 14:43:21 GMT

EMC has announced the availability of the first phase of FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) functionality for their Symmetrix VMAX, CLARiiON and celerra storage systems.

FAST was first previewed earlier this year (see here and here).

Key themes of FAST are to leverage policies for enabling automation to support large scale environments, doing more with what you have along with enabling virtual data centers for traditional, private and public clouds as well as enhancing IT economics.

This means enabling performance and capacity planning analysis along with facilitating load balancing or other infrastructure optimization activities to boost productivity, efficiency and resource usage effectiveness not to mention enabling Green IT.

Is FAST revolutionary? That will depend on who you talk or listen to.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: SSD and Storage System Performance

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 05:43:21 GMT

Jacob Gsoedl has a new article over at SearchStorage titled How to add solidstate storage to your enterprise data storage systems.

In his article which includes some commentary by me, Jacob lays out various options on where and how to deploy solid state devices (SSD) in and with enterprise storage systems.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: StorageIO debuts at 79 in Technobabble top 400 analyst list

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 03:45:45 GMT

Following on the heals of being named one of three EcoTech warriors earlier in the year, and then number 5 in the top ten independent bloggers at StorageMonkeys earlier this year (plus appearing on InfoSmack), the momentum continues more recently being named as the 23rd out of the top 30 influential virtualization bloggers.

If that were not enough, I was also surprised to learn recently that I have also made a debut appearance at number 79 in the Technobabble top 400 analyst and independent blogger lists as well.

To say that Im honored and flattered would be an understatement and I thank all of the growing number of readers and commenters to the various blogs, twitter tweets along with other content at the different venues and events Im involved with.

Thanks to all of you and have a safe happy holiday season along with a prosperous new years, look forward to future conversations and discussions.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Green IT and Virtual Data Centers

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:34:56 GMT

Green IT and virtual data centers are no fad nor are they limited to large scale environments.

Paying attention to how resources are used to deliver information services in a flexible, adaptable, energy efficient, environmentally, and economically friendly manner to boost efficiency and productivity are here to stay.

Read more here in the article I did for the folks over at Enterprise Systems Journal.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:34:56 GMT

Some believe that green storage is specifically designed to reduce power and cooling costs.

The reality is that there are many ways to reduce environmental impact while enhancing the economics of data storage besides simply booting utilizing.

These include optimizing data storage capacity as well as boosting performance to increase productivity per watt of energy used when work needs to be done.

Some approaches require new hardware or software while others can be accomplished with changes to management including reconfiguration leveraging insight and awareness of resource needs.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Is IBM XIV still relevant?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:54:32 GMT

That is a question I get asked quite a bit and based on discussions in other blogs and twitter tweets; it appears that Im not alone.

A little over a year ago I did a blog post about IBM and XIV, now seems like a good time to revisit, look back and look forward.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: What is the Future of Servers?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:54:32 GMT

Recently I provided some comments and perspectives on the future of servers in an article over at Processor.com.

In general, blade servers will become more ubiquitous, that is they wont go away, rather become more common place with even higher density processors with more cores and performance along with faster I/O and larger memory capacity per given footprint.

While the term blade server may fade giving way to some new term or phrase, rest assured their capabilities and functionality will not disappear, rather be further enhanced to support virtualization with VMware vsphere, Microsoft HyperV, Citrix/Zen along with public and private clouds, both for consolidation and in the next wave of virtualization called life beyond consolidation.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Justifying Green IT and Home Hardware Upgrades with EnergyStar

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:54:32 GMT

Have you seen the TV commercials or print advertisements where an energy star washer is mentioned as so efficient that the savings from reduced power consumption are enough to pay for the dryer? If not, check out the EPA Energy Star website for information about various programs, savings and efficiency options to learn more

What does this have to do with servers, storage, networking, data centers or other IT equipment?

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: ILM = Has It Losts its Meaning

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:54:32 GMT

Disclaimer, warning, be advised, heads up, disclosure, this post is partially for fun so take it that way.

Remember ILM, that is, Information Lifecycle Management among other meanings.

It was a popular buzzword de jour a few years ago similar to how cloud is being tossed around lately, or in the recent past, virtualization, clusters, grids and SOA among others.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: How to win approval for upgrades: Link them to business benefits

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:54:32 GMT

Drew Rob has another good article over at Processor.com about various tips and strategies on how to gain approval for hardware (or software) purchases with some comments by yours truly.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Going Rouge or Rogue in IT

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:23:45 GMT

Given all of the hype and buzz lately around Sarah Palins new book Going rogue, how long until we see the term or phrase used in IT? After all, we saw some jump on the cash for clunkers theme. I wonder who will be the first to jump on the Going rogue or rouge theme bandwagon. Here are a few ideas that might stimulate some thought, or, to keep an eye out to see who jumps on the bandwagon.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Did HP respond to EMC and Cisco VCE with Microsoft HyperV bundle?

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:43:21 GMT

Last week EMC and Cisco along with Intel and VMware created the VCE collation along with a consumption model based service joint venture called Acadia.

In other activity last week, HP made several announcements including:

Improvements in sensing technologies
StorageWorks enhancements (SVSP, IBRIX, EVA and HyperV, X9000 and others)

EMC and Cisco were relatively quiet this week on announcement front, however HP unleashed another round of announcements that among others included:

Quarterly financial results
SMB server, storage, network and virtualization enhancements (here, here, here and here)
Acquisitions of 3COM (see related blog post here)

The reason I bring up all of this HP activity is not to simply re-cap all of the news and announcements which you can find on many other blogs or news sites, rather I see as a trend.

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: HP Buys one of the seven networking dwarfs and gets a bargain

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:48:37 GMT

HP Buys one of the seven networking dwarfs and gets a bargain

Last week EMC and Cisco announced their VCE collation and Acadia.

The other day, HP continued its early holiday shopping by plucking down $2.7B USD and bought 3COM, one of the networking seven dwarfs (e.g. when compared to networking giant Cisco). Some of the other so called networking dwarfs when compared to Cisco include Brocade, Ciena and Juniper among others.

Why is 3COM a bargain at $2.7B

Click here to read more.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Poll: EMC and Cisco Acadia VCE, what does it mean?

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 23:22:33 GMT

EMC and Cisco recently announced their new Acadia VCE coalition along with Intel and VMware.

As part of the VCE the collation or joint venture is also providing to market pre-acted vblocks that include Cisco servers power by Intel and network switches, EMC storage and management tools (Inonx and RSA for security), VMware vsphere virtualization along with pre-post sales services.

How does this move from a technology, packaging, integration as well as business or alliance perspective change the server, storage, networking, hardware, software and services game?

