Drew Robb

One of the biggest problems with cloud storage is data movement. Transferring large quantities of data to and from the cloud takes time, which can impact performance. This issue is the province of a batch of storage startups who address it in a wide variety of ways. Some seek to increase caching capabilities. Some boost […]

Flash has gone from being ridiculously expensive to largely affordable over the past five years. And a staggering drop in price has been paralleled by another spectacular occurrence. The capacity of Solid State Drives (SSDs) has gone through the roof. “Higher-capacity, lower-cost flash has resulted in 1 TB to 16 TB 2.5-inch SSDs,” said Greg […]

Along with all the positives, the Industrial Revolution brought us congested cities, polluted rivers and urban ghettos. The automobile brought smog, road fatalities and a heavy dependence on the oil economy. While some may wish for a return to an idyllic rural pre-industrial lifestyle with horse-drawn transportation, there is no going back. It’s the same […]

There is no doubt that the enterprise SSD marketplace is hot right now. But storage users have been subjected to wave after wave of hype for the last couple of decades. Some are wondering if they should trade in all their hard disk drives (HDDs) for solid state drives (SSDs) while others are trying to […]

Some might tell you that NAS could be going away soon. But don’t believe a word of it. According to International Data Corp. (IDC), file-based data storage continues to be a thriving market. Spending on file-based storage solutions is expected to increase to more than $34.6 billion in 2016. Further, file based storage accounts for […]

Convergence can be great thing: the U.S. states came together to form an entity greater than the sum of its parts. But convergence can also lead to burdensome creations that accomplish little. It can be the same with storage hyprconvergence. There may be times when it makes sense to implement hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), and other […]

What is to become of the world of data storage systems if its dominant voice – EMC – gets gobbled up by Dell? This question was on the lips of many attendees at last week’s EMC World in Las Vegas. The conference provided some answers as well as insight into future direction with Dell. It […]

All Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) vendors claim simplicity of deployment and ease of use. But one man’s simplicity is another man’s tangle of wires. Just ask anyone transitioning from an old flip phone to a smartphone how difficult it can be to do basic things on a touchscreen phone like enter contacts, make calls and arrange […]

Not so long ago, convergence was the buzzword. That term tended to be applied mainly to areas such as Voice over IP (VoIP). But as more and more areas converged, the PR boys and girls were no longer satisfied with mere convergence, and so the hyperconvergence moniker was born. “Hyperconverged systems combine full-featured storage, compute […]

A common put-down for sports wannabes is that they are “all flash and no substance.” But for those contemplating moving off disk-based storage once and for all, the trick is to arrive at all-flash with plenty of substance. So how do you pull off this feat, and in the meantime, what do you do with […]

All flash arrays (AFAs) are really catching on. But with so many companies out there only now joining the party, here are some tips to ease any potential implementation headaches. 1. Factor in Time ROI calculations are never simple. But those attempting to justify a hefty investment in flash should also factor in time savings […]

Facebook made a big splash a year or so back by launching a project to showcase archiving on Blu-ray optical disc. It developed a 10,000 Blu-ray disc system that can hold a PB. The intention was for it to act as an archive system for the millions of photos and videos uploaded onto the site. […]