Growing need for email archiving by Rich Castagna
More and more shops are archiving their email, which is good thing considering ever-escalating message traffic and stringent compliance regulations.

Capacity still biggest backup bugaboo by Rich Castagna
Storage managers are making headway with backup pain points, but rising capacities are still a headache. How are storage pros dealing with these challenges? More disk.

Hardware vendor still top choice for management apps by Rich Castagna
Storage managers stick with the software that comes with their hardware to manage storage environments. But this year, capacity management rises to near the top of wish lists.

Majority of users opt for tiered storage by Rich Castagna
A year ago, less than half of the Storage readers we surveyed had a storage tiering process in place, but our most recent survey shows 59% now use tiered storage.

CDP picks up a little steam by Rich Castagna
Continuous data protection (CDP) application adoption is hardly a juggernaut, but our most recent survey shows a modest increase in the number of CDP users.

The buzz about dedupe by Rich Castagna
Approximately one-third of respondents to Storage magazine's latest survey use a dedupe product, but how easy will it be to convert stragglers?

More testing, more confidence for DR plans by Rich Castagna
More firms are testing their disaster recovery (DR) plans regularly, and storage managers are more confident that their DR plans can avert a significant business disruption.

Storage shops holding up under economic stress by Rich Castagna
Whether budgets are up or down, most storage managers are doing some belt tightening, ready to forego some features or performance in favor of lower price tags.

Green is still the color of money in storage by Christine Cignoli
Are you implementing green technologies?

More pieces added to the FCoE puzzle

Our View: Fund storage research

Tape media prices skyrocket

Storage 101
Why solid-state drives wear out

Users' advice for virtual server backups

"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

iSCSI software offers alternative for networked storage

Much of solid state still on the drawing board

What do you see as your biggest storage challenge in 2009?

Storage planning and spending by the numbers:

LTO-4 gains favor among tape drive buyers

Microsoft wants to resurrect DAS

Our view: Overstating the obvious

Hard drive prices down across the board

Fibre Channel over Ethernet: Storage 101

Data classification still mostly a piecemeal approach

Storage software sales still brisk

Fibre Channel favored for virtual servers: Survey says

Deduplication now focusing on primary storage

What software tools do you use to manage your storage systems?

Disaster recovery planning by the numbers

Forging a long-term retention plan

Too busy to archive your email?

Are solid-state disks ready for the enterprise?

Green spin cycle

Ask the Experts
Where and when should we use data dedupe for remote-office backups?

Solid-state distinctions emerge

Thin (or chubby) provisioning catching on

Question of the Month
How often do you think your DR plan should be tested?

Compression puts the squeeze on dedupe

Director-class switches win top spot
Survey says: Director-class switches win top spot

Dial "D" for disaster

Snapshot: SAS use soars
SAS use soars

Dedupe moves beyond backup

Our View: Whom do you trust?

Disk-to-disk backup enticing in many forms: Survey Says
Disk-to-disk backup enticing in many forms

The lure of open-source backup programs

Why are you using a VTL or why have you decided not to use one?

Backup software by the numbers

Ask the Experts: RTOs and RPOs
Is there a standard ratio between RTOs and RPOs, or are they independent of each other?

Midrange online backup offerings help SMBs get on the cloud

SMBs move beyond the VTL interface

Storage administrators find some relief for backup headaches

DAS revs up for a resurgence

Our View: When good admins go bad

Price of SAS drives dips

New life for NAS

Ask the Experts: NFS vs. CIFS

Archiving, DR join backup as online services

DC power can cut costs, but conversion isn't easy

What storage product would you like to see on the market that isn't now?

Ballooning storage by the numbers

Backup apps' reporting tools become more versatile

LTO top tape format by far: Survey says

No rush to deploy iSCSI

Reliability questions plague solid state

Our View: Seek and ye shall not find

Get a grip on encryption keys

Ask the Experts: Tape media failure
Is there a way to anticipate tape media failures?

Keep it or can it?

Green shops take MAID for a spin-down

Why aren't you encrypting your backup tapes?

Server virtualization adoption by the numbers

Tape leads the way for compliance storage

Breaking news: Excel not top storage management tool

SAS bumps up speed to 6Gigs

Our View: Like passwords for chocolate

DLT-S4 tape drives at bargain prices

HBAs finally getting some respect

Ask the Experts: SANs with multiple OSes
We're upgrading a SAN with multiple operating systems (OSes). Should we run a different OS version in each fabric or upgrade both together?

Lack of meta data complicates file archiving

Does SAP eat more than its share of storage?

What can storage vendors do to improve their tech support?

Disaster Recovery By The Numbers

Testing from virtually anywhere

Users hesitate on iSCSI adoption

No open-and-shut case for NAS gateways

Windows Server 2008 steps on some storage toes

Our View: Quantifying a galaxy's worth of data

Tape drive prices hold steady

Storage automation still not a no-brainer

Ask the Expert: Connecting two data centers
I'm connecting two data centers, 70km apart, and I want to use EMC Symmetrix for synchronous replication. Will that distance work?

Gaps seen in file archiving tools

Xiotech, Atrato spin out self-healing disk systems

Is there any reason why you wouldn't use data deduplication?

Backup By The Numbers

Cheers and jeers for tiered storage

Symantec users find improved licensing

Our View: NetApp plays name game

Hard disk drives become more affordable

Ask the Expert: NFS vs. CIFS
What should you consider when choosing between Network File Sharing (NFS) or Common Internet File System (CIFS)?

Solid-state storage nears prime time

InfiniBand still a longshot for storage

All thin provisioning is not created equal

Do you plan to eliminate tape from your backup process? If so, when?

eDiscovery By The Numbers

A blade new world for storage

Power still not top of mind for storage pros

DR testing not routine for all businesses

Dual-protocol arrays appeal to users

Our View: Encryption is too hard by Rich Castagna

Prices drop for drives, tapes

Data center building blocks

What storage project had the biggest positive impact on your company's business?

