More articles by Elizabeth Ferrarini

In 1987, three researchers at the University of California Berkeley, published a paper called 'A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive (Independent has replaced Inexpensive) Disks (RAID).' It described various types of disk arrays, referred to by the acronym RAID. The basic idea of RAID combined multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array of disk drives, which yields performance exceeding that of a single large expensive drive. Additionally, this array of drives appears to the computer as a single logical storage unit or drive.

In part two of our interview with storage expert Robert Burns, he talks about how to plug holes in your disaster recovery preparedness once you've uncovered them.

A key step in disaster recovery planning or business continuity planning includes analyzing the impact the disruption will have on an organization's business activity. Surveying tools, such as Business Impact Analysis (BIA) software, can help you to the impact a disaster might.have on your business. This checklist will act as a purchasing template to assess what BIA software is appropriate for you; what questions you need to ask the vendor; and what to ask of their references.

By relocating a few key files from mechanical disk drives to a speed demon of a solid-state disk drive, you can increase an application's performance by up to 50 percent.

Written by an independent consultant in the network storage industry

Networked storage will continue to see a truce, if not a nice cooperative friendship, between SAN and NAS devices

How to gain the cost benefits of a SAN without a lot of unnecessary expense and Excedrin headaches

LAN-free tape backups and server-less back ups have become a key storage management capability in SANs. However, the emergence of low-price tape automation systems could provide similar backup capabilities.

Regardless of the storage management product you need for distributed computing, don't be afraid to ask the vendor the following 10 questions

IT department has closed its server backup window forever, sliced yearly backup expenses in half.

Storage is hot. And apparently, IT professionals have gotten the message. They've started to take events, such as Storage Networking World, very seriously. Say goodbye to vendors speaking to vendors, and say hello to vendors speaking to IT professionals.

To provide group-buying services for more than 1,800 hospitals, Premier, Inc., based in San Diego, California, maintains about 300 Windows NT servers, as well as more than 50 Unix servers, across four U.S. sites. Some of the sites use Microsoft Cluster Servers with about 200 gigabytes to 400 gigabytes of disk storage. One site has Compaq ProLiant 5500 servers connected via Fibre Channel to a storage area network consisting of an EMC Clariion storage system.

This startup solves one key problem faced by many e-services - how to allocate Web database storage dynamically.

Any type of a disaster, be it brought on by man or by the extremes of nature, can bring business to a halt if you're not prepared for the inevitable. However, you can take three steps now to make sure your data center's resources will continue to function during and after a major disaster

Storage has blossomed into a plethora of storage-only outsourcing services beyond the traditional off-site vault for backups. These services range from backup variations--desktop-only, server, and real- time replication--to on-demand virtual storage utilities.

For the past five years, Quantum Corp.'s Digital Linear Tape (DLT) format for tape backup systems has dominated the midrange of the magnetic tape marketplace. Now systems administrators have other new tape formats to consider.

No matter how big the disks, employees always seem to fill them with files. It may be time to institute storage resource management (SRM).

An IT outsourcing firm can handle all your infrastructure needs for you, taking the weight of hardware, switching equipment, and personnel off your back.

A new guide available online will help you evaluate whether DAS, NAS, or SAN storage is right for your network.

The National Software Testing Laboratory Inc. in Conshohocken, Pa., has found that defragmented server disks and PC disks can perform between 20% and 80% faster than systems with fragmented disks. But did you know that by not defragmenting these systems, U.S. corporations stand to lose as much as $50 billion per year, according to Steve Widen, research director for International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.?

Enterprise storage requirements are mushrooming. And a new industry of e-services is rapidly coming on line to meet these storage needs.

Thanks to its file-sharing storage area network(SAN), Showtime's in-house ad agency has boosted productivity and efficiency.

A key step in disaster recovery planning or business continuity planning includes analyzing the impact the disruption will have on an organization's business activity. Surveying tools, such as Business Impact Analysis (BIA) software, can help you to the impact a disaster might.have on your business. This checklist will act as a purchasing template to assess what BIA software is appropriate for you; what questions you need to ask the vendor; and what to ask of their references.

Storage has blossomed into a plethora of storage-only outsourcing services beyond the traditional off-site vault for backups. These services range from backup variations--desktop-only, server, and real- time replication--to on-demand virtual storage utilities.