Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "New directions for switches"
This article is part of the Vol. 2 No. 9 November 2003 issue of Expanding SANs: How to scale today's storage networks
Verify switch vendor claims Rule No. 1: Test, test and test some more. Unless it's a one-vendor system, every storage environment is different. Vendors can certify their products with major storage products, but they can't possibly check every possible configuration with a storage area network (SAN). In other words, you're responsible for determining if a vendor's Fibre Channel (FC) switch works as advertised. McData Corp., Broomfield, CO, continues to advertise that its directors support five-nines of availability. Yet some field engineers report that the McData directors they support lock up under certain conditions. Brocade Communications Systems, in San Jose, CA, hasn't escaped user dissatisfaction either. Some users complain about the number of inter-switch links (ISLs) required to tie together multiple Brocade departmental switches, the time required to perform firmware upgrades on multiple switches and they also express concern about what they perceive as Brocade's initial failings in the high end of the market. Nancy Marrone-Hurley, a senior analyst ... Access >>>
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What's Inside
Features
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Most Tape Libraries Have Too Much Horsepower
Are your tapes too fast?
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IBM unveils storage tank
With SANs growing, should you be thinking of how to leverage them for files? SAN FS, IBM's new clustered file system, is one option and we examine it in detail. Is enterprise IT ready for SAN FS and will IBM be ready to meet the needs of enterprises?
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Startups Have Bigger, Faster Alternatives to Traditional NAS
NAS startups beating on the big boys
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Defragmenting Disks Falls by the Wayside
The deal on disk fragmenting
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Sane strategies for SAN growth
What's the right way to design storage networks for growth? There's no simple answer to that question, but understanding the implications of storage- or network-centric approaches will help you make the right choices.
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Most Tape Libraries Have Too Much Horsepower
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A New Way to Balance Performance
by Mark Schlack
Athletic shoe maker balances performance
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Roomier Backup Arrays-Sort of
D2D for those hungry for backup
- NAS Gateways Make IT Sweat
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Too many SAN islands
by Jeff Moad
One of the main challenges to growing SANs is the proliferation of independent SAN islands. We look at how and why a multinational financial services company consolidated many islands into larger ones, but stopped short of a single, unified SAN.
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New directions for switches
With all of the recent acquisitions and new partnerships forming this year, finding the right Fibre Channel switch for you is even more confusing. This article will help you chose the right one.
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A New Way to Balance Performance
by Mark Schlack
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Columns
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Creating a model for data backup capacity
by James Damoulakis
Creating a model for backup capacity will assist you in forecasting your storage needs for a given budget cycle. This way, you can consolidate your storage purchases and save big bucks.
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Money machine for storage startups heating up again
Storage Bin: Amazing but true: The money machine for storage startups is heating up again, but there doesn't seem to be too much correspondence between funding and potentially useful products.
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Creating a comprehensive data storage automation plan
by Jon Oltsik
Vendors keep creating new acronyms, but are they doing you any good? Ignore the hype and develop a methodical plan toward a comprehensive storage automation plan to ensure success.
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Insurance company tests its ability to recover
by Darryl Brooks
It's been two years since Sept. 11. In this article, an insurance company tests its ability to recover from a similar disaster. How would your company fare?
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Bullying vendors and voiceless users
by Mark Schlack
Bullying vendors and voiceless users
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Snapshot: Server disk drives
Which is your standard server disk drive?
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Creating a model for data backup capacity
by James Damoulakis
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