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Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

• Coming in the October 2011 issue of Storage magazine

  A sneak peek at Storage magazine's Oct. 2011 issue: The results of our latest Storage Purchasing Intentions survey, storage networking decisions and the state of solid-state. Continue Reading

• Best storage for virtual servers: Pros and cons of FC, iSCSI and NAS

  Virtual servers need a good shared data storage system. All major networked storage protocols work with virtual machines, but some are better than others in certain environments. Continue Reading

• Understanding Big Data analytics

  Explore the four technology regions associated with Big Data analytics in our technical report. Continue Reading

• VDI best practices: Making VDI cost-effective for SMBs

  Learn how to make VDI cost effective for your company and get VDI best practices in this tip. Continue Reading

• Storage performance management: 10 storage system performance tips

  Need some help with your storage performance management? These 10 effective, but often overlooked, tips will help you get the most out of your storage arrays and networks. Continue Reading

• vSphere Storage I/O Control: What it does and how to configure it

  vSphere’s Storage I/O Control enables segmentation of I/O demands by data store, to enable finer-grained I/O prioritization. Find out how Storage I/O Controls works.Continue Reading

• Coming in the September 2011 issue of Storage magazine

  A sneak peek at Storage magazine's Sept. 2011 issue: matching virtualized servers to storage, the results of our midrange arrays Quality Awards survey and backing up the cloud.Continue Reading

• New trends in storage

  Storage technologies may sometimes seem a little stodgy and out of date, but there’s plenty of technical development going on at both the big storage vendors and smaller upstarts.Continue Reading

• Storage management solutions for efficient data storage

  Numerous techs promise more efficient use of storage resources. This guide highlights storage management solutions you can use in your environment.Continue Reading

• Storage management for virtualized servers

  Storage and virtual server management can now go hand-in-hand with new tools that offer single-console control of both storage and virtual servers.Continue Reading

• How to build an efficient data storage environment

  Explore the areas you should consider when it comes to building an efficient data storage environment and learn the latest developments in storage efficiency tools.Continue Reading

• Tips for implementing an automated storage tiering strategy

  Learn about the different vendors that offer inter-array tiering in their products, and determine if it is the right automated storage tiering strategy for your environment.Continue Reading

• Storage magazine's July 2011 PDF

  Download Storage magazine's all-digital issue. This month: alternatives to ease virtual server backup headaches, building a private cloud and boosting storage performance.Continue Reading

• 10 quick and easy ways to boost storage performance

  Don't let capacity concerns or virtualized servers bog down the performance of your storage systems. Here are 10 ways to pump up the performance of your storage arrays and networksContinue Reading

• SAN virtualization: Products and best practices for storage virtualization

  Learn how to best implement SAN virtualization in our collection of top articles on storage virtualization products and best practices.Continue Reading

• Storage magazine's June 2011 PDF

  Download Storage magazine's all-digital issue. This month: Managing storage for virtual environments, paring down primary storage, and backup and recovery software Quality Awards.Continue Reading

• SAN booting alternatives for data storage managers

  SAN booting and server virtualization are fueling the trend toward diskless servers. Learn about the move from internal to external storage, as well as other booting alternatives.Continue Reading

• Managing storage in a VDI environment

  The success of a VDI environment is dependent on user experience, and storage may be the area that has the biggest impact on users. Find out what steps to take to properly manage your VDI environment.Continue Reading

• Data migration best practices for SMBs

  Learn about the data migration tools, techniques, and services available to small- and medium-sized organizations.Continue Reading

• NAS best practices: Tips on small business NAS devices

  We’ve gathered our top tips and articles to highlight some NAS best practices SMBs should keep in mind before decided to implement a NAS system.Continue Reading

• Efficient data storage: A guide for storage managers

  Our efficient data storage guide offers storage managers tips they can use to save money, reduce their data footprint and get more out of their data storageContinue Reading

• Virtual server tutorial: Managing a server virtualization environment

  This virtual server tutorial evaluates network storage options for virtual servers, describes the VMware vStorage APIs and discusses VMware virtual servers.Continue Reading

• Data management guidelines: Four records retention issues to address

  These data management guidelines will help you to determine what you should keep when implementing records retention for e-discovery and litigation purposes.Continue Reading

• ATA over Ethernet protocol overview for data storage managers

  The ATA over Ethernet (AoE) protocol, backed by Coraid, is used by some data storage managers for low-cost, high-volume storage. Learn 10 AoE protocol factsContinue Reading

• Five ways to improve your storage networks

  These five tips will help you fine-tune your storage networks. Learn what you can do to improve your storage network performance, efficiency and resiliency.Continue Reading

• Top five tips for managing storage in a virtual server environment

  Server virtualization and virtual desktops can make managing data in a virtual server environment hard. These five tips can help you manage virtual servers.Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud storage