Data management priorities: By The Numbers

Ask the Expert: RAID performance issues

HP kit gives 8Gb/sec FC a boost by Rich Friedman

Need persists for mainframe storage skills

Survey: Fibre Channel rules planned purchases

Archive vendors looking to partner

CDP still not a must-have for users

New life for CDP

Our view: A task force for pack rats

1TB SATA drives get cheaper

Clustered storage nears critical mass

What's the best storage budget money you ever spent?

Disaster recovery by the numbers

Ask the Expert:RAID rebuilds
I run four 400GB SATA drives configured with RAID 5. I want to replace them with four 750GB drives. Can I rebuild and then swap individual drives?

Virtualized servers boost iSCSI adoption

Lessons learned from a laptop crash

Survey: Season of the switch

More Storage 3.0 predictions

Trend toward centralizing remote backups slows

Users still wary about LTO-4 encryption

Protecting virtual machines by Rich Friedman

Storage services options grow

By the Numbers: Compliance, FRCP and ediscovery issues

Ask the Expert: Concurrent write access
How can we have concurrent write access to our EMC SAN without corruption?

Storage feels heat from FRCP rules by Jerome M. Wendt and Joshua Konkle

Storage staffing shortage looms by Ellen O'Brien

Survey Says: Deduplication, VTL top wish list

Sun gambles on open source for storage

Snapshot: Data protection SLAs on the upswing

8Gb/sec Fibre Channel widens lane for SAN traffic by Jerome M. Wendt

Log data deluge

Dell VP on virtualization, EMC and support by Rich Friedman

Vendors set sights on SMBs

Ediscovery gets XML lift by Ellen O'Brien

Survey says: Bonuses vary widely

High-performance systems boost backup

Snapshot: Some users skeptical about data dedupe

Old tapes can lead to sticky situations by Jerome M. Wendt

Running Fibre Channel over 10Gb Ethernet by Rich Friedman

What does your CEO want from storage? by Ellen O'Brien

Talking up server virtualization, security at SNW

Tracking down those missing bytes by Greg Schulz

Snapshot: Will you adopt LTO-4?

Scalability may be a dedupe dilemma by Jerome M. Wendt

High-end storage for small shops by Rich Friedman

Weighing the risks of 1TB drives

Making the case for FCIP and FCoE by Jerome M. Wendt and Joshua Konkle

Report: Midmarket storage pros favor single-vendor strategy by Ellen O'Brien

Survey Says: Still coping with capacity

New book and toolkit preps companies for legal ediscovery by Rich Friedman

Snapshot: Ediscovery confidence dips from last year

Solid-state storage not just a flash in the pan

RAID gets smaller and smaller

Top 10 tips for capacity management by Logan G. Harbaugh

New storage systems eye video applications by Jerome Wendt

Storage still lacks energy metrics

Sony retires first-generation SAIT

Snapshot: More shops add data classification tools

EMC cuts power with new Centera by Jo Maitland

So long SAIT-1

Backup and archiving get closer together

Fast CAS facts

7 ways to make backup and recovery easier by Logan G. Harbaugh

Understanding dedupe ratios by Jerome Wendt

Snapshot: Capacity growth still the biggest backup pain point
Capacity growth still the biggest backup pain point.

Array vendors broaden their toolsets by Rich Castagna

Let your fingers do the walking by Rich Castagna

Virtualization breathes new life into old arrays, but at a cost by Jo Maitland

Storage, heal thyself by Jerome Wendt

Midrange arrays pack in more features

XenSource eyes enterprise storage by Logan G. Harbaugh

Snapshot: Interest in SAS disks growing
Interest in SAS disks growing

Document management still a riddle to users by Jo Maitland

Batteries not included by Rich Castagna

VTL gets a boost from backup apps

By The Numbers

New Fibre Channel standard runs over Ethernet

The downside to thin provisioning by Rich Friedman

Survey Says: Features, familiar vendors are key to storage purchases
Features, familiar vendors are key to storage purchases

"Trusted" storage on the horizon by Jo Maitland

Snapshot: Chargeback still a hard sell
Chargeback still a hard sell

A closer look at thin provisioning by Jo Maitland

What's on those tapes? by Rich Castagna

EMC aims for "ease of use" at EMC World by Rich Friedman with Jo Maitland

Slowly but surely, 10GbE makes its way

Data protection vendors set sights on SharePoint

eBay keeps up with evolving storage demands

Snapshot: iSCSI storage
Users speak out about iSCSI

Exchange 2007 replication: A stretch for DR

Counting the cost of data theft

Virtualization and green storage dominate SNW

Grid storage gets real

CDP gains ground one app at a time

Brocade, Cisco clash on measuring director's power consumption

Snapshot: Users bank on bare-metal restore
Users bank on bare-metal restore

Users test deduplication limits

Know when to hold 'em...

10 ways to get the best storage price

Backup reporting tools cast wider nets

More laptop backup options

Survey Says: WAFS adoption picks up
WAFS adoption picks up

Storage rethinks power strategies

Snapshot: Email archiving on the rise with users
Email archiving on the rise with users

New tools trim primary data

New laser tech yields bigger disks

Disk drive failure rates: Fact or fiction?

Backup book packed with quips and tips

Hospital's ills cured by IBM setup

Survey Says: Measuring storage team productivity
Measuring storage team productivity

Snapshots stymied in virtual world

Snapshot: Users big on centralizing remote offices
Users big on centralizing remote offices

Terabyte drives arrive

Per-protocol pricing gets murky

Backup apps take small steps to improve encryption

Networked storage for the masses

10GBase-T power issues may slow 10GbE adoption

Snapshot: Tiered storage usage
Thumbs-up for tiered storage

Doubts about CDP persist

Flash drives lock down data

Data classification gets a human touch

Automated tiering awaits standards

Optical storage eyes the enterprise

Removable disk vies with tape

The power of virtualization

DC saves energy for storage

iSCSI for everybody

Multiprotocol arrays attract attention

RapidIO steams into storage

Akorri advocates app analysis

Snapshot: Top storage priorities
What's your top storage priority for 2007?

