In this article presented by NetApp, Chris Evans discusses how bringing together Spot and BlueXP address hybrid multi-cloud scaling challenges.

In this article presented by Hammerspace, Chris Evans discusses how Hammerspace is addressing the challenges of Hybrid Cloud Storage.

In previous posts I’ve discussed the need to “move up […]

In my previous post I discussed the evolution of hardware […]

Since the financial crash of 2008, the predominant IT mantra […]

The ongoing battle for 3Par by HP & Dell tells us much more about the state of the IT Industry than just the desires of two companies to acquire some interesting storage tech. It signals an acceptance that storage is a key feature in the future direction of the IT industry – more important than networking and almost as important as the virtualisation platform itself.

I’ve twice posted now on Data ONTAP 8.0 shortcomings and this evening I did a little more research with the IBM version of Netapp’s hardware, the N-Series products. Fortunately, IBM are slightly more generous and informative in their documentation than Netapp and this document (freely available online) provides more background information on the “DOT8″ transition process. So, I’ve tried to produce a more in-depth objective view of the steps to move to “DOT8″. Firstly the following diagram provides a clue as to how Data ONTAP has migrated to the current release.

In the previous article I discussed the subject of Billing and Chargeback. This entry discusses some of the issues raised in that post as additional considerations.

The DroboElite is the most fully featured storage array in the Data Robotics range of devices. Regular readers will know I’ve posted frequently on these devices, from the first Drobo “Classic” to the DroboPro, both of which I own and have purchased myself. Data Robotics have kindly loaned me a DroboElite for this series of posts. As you will see, the top of the range model offers all the features the other models provide, plus the benefits of multi-user support.

In any system, resources are finite. There is always a limitation to what is available. However there’s also a truism that states if resources are free then they will be consumed at an infinite rate. So it is with storage. Someone has to pay for the storage resources that are placed on the floor. If customers are not charged in some way for their consumption of storage, then they will continue to consume resources ad infinitum. The solution is to implement chargeback or, to be more precise, billing.