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Data storage strategy

• Understand pay-as-you-go storage and its challenges

  Consumption-based storage has benefits, but it also has challenges, including what it is, unknowns about its future, and control and cost issues. Here's what you need to know. Continue Reading

• The best enterprise storage products of 2019

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• Predictive storage analytics and AI make storage smarter

  Intelligent storage is all the rage. Discover how predictive analytics for storage, AI and machine learning makes storage infrastructure more flexible and cost effective. Continue Reading

• Compliance analytics helps data storage meet PII standards

  Organizations are using predictive analytics and AI to sift through large data sets to ensure that any data stored is compliant with all personally identifiable information rules. Continue Reading

• How blockchain sharding solves the blockchain scalability issue

  Sharding is the answer to the scalability problem inherent in blockchain technology. Find out the advantages of sharding and the four problems associated with it. Continue Reading

• Storing predictive analytics data can be tricky: Avoid these 5 errors

  Looking into the future is getting easier with predictive analytics, but only when your storage resources are able to meet the demanding needs of the data those tools generate.Continue Reading

• 3 key unstructured data storage challenges and how to resolve them

  Volume, variety and value make storing unstructured data difficult. We look at how some vendors are helping enterprises get control of their burgeoning data stores.Continue Reading

• Machine learning for data storage optimizes data analysis

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• The realities of unstructured data management revealed

  Managing and gleaning business value from unstructured data is of utmost importance to enterprises today. Our infographic outlines the challenges respondents face.Continue Reading

• 7 NVMe storage gotchas to avoid

  Avoiding common deployment errors when implementing NVMe technology will save you time, money and professional embarrassment. Here's what to look out for.Continue Reading

• The future of flash storage: Is NVMe right for your enterprise?

  Cracks in the SAS and SATA protocols started to appear with the rise of SSDs and the exponential performance improvements they delivered over HDD technology. This led to the development of the nonvolatile memory express protocol to exploit flash's ...Continue Reading

• The best enterprise storage systems and services of 2017

  For 16 years, Storage magazine and SearchStorage have recognized the best enterprise storage systems with our annual Products of the Year awards. For this year's competition, vendors submitted new and upgraded products from the past year ...Continue Reading

• SDS, HCI and CDP are key to dream enterprise storage system

  Easy to implement and manage may be the buzzwords of the day for enterprise data storage systems, but too often daily experiences of IT professionals belie that rosy scenario.Continue Reading

• Explosion in unstructured data storage drives modernization

  Increasing amounts of unstructured data are a key part of modern secondary storage environments with their distributed file systems and a scale-out object storage design.Continue Reading

• The data storage industry will turn upside down in 2017, or will it?

  Rich Castagna reviews the prognostications offered by data storage vendors on the future of data storage technology in 2017.Continue Reading

• A look at the future of data storage careers

  Thanks to virtualization, the cloud and solid-state technology, data storage professionals and those who want to pursue a career in it face an uncertain future.Continue Reading

• When buying more primary data storage, applications matter

  Faster storage -- and more of it -- is important, but that wouldn't matter if new SANs didn't boost application performance and efficiency in the process.Continue Reading

• Performance bottleneck plagues flash storage

  Replacing slow spinning disks with faster flash storage affords ample benefits, but it doesn't remove the bottleneck. It just moves it somewhere else.Continue Reading

• Get the most from cloud-based storage services

  Enterprise data storage managers are in position to help their companies get more from cloud storage services.Continue Reading

• Virtual server bottlenecks among data storage problems

  Though virtual server performance bottlenecks remain among data storage problems, there are fixes available, but beware, each fix has side effects.Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud integration issues solved

  When considering a migration to a hybrid cloud, watch out for obstacles such as cost and data latency. George Crump reviews common migration issues and explains how to overcome them.Continue Reading

• VDI performance issues begin at storage infrastructure

  VDI performance issues which can be traced back to storage infrastructure are limiting user adoption of virtual desktop implementation.Continue Reading

• What's the relationship between VM-aware storage and VVOLs?

  When traditional storage hardware can't handle virtualized workloads, VM-aware storage can be used as an alternative. But could VMware VVOLs solve the problem instead?Continue Reading

• Video storage takes its turn in the spotlight

  While organizations create high-definition video for a variety of uses, they turn to today's storage systems to house and protect it.Continue Reading

• Deal with data capacity challenges

  Data capacity challenges -- and the anxiety they bring -- result from the rapid explosion of data growth combined with barely increasing budgets.Continue Reading

• How can VM images ease virtual server provisioning?

