Enterprise storage array replication software is rarely accused of being "user-friendly" or "simple to manage". If anything, exactly the opposite is true with users grumbling about the engineering resources and professional services required to implement it and then the level of end-user knowledge and skill needed to manage it. (read more)

Storage has gotten much more appealing over the last few years as cloud computing has found its way into the vernacular of the mainstream press. But at its core storage still operates in the same old boring way that it always has - at the SCSI layer. It is for this reason new features are needed from time to time so SCSI can continue to meet the new demands of the emerging virtualized infrastructure which is exactly what is being announced today by vendors like 3PAR and VMware. (read more)

The appeal of sub-volume optimization to end-users is plain as it promises to lower storage capacity and management costs while increasing application efficiency. But before users succumb to its allure, they need to verify vendor claims regarding its benefits as vendors are stretching them to make this technology fit your environment. (read more)

As more organizations consolidate servers and create private storage clouds to store the data associated with these servers, the need to lock down that data to meet emerging data governance and eDiscovery demands has grown more acute. It is for reasons like these that features such as 3PAR's new Virtual Lock are becoming more sought after on storage systems. (read more)

There are so many virtual operating systems (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer) competing for my attention, until now I had not closely examined Red Hat KVM's value proposition. It was only after I did a little research that I began to understand why 3PAR sees adding support for KVM as important. (read more)

Savings can evaporate as the hidden costs associated with managing a virtualized server environment become known. Among those costs, wasted storage capacity on individual VMs may be the most difficult to control unless an organization puts in place a storage infrastructure that can automate the reclamation of this storage. (read more)

When thin provisioning first started to gain some traction 5-8 years ago and show up as a feature on storage arrays, it is unlikely that many grasped how it was laying the foundation for the automated recapture of stranded storage capacity. Fast forward to today and we now see this happening with increasing frequency. The latest evidence of this is today's announcement from 3PAR that highlights how Oracle database users can achieve ongoing capacity savings when placing their Oracle databases on thinly provisioned 3PAR InServ Storage Server volumes. (read more)

The more I study how the AO feature leverages the underlying units of data (called "regions") with 3PAR systems, the more I understand its practical application in data center environments. Specifically, it does more than just automate the placement of data on the appropriate storage tier but automates it in such a way that it creates new operational efficiencies for IT managers. (read more)

Last week I blogged about the issues that were top of mind with users who were in attendance at the quarterly Omaha VMware Users Group (VMUG) meeting. Those challenges specifically included data protection, I/O bottlenecks and iSCSI SANs but notice that their issues can largely be traced back to an ineffective storage management strategy as the root of their issues. (read more)

A year ago at least two analysts forecast that 2010 would see the accelerated adoption of solid state drives (SSDs) with an accompanying drop-off in the purchase of high end FC hard disk drives (HDDs). Well, here we are 12 months later and while the adoption of SSDs is picking up, at least one SSD provider is reporting a short term oversupply of SSDs even as FC HDDs continue to sell. So what gives? (read more)