Mobile drive tech could move into data center

Virtualization may cure provisioning woes

Users want more from tiered storage

New rules impact storage procedures

Vendors split on strategies for key management

Mixing SAS, SATA prompts caution

Snapshot: Continuous data protection
Is CDP part of your backup?

HP unveils storage blade

DOE funds storage project

New frameworks give users more choices

Security for your security appliances

Survey Says: Storage grows unabated

Rough going for Exchange replication

Snapshot: Will you add iSCSI?

New Ethernet protocols could challenge iSCSI

M&A stirs up standards

Vendors debate different XAM strategies

School expels outsourced backup, enrolls CDP

Survey Says: Users name their 10GbE price

Instant messaging shouldn't strain storage

Virtual I/O aims to streamline network traffic

Snapshot: Reducing tape use in backup
Is tape in your future?

Is VTL a transitory technology?

The pros and cons of portable storage

Users eye snapshot to cut back on tape

Tricky backup for SharePoint

Survey Says: Offsite tapes continue to grow

Lessening filers' backup load

Sony soldiers on with AIT-5 tape drive

Snapshot: Do you outsource your backups?

64-bit Exchange lessens I/O load

BlackBerry strains Exchange storage

Latest VMware rev tackles storage shortcomings

Storage Firsts

Forecasting capacity with an eye on performance

To survive, backup reporting tools must expand their scope

Survey Says: Users back up immense amounts of data

Local governments feel regulatory pinch

Snapshot: Have you fulfilled an electronic discovery request?

NetApp spins out Ontap GX

Log files grow unabated

Archiving alone won't shrink Exchange

New CAS players avoid hash lock-in

Large shops tackling chargeback

Survey Says: Archiving concerns on the rise

Rising power prices inspire energy-efficient storage

Snapshot: Do you use capacity-planning tools?

Microsoft paves the way for 10 gig storage apps

Talk is cheap

The pitfalls of data deletion

VTL vendors target SMBs

Survey Says: Users make wish list of VTL features

Flash storage settles in high-performance niche

Storage apps start down 64-bit path

Snapshot: Do you charge back for storage?

New modular arrays added to the mix

Deduplication extends to archives

Storage architects dare to go tapeless

Virtualization eases file migration

Survey Says: File virtualization on storage managers' minds

Another storage dimension

Doing DR the VMware way

Snapshot: What sort of SAN will you buy?

Mainframe shops scramble to encrypt tapes

Windows NAS gets gussied up

Thin provisioning: Blessing or curse?

Data classification is end users' job

Survey Says: Fibre Channel SANs have best utilization rates

Cisco's monster director pushes port envelope

Funding watch

Focus on remote-office backup

Snapshot: How do you get backups offsite?

iSCSI moves up the ranks

New DLT drive tops a terabyte

SMB backup: To tape or not to tape?

User needed more than SAN management tools could give

Survey Says: Data classification on the distant horizon

Exchange protection goes real-time

Microsoft to support boot from iSCSI SAN

What data classification can do for you

Snapshot: Do you have a data archive?

Adding old e-mail to an archive is no easy task

HP has a cool idea

Relief for remote-office backup blues

EMC takes the HighRoad (again)

Survey Says: Clustered file systems are still not widespread

NetApp joins the VTL fray

Virtualization--a hard habit to kick

Snapshot: Do you replicate your data remotely?

VTLs' capacity for data grows

EMC launches SMB line

New benchmark measures array throughput

E-mail archiving moves downmarket

10Gb Ethernet means more host support

Survey says: Users opt for appliance-based virtualization

Snapshot: What does virtualization mean to you?

Behind the firewall

Tape security... with compromises

Video will bloat e-mail systems

Survey Says: Users thirst for capacity planning tools

Rounding up remote offices

Capacity, throughput demands grow unabated

Storage going green

Snapshot: Bare metal restore used by half of storage managers

Behind the Firewall

Rethinking backup licenses

Security products proliferate

The future of virtual machine backup

Fear not Exchange migration

Looks like tape, spins like disk

Survey Says: Data growth continues its breakneck pace

CDP comes down to Earth

Backup outsourcers think small

File formats that stand the test of time

Mac backup app picks up the slack

Tape bulks up to keep pace with disk

Easing away from ESCON

Survey Says: Compliance-minded companies opt for CAS
Compliance-minded companies opt for CAS

Safer SATA for nearline apps
New SATA drivers tailored for nearline apps

Tape library scales up and down

Simplified protection for end-user files
DPM brings end-user file protection up a notch

Katrina data management snafus compound chaos
IT clashes with bureaucracy in the wake of Katrina

Really delete your data
Permanent data destruction.

Survey Says: SATA has staying power
SATA has staying power

Restore sanity to Exchange backup
Easing Exchange backups

Encrypted Drives Stymie Data Thieves
Prevent laptop data theft with encryption

Blades shed disks, boot from SAN
Resolve boot issues with diskless blades

Standards watch: Copy services standard in the works
Will SMI-S 1.1 aid copy services?

VTL remedies backup woes
VTLs remedy tape bottlenecks...

Used tape sales on the rise
Pre-owned tape sales increasing.

Definition: Grandfather-father-son

Future is fuzzy for Fibre drives
Fuzzy future for Fibre drives

A SAN for super sleuths

Monolithic going modular
Monolithic systems go modular

DR testing infrequent at best
Have you tested your DR plan?

InfiniBand storage shipping soon
InfiniBand storage

Migrating old files curbs disk costs

Traffic to remote offices eases up
Brighter days are ahead for remote office workers

Half-terabyte drives on tap

Survey Says: iSCSI will erode Fibre Channel sales

Clustering comes to NAS
Kicking the monolithic NAS habit

Big storage in small packages
IT departments thirsty for storage capacity

Definition: Short stroking

Tape is not about to go away
Tape gets an image boost

Midrange arrays get a makeover
Midrange array makeovers

Storage sidles up to SUSE

HIPAA spurs interest in replication
HIPAA driving replication interest

E-mail retention basics

EMC expelled over maintenance fees
Texas school suspends EMC over fees

Survey Says: Mixed-disk tiers not for everyone

DAS: The last bastions
DAS holdouts

First Look: Overland's REO Backup Appliances by Alan Radding
Overland's REO works with traditional backup software and eliminates tape from the backup process, simplifying data protection at satellite locations.