  Hybrid cloud storage products provide the best of both worlds -- local storage that's tightly integrated with off-site cloud storage services.Continue Reading

• Data storage best practices: Top five storage management answers

  We've collected our top five Ask the Expert answers of 2010 to help you learn about data storage best practices for data storage management.Continue Reading

• iSCSI SAN best practices for small businesses

  New to the world of iSCSI SAN storage or buying your first iSCSI SAN? Learn iSCSI SAN best practices in this guide for small businesses.Continue Reading

• Six tips for buying a used storage system

  Are you thinking of buying second-hand data storage equipment to save money? Read these six tips before you buy a used storage system.Continue Reading

• Records retention management: Arm yourself against regulatory scrutiny

  Learn how to build a records retention management system that protects you against regulatory scrutiny, satisfies e-discovery requests and manages capacity.Continue Reading

• Implementing ITIL: Getting started with ITIL v3 service management

  Are you implementing ITIL v3 service management? Discover five phases of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library process and the benefits of ITIL.Continue Reading

• Understanding storage performance metrics

  Learn how to accurately measure storage performance metrics in your data storage system, and discover why your results may differ from vendor benchmark numbers.Continue Reading

• Managing data storage in small businesses: A data storage strategy tutorial

  In this tutorial on managing data storage in small businesses, learn about how to choose the best data storage strategy, what your networked storage options are, and the pros and cons of working with a VAR.Continue Reading

• Top 10 tips for tuning your storage network

  Storage performance issues are often not related to the storage system at all, but rather to the storage network that links servers to disk arrays. These 10 tips will help you find and fix the bottlenecks in your storage network infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Data migration process best practices

  A data migration process can be challenging and complicated. Check out these best practices before you begin a data migration process in your SMB.Continue Reading

• Clustered NAS: How to choose the right clustered NAS system

  Finding the right clustered NAS (or scale-out NAS) system means knowing your storage needs. Learn the questions to ask when evaluating your requirements and the latest offerings.Continue Reading

• data lifecycle management

  Data life cycle management (DLM) is a policy-based approach to managing the flow of an information system's data throughout its life cycle: from creation and initial storage to the time when it becomes obsolete and is deleted.Continue Reading

• data life cycle management

  Data life cycle management (DLM) is a policy-based approach to managing the flow of an information system's data throughout its life cycle: from creation and initial storage to the time when it becomes obsolete and is deleted.Continue Reading

• data life cycle management (DLM)

  Data life cycle management (DLM) is a policy-based approach to managing the flow of an information system's data throughout its life cycle: from creation and initial storage to the time when it becomes obsolete and is deleted.Continue Reading

• Create a storage service for your company

  Often maligned (but more often misunderstood), the ITIL framework can help transform your storage environment into an efficient storage service organization.Continue Reading

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet for iSCSI storage, NAS storage still hinges on cost

  While 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) offers greater bandwidth for iSCSI storage or NAS storage, IT shops still have to justify upgrade costs with their needs.Continue Reading

• NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol)

  NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) is an open protocol used to control data backup and recovery communications between primary and secondary storage in a heterogeneous network environment.Continue Reading

• Improving storage efficiency in data storage equipment a complex task, but getting easier

  The process of improving the storage efficiency and power consumption of data storage equipment is a complicated one, with a variety of factors to consider.Continue Reading

• SRM tools: Choosing the right storage resource management tool for storage provisioning

  SRM tools offer capacity reporting, including change management and chargeback, but can be pricey and complicated. Here's what you should know before you invest in SRM tools.Continue Reading

• storage management

  ADSTAR Distributed Storage Management (ADSM) is a collective term for IBM's family of high-end software that helps a customer manage the storage devices (such as mainframe storage, PC disk drives, and Zip drives) that are scattered around the ...Continue Reading

• ADSTAR Distributed Storage Management (ADSM)

  ADSTAR Distributed Storage Management (ADSM) is a collective term for IBM's family of high-end software that helps a customer manage the storage devices (such as mainframe storage, PC disk drives, and Zip drives) that are scattered around the ...Continue Reading

• iSCSI storage: How to leverage RAID and ensure server uptime

  Learn how RAID can be used with iSCSI storage, as well as how iSCSI storage systems can be configured for high availability to eliminate single points of failure.Continue Reading

• Mastering NAS management: A network-attached storage case study

  Simply having a series of NAS devices is not an efficient way to manage your data. Find out how some companies are mastering NAS management.Continue Reading

• NAS management improves with scale-out NAS, file virtualization and cloud storage services

  NAS management can be difficult due to huge migrations and downtime. Learn how to control NAS sprawl with scale-out NAS, file virtualization and information classification tools, and cloud storage services.Continue Reading

