Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Rounding up remote offices"
This article is part of the Vol. 4 No. 11 January 2006 issue of Boosting data storage array performance
Companies are trying to get rid of as much IT infrastructure in remote offices as possible--with or without technologies to minimize WAN latency. At Ameren Corp., a St. Louis-based utility company, the drive toward serverless remote offices was a way to improve disaster recovery. "Remote backups weren't working," says Craig Yale, infrastructure specialist III. "Remote backups were a challenge and the entire process was not reliable." A big user of Microsoft's Distributed File System (DFS), Ameren quickly outgrew Microsoft's DFS management tool and turned to NuView Inc.'s StorageX, which provides a more advanced global namespace and replication. Local tape drives have been removed from most of the company's 50 remote offices, and some smaller sites have just a small server in place or no server at all. Data files are hosted at the St. Louis data center, which, according to Yale, is fine by users. "The main problem we have is with software running across the WAN," he notes, so Ameren installed low-end print and application servers at several offices with ... Access >>>
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What's Inside
Features
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- Video will bloat e-mail systems
- Survey Says: Users thirst for capacity planning tools
- Capacity, throughput demands grow unabated
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Pump up array performance
As data wends it ways from hosts, through the fabric and to the array, it encounters many potential bottlenecks. But that also means there are a number of ways to improve storage subsystem performance. The key to the tuning process is a thorough understanding of your application requirements.
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Top tape libraries revealed
by Rich Castagna and Phil Goodwin
Users cite a high level of satisfaction for these backup mainstays, citing StorageTek and Spectra Logic as the top libraries, in the Diogenes Labs-Storage magazine Quality Awards.
- Tape security... with compromises
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SRM gets smarter
Storage resource management (SRM) software is becoming more than a tool to manage storage devices or report on file system or database utilization. SRM vendors are reshaping their products to become the eyes and ears of the enterprise to obtain critical, real-time information.
- Rounding up remote offices
- Snapshot: Bare metal restore used by half of storage managers
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Encryption appliances reviewed
Lost tapes have been headline news lately, making encryption products hotter than ever. We review encryption products from Kasten Chase, NeoScale Systems and Vormetric to help you choose the best product for your shop.
- Storage going green
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SRM gets smarter
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Columns
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Cut big backups down to size
by James Damoulakis
Disk-based backup can help companies struggling with the inefficiencies of tape, but you may experience sticker shock at the cost of moving to disk. Data-reduction technologies can trim backup data down to size, and make the price of disk a little easier to swallow.
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2005 was a remarkable and productive year in storage
Storage Bin: 2005 was a remarkable and productive year in storage.
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No more dodging storage security
by Jon Oltsik
You may have been dodging the issue for some time, but in 2006, storage security will finally get the attention it requires from vendors, analysts and even users.
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New demands, new opportunities
New demands, new opportunities
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Cut big backups down to size
by James Damoulakis
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