Give local disk the boot
Boot from the SAN with iSCSI

Do or die data restore

Branch backup goes tapeless
Better way to back up branch offices

Lawyers fan flames of e-mail archiving fire
Legal issues boost e-mail archiving

File services frenzy
File services frenzy

Definition: Perpendicular recording

Virtualization at your service
New twist on virtualization

First Look: Crossroads Systems' DataMover 240f by Jerome M. Wendt
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.

Keep track of backups by Phil Goodwin
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.

Should you archive spam?
Spam gobbles up storage

SNIA + CDP = SIG

The new shape of SRM
Monolithic SRM apps fading away

NAS news: Boom continues
2004 numbers in: NAS still hot

Disk finally outruns tape
Mainframe shops weaning themselves off tape

The Bookshelf

SAS--Hurry up and wait

Survey says: What's hot, what's not

First Look: Archivas ArC by Alan Radding
Archivas' ArC software is a highly scalable archiving application that can store fixed content as WORM data while still providing quick access to files.

NAS heads: Gatekeepers for enterprise storage by Jerome M. Wendt
A NAS head can aggregate disk capacity on storage systems, making it easier to share files and usedisk space efficiently. NAS head capabilities vary, so understanding product features and your requirements is crucial.

EMC TOEs the iSCSI line
EMC taps TOE chips for its iSCSI array

SMI-S has legs
SMI-S support gaining ground

Midmarket yearns for remote replication
Midsized companies want enterprise-class replication

iSCSI slashes storage costs
Bio firm sees big-time savings with iSCSI arrays.

Two routes to tiered storage

Buzzword: SPAID

Rescue stranded storage

First Look: Asaca's TeraCart PD Optical Storage Library by Lawrence Didsbury
Asaca/ShibaSoku Corp.'s TeraCart PD Optical Storage Library uses blue-laser technology to provide long-term WORM or R/W storage in a high-density, removable format.

E-mail archivers keep companies legit by Jerome M. Wendt
Storage managers must deal with stricter government regulations and rapidly escalating e-mail stores. There are many e-mail archiving programs available, but finding the one that best meets your company's needs is the key.

Backup exec: Time to grow up
New version of Backup Exec catches up with Windows growth.

Opening the door to iSeries

Stars align for remote replication
Remote replication gets real as bandwidth costs drop.

Switch partitions gain steam
Partition switch ports can keep SANs separate.

SAN anxieties allayed
Put SAN anxiety to rest.

Varieties of data protection

Big archives need big planning
Plan ahead when building archives.

First Look: ADIC's Pathlight VX 2.0 by Alan Radding
ADIC's Pathlight VX 2.0 combines disk and tape in one box to create a virtualized, cost-effective backup system.

Hands-On Review: CommVault QiNetix by Phil Goodwin and Jeff Wells
CommVault Systems' QiNetix is a little bit backup application and a little bit SRM, but it stands out as a tool to manage and improve backups.

Back up desktop data by Jerome M. Wendt
The job of protecting desktop data is much easier today with applications specifically designed for the job, continuous data protection applications and third-party services.

PCI express ready to go
PCI express on track as next bus architecture.

Guests arrive at LTO-3 party

Compliance fears may spur backup outsourcing
Compliance jitters cause companies to consider outsourcing backup.

Cross-platform bare metal restore emerges
Bare metal restore goes cross platform.

EMC on storage virtualization
EMC offers glimpse into virtualization.

Survey says: Appetite for NAS calms to SAN levels

Think thin (provisioning)

First Look: Brocade's SilkWorm Multiprotocol Router by David Gabel
Brocade Communications Systems' SilkWorm Multiprotocol Router links SAN islands with software-assignable ports that can communicate via three different ports.

Hands-On Review: Kashya KBX5000 by Darryl Brooks
Kashya Inc.'s KBX5000 appliance offers cost-effective and efficient replication for heterogeneous storage.

How to select an SRM suite by Jerome M. Wendt
Storage resource management products provide similar core functionality, but many offer modules for ancillary functions. Setting priorities helps to narrow the search.

Think you're compliant? Prove it
Documenting compliance.

Four Gig: Hurry up and wait

Are cheap mirrors better than RAID?
Cheap mirroring vs. RAID.

Tape price hikes looming

Storage bolsters blade servers

Faster DB failover in view

Survey says: Heterogeneous fabrics still rare

First Look: Asigra Televaulting for Enterprises
Asigra's Televaulting for Enterprises is an agentless remote backup application that uses commodity servers at remote locations to ship pared-down data back to a centrally managed site.

Hands-On Review: Softek Performance Tuner by Phil Goodwin and Jeff Wells
Softek's Performance Tuner is adept at identifying bottlenecks and impending failures.

Accommodating arrays by Jerome M. Wendt
Storage arrays offer different disk types to choose from and mixed RAID configurations. Here's what you need to know to assemble the right mix of disks and RAID levels.

Cheap SANs--Hype or Hot?
Low-cost SANs still looking for a market

Synthetic Full Backup Catching On
Synthetic fulls slash backup time

Fund Watch

Remote Replication Gets Out of the Array
Network-based replication challenges array apps

NAS Takes SMBs to Next Level

Girding for Grids

First Look: Storability's GSM 4.0 by Robert L. Scheier
Storability Software's Global Storage Management software offers improved reporting capabilities and new exposure analysis reports in its latest version.

Hands-On Review: Veritas CommandCentral Storage 4.0 by Darryl Brooks
Veritas Software's upgrade to CommandCentral Storage is a feature-rich program that raises the bar for SRM applications.