• Data storage capacity planning: How to estimate your storage requirements

  SMBs should ask themselves these five questions to help them get started with their data storage capacity planning.Continue Reading

• Getting started with cloud archiving: Tips for smaller businesses

  Data archiving should be implemented into all data storage environments, and cloud archiving may be the best cost-effective ways for SMBs to go about doing this.Continue Reading

• Data storage management strategies: Managing logical unit numbers (LUNs)

  This tip explores the background of LUNs in an SMB data storage environment, the different LUN features vendors have to offer and how to determine what type of LUN is best for you.Continue Reading

• iSCSI SANs in a virtual server environment: Five best practices

  Storage experts offer best practices on how to maximize iSCSI SAN performance and efficiency in virtual server environments, where the protocol has found its biggest audience.Continue Reading

• RAID data storage tutorial: RAID strategies for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)

  In this tutorial on RAID data storage for SMBs, learn about RAID data protection is changing, how to choose the correct RAID level, and optimizing RAID storage for your business.Continue Reading

• Creating a data center migration plan

  Your five-step data center migration plan should include an IT assessment, relocation analysis and design, a data migration plan, risk identification and a relocation strategy.Continue Reading

• EDRM: Best practices when preparing for an e-discovery request

  We list the nine stages of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), and tell you why the preservation and collection stage is so important to data storage pros.Continue Reading

• Building a private storage cloud: Essential components

  A NAS cluster, commodity servers and an object/metadata management layer are just some of the essential components needed to build your own private storage cloud.Continue Reading

• Leverage existing network-attached storage and block storage for better data storage management

  Learn data storage management practices to better leverage your existing NAS and block storage and improve access to both types of storage.Continue Reading

• Avoid data migration project failure: Five best practices

  Learn why data migration projects can fail, and how five best practices, such as deduplicating data and documenting the process, can help you avoid cost overruns or delays.Continue Reading

• Data migration strategies and best practices

  Data migration can be a complicated process. Learn how to make your data migrations seamless.Continue Reading

• How to select a storage resource management (SRM) tool

  SRM tools can help you evaluate and leverage your storage infrastructure. Learn the best practices for selecting an SRM tool and how SRM technology can reclaim orphaned storage.Continue Reading

• Network-attached storage (NAS) performance issues with SMBs can be avoided with proper planning

  SMBs often run into NAS performance issues and unexpected problems, which can often be avoided with proper planning.Continue Reading

• Common places for data storage bottlenecks in your IT infrastructure

  While easing enterprise data storage performance bottlenecks can require a mix of storage tools and IT expertise, identifying the most common areas for storage bottlenecks can be the first step in troubleshooting them.Continue Reading

• Maximizing your enterprise data storage capacity: Improve efficiency and utilization

  Learn how to maximize your enterprise data storage capacity by improving efficiency and increasing utilization of storage systems using a tiered storage approach; storage resource management (SRM), data classification and data migration tools; and ...Continue Reading

• Enterprise data storage configuration tools: Trends and best practices

  Data storage configuration tools are getting easier to use as vendors improve the built-in element managers of storage devices, their storage resource management software and other tools.Continue Reading

• Tips for an effective data deduplication implementation

  When implementing data deduplication into a storage environment, users need to know their data, test vendor dedupe claims with their actual data and avoid deduping compressed data.Continue Reading

• How to select a storage automation product

  Features to look for include a configuration management database with a scalable data collection mechanism, operationally focused reporting, a service portal and task automation.Continue Reading

• Best practices for solid-state drive storage technology

  SSD best practices center on identifying I/O-intensive applications so that data storage technology can provide the greatest benefit to IT organizations.Continue Reading

• Data classification best practices for tiered storage

  Classifying data for tiered storage may sound simple, but it's not. Learn best practices for effective tiered storage, including capacity planning and data archiving technology.Continue Reading

• Green storage best practices control costs, increase energy efficiency

  Green storage best practices control power and cooling costs, and increase energy efficiency in your data center. Tiered storage, consolidating storage arrays, solid-state drives (SSDs) and MAID can help.Continue Reading

• Best practices for effective thin provisioning

  Thin provisioning allows storage capacity that has been allocated to various apps or servers, but not actually consumed, to be shared. This allows you to use less disk capacity.Continue Reading

• Controlling unstructured file data storage growth: Five storage reduction tips

  By its nature, unstructured file data storage is uncontrolled and a quite unruly. Here are five tips on how to reduce your file data storage growth.Continue Reading

• Data storage provisioning best practices

  Best practices for data storage provisioning start with the need for the many stakeholders to communicate and coordinate so the process will be effective. The team approach will also help with the establishment of policies and rules, as well as tool...Continue Reading

• Storage best practices for virtual server environments

  Measuring and tuning storage performance has grown more challenging with the proliferation of virtual servers. Learn how RiskMetrics Group has adapted to its changing environment, and best practices for managing storage in virtual server ...Continue Reading