Click here to cast your vote and see results.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Acadia VCE: VMware Cisco EMC Virtual Computing Environment

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 3:15:15 GMT

Was today the day the music died? (click here or here if you are not familar with the expression)

Add another three letter acronym (TLA) to your IT vocabulary if you are involved with server, storage, networking, virtualization, security and related infrastructure resource management (IRM) topics.

That new TLA is Virtual Computing Environment (VCE), a coalition formed by EMC and Cisco along with partner Intel called Acadia that was announced today. Of course, EMC who also happens to own VMware for virtualization and RSA for security software tools bring those to the coalition (read press release here).

With Cisco, EMC and VMware announcing their new VCE coalition, has this signaled the end of servers, storage, networking, hardware and software for physical, virtual and clouding computing as we know it?

Does this mean all other vendors not in this announcement should pack it up, game over and go home?

The answer in my perspective is NO!

No, the music did not end today!

NO, servers, storage and networking for virtual or cloud environments has not ended.

Also, NO, other vendors do not have to go home today, the game is not over!

However a new game is on, one that some have seen before, for others it is something new, exciting perhaps revolutionary or an industry first.

What was announced?
Figure 1 shows a general vision or positioning from the three major players involved along with four tenants or topic areas of focus. Here is a link to a press release where you can read more.

Figure 1: Source: Cisco, EMC, VMware

General points include:

A new coalition (e.g. VCE) focused on virtual compute for cloud and non cloud environments
A new company Acadia owned by EMC and Cisco (1/3 each) along with Intel and VMware
A new go to market pre-sales, service and support cross technology domain skill set team
Solution bundles or vblocks with technology from Cisco, EMC, Intel and VMware

Click here to read more.

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 5:01:23 GMT

There is a good and timely article titled Green IT Can Save Money, Too over at Business Week that has a familiar topic and theme for those who read this blog or other content, articles, reports, books, white papers, videos, podcasts or in-person speaking and keynote sessions that I have done..

I posted a short version of this over there, here is the full version that would not fit in their comment section.

Short of calling it Green IT 2.0 or the perfect storm, there is a resurgence and more importantly IMHO a growing awareness of the many facets of Green IT along with Green in general having an economic business sustainability aspect.

While the Green Gap and confusion still exists, that is, the difference between what people think or perceive and actual opportunities or issues; with growing awareness, it will close or at least narrow. For example, when I regularly talk with IT professionals from various sized, different focused industries across the globe in diverse geographies and ask them about having to go green, the response is in the 7-15% range (these are changing) with most believing that Green is only about carbon footprint.

On the other hand, when I ask them if they have power, cooling, floor space or other footprint constraints including frozen or reduced budgets, recycling along with ewaste disposition or RoHS requirements, not to mention sustaining business growth without negatively impacting quality of service or customer experience, the response jumps up to 65-75% (these are changing) if not higher.

That is the essence of the green gap or disconnect!

Click here to read more.

Poll: Whats Your Take on Windows 7

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 9:33:33 GMT

Microsoft finally officially released Windows 7 recently, whats your take?

Have you already taken the jump to be the first on the block or neighbored to be on Windows 7, getting ready to make the leap, have it on the back burner for next year, no plans, or perhaps already dumped Windows for Mac or Linux or getting ready to pull the plug?

Click here to read more.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: Optimize Data Storage for Performance and Capacity Efficiency

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 9:33:33 GMT

This post builds on a recent article I did that can be read here.

Even with tough economic times, there is no such thing as a data recession! Thus the importance of optimizing data storage efficiency addressing both performance and capacity without impacting availability in a cost effective manner to do more with what you have.

What this means is that even though budgets are tight or have been cut resulting in reduced spending, overall net storage capacity is up year over year by double digits if not higher in some environments.

Consequently, there is continued focus on stretching available IT and storage related resources or footprints further while eliminating barriers or constraints. IT footprint constraints can be physical in a cabinet or rack as well as floorspace, power or cooling thresholds and budget among others.

Constraints can be due to lack of performance (bandwidth, IOPS or transactions), poor response time or lack of availability for some environments. Yet for other environments, constraints can be lack of capacity, limited primary or standby power or cooling constraints. Other constraints include budget, staffing or lack of infrastructure resource management (IRM) tools and time for routine tasks.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:54:32 GMT

Following up on a recent post about Green IT, energy efficiency and optimization for servers, storage and more, here are some additional thoughts, perspectives along with industry activity around the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star for Server, Data Center Storage and Data Centers.

First a quick update, Energy Star for Servers is in place with work now underway on expanding and extending beyond the first specification. Second is that Energy Star for Data Center storage definition is well underway including a recent workshop to refine the initial specification along with discussion for follow-on drafts.

Energy Star for Data Centers is also currently undergoing definition which is focused more on macro or facility energy (notice I did not say electricity) efficiency as opposed to productivity or effectiveness, items that the Server and Storage specifications are working towards.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: I/O Virtualization (IOV) Revisited

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:23 GMT

Is I/O Virtualization (IOV) a server topic, a network topic, or a storage topic (See previous post)?

Like server virtualization, IOV involves servers, storage, network, operating system, and other infrastructure resource management areas and disciplines. The business and technology value proposition or benefits of converged I/O networks and I/O virtualization are similar to those for server and storage virtualization.

Additional benefits of IOV include:

Doing more with what resources (people and technology) already exist or reduce costs
Single (or pair for high availability) interconnect for networking and storage I/O
Reduction of power, cooling, floor space, and other green efficiency benefits
Simplified cabling and reduced complexity for server network and storage interconnects
Boosting servers performance to maximize I/O or mezzanine slots
reduce I/O and data center bottlenecks
Rapid re-deployment to meet changing workload and I/O profiles of virtual servers
Scaling I/O capacity to meet high-performance and clustered application needs
Leveraging common cabling infrastructure and physical networking facilities

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Should Everything Be Virtualized?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:34:56 GMT

Should everything, that is all servers, storage and I/O along with facilities, be virtualized?

The answer not surprisingly should be it depends!

Denny Cherry (aka Mrdenny) over at ITKE did a great recent post about applications not being virtualized, particularly databases. In general some of the points or themes we are on the same or similar page, while on others we slightly differ, not by very much.

Unfortunately consolidation is commonly misunderstood to be the sole function or value proposition of server virtualization given its first wave focus. I agree that not all applications or servers should be consolidated (note that I did not say virtualized).

