Peter Williams on IT-Director.com

Tegile Systems' special SSD-SAS mix optimises storage performance-capacity-price

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Each of the many new storage start-ups has a different angle on performance and capacity plus virtualisation support - and where in the food-chain to pitch its solutions - which can be confusing to... [Read More...]

Bocada vpConnect integrates virtual and physical data protection management

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Bocada has announced vpConnect, a data protection service management (DPSM) solution which integrates virtual and physical environments - the industry's first. It achieves this by bringing together... [Read More...]

Re-branded Condusiv brings out boosted Diskeeper 12

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Condusiv Technologies has today announced Diskeeper 12, the Windows-based storage performance software for servers and operating systems including for desktops and laptops. Condusiv, until March 2012... [Read More...]

Doyenz does DR in the cloud for SMBs

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Start-up Doyenz is growing fast by exploiting a gap in the VMware market. Many small and medium businesses (SMBs) find it too expensive and time-consuming to set up remote disaster recovery (DR) for... [Read More...]

'Forget storage subsystems, think memory' says Fusion-io chief

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Every now and then technology advances allow us to re-think how we do things - and Fusion-io is building a business by taking a radically new approach to high-speed data access using NAND flash. We... [Read More...]

Storage Fusion's SRA automates storage health-checks for resellers

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Storage Fusion, a small UK-based storage consultancy, has big ambitions based around a useful piece of software. Storage Resource Analysis (SRA) is a tool that automates discovery and assessment of... [Read More...]

Tripled SAS and SATA I-O performance - Nexsan's claim for new FASTier NST5000 Series

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Nexsan today launched the next generation of its FASTier storage systems, the NST5000 Series, including SSD cache and processing that it says triples random I-O performance for both SAS and SATA... [Read More...]

VirtualSharp guarantees DR and makes it a non-event

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Mention disaster recovery (DR) and you almost hear the groans of IT administrators. They know it is a must-have but are very worried that their DR implementation will not work properly if a real... [Read More...]

Xsigo Performance Manager puts its virtual infrastructure in the picture

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Xsigo Systems, so far the only networking vendor to offer open virtualised connection between servers and storage, has now added Xsigo Performance Manager. Users can now watch traffic flows between... [Read More...]

Confidence builds in Nimble's break-through technology

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Nimble has proven to be an appropriate name for this 2008 storage start-up that must already be annoying companies such as EMC and Dell in the mid-range. Despite these recessionary times, Nimble has... [Read More...]

Commoditise storage to slash costs using AoE, says Coraid

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Thanks to x86 and other commodity components, users usually get good value for money from their server systems. However, storage subsystems and their connectivity remain stubbornly complex and... [Read More...]

TMS RamSan 720 HA flash aims to finish off high-end disk

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Texas Memory Systems (TMS) has launched the first flash storage incorporating hardware high availability (HA) features aimed at taking on large disk subsystems - the RamSan 720. The SANflash 1U high... [Read More...]

Ever-expanding Spiceworks comes to Europe - the story so far

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Spiceworks, a supplier of network management software primarily for SMBs, is coming to Europe, forming Spiceworks Europe Ltd, based in London - a hint at its sky-rocketing growth path. In a time of... [Read More...]

Nimble Storage's CS is a mid-market game-changer

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Nimble Storage is not a very familiar name this side of the pond, but that is about to change - and how! Today is its official launch into Europe; it has a new EMEA sales director, Philip Turner, and... [Read More...]

Overland "re-launch" throws down SMB price challenge with innovative SnapServer DX

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:00:00 +0100

Overland Storage today launches its completely new SnapServer DX Series for SMBs, adding some 'enterprise-level' features, simplified management and, especially, very aggressive pricing. Its target... [Read More...]

Can Virsto do for storage what VMware did for servers?

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Virsto has announced the next dimension to its storage virtualisation solution - Virsto for VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) vSphere (VMware) edition. According to the company, this will... [Read More...]

Removing a major barrier to enterprise agility - virtual connectivity

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0100

It often takes a start-up VC company to spot and exploit a fundamental weakness when an IT infrastructure trend emerges. Suddenly everyone got the idea of enterprise virtualisation and data centre... [Read More...]

Virtual Instruments' cure for FC SAN blindness

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Virtual infrastructures may appear simple on the surface, but there is a lot going between the servers and storage across the network; it's complex. So pity the poor IT or storage manager who knows... [Read More...]

Can Drobo cop SMB storage market with ultra-simple B1200i?

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Drobo's prosumer pedigree provides the clue as to why its new B1200i (iSCSI) storage box is the lowest cost business storage SAN appliance and has ultra-simple configuring and... [Read More...]

Nexsan adds SSD-cached NAS for mid-market

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:00:00 +0100

SAN products vendor Nexsan has announced the first models in its E5000 family of 'plug-and-play' NAS storage systems, incorporating its new FASTier solid state disk (SSD) caching which may boost... [Read More...]

When virtualised storage virtually stops: what can be done?

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

You move your servers to VMware or Hyper-V and everything is fine. Then you virtualise your storage and, without even changing your application, everything slows right down. Even if you know what is... [Read More...]

Coraid's AoE storage approach anyone?

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Storage data communication has become too complicated and expensive. So I love it when I see a technology that genuinely reduces complexity-and saves money-without an obvious performance downside. I... [Read More...]

Storage optimisation

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:00:00 +0100

This is the first of two articles about storage optimisation. In this article I will discuss what the issue is and in the second I will consider how vendors are (or, mostly, are not) addressing the... [Read More...]

What next for NetApp and de-duplication?

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Early this month EMC snatched de-duplication market leader Data Domain out of NetApp's clutches for a massive $2.1bn; whether NetApp is the real loser is dependent on what happens next [Read More...]

LSI doubles storage controller performance and builds out its channel

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0100

LSI's new family of RAID appliance-style controllers provides a timely performance boost; they also represent a new direction for LSI who is extending its partner and reseller market [Read More...]

Virtualisation needs a network performance boost - try IT infrastructure optimisation

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0100

When virtualising servers or storage this also means centralising management, but consider the negative impact on performance and bandwidth costs for remote access - and the obvious solution [Read More...]

Mixed enterprise environments could make FCoE a winner

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Is Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) just another standard that will not take off? Some have dismissed it and others have said going down the FCoE route is a bad move. I disagree. [Read More...]

ColdSpark and FASTRecover help change BakBone's game

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

BakBone's two recent acquisitions provide innovation building blocks for its new Universal Data Management strategic direction for data on the move [Read More...]

Infortrend's green ESVA attacks the storage virtualisation market

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Infortrend, long known for assembling systems for buyers who pick and mix their preferences, is now providing a complete virtualised storage SAN to compete on price/value [Read More...]

Fujitsu's ETERNUS global storage launch includes enterprise capabilities for low-end

rss@it-analysis.com (Peter Williams, Bloor Research) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Fujitsu is tidying up its new and re-branded storage portfolio, making it more coherent, and also extending its capabilities for an international market; its march towards the global top table continues [Read More...]