  By creating multiple VM images, a storage administrator can save time managing and deploying an organization's virtual environment.Continue Reading

• VDI issues: How to use SSD to improve performance

  In this guide, experts explain how SSDs can solve VDI performance problems, and how to decide what types of SSD work best in your virtual environment.Continue Reading

• How to configure a rack-mounted NAS in 10 easy steps

  Get the most out of your rack-mount NAS appliance by enabling permissions, network access and other advanced options.Continue Reading

• Object stores, metadata create smart storage systems

  Storage systems get smarter thanks to object stores and metadata, which are enhancing intelligence of scale-out storage systems.Continue Reading

• Pick the best LUN size

  Is it better to create one large LUN or many smaller LUNs? The following guidelines can help you to pick the most appropriate LUN size.Continue Reading

• Understanding data storage requirements in a virtual environment

  Even though virtualization has become commonplace in today's data centers, provisioning storage for applications on virtual machines (VMs) often remains a pain point for IT professionals. Random I/O processes unique to virtual environments often put...Continue Reading

• The struggle between virtual machine performance and storage

  Storage has been painted as the cause of sluggish VM performance, but it might be your hypervisor's fault.Continue Reading

• Six hot data storage trends for 2015

  For 12 years, Storage magazine has presented its roster of new data storage trends that are ready to have an impact in data centers. We’ll tell you why VMware VVOLs, all-flash arrays, cloud disaster recovery, flash caching, server SANs and...Continue Reading

• How can I benchmark resource consumption before implementing a VDI architecture?

  Brian Madden explains how you can determine your resource needs before carrying out a VDI project in this expert answer.Continue Reading

• Use storage system features to granularly manage virtual machines

  Arun Taneja explains the importance of managing storage granularly and which vendors are meeting the demand for VM-level visibility.Continue Reading

• Overcome virtual machine performance issues with flash storage

  Flash-based storage is the logical choice to tackle virtual machine performance issues thanks to its zero-latency, high-performance capabilities that make it impervious to random I/O workloads. But flash comes at a premium versus hard disk ...Continue Reading

• Avoid VDI configuration issues by building desktops from scratch

  Expert Brien Posey discusses common problems faced when configuring virtual desktop deployments and how to work through them.Continue Reading

• What complications can arise when thin provisioning VMware storage?

  Brien Posey dives into the complications users might run into with thinly provisioned VMware data stores and how to address them.Continue Reading

• How do I increase cache memory?

  Increasing cache memory in your environment might help allocate CPU processes, but it doesn't necessarily result in better performance.Continue Reading

• Use third-party SRM software to improve monitoring and management

  Retrofit your existing infrastructure with third-party storage resource management software to gain more control over monitoring and management.Continue Reading

• Effective storage service management rests on well-allocated features

  Jon Toigo explains how proper management of value-added storage features can make a data center more efficient.Continue Reading

• Six things that can wreck storage system performance

  Performance bottlenecks can occur in different places in a storage system. Here's how to identify and eliminate them.Continue Reading

• Hypervisor vendors up the ante with new storage features

  There's a struggle between doing storage the "old way" and the new demands that virtual servers put on networked storage. Storage vendors have retooled their systems to be virtual machine (VM)-friendlier and startups offer VM-specific arrays, but...Continue Reading

• Has Cluster Shared Volume support changed in Windows Server 2012 R2?

  Support for Cluster Shared Volumes has improved since its original release. Windows expert Brien Posey explains some of the most important upgrades.Continue Reading

• How should I provision storage when using Hyper-V replication?

  Windows expert Brien Posey explains the best way for storage to be provisioned with regard to the three-way replication feature in Hyper-V.Continue Reading

• Why isn't Windows Server allowing me to create a storage tier?

  Microsoft expert and SearchStorage.com contributor Brien Posey addresses key challenges to creating storage tiers in Windows Server 2012 R2.Continue Reading

• How can I prevent rogue access to an iSCSI Cluster Shared Volume?

  Expert Brien Posey explains how to create a secure connection for iSCSI-attached Cluster Shared Volumes in Hyper-V R2.Continue Reading

• What scaling and protection issues exist in virtual server technology?

  Learn scalability and protection factors to consider when trying to identify if a virtual server product you're assessing meets your enterprise needs.Continue Reading

• Lessons in virtual technology: Evaluating hypervisor-aware storage

  Expert Jacob Gsoedl outlines some key areas of hypervisor-aware support to help you align vendors' virtual roadmaps with your requirements.Continue Reading

• How hypervisor-aware are today's virtualized server environments?