From a consolidation standpoint, the emphasis is often on boosting resource utilization to reduce physical hardware and management costs by boosting the number of virtual machines (VMs) per physical machine (PMs). Ironically, while VMs using VMware, Microsoft HyperV, Citrix/Xen among others can leverage a common gold image for cloning or rapid provisionment, there are still separate operating system instances and applications that need to be managed for each VM.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Another StorageIO Appearance on Storage Monkeys InfoSmack

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:22:33 GMT

Following up from a previous appearance, I recently had another opportunity to participate in another Storage Monkeys InfoSmack podcast episode.

In the most recent podcast, discussions were centered on the recent service disruption at Microsoft/T-Mobile Side-Kick cloud services, FTC blogger disclosure guidelines, is Brocade up for sale and who should buy them, SNIA and SNW among other topics.

Here are a couple of relevant links pertaining to topics discussed in this InfoSmack session.

If you are involved with servers, storage, I/O networking, virtualization and other related data infrastructure topics, check out Storage Monkeys and InfoSmack.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:54:32 GMT

With a renewed focus on Green IT including energy Efficiency and Optimization of servers, storage, networks and facilities, is your focus on managing power, energy, or, productivity?

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Clouds and Data Loss: Time for CDP (Commonsense Data Protection)?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:42:33 GMT

Today SNIA released a press release pertaining to cloud storage timed to coincide with SNW where we can only presume vendors are talking about their cloud storage stories.

Yet chatter on the coconut wire along with various news (here and here and here) and social media sites is how could cloud storage and information service provider T-Mobile/Microsoft/Side-Kick loose customers data?

Click here to read more.

Blog Post: Could Huawei buy Brocade?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:45:54 GMT

Disclosure: I have no connection to Huawei. I own no stock in, nor have I worked for Brocade as an employee; however I did work for three years at SAN vendor INRANGE which was acquired by CNT. However I left to become an industry analyst prior to the acquisition by McData and well before Brocade bought McData. Brocade is not a current client; however I have done speaking events pertaining to general industry trends and perspectives at various Brocade customer events for them in the past.

Is Brocade for sale?

Last week a Wall Street Journal article mentioned Brocade (BRCD) might be for sale.

Click here to read more.

Blog Post and Poll: Whats Your Take on FTC Guidelines For Bloggers?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:45:54 GMT

If you have not heard or read yet, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week released new guidelines pertaining to blogger (or other social media) disclosure of if they are being paid, receiving free products or services, or simply had their costs covered to attend an event that they will be writing, posting or blogging about.

Not surprisingly, there are those who are up in arms, those that are cheering that its about time, and everyone else trying to figure out what the new rules mean, who they apply to and when. For some I expect to see a rash of disclosures by those not sure what it means or being safe while others continue to do what they have been doing, business or blogging or both as usual. As with many things, all bloggers do not get paid or receive renumeration (compensation in some shape or form) for what they write or blog, however there are some that do and is often the case, a few bad apples turn a good thing into a problem or black-eye for everyone else.

Click here to read more and cast your vote, see results.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post and Poll: What do you think of IT clouds

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 23:45:32 GMT

IT clouds (compute, applications, storage, and services) are a popular topic for discussion with some people being entirely sold on them as the way of the future, while others totally dismissing them, meanwhile, there's plenty of thoughts in between.

I recently shared some of my thoughts in this blog post about IT clouds, now whats your take (your identity will remain confidential)?

Click here to cast your vote and see results.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIO, Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: The function of XaaS Pick x ass a letter

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 23:45:32 GMT

Remember the xSP era where X was I for ISP (Internet Service Provider) or M for Managed Service Provider (MSP) or S for Storage Service Provider, part of buzzword bingo?

That was similar to the xLM craze where X could have been I for Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), D for Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) and so forth where even someone tried to register the term ILM and failed instead of grabbing something like XLM, lest I digress.

Fast forward to today, given the wide spread use of anything SaaS among other XaaS terms, lets have a quick and perhaps fun look at what some of the different usages of the new function XaaS(X) in the IT industry today.

Blog Post: Clouds are like Electricity: Dont be Scared

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:44:55 GMT

IT clouds (compute, applications, storage, and services) are like electricity in that they can be scary or confusing to some while being enabling or a necessity s to others not to mention being a polarizing force depending on where you sit or view them.

Blog Post: StorageIO aka Greg Schulz appears on Infosmack

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:44:55 GMT

If you are in the IT industry, and specifically have any interest or tie to data infrastructures from servers, to storage and networking including hardware, software, services not to mention virtualization and clouds, InfoSmack and Storage Monkeys should be on your read or listen list.

Recently I was invited to be a guest on the InfoSmack podcast which is about a 50 some minute talk show format around storage, networking, virtualization and related topics.

The topics discussed include Sun and Oracle from a storage standpoint, Solid State Disk (SSD) among others.

Blog Post: Blame IT on the UN in NYC this week

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:44:55 GMT

This week is UN week in NYC, that annual fall event that results in traffic jams that make normal traffic seem like a breeze.

What with the security lockdowns, sudden road closures, re-routes, news crews, security details and the like, its a wonder anything gets done. I was in NYC for about 26 hours this week at the Storage Decisions event where I presented on optimizing for performance and capacity to enable efficient and green storage as well as recording a video on cloud storage and saw or experienced first hand the delays.

This is not going to be one of those complain about how I was inconvenienced rants, rather a bit of fun

Blog Post: Storage Efficiency and Optimization - The Other Green

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:35:42 GMT

For those of you in the New York City area, I will be presenting live in person at Storage Decisions September 23, 2009 conference The Other Green, Storage Efficiency and Optimization.

Throw out the green it, green storage or simply green: buzzword, and you're still left with the task of saving or maximizing use of space, power, and cooling while stretching available IT dollars to support growth and business sustainability. For some environments the solution may be consolation while others need to maintain quality of service response time, performance and availability necessitating faster, energy efficient technologies to achieve optimization objectives.

Blog Post: Back to School Dedupe School

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:35:42 GMT

Back to School Dedupe School

Summers is over hear in the northern hemisphere and its back to school time.

This coming week I will be the substitute teacher filling in for my friend Mr. Backup in Minneapolis and Toronto for TechTargets Dedupe School. If you are in either city and have not yet signed up, check out the link here to learn more.

Blog Post: Performance = Availability StorageIOblog featured ITKE guest blog

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:35:42 GMT

Performance = Availability StorageIOblog featured ITKE guest blog

Recently IT Knowledge Exchange named me and StorageIOblog as their weekly featured IT blog too which Im flattered and honored. Consequently, I did a guest blog for them titled Performance = Availability, Availability = Performance that you can read about here.

Blog Post: Data Center I/O Bottlenecks Performance Issues and Impacts

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:26:35 GMT

This is an excerpt blog version of the popular Server and StorageIO Group white paper "IT Data Center and Data Storage Bottlenecks" originally published August of 2006 that is as much if not more relevant today than it was in the past.

