Storage Nation

In my discussions with customers, I often ask the "V" question: how are you doing with virtualization? Occasionally I get an interesting response: they're entrenched IBM customer, and they point to the use of virtualization on their mainframe, and perhaps their big AIX boxen, and say they're largely virtualized.  Asked and answered. I need to ask them a better question: how are you doing with pooling of resources? The Bigger The Better Any time you pool resources, you're angling for a better outcome.  Lower cost-to-serve through scale efficiencies.  The ability to load-level across multiple, shifting demands.  Being able to react quickly to new and unforseen demands.  Efficient processes that manage resources in the aggregate, rather than individually

Every so often, a well-understood category in IT becomes completely up-for-grabs in terms of answering the question: what's next?  Clearly, how we think about enterprise desktops and delivering end-user computing is now very much in play. The many announcements coming from VMworld only underscores this point

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on a panel here at the "Everything Channel" event in Dallas. Ostensibly, we were supposed to be talking about 2011 storage opportunities for resellers and solution providers.  But, somehow, we got into a number of far more interesting areas, including the strategic importance of the above topic. We ran out of time, but the thought keeps rattling around in my head … The Basic Premise As the IT industry goes through yet another dramatic consolidation and transition, newer skills will command a premium, and traditional skills less so.  Generating new skills requires non-trivial investment: either hiring, training or usually both.

There is no question that I'm going to get a lot of ribbing from friends of mine in the business when they read about this. After all, I was at Convergenet prior to it's acquisition by Dell and then again years later at EqualLogic when it was acquired by Dell and – as some have teased me about the inevitability of another Dell acquisition – it now appears that Dell intends to acquire 3PAR too .

Many of the IT organizations I speak with have started their journey to a private cloud model. Every road has its speed bumps: knowing what they are likely to be helps a great deal. I thought it'd be useful to simply share my perspectives of likely issues, concerns and challenges that tend to show up in each phase of the journey

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know I've been describing how EMC's IT organization is progressing in re-envisioning our IT capabilities based on a private cloud model. You've seen bits and pieces here on this blog, as well as EMC IT's own web site . Today, I received a nice white paper entitled " EMC IT's Journey To The Private Cloud: A Practitioner's Guide ".  While not as complete as many of us would like, it does serve as a nice contextual overview of of our journey: the rationale, the phases and the results to date.

Today is the day that VMware announces the availability of 4.1, and a key set of storage integration APIs (VAAI) that provide all sorts of cool speed-ups between server and storage.  EMC's announcement of day-one support is here . Chad Sakac (our legendary Virtual Geek ) does a great job of explaining what they are, how to use them, and what they can do for you.  If your passion is hands-on tech, please head on over there. However, if you're more like me, and are always curious about what things might mean in a broader sense, this post might be more to your liking …

Today, EMC announced its intention to acquire Greenplum — a successful provider of data warehouse and business intelligence database software. And there’s a lot to talk about as a result … What's This All About? In a nutshell: big data driving a new generation of data computing applications using a private cloud model.  Let's take these one at a time.

I suppose it’s inevitable that the EMC competitors would attack as EMC has decided to make things clearer by not being in the business of OFFERING Atmos as a service for any additional customers (it is staying up for existing users). So – why did we do it?  Well – in basic terms, we made a mistake, and are correcting it.  (BTW – that’s **MY** view – another valid view is that it was a necessary step to get the ball rolling). In more detail… People had a hard mental time understanding whether EMC was positioning Atmos as a: An EMC PRODUCT – as a Virtual Appliance on top of traditional storage models, or as physical appliance designed for maximum scale and lowest cost.  OR….

This guest post was provided by Sean McCreary on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. For more information about GFI business backup solution visit http://www.gfi.com/business-backup-software When most companies think about disaster recovery, a variety of thoughts come to mind.  If you search for a definition of disaster recovery, you will get slightly different meanings depending on the source.  For the purpose of this article, I am referring to the recovery of a business from a disaster.  This definition encompasses more than just the recovery of IT services, infrastructure, data (information) and other technology resources of a company.  Disaster recovery must include preparing for and recovering from the loss of human resources, such as key employees of a business, and other essential resources that allow a business to function. The principles laid out in this article will pertain to disaster recovery of the technology and information resources of a business but can and should be applied to the other essential resources of a business.  If all critical resources of a business are not included in the plan, the disaster recovery plan will not be effective.   For example, I have worked with a variety of small businesses over the years, and most are determined to deal with data or information backup with no thought of other disaster recovery needs.  Usually, though, after further assessment, the business finds that they also need to address recovery issues related to other segments of their business.  These include network and internet access and cross-training of employees to keep the business functioning if someone leaves.   Also, most businesses find they need to look at key suppliers and shipping channels so if there is a loss of one it will not affect the profitability of their business.  Obviously, there are a lot of things to think about when developing a disaster recovery plan. Key Points for Disaster Recovery How do you get to the point of being able to prepare and recover from a disaster that may affect your business?   Here are some essential steps to take to reach that point.