Data center and networking architecture to keep your data safe and moving
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My post earlier this week asked two key questions surrounding virtualization deployment: how and where. But I failed to heed my earliest journalistic training by tackling the most important questio... More >
A little bit of archiving news came out earlier this month, and even though I missed it then, it still looks intriguing enough to post now. It seems that Permabit Technology, which makes a sca... More >
Converging your enterprise network(s) onto a single platform may seem like a no-brainer. After all, who wouldn’t want to manage and maintain a single network rather than separate data, storage and ev... More >
I found an interesting little post on eWEEK by Michael Vizard discussing one of the key trends in storage: network convergence. While many observers are pointing to the low-hanging fruit in ... More >
Experts say SSDs are heading for your data center. And they’re right. They are also quick to point out that SSDs will not take over completely – that there will still be plenty of work for magnetic d... More >
Application bottlenecks in modern enterprises are not always caused by hardware limitations. The software providing the foundation for a service oriented architecture (SOA) can introduce its own set ... More >
Market data thus far indicates that while virtualization has gained a foothold in the majority of data centers out there, it has yet to make its way to core functions. This is a strong indication tha... More >
Is it a sign of real confidence in your product or just bad planning from your marketing department if you choose as your launch date the day after Christmas? I half expect that in the case of... More >
Everybody knows the cloud is coming, and believe it or not, most people have at least a vague idea of what it’s about and how it can improve enterprise computing. But how many of us have given... More >
The flash memory used in solid state drives is fast, flexible and starting to approach the capacities needed for enterprise environments. But is it reliable enough? That question is dogging th... More >
Dell has been hired to build a specialized networking server aimed at monitoring and managing Web service performance for both XML and SOA applications, reports Byte and Switch . Ireland’s Vo... More >
By now, many data center managers are finding out that server virtualization is only the first step in a rather lengthy and complicated conversion from rigid, silo-based infrastructure to a more flex... More >
There's an interesting article here at The Register describing the likely development path VMware will take in 2009 and beyond. Timothy Prickett Morgan tracked down Bogomil Balkansky, seni... More >
I came across this interesting blog today showing how you can set up a fairly robust Hyper-V cluster using low-cost laptops and standard iSCSI networking. The author says his goal is to show... More >
I’ve blogged in the past about the connections between virtualization and cloud computing , and now it seems that those two technologies are becoming integrated faster than many had predicted. ... More >
When it comes to supporting virtual environments on blade infrastructures, the key element is robust networking. So it probably comes as a relief to BladeCenter users that new generations of high-ban... More >
Apple’s prospects for gaining significant ground in the enterprise may be better then many believed, according to the latest research. Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) recently... More >
Amid all the talk about clouds and IT services, it’s easy to forget that Google has the slimmest of toeholds in the enterprise hardware market through the Google Search Appliance. The latest u... More >
In the drive for greater network performance, most of the attention goes toward boosting throughput of enterprise infrastructure. 8-gig, 10-gig, 20-gig and beyond are generally seen as the ways to a ... More >
The world economic slowdown is taking its toll on both enterprise routers and the WAN optimization market, with sales in both sectors essentially flat for the past few months. Infonetics rep... More >
The numbers are pretty clear. Storage capacities continue to increase despite the slowing economy, which indicates that even as business activity slows, the amount of data generated by the typical en... More >
Dell has seen the light when it comes to enterprise virtualization: you can’t have a robust virtualization platform without a strong management component. That’s why the company is now offerin... More >
The tech industry is rife with examples of manufacturers cannibalizing profitable but aging technology in favor of new and improved systems. And while it’s too early to say whether Fibre Channel over... More >
Most data center managers are content to phase in 10 Gbps networking over time, relying on a mix of 1G and 10G technology to meet their current needs. The drawback to this approach, however, is that ... More >
To say that the data center is undergoing a revolutionary change is more than just an understatement. The wholesale dismemberment of the siloed approach to data management in favor of a cloud-based r... More >
Most year-end predictions are focused on cloud computing as the next major step in data center evolution. I have no doubt that’s true, but it seems to me that a more immediate concern for most of you... More >
Hitachi Data Systems is upping the performance of its storage networking portfolio, adding new 8 Gbps HBAs from Brocade to the mix. The companies announced that the Brocade 815 and 825 HBAs ... More >
The new 45 nm chips are still fresh off the production line, but Intel is already forging ahead on the next manufacturing processing: 32 nm. The company announced this week that it has finish... More >
Those of you evaluating solid state disks (SSDs) for the enterprise already know that performance is not measured in capacity as with traditional hard disks. The main benefit of the SSD is speed. So ... More >
You can always tell when a technology has the industry rattled. The top vendors rush to market with new ideas and new systems, but none of them can quite explain what they are trying to accomplish. &... More >
Massively parallel mainframe clusters spread out over hundreds of kilometers – that’s what IBM is angling for with a new breed of long-haul Infiniband technology. The company recently complete... More >
Thin clients are cheaper, easier to manage and use less energy than the standard business desktop. But one of their chief drawbacks has been an inability to process large multimedia files that many e... More >
Sun Microsystems has updated a range of rack-mounted and blade servers with the new AMD Shanghai processors , joining Dell, HP, IBM and a host of other vendors in rolling out the new quad-core devic... More >
So exactly how much hype surrounds cloud computing these days? Actually, no more than usually accompanies a new technology in the earliest stages of introduction. Think back to virtualization, SOA, W... More >
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once referred to the “known knowns” and the “known unknowns” when describing the fog of war. But those same terms can be just as easily applied to the data ce... More >
Even small servers need high-speed networking capacity. Interphase Corp. has unveiled a new set of slot optimizers aimed at providing connectivity for server form factors that have limited e... More >
A few weeks ago, I highlighted some new storage options for HP BladeSystem users in a blog about direct-attached storage for virtual environments. Turns out that HP was only one of a number ... More >
Switch port densities for 10 GbE equipment is set to reach new heights, even as power consumption continues to drop, now that OEMs have access to a new generation of chip-level solutions that can uti... More >
Storage and storage networking systems seem to suffer no ill effects from the weakening economy, showing strong year-on-year sales growth for the most recent quarter. IDC reported worldwide e... More >
Virtual desktops may soon be too cheap and easily deployed to resist, particularly as cost-cutting takes a firm hold of data centers around the world. The latest research from IDC indicates th... More >
Any doubt that Fibre Channel will cease to be a going concern in the data center anytime soon is not being shared by the solid-state storage community. A number of new systems are due out in t... More >
Last month, I blogged about the growing need for cross-platform virtualization solutions , particularly in the areas of VM management and workload management. CA and others are rising to the ... More >
Discussion at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas this week is circling around a new operating system concept called metaOS, according to this report on eWEEK . The idea is to p... More >
Third-quarter server sales figures are coming in this week and, not surprisingly, the numbers aren’t good. IDC reports the worldwide market declining a painful 5.2 percent year-on-year, down... More >
This is the time of year when we in the trade press get inundated with predictions for the coming year. Cloud computing, solid-state disks and desktop virtualization are on everybody’s list at the mo... More >
IT managers are quickly finding out that increased virtualization puts a lot of pressure on physical network infrastructures. In fact, an entire industry has emerged around the growing concept of I/O... More >
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