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AWS (Amazon) storage gateway, first, second and third impressions

January 25, 2012 – 2:18 pm
Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced the beta of their new storage gateway functionality that enables access of Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Services) from your different applications using an appliance installed in your data center site. With this beta launch, Amazon joins other startup vendors who are providing standalone gateway appliance products (e.g. Nasuni, Certa, etc) along with those who have disappeared from the market (e.g. Cirtas). In addition to gateway vendors, there are also those with cloud access added to their software tools such as (e.g. Jungle Disk that access both Rack space and Amazon S3 along with Commvault Simpana Cloud connector among others). There are also vendors that have joined cloud access gateways as part of their storage systems such as TwinStrata among others. Even EMC (and here) has gotten into the game adding qualified cloud access support to some of their products. What is a cloud storage gateway? Before going further, ...

Cloud and travel fun

January 25, 2012 – 12:55 am
Warning if you are a cloud purist who does not take lightly to fun in and around all types of clouds, well, try to have some fun, otherwise enjoy this fun in and around clouds post. On a recent trip to a video recording studio in the Boston (BOS) area, I took a few photos with my iPhone of traveling above, in and around clouds. In addition, during the trip I also used cloud based services from the airplane (e.g. Gogo WiFi) for cloud backup and other functions. View of a GE CFM56 powering a Delta A320 journey to the clouds Easy to understand cloud emergency and contingency procedures Example of cloud marketing and value add services Clouds are clearing nearing destination Boston aka IATA: BOS Example of easy to understand converged cloud networking GE Aviation plant in Lynn MA below GE CFM56 jet engine Back at Logan, long day of travel, video shoot, time for a nap. From ...

Can I ask for your support? Please vote for my blog

January 24, 2012 – 4:14 pm
No Im not running for any elected office in a political or other organizational capacity, more on the voting stuff in a moment. Let me start out by saying thank you to all of you who have and continue to read theses posts from where ever that happens to be from. I also want to thank all of the sites and venues that pickup my blog feeds to make it easier for readers to view the content as well as thanks for all of the great comments and discussions. Doing some recent end of year clean up and preparation for 2012, I was going back looking at some blog history and realized that StorageIOblog was launched back in late fall of 2006. For those not aware, my full blog feed is http://storageioblog.com/RSSfull.xml and there is also a brief feed at http://storageioblog.com/RSS.xml and the full archives going back to ...

Should you feel sorry for revenue prevention departments

January 24, 2012 – 12:49 am
Does your organization have or do you work with a revenue prevention department or revenue prevention team? For those not familiar, a revenue prevention team or department is an expression that refers to those who get in the way of selling, closing and generating revenue for an organization. In a sales dominated organization, the revenue prevention team or department might be refereed to as those who do not do what sales wants when and how they want it. Anything other than what sales wants is seen as getting in the way of revenue. Sometimes sales will see marketing, engineering, manufacturing, quality control, human resources, finance and accounting or legal as revenue prevention departments. In other instances, the revenue prevention team or department of some sales organizations will refer to those in customer or prospects organizations that get in the way or slow down the process of closing the deal. Yet another example ...

My Server and Storage IO holiday break projects

January 24, 2012 – 12:48 am
Happy new years! Following up from a flurry of posts in the closing days of 2011 including industry trends perspective predictions for 2012 and 2013, top blog posts from 2011, top all time posts, along with a couple of other items here and here, its time to get back to 2012 activity. Also if you missed it, here is the Fall (December) 2011 StorageIO news letter. Actually I have been busy working on some other projects the past several weeks most of which are NDA so not much else can be said about them, however there are some other things I'm working on that will show themselves in the weeks and months to come. Here is a link to a webinar and live chat that I did the first week of January on CDP (Continuous Data Protection) and how it can be applied to many different environments. But lets take a step back ...

A conversation from SNW 2011 with Jenny Hamel

December 30, 2011 – 2:59 pm
Here (.qt) and here (.wmv) is a video from an interview that I did with Jenny Hamel (@jennyhamelsd6) during the Fall 2011 SNW event in Orlando Florida. Topics covered during the discussion include: Importance of metrics that matter for gaining and maintaining IT situational awareness The continued journey of IT to improve customer service delivery in a cost-effective manner Reducing cost and complexity without negatively impacting customer service experience Participating in SNW and SNIA for over ten years on three different continents ...

