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Automated Storage Tiering: 5 Reasons You Should Consider It

July 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Organizations of all sizes implement virtualization to gain efficiencies for both IT and the company. Typically, the server admin group leads this charge by running other virtualized servers on “virtual hosts,” or existing physical servers. In other words, it is possible to implement server virtualization without ever changing the server, storage, or networking hardware. From a cost perspective, this is a huge benefit!  However, before you get started you must analyze your server and storage hardware to find out:

  • Are your server and storage hardware compatible?
  • Is a more efficient solution available? [Read more...]
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Legacy vs. Self-Sufficient Servers

May 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In the past, server admins looked at servers as a “box” that contained CPU, memory, storage, and network connectivity. Troubleshooting was tough and startup times were slow. These aging servers weren’t necessarily part of a cohesive data center system, nor were their electricity numbers consumption efficient. New self-sufficient servers are so much more than these older servers. There are tremendous benefits of new server technologies over traditional server design.

Problems With Legacy Servers

Unfortunately, most data centers today are a patchwork of components that you have to manually configure. Your SAN, network, and servers may come from different vendors and each have their own management software. You and your admins struggle to maintain a multitude of complex pieces. Among them: [Read more...]

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Services Spotlight: Manufacturing Industry Podcast

May 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Over the years, we’ve worked closely with a variety of market segments,to help them adapt, grow and thrive in spite of economic change and technology evolutions.With all that experience and knowledge behind us, we thought it would be interesting to hear from our Softchoice experts directly, so they could share their insights and perspectives on how technology can help  deliver competitive advantage, improved customer service and operational efficiencies.

Manufacturing Industry Spotlight: Podcast with Jeff Martin

Jeff Martin, Manager, Professional Services has worked with many major manufacturers over several years. In this podcast, he discusses how Softchoice solutions helped manufacturers manage technology change and improve productivity and processes within their organization.

Listen Now

[Read more...]

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Why Data Backup And Recovery Systems Are Like Your Insurance Policy

April 8, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

Your data backup and recovery systems are like your insurance policy. Knowing that you have a process and system in place to ensure your data is secure and recoverable quickly and reliably means you can sleep at night knowing that your valuable corporate assets are safe.

But wait, have you tested your tape backup lately? If you have legacy tape backup systems in place – can they cope with the demands of a consolidated and virtualized infrastructure? How about the expanding volume of data growing exponentially year over year?

Challenges of a Tape Back-up Environment

Tape has long been the baseline backup medium used by most businesses, but with the arrival of consolidated infrastructures and virtualized environments the demands on legacy systems may be too complex or costly to manage depending on the types of applications and recovery point objectives in scope for the back-up. [Read more...]

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It’s Spring Cleaning Time for Your Data Center

March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Spring may mean warmer weather, but for most of us it also means getting in touch with our inner hoarder: seriously digging into our closets, cupboards and drawers and parting with stuff we don’t use anymore. The alternative, of course, is watching helplessly as our dens, basements, hallways and garages simply become makeshift storage rooms.

As frustrating as spring cleaning can be, it’s a piece of cake compared to the hoarding that’s going on in the average data center. Consider the astronomical growth in data that’s causing organizations’ storage needs to rise by 40% a year – all while IT budgets remain flat and data center resources are stretched to the limit. You can dig into your closet and toss your acid wash jeans from 1993 or that gaudy bowl you got from your aunt in Albuquerque, but how do you toss gigabytes and terabytes of data you can’t see? Where do you start? [Read more...]

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Juggling storage challenges with unified management: How to avoid dropping the ball

March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I find juggling one ball hard, let alone three or 43. But keeping all those balls from crashing all around you is a little like the challenge organizations face as they try to store and manage their ever-increasing volumes of data.

And I do mean ever-increasing. Because Great Recession or not, data growth has continued unabated – thanks to the digitization of infrastructures worldwide, the need to keep more copies of data for longer periods and the rapid increase in distributed data sources.

When it comes to managing this tidal wave of data, there is no shortage of products and approaches to choose from. But most of these more traditional offerings have unfortunately not kept pace with the many new and complex requirements of storage, nor do they address the need for a single management perspective. [Read more...]

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