Nonstop Data Protection by Jerome M. Wendt
Here's a look at the latest continuous data protection products that offer the ability to recover data from minutes, days, weeks or months ago.

Back Up to the Future
A magic ball to predict tape failures?

Cheap SATA Spurs D2D
Inexpensive SATA drives D2D

NAS Nurtures iSCSI Growth
NAS fosters iSCSI growth

Survey Says: Users Like Site Licenses for SRM Software
How would you like to see SRM software priced?

Users Need Better Way to Predict Disk Failures

A Petabyte of Pics

SATA II Doubles Disk Speed to 3Gb/sec
SATA doubles disk speed

First Look: Acopia Networks' ARX1000 and ARX6000 switches by Lawrence Didsbury
Acopia's ARX1000 and ARX6000 switches bring intelligence to your NAS environment, allowing you to pool storage and cut the cost of storage management.

Hands-On Review: Onaro SANscreen 2.5.2 by Darryl Brooks
Onaro's SANscreen takes the uncertainty out of making changes to a SAN environment by showing the effects of a change before it's actually implemented.

Tape's new love affair with disk by Jerome M. Wendt
The marriage of tape and disk has spawned a new class of virtual tape products that promise faster, cheaper backup and recovery.

WAN Boosters Bring Remote Storage Home
WAN accelerators to the rescue

New Types of Tape on Tap

Backup Vendors Tweak License Model

Free for the Taking

Survey Says: What data do you replicate?
What data do you replicate?

Entertainment Biz Still Struggling with Storage
Entertainment industry grapples with storage

Home, Home on the RAID
Cheap NAS coming soon

User: I Want My iSCSI HBA

First Look: iStora 4000 from Breece Hill by Lawrence Didsbury

Hands-On Review: Tek-Tools Profiler Rx 3.5.2 by Darryl Brooks
Tek-Tools' Profiler Rx helps simplify storage management by giving you a quick picture of complex SANs. But it's not SMI-S compliant.

SAN switch smarts by Jerome M. Wendt
Switches can now handle storage management, performance management and security. Here's a comprehensive look at the pros and cons of intelligent switches.

iSCSI For Unix On The Way
iSCSI on vendors' minds

SOX is Hell
SOX is everyone's worst nightmare come true

Steeling SATA for Duty

Definition:
Disk thrashing

Big Mac Attack for Storage
Can Macs and storage mix?

Modular vs. Monolithic Storage: The Business Case

Blade Servers and Storage Get Cozy
Blade servers and storage snuggle up

First Look: Copan Systems Revolution 200T by Lawrence Didsbury
Can the Revolution 200T, which uses a new technology called MAID, straighten up your messy backup situation?

Technology Report: WORM Tape by Jerome M. Wendt
WORM tape is increasingly being used for long-term archival purposes. Why? Because it's cheap, portable and satisfies today's demanding regulations.

Aiming for iSCSI Targets
Multiple choices for iSCSI

Database Takes Toll on NAS

Disks Get Switched
Incredible switching disk

SOX, HIPAA in a Nutshell
What do SOX and HIPAA mean to you?

SATA Arrays are Cheap-ish
High-end arrays on the horizon

Help Users Help Themselves

Hands-On Review: Celerity FC-24XL by Darryl Brooks
Atto's Celerity FC-24XL HBA is designed for data-hungry applications. But is its power worth paying for?

Exchange and NAS On Again
Microsoft has revised its "No Exchange on NAS" policy to "No Exchange on non-Microsoft NAS."

Hospital Washes Hands of Backup

Deals Abound for High-End Storage
Cheaper high-end storage is here.

Just what is persistent binding anyway?
Just what is persistent binding anyway?

Archive Storage is More than Cheap Disk

Choose wisely when handing off e-mail
Choice of e-mail out sourcer not to be taken lightly

Ease into Archiving through Backup
Look to your backup vendor for archiving

Windows Backup Application Stumbles
Here's a one-page review about FilePreserver from XLink Technology. It's a great idea, but there's room for improvement.

SANMelody Tunes Up SMB Storage by Darryl Brooks
SANMelody V 1.4.0 is DataCore's new storage networking software. It's ideal for smaller shops, but may not work in larger companies.

Down-to-earth HBAs by Jerome M. Wendt
Finally, there's an HBA for everyone. Vendors are creating HBAs that are functional and affordable, even for smaller shops.

iSCSI: Are We There Yet?

Mobile Drives, Portable Backups
Do mobile disk drives have a future in disk-based backup?

Mainframe Storage on the Cheap
IBM gives birth to a new baby Shark

Backup to Disk for Better Restore

Keep Archives Close at Hand

Firm Licks WAN File Sharing
WAN file sharing problem solved

E-mail Management Derailed By Regulations
Everyone wants a say in e-mail management.

Hashing Makes a Comeback
Hashing is back

Backup Bundles of Joy?
Are you any closer to backup nirvana?

Future Looks Hazy For Enterprise Drives

Firm Takes Standards Route For Compliance Vault
Centera still too costly for some

DWDM a Boon for the Few

No SAS for Networked Storage

Virtual Servers in a Storage World
Virtual servers in the real storage world

What's Worth Outsourcing? by Shane O'Neill
Is outsourcing the way to go?

Steamship Authority Sees Less Tape on the Horizon

Storage Pros of the World Unite!
Commune with fellow storage folk

IT Says Yes to NAS Gateways
NAS gateways embraced

4 Gb Fibre Channel: Everyone's On Board
Four-gigabit Fibre Channel is a reality.

Home is Where the Storage Is
How much storage is in your home?

Put Your Data on Ice
Proponents of information life cycle management (ILM) like to talk about managing data from birth to death. For most industries, that "death" can't come soon enough.

RFID May Strain Storage

iSCSI Waters Getting Warmer

InfiniBand Storage in Limbo
InfiniBand gains traction.

Oracle RAC, the Easy Way
Oracle RAC made simple

Making Sense of New Intelligent Switch Products
Smart switches have arrived

Consultancy Cuts Telecom Costs

NetApp Opens Up Software
NetApp branches out.