Most Information Technology (IT) data centers have bottleneck areas that impact application performance and service delivery to IT customers and users. Possible bottleneck locations shown in Figure 1 include servers (application, web, file, email and database), networks, application software, and storage systems. For example users of IT services can encounter delays and lost productivity due to seasonal workload surges or Internet and other network bottlenecks bottlenecks. Network congestion or dropped packets resulting in wasteful and delayed retransmission of data can be the results of network component failure, poor configuration or lack of available low latency bandwidth.

Server bottlenecks due to lack of CPU processing power, memory or under sized I/O interfaces can result in poor performance or in worse case scenarios application instability. Application including database systems bottlenecks due to excessive locking, poor query design, data contention and deadlock conditions result in poor user response time. Storage and I/O performance bottlenecks can occur at the host server due to lack of I/O interconnect bandwidth such as an overloaded PCI interconnect, storage device contention, and lack of available storage system I/O capacity.

These performance bottlenecks, impact most applications and are not unique to the large enterprise or scientific high compute (HPC) environments. The direct impact of data center I/O performance issues include general slowing of the systems and applications, causing lost productivity time for users of IT services. Indirect impacts of data center I/O performance bottlenecks include additional management by IT staff to trouble shoot, analyze, re-configure and react to application delays and service disruptions.

Blog Post: Upcoming Out and About Events

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:26:35 GMT

Following up on previous Out and About updates ( here and here ) of where I have been, heres where I'm going to be over the next couple of weeks.

On September 15th and 16th 2009, I will be the keynote speaker along with doing a deep dive discussion around data deduplication in Minneapolis, MN and Toronto ON. Free Seminar, register and learn more here.

The Infrastructure Optimization and Planning Best Practices, Doing more with less without sacrificing storage, system or network capabilities Seminar series continues September 22, 2009 with a stop in Chicago. Free Seminar, register and learn more here.

On September 23, 2009 I will be in New York City at Storage Decisions conference participating in the Ask the Experts during the expo session as well as presenting The Other Green -- Storage Efficiency and Optimization.

Throw out the GREEN IT: buzzword, and you're still left with the task of saving or maximizing use of space, power, and cooling while stretching available IT dollars to support growth and business sustainability. For some environments the solution may be consolation while others need to maintain quality of service response time, performance and availability necessitating faster, energy efficient technologies to achieve optimization objectives. To accomplish these and other related issues, you can turn to the cloud, virtualization, intelligent power management, data footprint reduction and data management not to mention various types of tiered storage and performance optimization techniques. The session will look at various techniques and strategies to optimize either on-line active or primary as well as near-line or secondary storage environment during tough economic times, as well as to position for future growth, after all, there is no such thing as a data recession!

Topics, technologies and techniques that will be discussed include among others:

Energy efficiency (strategic) vs. energy avoidance (tactical)
Optimization and the need for speed vs. the need for capacity
Metrics and measurements for management insight
Tiered storage and tiered access including SSD, FC, SAS and clouds
Data footprint reduction (archive, compress, dedupe) and thin provision
Best practices, financial incentives and what you can do today

Free event, learn more and register here.

Check out the events page for other upcoming events and hope to see you this fall while Im out and about.

Cheers - gs

Greg Schulz - StorageIOblog, twitter @storageio Author "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC)

Blog Post: I/O, I/O, Its off to Virtual Work and VMworld I Go (or went)

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 19:38:27 GMT

Ok, so I should have used that intro last week before heading off to VMworld in San Francisco instead of after the fact.

Think of it as a high latency title or intro, kind of like attaching a fast SSD to a slow, high latency storage controller, or a fast server attached to a slow network, or fast network with slow storage and servers, it is what it is.

I/O virtualization (IOV), Virtual I/O (VIO) along with I/O and networking convergence have been getting more and more attention lately, particularly on the convergence front. In fact one might conclude that it is trendy to all of a sudden to be on the IOV, VIO and convergence bandwagon given how clouds, soa and SaaS hype are being challenged, perhaps even turning to storm clouds?

Blog Post: Buzzword Bingo Are you ready for fall product announcemnts?

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 3:04:05 GMT

Ever play IT buzzword bingo or perhaps you have and not realized it?

Anyone can play, its easy and you do not even need to know or understand the words or terms.

Blog Post: Out and about update, Off to VMworld next week

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 3:04:05 GMT

For those that consider summer to be over after the labor day weekend in the northern hemisphere, well, then summer is almost over, for others, there is still plenty of nice weather to enjoy and get out and about. In addition to back to school time, its also the start of the fall conferences, symposium, lunch and learns, seminars, chugs & hugs (vendor/var/partner get together's) schedule along with VMworld taking place next week in San Francisco (I will be there) in addition to many other events.

Blog Post: Blog Roll Deja Vu and Storage Monkeys

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 7:17:17 GMT

Ever have blog roll DejaVu? If not, go visit various blogs and look at the blog rolls.

While some blog owners do a good job of keeping their blog rolls up to date (for example the Storage Monkeys site) given their interests, preferences or blog objectives, there are also many who appear to simply cut and paste blog rolls from other sites (Not the Storage Monkeys) which have added StorageIOblog to their blogroll.

Read the full post here

Blog Post: Summer Book Update and Back to School Reading

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:34:32 GMT

Update on book progress including what's being said and where to learn more.

Blog Post: Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed!

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 15:35:53 GMT

New blog post about missed oppourtunities due to perception of what is Green IT.

Blog Post: Recent tips, videos, articles and more

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 15:35:53 GMT

Its been a busy year so far and there is still plenty more to do. Taking advantage of a short summer break, Im getting caught up on some items including putting up a link to some of the recent articles, tips, reports, webcasts, videos and more that I have eluded to in recent posts. Realizing that some prefer blogs to webs to tweets to other venues, here are some links to recent articles, tips, videos, podcasts, webcasts, white papers and more that can be found on the StorageIO Tips, tools and White Papers pages.

Blog Post: StorageIO in thew news

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 15:35:53 GMT

StorageIO is regularly quoted and interviewed in various industry and vertical market venues and publications both on-line and in print on a global basis. Coverage includes perspectives and commentary by StorageIO on IT industry trends including servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, services, virtualization, cloud, cluster, grid, SSD, data protection, Green IT and more.

The new green data center: From energy avoidance to energy efficiency

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 04:32:10 GMT

New article looking at the next Green IT wave, shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency including boosting productivity among other business sustainability benefits.

Blog Post: Mirror mirror on the wall whos the greenest of them all?

