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Finding a place for your stuff: 5 top storage solution questions to ask yourself

March 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Storage always makes me think of the late, great George Carlin’s classic comedy routine about stuff.

“Sometimes you’ve got to move, you’ve got to get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff! You’ve got to move all your stuff. And maybe put some of your stuff in storage. Imagine that – there’s a whole industry based on keeping an eye on your stuff!”

Carlin had no idea. That’s because data – the kind of stuff IT decision makers lose sleep over – is growing at an mind-boggling rate and has made finding smart, cost-effective ways to expand hardware and virtualize storage one of their top priorities.

So how should you decide on the mid-range storage solution that’s right for your organization? Here are five questions to ask that can help you figure it out:

1. What’s the management interface? One claim virtually all storage vendors make is that their solution is easy to use, a benefit that’s usually centered around the graphical user interface (GUI). But don’t be fooled, it’s not simply about easy on-screen navigation – though that’s important. True ease of use depends on the functionality available in the GUI, elements like a visualized task flow, an integrated video instruction set and browser-based capabilities that allow for access from any platform. Remember, the degree of navigational difficulty that takes advantage of this sort of functionality varies widely between vendors. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Servers, Storage and Networking Tagged With: , , ,

Virtual storage capacity management: an admin’s worst nightmare?

March 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Most hear “server virtualization” and think: efficiency, ease of management, high availability and flexibility. But these benefits – the aim of sound IT planning – really only extend to the server (and in some cases application) layer. Administration, it turns out, is a whole other kettle of fish.

That’s because the complexities of introducing server virtualization into an environment force administrators to spend far more time than in the past on planning the overall capacity requirements of an environment and how to lay down data to ensure that the benefits virtualization brings to servers isn’t offset by problems to the storage environment.

Here are the three most common technology features created to help alleviate this pain point – as well as some of their pitfalls:

Thin Provisioning: Thin Provisioning allows administrators to show an OS/App/Hyper-visor an amount of storage they can grow into, while not actually allocating the physical space on the SAN/NAS. The SAN/NAS only allocates storage as data is written to it, so administrators can spend far less time planning — and only need to purchase and allocate what’s needed NOW, versus in 6 or 12 months.

DWhile thin provisioning provides a lot of value – extending existing capacity lifespan and lessening the number of tasks to manage virtual machines and data — it also causes issues. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Servers, Storage and Networking Tagged With: , , , , ,

Because you can’t buy a guard dog for your users

March 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

Over 83% of endpoint infections come from hijacked websites. Have you ever seen those crazy popups that look like a real anti-virus program AntiVirus Plus, System Tools 2011 that look just like Windows Security Center?  This is some pretty nasty malware.  Why is this so successful?  These are the threats we discussed in previous posts.  Combine that with a little social engineering and we’re on our way.

For example, a popular news or social media website is compromised so that when a user even places their mouse over one of the banner ads the attacker’s malware page also loads on the end users system.  A small piece of java is run that makes it look like Windows Security Center is running on their system (which it is not) and that it found a whole bunch of malware (which it did not).  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Client Computing Tagged With: , ,

Expanding virtualization into the Cloud: Is it time to pop the question?

March 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Let’s face it. You’ve been spending a lot more time with virtualization lately. You weren’t sure how into it you were when you were first introduced. But be honest, now you’re head over heels. You like the way virtualization helps you reduce waste, outages and labor, how scalable it is, how it makes feel when you maximize operating efficiency and performance – and, of course, the way the cost savings from virtualization make you smile.

The two of you have done a lot of exploring and now virtualization is looking for something more. There’s talk of expanding the relationship, of making it official. You’re dreaming of building your organization with virtualization and living happily ever after in your own private Cloud. But something is holding you back. Is it a fear of commitment?

You’re not alone. Some 65% of organizations are in the exploring state but only 30% have made the move to expanding to the Cloud. Like you, many IT professionals worry about the technical challenges of taking that next step. Will you have a free hand when it comes to moving business applications into the virtual realm? How will upping your organization’s virtualization affect performance? Will you lose control as competing departments flex their muscle and demand dedicated servers? What about organizational issues, procedures, red tape?

In short, what if it’s just one big nightmare and you can’t turn back? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Servers, Storage and Networking Tagged With: , , , ,