Stephen Foskett

Stephen Foskett

About the Author:

Stephen Foskett is an active participant in the world of enterprise information technology, currently focusing on enterprise storage, server virtualization, networking, and cloud computing. He organizes the popular Tech Field Day event series for Gestalt IT and runs Foskett Services. A long-time voice in the storage industry, Stephen has authored numerous articles for industry publications, and is a popular presenter at industry events. He can be found online at TechFieldDay.com, blog.FoskettS.net, and on Twitter at @SFoskett.

Articles by Stephen Foskett

We Don’t Need Cloud Standards (Yet)

September 16, 2009

Championing “open” and calling for standards has become the first stalling action by late-movers in technology spaces. They see opportunity passing by and try to hold back progress and FUD the market by yelling about proprietary solutions, vendor lock-in, and a lack of standards. Many well-intentioned IT folks follow along: After all, who doesn’t want openness, standardization, and interoperability?

EvoStor: VMware Storage Evolved!

September 11, 2009

Coming out of stealth at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco, startup EvoStor exemplifies this new virtualization-optimized storage concept. Taking existing storage concepts like scale-out grid and automated storage layout, EvoStor’s offering is designed exclusively to support the VMware vSphere platform.

Texas Memory Systems Picks Incipient’s Brain

September 8, 2009

Solid-state storage performance stalwart, Texas Memory Systems (TMS), has secured access to the patents and source code of SAN virtualization pioneer, Incipient, Inc. TMS will likely use this new technology to cluster and scale their storage offerings, while Incipient remains independent for now.

EMC (e)Discovers Kazeon Systems

September 1, 2009

EMC announced today that they had acquired Kazeon Systems, a standard-bearer in the world of information search and e-discovery. Kazeon had long worked to develop an automatic data classification capability, building an appliance based on open-source and in-house tools. The company’s solution was capable of both scanning file content and indexing it in a database for later search, somewhat unique in the space. Kazeon has also been active in the e-discovery and litigation-readiness space and was top-of-mind for analysts discussing such tools. EMC will likely integrate the Kazeon technology with their SourceOne archiving and discovery platform.

NetApp Shows How CEO Succession Should Work

August 19, 2009

NetApp today announced a predictable step in the transition of their corporate leadership, with Tom Georgens taking over as CEO and long-time Dan Warmenhoven planning retirement after a short stint as Executive Chairman. Today’s move follows Georgens’ promotion to President and COO in January of 2008, and is part of a remarkably smooth and clear transition of power for the enterprise storage company. NetApp founder, Dave Hitz, broke the news, chronicling the transition in his blog.

EMC V-Max FAST: Coming in December … And 2010!

August 17, 2009

EMC’s Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) was one of the most welcome annoucements made during the Symmetrix V-Max introduction. It would be a significant modernization of EMC’s Symmetrix line, and would be one of the first unique features of the Symmetrix V-Max line. But many, including me, were disappointed to learn in May that FAST […]

Cloud Curmudgeons

August 4, 2009

Although I will resist the obvious and hackneyed cloud metaphors and similies, it is painfully clear that the field of cloud computing remains ill-defined. As we (hopefully) near the apex of hype, just about every IT company is clamoring to be part of the cloud market. From data center build-out to storage arrays to server […]

The Public Corporate Face of Cloud Computing

July 28, 2009

As cloud computing becomes more mainstream, investors will start looking to get in on the act. With that in mind, a friend and I began discussing which public companies were getting into the cloud computing market and to what extent. I have put together the following list, and encourage comments, suggestions, and contributions.

WD’s 1 TB Laptop Drive? Not Quite!

July 27, 2009

Western Digital announced this morning the world’s first “1 TB mobile hard drive!” But although the news is great for storage-hungry folks looking for a portable external drive, it doesn’t quite mark a sea change in the storage industry since this drive cannot be used in (most) laptops.

Not For Laptops
As we’ve discussed before, modern laptops […]

LSI Picks Up ONStor

July 22, 2009

Just five days after HP announced it would acquire IBRIX, another scale-out NAS provider has been purchased. LSI announced today that it would acquire ONStor for $25 million in cash. The company sold a range of SAN and NAS storage systems, but was best-known for its Bobcat clustered NAS gateways.

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