Top storageio cloud virtualization networking and data protection posts

December 29, 2011 – 5:50 pm
Im in the process of wrapping up 2011 and getting ready for 2012. Here is a list of the top 25 all time posts from StorageIOblog covering cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, green IT, networking and data protection. Looking back, here is 2010 and 2011 industry trends, thoughts and perspective predictions along with looking forward, a 2012 preview here. Top 25 all time posts about storage, cloud, virtualization, networking, green IT and data protection 2010 and 2011 Trends, Perspectives and Predictions: More of the same? Acadia VCE: VMware + Cisco + EMC = Virtual Computing Environment Back to school shopping: Dude, Dell Digests 3PAR Disk storage EMC VPLEX: Virtual Storage Redefined or Respun? Clarifying Clustered Storage Confusion Clouds are like Electricity: Dont be Scared Data Center I/O Bottlenecks Performance Issues and Impacts Data footprint reduction (Part 1): Life beyond dedupe and ...

2012 industry trends perspectives and commentary (predictions)

December 29, 2011 – 5:44 pm
2011 is almost over, so its wrap up time of the year as well as getting ready for 2012. Here is a link to a post of the top 25 new posts that appeared on StorageIOblog in 2011. As a companion to the above, here is a link to the all time top 25 posts from StorageIOblog. Looking back, here is a post about industry trends, thoughts and perspective predictions for 2010 and 2011 (preview 2012 and 2013 thoughts and perspectives here). Im still finalizing my 2012 and 2013 predictions and perspectives which is a work in progress, however here is a synopsis: Addressing storage woes at the source: Time to start treating the source of data management and protection including backup challenges instead of or in addition to addressing downstream target destination topics. Big data ...

Top 2011 cloud virtualization storage and networking posts

December 29, 2011 – 5:39 pm
Im in the process of wrapping up 2011 and getting ready for 2012, here is a list of the top 25 new posts from this past year at StorageIOblog. Looking back, here is a post about industry trends, thoughts and perspective predictions for 2010 and 2011 (preview 2012 and 2013 thoughts and perspectives here). Here are the top 25 new blog posts from 2011 Are Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) getting too big? Buzzword Bingo and Acronym Update V2.011 Cloud conversations: Loss of data access vs. data loss Cloud, virtualization and storage networking conversations Commentary on Clouds, Storage, Networking, Green IT and other topics Congratulations to IBM for releasing XIV SPC results Convergence: People, Processes, Policies and Products Industry adoption vs. industry deployment, is there a difference? Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer Is FCoE ...

Fall (December) 2011 StorageIO News Letter

December 20, 2011 – 10:25 am
Fall (December) 2011 News letter Welcome to the Fall (December) 2011 edition of the Server and StorageIO Group (StorageIO) news letter. This follows the Summer 2011 edition. You can get access to this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions.   Click on the following links to view the Fall (December) 2011 edition as an HTML or PDF or, to go to the news letter page to view previous editions. Follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here. You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback. Nuff said for now Cheers Gs Greg Schulz - Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) twitter @storageio All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong ...

Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking now on Kindle

December 19, 2011 – 11:51 pm
It only makes sense that a book about Clouds, Virtualization, Data Storage and Networking be available via a cloud service in electronic format. Today Amazon and my publisher (CRC Press Taylor and Francis) released a Kindle version of my new book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking which joins the previously released hardcopy version also available at Amazon.com among other venues. Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking has been declared The New Enterprise Tech Bible by noted industry blogger and host of the Nekkid Tech (@NekkidTech) pod cast Greg Knieriemen (@Knieriemen). Check out Episode #11 (The Enterprise Tech Bible) of the Nekkid Tech pod cast show here. Comments and reviews about Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking can be found at Amazon.com along with those from Stephen Guendert, PhD (@DrSteveGuendert) at CMG MeasureIT (@cmgnews) who says: Gregs latest book is the ibuprofen that will make these cloud computing information overload headaches go ...

What industry pundits love and loathe about data storage

December 14, 2011 – 6:24 pm
Drew Robb has a good article about what IT industry pundits including vendors, analysts, and advisors loath including comments from myself. In the article Drew asks: What do you really love about storage and what are your pet peeves? One of my comments and perspectives is that I like Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDDs) in addition to traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD) along with Solid State Devices (SSDs). As much as I like HHDDs, I also believe that with any technology, they are not the best solution for everything, however they can also be used in many ways than being seen. Here is the fifth installment of a series on HHDDs that I have done since June 2010 when I received my first HHDD a Seagate Momentus XT. You can read the other installments of my momentus moments here, here, here and here. HHDD with integrated nand flash SSD ...