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 18:51:15 GMT

Despite various claims in the quest to be the greenest vendor, you might be surprised whos is and is not on the list.

Vote for StorageIOblog in Storage Monkeys top non-vendor blog poll

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 10:31:03 GMT

My storageioblog has been nominated and you can currently vote over at the Storage Monkeys website in the non-vendor category blog. You need to be a member to vote, however membership is free and its a great independent site where various people from different areas of the IT industry share thoughts and comments. Thanks in advance should you vote for my blog.

Blog Post: All work and no play? Ok, how about an education half day?

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 6:54:32 GMT

This past week in between keynote talks and moderating panel discussions pertaining to IT infrastructure optimization (server, storage, networks, hardware, software, services, virtualization, etc.) in Seattle and Portland, I was able to take a rare couple of hours break and go on a non work related tour.

Video: Is Green IT Dead?

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 5:06:07 GMT

While green wash and green hype may have moved to the endangered species list, green IT in the form of efficiency for business sustainability via optimization and improved productivity are alive and well.

Blog Post: Clarifying Cluster Confusion

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 5:06:07 GMT

This post takes a look at some the similarities and differences that can cause confusion around clustered storage, clustered NAS, cluster filesystem along with grid, cloud and bulk storage solutions. Links to additional resources including articles, webcast, videos and other content are also provided.

New article, saving money with Green storage

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 5:06:07 GMT

In addition to Green IT being tied to environment sustainment, there are also business benefits that can be realized by optimizing storage including boosting productivty, performance in add to consolidation.

New videos, podcasts and tips added to StorageIO website

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:05:04 GMT

Several new podcasts, webcasts and videos have been added to StorageIO tools and tips page with topics including cloud computing, web infrastructure, dedupe and VTLs along with other server and and storage related topics.

Blog Post: Worried about IT M and A, dont worry here come the startups

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:50:05 GMT

With all of the recent Merger and Acquisition activity in the IT industry, worried about a lack of smaller vendors or startups? Worried about a lack of innovation? Dont worry as with previous M and A cycles, there is a new crop or corp of startups and more in the wings. See a list of some of them in this post.

StorageIO Interesting Links Page Updated

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:50:05 GMT

Interesting links or links page has been updated with several new vendors, vars and other entities.

Blog Post: Summer Weddings EMC and Datadomain HP and IBRIX

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Comments on recent industry activity including clustered NAS and bulk storage along with other related topics and links.

Updates to StorageIO website including events tips and in the news

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Updates have been added to StorageIO website including new events, tips, interviews and more. Not on twitter yet or following StorageIO? Check us out at @storageio on twitter to see recent conversations and discussions on various topics.

Blog Post: SPC and Storage Benchmarking Games

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 3:24:42 GMT

Comments on SPC and Benchmarking Games.

Updates have been made to StorageIO in the News Pages

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 3:24:42 GMT

Links to recent coverage of StorageIO in the news along with StorageIO interviews, industry trends and perspective comments on various topics.

Updates have been made to StorageIO White Paper, Tips and Tools Page

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 3:24:42 GMT

Links to various articles, tips, webcasts, videos and other content.

Green Storage: StorageIO comments and feedback for EPA Energy Star for Enterprise Storage

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 22:40:41 GMT

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives comments on EPA Energy Star for Enterprise Storage draft specificaiton.

Blog Post: Green Storage is Alive and Well, ENERGY STAR Enterprise Storage Stakeholder Meeting Details

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:25:12 GMT

While Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list if not already extinct, there are many things taking place to shift the focus from talking about being green to enabling and leveraging efficiency and optimization to boost productivity and enable business sustainability.

Blog Post: Storage Effiency and Optimizaiton, Balancing Time and Space

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:51:11 GMT

Discussion about determining energy use for IT resources.

Blog Post: Determining Comptuer or Server Energy Use

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:51:11 GMT

Discussion about determining energy use for IT resources.

Visit my new Amazon authors page

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:51:11 GMT

Information about Gregs new authors page and blog at Amazon.com

New Blog Post: Big Fish or Small Fish - Fish Story or the one that did not get away

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:01:01 GMT

In pursuit of big game, or, getting into the game.

New Blog Post: Funeral for a Friend

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:01:01 GMT

A look at some recent wakes and funerals, some of which the deceased were in attendence!

New Blog Post: Introducing HR2454 - Climate Bill

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:01:01 GMT

Introduction to the climate bill in the U.S. house and senate.

New Blog Post: Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:01:01 GMT

Shifting focus of Green IT, IT Optimizaiton and more, closing the Green Gap.

Videos and Podcasts added to Tips and Tools Page

Sat, 6 Jun 2009 16:36:36 GMT

Several links have been added to videos, podcasts and other content pertaining to efficent and optimized IT environments among other topics for servers, storage, I/O networking hardware, software and services.

Items Added To Content, Tips and Tools Page

Sun, 17 May 2009 16:33:35 GMT

Several links have been added to the tips, tools and content page including links to new articles pertaining to Green IT, data centers, tiered servers and storage along with other items. Check out these and others on the news and commentary page at StorageIO.

Items Added To News Pages

Sun, 17 May 2009 16:33:35 GMT

Several links have been added to the news page including commentary on the EPA launching the Energy Star for Storage program, Storage Provisioning Tools, Tape and other Zombie Technologies that despite being declared dead remain in use and viable as part of a tiered storage model. Check out these and others on the news and commentary page at StorageIO.

R U Twittering Yet?

Sun, 10 May 2009 15:05:05 GMT

Here's a new blog link discussing twitter for those who are not yet twittering or leveraging other social networking media and mediums.

Additional Book Reports and Reviews Now Available

Sun, 10 May 2009 15:05:05 GMT

Several new book reports and reviews have been added to The Green and Virtual Data Center book page along with links to other supporting material including look inside at Amazon and sample chapters. Check out the new book reports and review along with other enhanced content on The Green and Virtual Data Center book page.

Several Links Added to In the News and Media Coverage Page

Sun, 10 May 2009 15:05:05 GMT

StorageIO, The Green and Virtual Data Center book along with Greg Schulz have been receiving extensive press and media coverage ranging from book reviews, interviews, quotes and perspectives on IT industry related topics and events. The News page has been updated with links to the various news, media, blog and other coverage. In addition, the Content and Tools page has also been updated with additional new content by StorageIO.

New Postings Added To StorageIO Blog

Sun, 10 May 2009 15:05:05 GMT

Several new blog postings include EPA Energy Star for Server and possible future Storage programs. Other posts include a discussion around determining server energy usage as well as a discussion around social networking and new mediums such as twitter.

