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Features

• • Disaster Recovery Extra: 10 hidden perils of DR planning by W. Curtis Preston

    Disaster recovery (DR) plans are finally getting the attention they deserve. But many companies don't know if their DR strategies will work. Here are 10 hazards that can undermine a DR plan.

  • Disaster Recovery Extra: Distance your data from disaster

    Don Moran uses remote replication to protect a key Oracle database and says that if Charlotte, NC-based Hanson Brick & Tile's DR plan kicks in, its database app will be up and running in less than 15 minutes.

  • Survey Says: Fibre Channel SANs have best utilization rates

  • Funding watch

  • Creating storage tiers for backup services

    Tiered storage is a familiar concept, but the idea of data backup service tiers is relatively new. By matching backup services to the value of data, storage shops can improve overall backup performance and create a more cost-effective data protection environment.

  • Keep end-user storage in check

    With free e-mail services offering up to 2GB of storage, it's tough to convince corporate e-mail users that mailbox limits are needed. But companies are realizing that user storage quotas are a necessary evil.

  • Single-pane storage management

    Managing a heterogeneous storage environment means juggling a hodgepodge of vendor-specific tools. Some vendors are working toward a consolidated management console, but standards are needed for single-pane storage management to become a reality.

  • New tape formats are bigger, faster & safer

    Tape capacities and data transfer rates are growing, but before you get hooked on the speeds and feeds, there are several key points worth considering.

  • Thin provisioning: Blessing or curse?

• • Disaster Recovery Extra: New tools for building business-continuity plans

    A DR plan can give you a false sense of security if it doesn't consider factors such as employees, revenue, supply chain and facility access. New tools to help ensure business continuity can help.

  • Data classification is end users' job by Alex Barrett, Trends Editor, Storage

    Without a proper data classification scheme, ILM is putting the cart before the horse, and some shops are pushing the job of classifying files down to users.

  • Cisco's monster director pushes port envelope

  • Focus on remote-office backup

  • Quality Awards: Top NAS products

    In the latest Diogenes Labs-Storage Quality Awards survey, users chose enterprise and midrange NAS winners from more than 20 product lines. A NAS mainstay and a relative newcomer to the category took the top honors.

  • Windows NAS gets gussied up

  • Vendor support falls short

    A recent survey from TheInfoPro shows that storage vendors' support of their products is still a sore point among users. The good news is that some vendors are finally paying attention.

  • Snapshot: How do you get backups offsite?

• Columns

  • Disaster Recovery Extra: Editorial

  • ILM isn't just tiered storage by James Damoulakis

    Storage tiers are the first step toward true information lifecycle management. But they're only a small step—the key to ILM success is aligning your data with its business value.

  • Vendors need to create products specifically for SMBs

    Storage Bin: All too often, storage vendors treat small- to medium-sized businesses as second-class citizens. SMBs have the same needs as enterprises, so rather than giving them hand-me-downs, vendors need to create products specifically for this group. Vendors just might find that those products have the features that enterprises want, too.

  • Storage tears

    Storage tears

  • Data storage security trends by Jon Oltsik

    2005 was a big year for storage security, with major vendors doing more than just paying lip service. Vendors are beginning to integrate security into new products or add encryption capabilities. But there's a lot more to do in 2006 to build a secure storage infrastructure.

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• Improve data storage efficiency with archiving technology

  

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  Data archiving technology moves inactive data from primary storage to more suitable media. It may be used for compliance, governance or storage ...

• How to improve your virtual server storage setups

  

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  One of the biggest challenges of building a virtual server infrastructure is fine-tuning the storage that supports the virtual machines. Having ...

• Rethinking the way storage architectures are packaged and presented

  

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  Cloud storage, virtualization and the growth of unstructured data have contributed to the way storage architectures are built and used. Virtual ...