Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "GUIs are nice, but don't overlook command-line interfaces: BEST PRACTICES"
This article is part of the Vol. 7 No. 10 December 2008 issue of What's in store for storage technology in 2009?
They may not be as slick as GUIs, but CLIs are powerful and flexible tools for managing storage. command-line interfaces (CLIs) are often considered a necessary evil in a lot of storage management environments. But it's not surprising to find storage teams using GUI tools for end-to-end management of their environment. When asked about the use of CLI, those same users often refer to it as a complex, counterproductive interface best left to the "pros who need it." Thanks to the advance of Java and faster computers, there seems to be a natural gravitation toward the use of GUI or Web-based tools to manage storage and SAN devices. It's easier to like something that has pretty pictures than something that's mundane, tedious and, even worse, requires opening a command-line window. But administrators aren't doing themselves any favors by distancing themselves from CLIs. When you examine the potential benefits CLI tools offer, they quickly become compelling. While command-line tools may have their roots in Unix environments, they've come a long way and can be used ... Access >>>
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What's Inside
Features
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- LTO-4 gains favor among tape drive buyers
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"I second that VMotion," say replication vendors
Replication vendors are finding new avenues for their technology by leveraging VMware's VMotion technology.
- Most storage supports Windows: Survey says
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2009: Do more with less
According to Storage magazine's 2009 Storage Priorities survey, budgets earmarked for storage technologies will increase on average by only 3.8%. Tighter purse strings will affect most, if not all, companies, but mid-sized businesses may get hit a little harder than their smaller and larger cousins. But having less to spend doesn't mean storage managers will have less to do in 2009.
- iSCSI software offers alternative for networked storage
- Tape media prices skyrocket
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DR for virtualized servers
A high level of mobility and the relative hardware independence of virtual servers greatly reduces the cost and complexity of putting disaster recovery (DR) in place, enabling companies to expand DR to a larger number of servers and applications.
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Storage 101
Why solid-state drives wear out
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How your SAN will evolve
We asked storage vendors, industry analysts and technologists serving on storage industry associations about where they saw the SAN heading. There may not be sweeping architectural changes in five years, but there will be changes in the basic building blocks of the SAN infrastructure: networks and protocols; switches; storage arrays, disks and controllers; and SAN management.
- Much of solid state still on the drawing board
- Our View: Fund storage research
- What do you see as your biggest storage challenge in 2009?
- Users' advice for virtual server backups
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Next year's hot technologies
by Ellen O'Brien
In our annual look ahead at hot storage technologies, we present our nominees for those storage technologies that are poised to break out of the pack and become essential building blocks for new products that make storage easier to manage, less costly and better performing.
- More pieces added to the FCoE puzzle
- Storage planning and spending by the numbers:
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How your SAN will evolve
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Columns
- Storage wishes for 2009: Editorial
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Deep dive into SharePoint data recovery: HOT SPOTS
by Lauren Whitehouse
Microsoft's popular collaboration application presents unique backup/recovery challenges, especially when it comes to protecting the data in a way that permits granular recovery.
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GUIs are nice, but don't overlook command-line interfaces: BEST PRACTICES
by Ashish Nadkarni
While command-line tools may have their roots in Unix environments, they've come a long way and can be used in the same manner to accomplish many tasks on multiple storage platforms.
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New realities of green IT: STORAGE BIN 2.0
IT is often doomed to be caught in the crossfire of so-called green plans unless it's aligned with overall business goals.
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