Happy Earth Day 2009

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

See recent blog posting pertaining to Green IT and Earth Day 2009

Comments on Oracle Buying Sun

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

See recent blog posting with comments about Oracle buying Sun

Has SSD put Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) on the endangered list?

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

See recent blog posting with comments the premature demise of the HDD, or, welcome to another zombie technology, a technology declared dead yet still being enhanced, bought and used.

Closing the Green Gap: WSRADIO Interview

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

List to interview on WSRADIO discussing the Green IT Gap and how to address it.

Several Updates and New content added

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

Several enhancements to the books pages have been made along with new content added. Some of the new content includes additional book reviews, news and what people are saying about The Green and Virtual Data Center book.

News, Tips, Events, Tools and Other Items Have been Updated

Wed, 23 Apr 2009 01:01:01 GMT

Tips and Tools, Content, Events, In the News, Links, Book Pages and other content has been added and updated along with new blog posts and twitter activity.

Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal Names Greg Schulz an Eco-Tech Warrior

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:01:01 GMT

Author, analyst guides firms on going green through technology. Read more about the coverage and article in the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.

The Green and Virtual Data Center Book Page Enhancements

Tue, 7 Apr 2009 02:58:11 GMT

Several enhancements have been made to The Green and Virtual Data Center Book page including tabbed sections along with more book reviews and comments on what people are saying.

Storage Decisions Spring 2009 Sessions Update

Sat, 4 Apr 2009 16:01:06 GMT

The conference lineup and details for the Spring 2009 TechTarget Storage Decisions event (June 1st and 2nd) in Chicago is coming together including two talks/presentations that I will be doing. One will be in Track 2 (Disaster Recovery) titled Server Virtualization, Business Continuance and Disaster Recovery, the other in Track 6 (Management/Executive) titled The Other Green -- Storage Efficiency and Optimization, both sessions leveraging themes and topics from my new book The Green and Virtual Data Center. See you in Chicago in June if not before then.

StorageIO @ Twitter

Sat, 4 Apr 2009 16:01:06 GMT

R U tweeting? If so, follow Greg Schulz and StorageIO at twitter.com/storageio

New Blog Post: March Mania Wrap-up

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 16:33:01 GMT

New blog post added.

Items added to in the news Page

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 16:33:01 GMT

Items have been added to the in the news page.

Comments about the Green and Virtual Data Center added to Books Page

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 7:14:15 GMT

Several news commnets, quotes and reviews have been added to The Green and Virtual Data Center book page.

News and Comments Have been Upated

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 5:34:33 GMT

Several news items have been added along with other updates at StorageIO website and StorageIOblog.

Updates to StorageIO.com include comments about Cisco entering server market

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 1:24:23 GMT

Several new items added to StorageIO.com including comments about Cisco entering the server market along with other industry trends and happenings.

New Blog Posts, Book and other News, Tips and Other Updates Are Available at StorageIO.Com

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:50:13 GMT

Updates have been added to the news, tips, blogs and other pages at Storageio.com along with updates to the privacy policy page.

Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center

Thur, 19 Feb 2009 17:15:15 GMT

For those looking to enable a Green and Virtual Data Center, heres a new article appearing at GreenerComputing that provides a synopsis or taste of some of what is covered and included in my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC). Click on the above link to learn more.

Looking for an Amazon Kindle version of The Green and Virtual Data Center?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:25:31 GMT

For those looking for an Amazon Kindle version of "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) click on the above link to let CRC know you are interested.

Items have been added to blog, news, events and book pages at The Green and Virtual Data Center

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:25:31 GMT

Updates have been made to StorageIO website including additional mentions and media coverage of the release of "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) along with more venues to order your copy of "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) on the books pages.

Items have been added to blog, news, tips tools, events and book pages at StorageIO

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:39:11 GMT

Updates have been made to StorageIO website including additional mentions and media coverage of the release of "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) as well as other commentary on industry trends and perspectives. Additional dates have been added to events page along with more venues to order your copy of "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) on the books pages. New links have also been added to the industry links page. Check out new blog postings at www.storageioblog.com.

Do You Have Your Copy of "The Green and Virtual Data Center"?

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 6:09:01 GMT

I am pleased to share with you the news about the launch of my new book, The Green and Virtual Data Center, which is being released today by Auerbach/CRC-Press and is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, CRC Press, and other venues around the world. The book focuses on the idea that IT infrastructure resources configured and deployed in a highly virtualized manner can be combined with other techniques and technologies to achieve a simplified and cost-effective delivery of IT services in a clean, green, and profitable manner. The Green and Virtual Data Center covers these technologies and techniques that todays data centers should be considering while trying to maximize resources, such as power, cooling, floor space, storage, server performance, and network capacity. Some of the topics include Energy and data footprint reductions, Cloud-based storage and computing, Intelligent and adaptive power management, Server, storage, and networking virtualization, Tiered servers for storage, network, and data centers, Energy avoidance and energy efficiency. To learn more about "The Green and Virtual Data Center", please visit my new website www.thegreenandvirtualdatacenter.com along with my blog www.storageioblog.com.

New Blog posts and other updates at StorageIO

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 4:13:31 GMT

New blog posts have been added to Gregs StorageIOblog at www.storageioblog.com along with updates to the events page, tips and in the news page at www.storageio.com.

Happy New Year from StorageIO

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 23:31:13 GMT

New blog posts have been added to Gregs StorageIOblog at www.storageioblog.com along with updates to the events page, tips and in the news page at www.storageio.com.

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings from StorageIO

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:18:19 GMT

Seasons Greetings, New blog posts have been added to Gregs StorageIOblog at www.storageioblog.com along with updates to the events page, tips and in the news page at www.storageio.com.

Items added and updated on Events, News, Tips and Blog pages at www.storageio.com

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 1:48:11 GMT

Several items including perspectives, quotes and interviews by Greg Schulz have been added to the StorageIO "In The News" page. Items have been added to the Tips and Tools also known as the portfolio page as well as new solution briefs and white papers on the white papers page. Also checkout the new blog posts at www.storageioblog.com including "Tiered Communication and Media Venues" which looks at the many different ways StorageIO is using to communicate and share information. Several new events have been added to the StorageIO events page with more to be announced for 2009.

Preliminary Events for 2009 have been added at www.storageio.com

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 1:48:11 GMT

Preliminary events for 2009 have been added on the events page at www.storageio.com including Greg Schulz delivering the industry keynote on storage trends and perspectives at the upcoming Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) symposium in January. Watch for additional events to be announced soon.