• Fibre Channel SAN versus iSCSI SAN: Cost and scalability considerations

  Buying a new block-based storage array can be tough decision for data storage managers at SMBs. In the second part of our series on Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage area networks (SANs), we will discuss the cost and scalability considerations of each...Continue Reading

• How to determine a NAS system's scalability

  This tip covers scalability limitations of a network-attached storage (NAS) system, including maxed managed file limits, IOPS and throughput limits, and capacity limits. It can help you avoid application outages that occur when storage reaches ...Continue Reading

• SMB storage strategy tutorial

  Developing an effective storage strategy for the data center can be crucial for SMBs. Check out this guide for tips on developing an effective data center strategy, including information on outsourcing storage, cost-effective data security measures ...Continue Reading

• Pros and cons of storage capacity management tools

  Learn what storage capacity management tools can and can't do by looking at the operational problems they're attempting to solve.Continue Reading

• GUIs are nice, but don't overlook command-line interfaces: BEST PRACTICES

  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.Continue Reading

• DAS in the enterprise is alive and well

  Direct-attached storage continues to give SAN and NAS a run for their money, even in the enterprise. Storage managers often look toward DAS to lower costs and to simplify data management.Continue Reading

• Storage Tutorials

  Storage learning guides take you step by step through the storage buying process and list the best practices you need to be aware of before starting any technology upgrade or implementation.Continue Reading

• Best practices for Fibre Channel switching environments

  To find the best switch for your Fibre Channel SAN, you'll need to determine the application throughput and I/O for sizing that SAN.Continue Reading

• Applying ITIL best practices to storage explained

  More and more storage managers are embracing the ITIL framework of best practices.Continue Reading

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

  Continue Reading

• Data migration tips

  Data moves. Or, it has to be moved when you're refreshing array technology, merging storage resources with an acquired company or shifting data around to more economical tiers. Data migration is a common task, but it's often a difficult one. We ...Continue Reading

• NAS best practices: Avoid file management nightmares by planning

  The good news is that you can get a NAS box up and running in 20 minutes. The bad news is that deploying your second, third and fourth NAS system creates a file management nightmare.Continue Reading

• Realizing benefits of storage consolidation sometimes easier said than done

  When done right, storage consolidation will reduces machine count and increases storage utilization. Just be sure to invest in vendor support, since problems stemming from consolidating a storage infrastructure will have a deep impact.Continue Reading

• How to create Tier 0 storage by leveraging solid-state drive technology

  With prices of solid-state drive (SSD) technology dropping, companies are starting to use SSD technology in a high-performance tier of storage called Tier 0.Continue Reading

• Best practices for getting the most out of an iSCSI SAN

  One best practice overrides all others when deploying an iSCSI SAN. An IT organization must separate the storage traffic, physically or logically, from the ordinary LAN traffic.Continue Reading

• Automate storage management

  IT process automation tools provide workflows that can help automate manual storage management processes. The real value is when these workflow engines are integrated with storage management apps to not only guide administrators through the process,...Continue Reading

• How to create an RFP for NAS

  Creating an RFP will help you boil your NAS vendor choices down to a manageable few. And your NAS RFP should include one technology: thin provisioning.Continue Reading

• Tips for creating LUNs

  LUNs are the cornerstone of a server's relationship with its attending storage platform. This article details what you need to consider when creating LUNs.Continue Reading

• How many bytes for...

  This page provides tables and other information about how many bytes are required (how much computer storage) for various information objects or purposes; it also summarizes some facts that have been gathered about how much information exists in the...Continue Reading

• NAS system planning strategies

  Implementing a NAS environment requires a lot of planning. This tip tells you why location, power and allocation are vital to consider when installing a NAS.Continue Reading

• How to size a SAN

  If your DAS storage infrastructure has reached its limits, or your existing SAN is out of date or just plain end-of-life, your first step will be to know what your storage requirements are.Continue Reading

• Storage managers explain their different paths to data archiving

  Storage managers who use disk-based, tape-based and hosted data archive products discuss the pros and cons of each approach.Continue Reading

• Chargeback applies real values to actual storage utilization

  Users demand unlimited growth and peak performance for all of their data because they're not the ones that foot the bill. This is changing with the use of chargeback storage techniques. By employing chargeback storage tools, IT departments can ...Continue Reading

• Hot Storage Skills

  As storage becomes more complex and costly, businesses are seeking storage professionals who can architect various tiers of networked storage, document what they've done, and help their business units select the type of storage that best supports ...Continue Reading

• Handbook: Best practices for SAN expansion

  Best practices for SAN expansion include options for integrating SAN and NAS or iSCSI and Fibre Channel, evaluating capacity planning tools, as well as upgrading switches, disk arrays and HBAs.Continue Reading