Tips

  • Guidelines for better iSCSI security

    Learn about the following iSCSI SAN security guidelines: How to secure the management interface, how to authenticate and how to disable unnecessary network services.

  • Implementing SAS storage

    This tip offers advice on how to carefully lay out your topology, choose an appropriate mix of SAS and SATA drives and plan for future growth before setting up a SAS system.

  • Build the ultimate storage team

    Learn why your storage team should be made up of people with experience in a variety of disciplines, such as networking, server administration and budgetary planning.

  • Keep your backups within your window

    This tip discusses how pruning your data, tailoring your backups to network patterns and checking the logs of network activity can allow you to do more with less and deal with a shrinking backup wi...

  • Hack your storage to test your security

    This tip outlines various security tests you can perform, along with tools you can use, to ethically hack your storage systems and uncover vulnerabilities you might not have discovered otherwise.

  • Move your backups to a SAN

    Speed, communication and block-orientation are just a few of the reasons that users are moving their backups from Ethernet-based LANs to Fibre Channel SANs.

  • Troubleshooting your NAS system

    This tip will point out some common sense suggestions and best practices that may help you to create or maintain a more robust and reliable NAS infrastructure.

  • Balance costs and demands for proper storage allocation

    Effective storage acquisition requires a clear understanding of your applications' I/O, storage capacity, service and availability requirements. This tip details how to balance costs and demands fo...

  • ISCSI vs. FC performance: A closer look

    Think that FC is faster than iSCSI? Vice versa? Storage expert Tony Asaro explains why the real answer may surprise you.

  • Worst practices for backup and disaster recovery, Part

    Even when network administrators are aware of the need for a solid data backup and recovery plan, too many companies observe worst practices, thereby dooming the plan. Here's a partial list of what...

  • Guidelines for controlling clustering

    This tip outlines different approaches, implementations and the factors to consider to effectively manage clustered resources.

  • Cable management best practices

    Maximize uptime by limiting bandwidth, distance, latency and congestion issues in your cable plant.

  • Storage 101: Using a director switch

    This tip outlines the features of a director switch and details the reasons a director could be advantageous to your particular SAN system.

  • Five reasons to outsource your SAN

    This tip discusses how storage service providers' business model has changed since the dot-com era and how outsourcing your data storage needs may help you save money.

  • What's on deck for storage?

    Arun Taneja discusses the reasons that disk-based backup, archiving, SAS and CDP are going to be on a lot of storage pros' agendas this year.

  • Speed backups by pruning data

    Setting policy about what types of files you back up, using e-mail archiving software and backing up applications separately from your data can drastically improve backup performance.

  • Plan ahead to skip storage snags

    Marc Staimer explains how testing backups at least once a quarter, encrypting backups in flight and at rest and implementing an effective SRM tool can prevent storage nightmares.

  • Seven ways to protect high-value information on SANs

    Controlling access to your SAN, using hard zoning and establishing a good key management can keep your data safe. Learn more about these techniques and others in this tip.

  • How to select an archiving product for ILM

    Selecting an archiving product for an organization's information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy requires careful consideration. While cost is a primary concern, decision-makers need to conside...

  • Think 'big picture' for SATA Exchange storage

    Storage management expert Brett Cooper outlines things to consider before deploying SATA for Exchange data storage.