Additional items added to the "In The News" page and StorageIOblog

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:18:13 GMT

Several additional items with commentary by Greg Schulz have been added to the StorageIO "In The News" page. Checkout recent blog entries at www.storageioblog.com along with other new items recently added or enhanced at www.storageio.com

Several new posts added to StorageIOblog (www.storageioblog.com)

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:58:23 GMT

Several new blog posts have been added to the StorageIOblog at www.storaeioblog.com including comments and perspectives on Seagate changing disk drive warranties, remember the Alamo, server, storage and I/O virtualizaiton and other topics. Several new links have been added to the "News secion of the StorageIO website with comments, quotes and industry perspectives on various topics.

StorageIO can also be found on twitter for those tweet - www.twitter.com/storageio

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:58:23 GMT

For those who tweet on twitter, you can find and follow StorageIO at www.twitter.com/storageio. Social networking fans can also find StorageIO and Greg Schulz on Facebook, Technorati and other venues in addition to the main StorageIO website (www.storageio.com) and blog at www.storageioblog.com

Several updates have been made to StorageIO (www.storageio.com)

Sat, 6 Dec 2008 6:32:32 GMT

The news section has been updated with recent press interviews and mentions along with new items added to the events page. Additional informaiton has been updated on the books page about the new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach) due to be released in January 2009. The book will be hardcopy with about 400 pages and over 100 figures and tables. Learn more on the books page at www.storageio.com/books.html include where and how to order our copy now.

New posts been added to StorageIOBlog

Sat, 6 Dec 2008 6:32:32 GMT

Some new posts have been added to the StorageIO blog at www.storageioblog.com including recent industry activity and links to recent presentations by Greg Schulz of StorageIO. Learn more at www.storageioblog.com

Check out the StorageIOblog at www.storageioblog.com

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:16:12 GMT

See what's new with industry trends, perspectives and other activities at the StorageIO blog located at www.storageioblog.com as well as learn more about the new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach) at www.storageio.com

Check out the StorageIOblog at www.storageioblog.com

Sat, 8 Nov 2008 14:11:13 GMT

Industry Trends and Perspectives White Paper and Solution Briefs Page Updated www.storageio.com

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:31:12 GMT

The Industry Trends and Perspectives White Papers, Solution Briefs and Research Reports page at www.storageio.com has been enhanced to improve the look, feel and funcationality. Watch for additional content to be added in conjunction with the release of the new book by Greg Schulz titled "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach).

Several new links have been added at www.storageio.com

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:11:11 GMT

In addition to the recent changes to enhance the look and feel of www.storageio.com, several new articles and links have been added including information about the new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach). A new article called "Closing the Green Gap" has also been added along with updates to the events pages. Also check out the blog of Greg Schulz at www.storageioblog.com for additional related topics.

Several new links have been added at www.storageio.com

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:21:12 GMT

Various new links have been added to the StorageIO website.

Several new white papers and solution briefs have been added at www.storageio.com

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:21:12 GMT

Various new white papers and solution briefs have been added to the StorageIO website under technology trends and perspectives. These include a look at issues, challenges and options for protecting data in virtualized server environments, afordable business continuance solutions and data footprint reduciton using real-time data compression for on-line and primary NAS storage.

New posts have been added to Greg's StorageIO Blog at www.storageioblog.com

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:21:12 GMT

Greg's StorageIO Blog has been updated with additional posts on timely topics, trends and industry perspectives on technology and related items.

Several new links have been added to the Interesting Links Page on www.storageio.com

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:24:11 GMT

Various new links have been added to the StorageIO website.

A new Industry Trends and Perspective on FCoE (Fibre Channel on Ethernet) posted on www.storageio.com

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:05:08 GMT

A link to the Industry Trends and Perspective on FCoE has been added to the StorageIO website.

A link to the StorageIO blog has been added to www.storageio.com

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 16:41:01 GMT

A link to the StorageIO blog www.storageioblog.com has been added to the StorageIO website.

Several links to new articles, opinions, tips, commentary and events have been added to www.storageio.com

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 16:41:01 GMT

Links to several new articles and commentary have been added to the portfolio page along with updates and additions on the events page. Upcoming events include Greg Schulz of StorageIO speaking at SNW in April about industry trends, issues and what you can do today to address power, cooling, floorspace and environmental (PCFE) or green realted issues in your data center for storage, servers and networks today. Greg will also be speaking at Storage Decisions in Chicago in May as well as at several other events. See the StorageIO events page for additional details and informaiton.

New events, articles and reports are available at www.storageio.com

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:41:00 GMT

Several articles, reports, white papers and tips have been added to the StorageIO website including content pertaining to I/O Virtualizaiton (IOV), Virtual I/O (VIO), Converged networks and data center ethernet, Solid State Disk (SSD) solutoins based on RAM and/or FLASH, Grid and Cluster storage for structured and unstructured data among others. In addition, several events that StorageIO will be participating in during 2008 have been added to the events page.

Press Release - StorageIO Outlines Intelligent Power Management and MAID 2.0 Storage Techniques, Advocates New Technologies to Address Modern Data Center Energy Concerns

