Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Disk finally outruns tape"
This article is part of the Vol. 4 No. 2 April 2005 issue of How to scale up with storage clusters
Even the largest, processing-intensive mainframe shops are slowly but surely weaning themselves off tape. Four years ago, First Data Corp. (FDC), the credit-card processing behemoth, had as many as 1,500 tape drives across 70 StorageTek robots in its Omaha, NE, and Chandler, AZ, facilities. Those tapes weren't used for backup, but as the "batch workhorse," storing primary data used to process daily credit-card transactions for FDC's banking customers, says Todd Cushing, FDC's VP, data center management and service operations. Today, the number of tape drives at those facilities is down to 500 with seven robots, and FDC hopes to pare those numbers again by about half. If it's taken a while to break the tape habit, it's because for a long time, FDC couldn't get disk to go faster than tape. More to the point, ESCON--the channel connection between the mainframe and the disk or tape library--didn't go fast enough. ESCON can transmit data at a maximum of 19MB/sec "if you're going downhill and have a good tail wind," says Steve Blendermann, chief architect for ... Access >>>
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What's Inside
Features
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- Survey says: What's hot, what's not
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NAS news: Boom continues
2004 numbers in: NAS still hot
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Disk finally outruns tape
Mainframe shops weaning themselves off tape
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Pros and cons of VTLs
by W. Curtis Preston
VTLs aren't perfect, and this tip outlines some caveats about the technology that you need to know before implementing a VTL.
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Are SATA drives ready for the enterprise?
SATA drives are great low-cost alternatives to pricey Fibre Channel and SCSI drives, but they lack the reliability and performance that mission-critical applications demand. But new technologies are bringing SATA up to enterprise-class standards.
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Chart a course for consolidation
by Bill Peldzus
This tip addresses key issues that must be addressed to have a successful storage consolidation project.
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Keep track of backups
Backup reporting tools help track backup failures and determine their cause. Some tools can identify weak links in your backup processes where there's a potential for failure.
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The new shape of SRM
Monolithic SRM apps fading away
- SAS--Hurry up and wait
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Clustering storage
Clustered servers have become a mainstay of the data center, and now clustering is quickly becoming the preferred technology for making storage more scalable, reliable and easier to manage.
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First Look: Crossroads Systems' DataMover 240f
Crossroads Systems' DataMover 240f is a SAN edge device that takes on one of the most vexing backup bottlenecks by keeping data flowing through the network pipes.
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Should you archive spam?
Spam gobbles up storage
- SNIA + CDP = SIG
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The new shape of SRM
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Columns
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Tap into Windows' hidden resources to make it enterprise-worthy
Windows often gets a bad rap when it comes to storage, but you can tap into Windows' hidden resources to make it more enterprise-worthy.
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Storage Bin: The devil is in the details
"Close" isn't good enough for disaster recovery and security planning. Overlooking what might seem to be a minor detail could result in major consequences.
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Storage security policies for data backups and tape
If you think host security is more than adequate to protect your storage, think again. Your backup and tape rotation practices could be putting your data at risk.
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Snapshot: Remote office storage management
How do you manage remote office storage?
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Signs of progress
Signs of progress
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Tap into Windows' hidden resources to make it enterprise-worthy
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