Denser Optical Disks in View
Dense disks make sense

Is it Wise to Encrypt Blocks?

Beware of Big Disk Drives

Recent Funding
Cash for several storage startups

Firm Eliminates Hassles of Clustered Apps
Alluring Linux clusters

Ask the Expert
What are the variables to consider when determining how many host bus adapters (HBAs) are required per server?

Is Low-Cost Fibre Channel Finally Here?
The Fibre Channel flood

Easier RAID Upgrades In View
RAID upgrades made easy?

E-mail Archiving: A Storage Problem After All

Information lifecycle management
Information lifecycle management (ILM)

Data Recovery Mantra: Know Thyself

Sunny Day for Storage Consolidation
Avant-garde storage consolidation

Backup On a Shoestring
Backup on the cheap.

Most Tape Libraries Have Too Much Horsepower
Are your tapes too fast?

NAS Gateways Make IT Sweat

Roomier Backup Arrays-Sort of
D2D for those hungry for backup

Defragmenting Disks Falls by the Wayside
The deal on disk fragmenting

Ask the Expert
Can you please explain what content-addressed storage (CAS) is, and what it's used for?

Startups Have Bigger, Faster Alternatives to Traditional NAS
NAS startups beating on the big boys

A New Way to Balance Performance by Mark Schlack
Athletic shoe maker balances performance

Can Cheap Fibre Channel HBAs Stave Off iSCSI?

Scamming for Storage
Storage swindle by e-mail

Low-End NAS is a Backup Mainstay
Low-end NAS for backup?

Regulatory Compliance: the Next Y2K?

The survey says:

Clustering Tapped to Solve Storage Challenges
What can clustering do for you?

Ensuring Good Data, Far Away

Big New Tape Libraries In Smaller Packages
Big tape libraries come in smaller packages.

Federal Regulations Spur Interest in Tape Encryption
Are federal regulations making you paranoid?

WORM Option Seals Tape Library Sale

Firm finds happiness with startup vendor
Happiness is a 3PAR array

Windows Storage Server 2003 Debuts
Windows storage server has arrived.

Can Disk Speed Up Lethargic Backups?
Is disk-based backup right for your shop?

Dark storage
Dark storage

RAID Making its Way to the Motherboard
Gartner sees RAID on the motherboard

Recent Funding to Storage Companies

New Pricing Schemes Aim For Lower Storage Costs
Could pay-for-use pricing save you money?

Intelligent Switches To Get Common API
Smart switches to be standardized

File Virtualization Tackles NAS Management Woes
Now that NAS farms have grown to multiterabyte proportions, management migraines usually associated with SANs have arisen, and virtualization--round two--has begun.

Early Adopters Unequivocally Up About iSCSI Arrays
After years of listening to iSCSI hype, some IT professionals are embracing a new generation of IP-based storage subsystems, a group that includes the PeerStorage Array 100E, an iSCSI array from Nashua, NH-based EqualLogic.

EMC Expands Reach of Symmetrix DMX
The incredible expanding Symmetrix DMX

SRM Vendors Set Sights on Secondary Storage
Storage resource management (SRM) has become a standard offering for primary storage from all of the major SAN management vendors. Now, a number of startups and established backup software makers have taken the features of SRM and aimed them at secondary storage.

Guest Opinion: IBM Makes the 'V' Word Respectable Again
IBM makes virtualization respectable again.

Diagnostic Tool Shines Light on SDLT
Quantum is shipping a suite of drive and media diagnostic tools that the company says will help IT managers more easily manage their tape resources.

EMC Launches Space-Saving Copy Option for Symmetrix
EMC wants to save you space

Close the IM Loophole
NYSE sends message about instant messages

When a Mighty Wind Blows into Town
South Floridian IT managers don't worry a whole lot about terrorism, but there's one thing they do worry about: hurricanes.

SEC: No Hard and Fast Distance Minimums
SEC doesn't define distance minimums

Drive Vendors Think Small
Seagate's incredible shrinking disk

Serial ATA Adoption Ramping Up

Recent Funding to Storage Companies
Database backup and recovery software and next-generation storage switching hardware garnered the lion's share of late-spring venture capital funding.

Roll Your Own NAS
Is building your own NAS better?

Ask the Expert
I have 60% free space on 10,000 PCs. Can I consolidate it by mounting it as a volume and using a login script to map it to the desktops?

SEC Gives Nod to Some Disk-based Archive
The SEC approves some disk-based archive.

Facelifts for Many Midrange NAS Boxes
Midrange NAS boxes get a tune up.

Europe Better Equipped for Distributed SANs
Europe is burning with SAN fever.

Whys and Wherefores of SAS
Version 1.0 of the SAS spec was just completed by the SCSI Trade Association.

Ask The Expert by Marc Farley
Can you describe the steps that a single byte takes when going from memory to a spinning spindle and back again?

StorageTek Puts a Spin on Data Protection
StorageTek's EchoView shows promise.

Inverse multiplexing
Inverse multiplexing

QLogic Throws Curve Ball in Fibre Channel Plans
QLogic throws a curve ball.

ATA Drives Move Up the Ranks
The nod has been given to ATA drives by EMC, which is now giving customers the option of buying disk array enclosures (DAEs) for their Clariion CX400 and CX600 arrays equipped with ATA, rather than the usual Fibre Channel drives.

EMC/Accenture Partnership Bears Few Fruit
Ever wonder whatever became of EMC's ISC, the "vendor neutral" storage consulting service the company launched with Accenture last summer?

DDS Lives as Replacement Fails to Materialize
Last year, the digital data storage (DDS) tape format, a.k.a. DAT, was in decline.

Outsourced Backup: Pricey But Worth It
Experio, the consulting arm of Hitachi USA, has more than 800 employees, 700 of which are mobile consultants. At the same time, it only has a four-person IT staff. How does Experio do it? In a word: outsourcing, including outsourced backup.

SRM Software Players Cook Up New Pricing Models
As more IT shops deploy networked storage, many storage resource management (SRM) vendors are moving to capacity-based pricing, rather than the server- or processor-based pricing models of old.