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:14:00 GMT

STILLWATER, MN--(Marketwire - January 23, 2008) - The StorageIO Group, a leading data storage industry research analyst firm, today outlined Intelligent Power Management (IPM) and MAID 2.0, new next-generation storage techniques that provide high energy efficiency along with the highest levels of performance in storing and rapidly accessing enterprise data. The characteristics of IPM and MAID 2.0 mark a significant evolution beyond traditional MAID (Massive/Monolithic Array of Idle Disks), the data storage technology that provides energy savings by putting unused disks into standby mode, keeping them ready for use but not requiring full power usage when they are not being accessed. IPM aligns variable performance and energy savings to different applications and data on a granular basis across different types of storage media and systems. These include general purpose on-line or primary as well as near-line storage systems. MAID 2.0, or second generation MAID, is an example of variable power and energy savings that can be used to avoid application performance bottlenecks, aligning the right level of performance and energy savings when and where needed. First-generation MAID technology delivered marked savings in energy consumption by avoiding energy usage, but in some cases has been accompanied by a significant drop in performance. MAID 2.0 implementing IPM addresses those concerns, according to Greg Schulz, founder and chief analyst of StorageIO. "As an industry, we are seeing storage technologies shift from energy avoidance to more intelligent and effective use of energy combined with best practices ultimately leading to more energy efficient data canters," Schulz said. "IPM approaches including MAID 2.0 technology provide great solutions for today's increasingly energy conscious customers without any compromises in performance. We've reached the point where it's imperative that we aggressively adopt storage technologies that address both sides of this equation, that is, balancing performance, availability, capacity and energy consumption in a more flexible and scalable manner to meet different application service level requirements." American data centers alone consumed 61 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006 at a cost of about $4.5 billion. Without changes in electricity consumption and improved efficiency, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that data centers will consume more than 100 billion kilowatt hours by 2011, further stressing an already strained national electric grid and driving energy costs even higher. Spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) and their enclosures account for up to 75 percent of the power usage in commonly deployed storage solutions, according to StorageIO's research. First-generation MAID solutions have been rather binary, either the HDDs are on or they are off, not leaving a lot of flexibility to address different application service requirements. Schulz mentioned that some MAID vendors have distanced themselves from using the term MAID to avoid negative performance implications associated with first generation MAID. MAID technology is evolving and maturating similar to how early generation RAID systems did 10-15 years ago. There is a shift from purpose-built limited MAID level functionality to more flexible and adaptable multiple MAID level storage solutions taking place. These next-generation solutions offer variable energy savings based on specific application and data needs over different types of HDDs on a more granular basis. This approach will help close the gap between a solution's energy efficiency capabilities and the diverse and variable performance needs of a customer's applications. MAID 2.0 leverages IPM technology to align storage performance and variable energy consumption to match the applicable level of service being supported. For example, a storage system can implement MAID Level-0 (no real energy savings, no impact on performance) for active data. For less active data, an administrator can choose a user-selectable setting to transition the storage system or some smaller subset to MAID Level-1, which reduces power consumption by retracting HDD read/write heads. For even better power savings, HDDs, RAID groups or other units of storage granularity can be put into MAID Level-2 mode, which reduces the speed of the drive platters. The best energy savings are achieved by MAID Level-3, which puts the storage system or some smaller granularity of the storage into a suspended standby mode or powers it down completely. Schulz sees an industry shift from dedicated MAID platforms to primary and secondary storage systems implementing intelligent power management and second generation MAID 2.0. A clear industry trend is a shift from electrical power energy avoidance to intelligent and more effective power management combined with best practices, data footprint reduction including archiving, compression and de-duplication among other technologies and best practices to lead to more energy efficient IT data canters. The StorageIO Group explores these issues in detail in two new Industry Trends and Perspectives white papers entitled, "MAID 2.0: Energy Savings without Performance Compromises" and "The Many Faces of MAID Storage Technology." These and other Industry Trends and Perspectives white papers addressing power, cooling, floor space and green storage related topics including "Business Benefits of Data Footprint Reduction" and "Achieving Energy Efficiency using FLASH SSD" are available for download at www.storageio.com/xreports.htm and www.greendatastorage.com

The StorageIO Group adds new publications to their industry trends nad perspectives white paper and solution brief series"

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:24:00 GMT

In addition to several new tips and commentary in the portfolio section of the StorageIO Group website pertaining to server and storage virtualization, performance, power, cooling, floor space and green storage related topics, The StorageIO Group added two new industry analyst trends and perspectives reports their publicly available reference library of industry trends and perspectives white papers, solution briefs along with e-learning enabled material including pod casts, videos, webcasts and various tips and related articles. The new items include "Achieving Energy Efficiency using FLASH SSD" and "The Many Faces of MAID Storage Technology". "Achieving Energy Efficiency using FLASH SSD" takes a look at how leveraging Solid State Disk (SSD) using FLASH/NAND and RAM/DDR memories as part of a tiered storage building block to support server and storage consolidation to achieve energy efficiency also refferred to as being green storage. Another dimension of energy efficient and tiered storage to meet green storage issues is near-line, secondary and off-line storage. In "The Many Faces of MAID Storage Technology" StorageIO takes a brief look how Massive or Monolithic Array of Idle Disks (MAID) based storage technology is evolving, implemented and can be deployed to meet various tiered and green storage or application service level objective requirements. Learn more at www.storageio.com/xreports.htm and www.greendatastorage.com

The StorageIO Group announces www.greendatastorage.com

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:00:00 GMT

The StorageIO Group (www.storageio.com) has launched a companion web site (www.greendatastorage.com) with a focus around IT data center power, cooling and associated environmental or green topics pertaining to IT data centers including servers, storage, networks and associated management items. The site contains various primer and background information pertaining to green storage, storage management and related topics as well as links to various websites, blogs, tools, articles and webcasts among other informaiton.

The StorageIO Group featured in new TechTarget video cast "Scaling Storage with Clustering"

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:10:00 GMT

Greg Schulz looks at clustered storage as a technique to scale both I/Os to meet transaction processing and bandwidth along with other cluster storage scaling benefits for both SAN and NAS environments in this TechTarget produced video cast.

The StorageIO Group publishes report "Enabling comprehensive data protection for VMware environments"

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:10:00 GMT

In addition to several new tips and commentary in the portfolio section of the StorageIO Group website pertaining to server and storage virtualization, the StorageIO Group has published a new industry trends and perspective report "Enabling comprehensive data protection for VMware environments" looking at issues and solutions to enable complete data protection and application availability for virtual server and storage environments. This paper looks at the issues and requirements for comprehensive data protection beyond simple server crash consistent restart in a VMware environment and addresses the importance of application aware enabling data protection technologies.

The StorageIO Group publishes report "Analysis of EPA Report to Congress (Public Law 109-431)"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:30:00 GMT

The StorageIO Group (www.storageio.com) has published a new industry trends and perspective report "Analysis of EPA Report to Congress (Public Law 109-431)" that provides a perspective on the EPA Report to Congress addressing public law 109-431 pertaining to IT datacenter electrical power consumption. On August 1, 2007 the United States environmental protection agency (EPA) responding to public law 109-431 presented a 130 page report (plus 14 pages of executive summary and 67 pages of appendices and other supporting documents) to the U.S. congress addressing IT datacenter electrical energy consumption and associated issue. The EPA conducted a series of webcasts on August 9th 2007 covering the report, its findings, recommendations and plans for moving forward. This is a synopsis of the EPA report to congress with comments by the StorageIO group as to what the EPA report means.

The StorageIO Group publishes report "The Business Benefits of Reducing Your Data Footprint"

Wed, 15 Jul 2007 20:00:00 GMT

The StorageIO Group (www.storageio.com) has published a new industry trends and perspective report "The Business Benefits of Reducing Your Data Footprint" that looks at why and how reducing your data footprint provides a positive benefit to your business and application service objectives. In this free report you will read about how the information necessary to support your business in timely and effective decision making and in maintaining a competitive advantage has an impact on your data footprint. This paper looks at various techniques, and, in particular, how data compaction compression technologies can be applied to various types of data and IT functions to help reduce your data foot print to improve energy consumption and, enhance existing storage resource utilization while addressing other IT Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) inefficiencies as well as enhancing overall application service levels.