The Need for APIs in Storage and Data Protection

The idea of programmatically managing infrastructure provides capabilities to scale, manage and control technology much more effectively than can be achieved through manual methods.  But the use of APIs means so much more than simply providing an interface that can be automated.  APIs introduce greater efficiency and accountability into storage platforms.  We look at how… Read more »

Why is HPE 3PAR not moving to NVMe SSDs (yet)?

During our coffee talks at HPE Discover 2018, statements were made that claimed HPE 3PAR storage platforms wouldn’t benefit much from going to NVMe at the back end.  Instead, the statement of direction is to use storage-class memory as a platform accelerator.  I’ve been trying to understand why HPE isn’t making the move at this… Read more »

MAX Data: Optimising Application Performance with SCM

As the slowest part of the computing architecture, persistent storage is in a constant battle to improve performance.  That goal has moved from being focused on throughput a few decades ago to one of reducing latency as low as possible.  To that end, NVM Express and NVMe over Fabrics have become an area of focus… Read more »

Data Protection in a Multi-Cloud World

We’re moving to a multi-cloud world, there’s no doubting it.  I hear from end users and vendors alike that increasingly, IT organisations are looking to use on-premises and multiple cloud service providers.  From an operational perspective, how do we protect and maintain ongoing access to data and applications?  What’s the right strategy for dealing with… Read more »

NetApp buys into Kubernetes Orchestration with StackPointCloud

In September 2018, NetApp acquired a little-known cloud services company called StackPointCloud.  StackPoint offers a managed Kubernetes service that enables customers to build Kubernetes clusters across a range of public cloud providers.  Why would NetApp want to acquire this technology and where could it be used? Containerisation First of all, let’s take a step back… Read more »

Performance Benchmarks: Reading Between the Lines

As we move into 2019, storage performance becomes more important than ever.  At the media level, vendors are pushing the boundaries with fast solid-state technologies like NAND flash and 3D-Xpoint.  These products provide performance capabilities we’ve never seen before.  Storage system vendors then take components and build storage solutions, either as bespoke hardware or part… Read more »

NVMe in the Data Centre 2.0 Now Published

You can download the latest version of our NVMe in the Data Centre report by registering through the link below.  We do not share email addresses and only use them to send out follow up papers.   Download Now  

Understanding HPE’s Storage Product Portfolio

Towards the end of 2018, I was invited to attend HPE Discover in Madrid.  In previous years, this has been a great opportunity to get up to speed on the storage strategy the HPE Storage team is following.  What did we learn this year? Intelligent Storage Platform The message being broadcast for the last year… Read more »

The $2 billion Gamble on Data Management

What a week it’s been in the data storage industry.  First Rubrik Inc announced an E-series round of funding totalling $261 million.  This was followed barely 24 hours later by Veeam Software announcing it had raised $500 million in what seems to be regarded as an unexpected move.  Across Actifio, Cohesity, Rubrik and Veeam, venture… Read more »

Databases are the next battleground for Public Cloud

This week, Amazon Web Services announced the availability of Amazon DocumentDB, a MongoDB-compatible document database.  For AWS at least, the database market has been heating up recently.  With so many offerings to choose from, are databases the next land-grab for the public cloud? DocumentDB Let’s look first at the announcement of Amazon DocumentDB.  This new… Read more »

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Latest

  • Rethinking Storage For Microservices

    The New Stack had a very interesting article this week that talked about rethinking the way storage is mapped to microservices like containers.  The discussion took me back 12+ months to my own attempts to raise money for a startup that addressed the issues raised in the article.  I’m still not sure that the issues… Read more »

  • Pure Storage Acquires StorReduce

    Congratulations to the folks at StorReduce for being acquired by Pure Storage.  Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, hopefully, this represents a successful exit for an interesting technology. Background I first looked at StorReduce in March 2015, including a trial of the software.  The premise of the technology is simple.  StorReduce acts as… Read more »

  • What Next for Violin Systems?

    It would be fair to say that Violin Systems (the former Violin Memory) has had a turbulent existence.  Once the darling of the industry, Violin missed the all-flash evolution and fell on hard times, going bust and returning with new investors.  Last year the new CEO stepped down to be replaced by Mark Lewis, previously… Read more »

  • The Shifting Storage Investment Paradigm

    The standard evolution for startup vendors in the storage market has been to create a product, build a customer base and wait to be acquired or float the company in an IPO.  Some companies have been more successful than others.  XtremIO for example was acquired very early – great for the VCs that put up… Read more »

  • Is AWS Moving to Private Cloud with Snowball Edge and EC2?

    At a recent AWS Summit in New York, Amazon Web Services announced the availability of EC2 on Snowball Edge devices.  Does this move represent a challenge for private cloud and could it be the start of a hybrid strategy for the company? Snowball Edge In case you’ve not seen it before, the Snowball is a… Read more »

  • Pure Storage AIRI – CI for AI

    Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) are two of the biggest buzzwords in the tech industry at the moment.  The technologies have wide application, much greater than the often-repeated stories about self-driving cars.  ML/AI solutions can be used in healthcare to improve diagnostics.  It has applications across the financial world, allowing companies to be more… Read more »

  • Is Your Flash Storage Riding the DRAM Curve?

    Interested in learning more about NVMe?  Download our free 21-page white paper report (no registration required) here   NVMe in the Data Centre The rate of growth in flash media is truly incredible.  In ten years, we’ve gone from highly expensive SLC devices to a range of NAND flash media for all requirements.  Flash manufacturers continue… Read more »

  • Why Deterministic Storage Performance is Important

    In the days of spinning media, I/O performance was anything but consistent.  When mechanical head movement is involved, response time can vary enormously.  Actually, the variation of I/O isn’t just to do with mechanics as we will discuss in a moment.  However, inconsistent I/O response time is a problem for applications and as tolerances reduce,… Read more »

  • Samsung Introduces 8TB NF1 NVMe SSDs

    Samsung has recently announced an 8TB NF1 format NVMe SSD.  NF1 was originally called NGSFF (Next Generation Small Form Factor) and is intended as a replacement for the existing M.2 format drives.  With 15K and 10K drives disappearing from the market, is it time to accept we should move on from legacy HDD drive sizes?… Read more »