SNIA Members Plug Away at Management Spec
Storage Networking World, co-sponsored by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is always a big source of storage standards news.

Intelligence Sprouts in the Storage Network
It's still too early to tell how the fight for the so-called "intelligent switch" market will pan out, but players are slowly starting to reveal what team they're on.

Let the iSCSI Games Begin
From the time the iSCSI specification was ratified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) this winter, there's been a spate of iSCSI product announcements.

USC Spurns Usual Tape Suspects
In his role as director of emerging technologies at the University of Southern California (USC), Mike Lin is responsible for storing and backing up between 50TB to 100TB of data, for faculty and students alike.

SSPs Move to Bolster Security
Desktop backups don't happen automatically.

SATA drive challenges SCSI functionality
When it comes to disk drives, suitability for enterprise or desktop applications has little to do with the interface, but with the drive's underlying mechanical platform.

Picking Up the Pieces from the BMC Debacle
BMC unceremoniously dumped its open systems storage management suite leaving customers in the lurch.

Mark Your Calendars
With tulips and daffodils also come trade shows. Here's a short list of storage conferences happening this spring.

Sony Promotes Tape for WORM Archival
Despite its unfortunate name, emerging tape WORM technology could be a real boon to storage administrators now required to archive, for example, e-mail or medical images.

Rolling disaster
Rolling disaster

Symmetrix DMX: Is it Hot or Not?
The year is still young, but EMC's Symmetrix DMX announcement is arguably 2003's biggest storage story.

Cheap DR with Wireless MAN
Synchronous replication between remote EMC Symmetrix arrays isn't cheap.

Surveillance Gradually Going Digital
Security-conscious companies who started out using analog videotapes, are gradually making the switch to digital, offloading to digital tape and occasionally, cheap ATA disk.

Tap the SAN for File Storage
Used to be, if you wanted to give users a central place to store files, you had two options: put them on a generic file server, or on a NAS device.

Sony Joins Super Drive Game
The market for super drives is alive and kicking, according to a recent report from Freeman Reports, with unit shipments more than doubling from 2001 to 2002.

Firm Sees the Storage Automation Light
Many IT people are on the fence about automated storage management, but at Allegra Systems in Piscataway, NJ, there's no doubt that automatic file migration software has cut down on the IT staff's workload.

Tight Integration Seals Database Archiving Sale
The size of corporate databases has been swelling for years

Midrange Arrays Inherit High-End Smarts
Virtualization layers, once a feature of only the most expensive storage subsystems, are beginning to ship with midrange storage systems.

PST Files Spell Trouble for Storage Administrators
Administrators trying to keep their Exchange servers slim have their work cut out for them.

Definitions
Shoeshine Effect, Reed-Solomon code and Fly Height

SCSI Drives Bow Out of Capacity Race
For the first time last year, it became possible to buy an ATA disk drive with more capacity than a SCSI drive.

Caches with the Write Stuff
Do you think that collaborative file creation, editing, storage and management between geographically distributed users is a pipe dream?

Veritas Dumps Bare Metal Restore for TSM
Veritas has announced that effective this June, it will discontinue sales of Bare Metal Restore for IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager.

Types of Block Data Replication
All block data replication schemes are not created equal.

Snap Hints at Next-Gen NAS
In short order, you won't have to worry about whether to buy NAS or SAN storage.

Much Ado About NAS
Built on top of the CX600, the NS600 is targeted squarely at the midrange, and is priced accordingly...

High-End Drives: What Will You Use?
In 2002, SCSI drives made up about 89% of drive shipments to the enterprise market...

SAN Newbie: Consolidation Easy, but Expensive
Thinking about embarking on a server consolidation project?

iSCSI Builds a Bridge to Parallel SCSI Storage Islands

Are You Liable for a Bad Disaster Recovery Plan?
It's increasingly likely that corporate officers who fail to implement an adequate disaster recovery and business continuity plan may be held personally liable for losses incurred from an outage.

Bare metal recovery
Bare metal recovery

Quantum Streamlines DLTtape Brand, Roadmap
If you're confused by the variety of DLTtape drives on the market, take heart.

Ten Things You Can Do With Virtualization
Think virtualization is a technology without a cause?

Where Will Innovation Come from in '03?
Can storage managers expect new companies to bring innovative approaches to the market in the near future?

Vendors and CIM: How Deep is Their Love?
The reign of CIM-based storage management is just around the corner.

CTRC Mirrors with iSCSI
The Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio has aggressive uptime goals for IT resources at its two facilities.

Backup, Replication Next on Automation Agenda
Why the sudden fuss over provisioning?

Backup Arrays Revisited
Was 2002 the year of the ATA-based backup array?

Fibre Channel and ATA: An Odd Couple?
Those IT shops that build SANs are typically characterized by their demanding performance requirements.

Pixie dust & GBIC
Pixie dust & GBIC

IBM Demos Storage Tank
Big Blue's new Autonomic Computing Organization is working on technologies that will reduce the human costs of running complex computing and storage systems.

SNIA Relaunches Supported Solutions Forum
Eighteen months ago, the Storage Networking Industry Association announced the formation of the Supported Solutions Forum.

Brocade, McData Bolster Midrange Families
Dominant Fibre Channel switch vendors Brocade and McData have both made significant enhancements to their midrange 2Gb/s Fibre Channel switch platforms.

Microsoft Scales Data Center Wall with MPIO
Microsoft is exhausting data center managers' objections to running Windows in the data center.

The Whys and Wherefores of Failed Backups
Despite all the effort storage administrators pour into backup, backups fail about 40% of the time.

Migrating Data No Picnic - and No Bargain
To describe data migration as complex is an understatement and tools to assist in data migration, meanwhile, are few and far between,

Definition
Direct Memory Access

API Swaps: Only Skin Deep

Storage Industry Index

Saving Media from Extinction
What do whales and digitizing analog broadcast tapes have in common?