  New virtualized server environments created hypervisor-aware storage systems. But some products are more hypervisor-aware than others.Continue Reading

• When should you consider the purchase of an all-flash storage array?

  The decision to buy an all-flash storage array depends on finances; use case; and needs for performance, functionality and scalability.Continue Reading

• How can Atlantis ILIO USX be used to optimize VMware vSAN storage?

  Atlantis Computing's ILIO USX could be offered as a joint offering with VMware's Virtual SAN. Find out how it can improve capacity and performance.Continue Reading

• Three key strategies to allocating a data protection service

  By using these three methods to understand the type of protection your applications need, you'll achieve a more efficient data protection strategy.Continue Reading

• Top tips for software-defined storage infrastructure management

  While software-defined storage eases management of storage applications, it doesn't do much for the hardware, so effective SRM is still necessary.Continue Reading

• Implementing new technology: Software-defined storage

  Jon Toigo explains how to set up software-defined storage products in an environment so users can achieve the best performance and capacity.Continue Reading

• How SDS influences data storage infrastructure planning

  Even though software-defined storage abstracts functionality from hardware, understanding the underlying infrastructure is still important.Continue Reading

• Use software-defined storage to separate storage application, hardware

  According to Jon Toigo, SDS technology spreads storage functions across hardware in a way similar to that of server virtualization.Continue Reading

• Software-defined infrastructure or how storage becomes software

  Maybe there really is something behind all this "software-defined storage" talk -- but maybe it doesn't mean what I think it means.Continue Reading

• How does a scale-out NAS environment affect storage management?

  Phil Goodwin explains how scale-out NAS systems simplify storage management through a single point of control and by combating performance problems.Continue Reading

• Are SSDs the best VM storage option for high performance?

  Storage expert Phil Goodwin describes how solid-state drives can improve performance in virtual environments, if they're deployed effectively.Continue Reading

• Can software-defined storage be used in a private cloud environment?

  According to Phil Goodwin, SDS may not provide the performance a physical array can, but that doesn't mean it's useless to private clouds.Continue Reading

• Are SSDs necessary to perform analytics on big data efficiently?

  Storage expert Phil Goodwin explains how SSDs can speed up analytics, but solid-state technology is only needed in certain types of environments.Continue Reading

• As users search for RAID alternatives, erasure coding returns

  According to Jon Toigo, erasure coding is becoming popular for its ability to provide data protection in areas where RAID has some shortcomings.Continue Reading

• Three key strategies to prevent RAID failure

  In this tip, analyst Jon Toigo shares several ways storage admins can proactively prevent the failure of RAID arrays.Continue Reading

• What is the top storage challenge with in-memory databases?

  Wikibon CTO David Floyer said the greatest challenge with an in-memory database from a storage perspective is recovery in the event of a problem.Continue Reading

• Storage design for in-memory databases should focus on low latency, flash

  Storage design for an in-memory database should focus on low latency, low variance through use of DRAM and NAND flash, notes Wikibon CTO David Floyer.Continue Reading

• How do VM-aware storage and virtual storage appliances differ?

  Virtual storage appliances and VM-aware storage both cater to virtual environments, but in different ways, explains expert Phil Goodwin.Continue Reading

• How will server SAN adoption play out in IT organizations?

  Wikibon senior analyst Stuart Miniman offers up his prediction for how server SAN adoption will play out in IT organizations.Continue Reading

• How storage IT pros can support the recovery of in-memory databases

  Wikibon CTO David Floyer provides advice on how storage IT pros can support the recovery of an in-memory database to avoid hours of downtime.Continue Reading

• Curbing data storage capacity demand

  Analyst Jon Toigo's series of tips on common data reduction approaches will help IT pros make better use of their capacity.Continue Reading

• What are the pros and cons of storing VMs on a unified storage array?

  Phil Goodwin outlines and gives examples of how unified storage can be beneficial in virtual server environments -- but not without difficulties.Continue Reading

• Crafting a data lifecycle management strategy to control capacity

  Jon Toigo explains how an information lifecycle management strategy helps classify data so it can live on the most appropriate storage.Continue Reading

• Toigo: Deduplication and compression are short-term capacity fixes

  Learn why analyst Jon Toigo says the value of dedupe and compression software is lowering, and why other capacity tools are a better bet.Continue Reading

• How data storage type can give efficiency a boost

  Jon Toigo examines how tape storage and the cloud each affect overall data storage efficiency in a given environment.Continue Reading

• Capabilities and limitations of thin-provisioned capacity

  Jon Toigo explains how thin provisioning can help with capacity allocation and reduced storage cost but isn't always a flawless strategy.Continue Reading

• How to avoid wasted disk storage capacity

  Jon Toigo explains how hierarchal storage management and other technologies can help make the most of disk capacity.Continue Reading

• Is there a difference between traditional tiering and sub-LUN tiering?