Storage Manager Profile
NAS vs. SAN? Who Cares?

Cisco Joins FC Switch Club
By the end of the year, Cisco will begin shipping the fruits of its Andiamo acquisition, the MDS 9000 series fabric switch and director products.

Protect Data at Rest

HIPAA Prompts Hospitals to Reconsider Storage
With the deadline to comply with HIPAA lurking in the not-so-distant future, the healthcare industry's IT professionals are revamping their storage infrastructures to fulfill the law's security and patient record accessibility requirements.

Book Review by Kit Pitroda
Storage Area Network Fundamentals

Where Does Midrange End and Enterprise Begin?
There's an increasingly fine line between midrange and high-end storage, with vendors stuffing midrange systems with more and more hardware and software capabilities.

Superparamagnetic limit
Superparamagnetic limit

Easing the Pain of NAS Backup Headaches
Installing NAS device after NAS device may be as easy as pie, but backing them all up can be a royal pain.

High-Availability Switches Still a Moving Target

iSCSI Products Flood Market

Beyond basic RAID

Remote Backup Services: The Road Not Taken
Getting remote workers to perform backups is like pulling teeth - even with a bevy of Web-based backup services to choose from.

EMC takes a stab at storage consulting services
EMC is expanding its professional services group to offer platform-independent consulting.

Data growth not in vain at NCSA

Free of Fibre Channel baggage, firm builds IP SAN by Alex Barrett

Penny per megabyte NAS here to stay
Priced in the penny per megabyte range, networked storage is within reach of all but the smallest mom and pops.

Few options for disaster-proof storage

The bookshelf
Looking for storage enlightenment?

What Will Succeed DDS for the Low-end Tape Throne? by Alex Barrett
Last year, manufacturers of Digital Data Storage (DDS) tape announced they would discontinue any further development of the 8mm technology.

IBM's Shark stays afloat
Recent enhancements should keep Shark afloat for a while longer.

Comings, Goings

Tape Spins Right Round by Alex Barrett
Tape vendors continue to put out products at dizzying speeds.

InfiniBand Marches on Despite Intel Retreat by Alex Barrett
Intel has put the brakes on some of its InfiniBand activities.

ASK THE EXPERT: by Randy Kerns
Why doesn't my mail client software create a lock for e-mail files if it's reading it off a NAS device? Which non-EMC NAS devices provide a gateway to connect to an EMC Symmetrix SAN?

Centralized Storage No Fad

FCIP & iFCP by Alex Barrett
FCIP & iFCP

Solid State Disk: Coming Soon to a SAN Near You by Alex Barrett
It's commonplace to find disk subsystems and tape drives on the SAN, but that's not always the case for solid state disk (SSD).

USB Drives Make Small Work of Large File Transfers
The market has seen a flood of small plug-and-play USB storage devices that have ample capacity.

Will disk replace tape? by Alex Barrett

Taxonomy of Storage Management Software Providers
There's no lack of vendors who will sell you tools to help you regain control of your storage resources.

Are You a SAN Guru? by Alex Barrett
Take these sample exam questions to see if you could pass SNIA's FC certification programs.

Virtualization Inside! by Alex Barrett
Users attracted by the promise of virtualization can now get some of the benefits without getting their hands dirty.

With SANs, Street Price Bears Little Resemblance to List
If you're not getting deep discounts on your storage networking equipment, you need to hone your bargaining skills.

Bona fide iSCSI products ship by Alex Barrett
With ratification of the standard coming soon, more and more iSCSI products have started surfacing.

Apple Xserve counts on ATA
Apple has embraced ATA drives in its new 1U rackmount server.

HPaq: the upshot for storage
Wondering which storage product the merged Compaq/HP will push?

Storage industry index
May followed April's dramatic decline.

Virtual tape is cast for the open systems stage by Alex Barrett
For some people in the open systems world, tape is a four-letter word.

ASK THE EXPERT: What does storage pooling mean? What do you think of it? by Joel Lovell

Chargeback ROI: Does accountability pay? by Anne Zieger
Chargeback for storage use is attracting a lot of interest. But does it make sense financially?

Recent funding to storage companies
The venture capital stream has yet to dry up completely.

Vixel chip brings switching to disks by Alex Barrett
Subsystem vendors are coming up against the limitations of shared protocols.

Storage management building on XML foundation
Storage management software is "like stepping back in time ten years."

Legato sidles up to Microsoft
Curious about what Microsoft will include for storage management software in its upcoming .NET server?

15K RPM disk drives by Alex Barrett

Making Sense of EMC's Centera by Alex Barrett
April's unveiling by EMC of Centera, has people thinking how best to pigeonhole this decidedly different array.

Now, That's a Cluster! by Alex Barrett
Lawrence Livermore National Labs is pushing the envelope with a new storage cluster that mates 115TB of networked disk with a massive cluster of 600 dual Pentium 4 servers.

Will SAN File Systems Play Larger Management Role?
Typical SAN file systems are being positioned to play a more prominent storage management role.

Non-blocking architecture by Alex Barrett
Non-blocking architecture

Veritas Broadens Offerings by Alex Barrett
The company is actively moving to try to parlay its dominant market positions onto even higher ground.

Compaq Clarifies WideSky Position
"We are not a member of the WideSky program, we never have been, and we do not believe it is in the best interest of our customers," Sorenson says.

Midrange NAS Gains Functionality by Alex Barrett
Slowly but surely, the features found in high-end NAS boxes are finding their way to cheaper devices.

Utility Storage-What's the Use? by Alex Barrett
Buzzword alert: the latest word to loom from storage marketers' lexicon is utility.

First Storage Benchmark Released

Tape Automation for the Masses by Alex Barrett
For most IT shops, backup still happens the old-fashioned way: from the host to a direct-attached standalone tape drive.

DLT Cartridges by Alex Barrett
What kind of DLT tape cartridge to purchase?

Remote Backup Services: The Road Not Taken
Getting remote workers to perform backups is like pulling teeth - even with a bevy of Web-based backup services to choose from.