  Sub-LUN tiering can help with performance in some environments, but according to analyst Jon Toigo, it can also get complicated with growing capacity.Continue Reading

• When data storage functions should reside in the VM

  Expert Phil Goodwin provides tips on when it's better for storage functionality to be put into VMs, and when it should be left up to the array.Continue Reading

• Five questions to ask when choosing a data archiving technology

  Many factors need to be considered when determining what the right archiving platform is for you. Jon Toigo highlights the most important in this tip.Continue Reading

• Big data storage challenges eased by metadata, caching and compression

  Systems that provide fast access to metadata, caching and heavy compression help ease media-rich big data storage challenges, Wikibon CTO says.Continue Reading

• RAID alternatives: Erasure codes and multi-copy mirroring

  Traditional RAID methods and their rebuild processes have some shops suffering long downtimes -- enter erasure codes and multi-copy mirroring.Continue Reading

• How the future of data storage will stack up

  In the near future, data storage won't be a passive player as it integrates more closely with applications and workloads.Continue Reading

• Wikibon CTO: Erasure coding can help reduce data backup costs

  Erasure coding can help reduce the data needed for backups and lower the cost of backup and recovery over the traditional approach, Wikibon CTO says.Continue Reading

• Advice for IT shops on erasure coding vs. replication in data storage

  Replication is critical for disaster recovery in IT shops. UC Santa Cruz professor evaluates erasure coding versus replication in data storage.Continue Reading

• How essential is a Hadoop infrastructure to a big data environment?

  Expert Jon Toigo explains why Hadoop and big data are frequently used together, but argues that Hadoop has a number of downfalls.Continue Reading

• Evolution of a big data environment: How storage options are changing

  In this podcast, expert Jon Toigo describes how traditional storage infrastructures and practices have been changing to accommodate big data.Continue Reading

• How to get the most out of solid-state technology

  Our research shows solid-state technology usage is skyrocketing, with more than a third of data storage shops using flash now. Dennis Martin, a leading expert on solid-state storage, describes how companies can use the still costly storage to their ...Continue Reading

• Five reasons why a VM backup software purchase can go wrong

  Storage administrators must consider the needs of their entire environment when purchasing VM backup software or complications could ensue.Continue Reading

• VM storage: Fundamental rules for efficient environments

  Brien Posey explains the aspects of virtual machine storage that it's important to be mindful of to maximize the performance of a virtual data center.Continue Reading

• Hadoop clusters: Benefits and challenges for big data analytics

  Brien Posey explains how Hadoop clusters can be extremely beneficial to large amounts of unstructured data, but aren't ideal for all environments.Continue Reading

• FlexPod architecture: Top five things you should know

  FlexPods may seem like an easy way to implement storage and a hypervisor at once, but Brien Posey explains there are several things to consider first.Continue Reading

• Does RAID have a place in object-oriented storage environments?

  Expert Brien Posey explains whether RAID technology can bring any benefits to an object storage environment.Continue Reading

• RAID alternatives: Will erasure codes rule?

  Learn why the reliability of RAID technologies could be related to the increased use of erasure coding by both new and established storage vendors.Continue Reading

• Can storage hypervisors bring high availability to the cloud?

  Learn how the advanced functionality of a storage hypervisor provides a cloud infrastructure with high availability.Continue Reading

• Is there any popular software that allows me to share PCIe SSD cards?

  Learn the different methods to share PCIe SSD cards among multiple servers to improve performance and still keep costs down.Continue Reading

• Can object storage systems be used with file-based apps?

  Learn how to use applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server with object storage systems on the back end.Continue Reading

• Storage considerations for a Hadoop implementation

  Storage Switzerland analyst Colm Keegan explains how to determine whether a SAN or NAS should be used as primary storage with Hadoop.Continue Reading

• Which devices do I need for I/O virtualization?

  Jon Toigo explains how I/O virtualization can simplify the server configuration used to host VMs and its role as an enabling technology for I/O processing.Continue Reading

• How to improve your virtual server storage setups

  One of the biggest challenges of building a virtual server infrastructure is fine-tuning the storage that supports the virtual machines. Having multiple server OSes running on a single physical server can easily overload a storage network and ...Continue Reading

• Debunking some common myths about high-performance networks

  Storage expert Marc Staimer discusses why high-performance networks can reduce costs for enterprises while adding value.Continue Reading