For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For Infrastructure And Operations Professionals: Infrastructure Virtualization, Q4 2009

I/O Virtualization Enters Its Growth Phase

by Galen Schreck, November 16, 2009

Every major category of IT infrastructure has been endowed with some virtualization capability. Although virtualization can make your IT environment more cost-effective and agile, the underlying technologies have matured at different rates. Furthermore, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Role Overview: Virtual Infrastructure Architect

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, June 25, 2009

As the adoption of virtualization across servers, storage, and networks continues to climb and organizations push to larger implementations of virtual infrastructure, a new question arises: Who is going to manage your virtual infrastructure? Sure, you . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Virtual Infrastructure Architect - Job Profile And Description  (32 KB XLS)

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, June 23, 2009

Position overview: The virtual infrastructure (VI) architect is responsible for managing all of the virtualized infrastructure across technology domains (this usually does not include the virtual desktop).

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: Top Questions About VMware Backup

by Stephanie Balaouras, Galen Schreck, July 14, 2008

Enterprise adoption of x86 server virtualization is mainstream. Deployment is no longer limited to application development and testing environments, and chances are your organization is virtualizing mission- and business-critical production environments. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Forrester TechRadar™: Infrastructure Virtualization, Q2 2008

Client And Server Virtualization Progress, But Storage Virtualization Reboots

by Galen Schreck, April 4, 2008

Every major category of IT infrastructure has been endowed with some virtualization capability. Although virtualization can make your IT environment more cost-effective and agile, the underlying technologies have matured at different rates. Furthermore, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Virtualization Imperative

Why Virtualization Is The Key To IT Flexibility

by Galen Schreck, November 8, 2007

Virtualization has wide-ranging effects throughout your IT infrastructure. Even though virtualization has been making technology easier to use, it has become even trendier in the past few years. Why the sudden attention? Recent innovations in server or . . .

Surprise! EMC Is A Systems Management Vendor

Why EMC Bought VMware, Smarts, And nLayers — And Now RSA Security

by Galen Schreck, July 17, 2006

EMC has been quietly broadening its storage- and information-centric software portfolio with acquisitions that give it further reach into the application stack. EMC has laid out its vision of an infrastructure built on virtualized hardware resources that . . .

VMware Launches Upgraded Product Suite

by Galen Schreck, Frank E. Gillett, June 7, 2006

VMware has announced several major enhancements to its product suite: VMware Infrastructure 3. Forrester met with VMware President Diane Greene to discuss the new release and its impact on the industry and customers. Forrester believes that VMware's Infrastructure . . .

New Specialists Take On Data Classification

by Galen Schreck, January 20, 2006

Technologies like hierarchical storage management never really addressed firms' problems with managing unstructured data. Just like Goldilocks' porridge that was either too hot or too cold, yesterday's tools never seemed to get the right blend of content . . .

Library-Based Tape Encryption Starts In 2006

by Galen Schreck, January 17, 2006

Reports of lost tapes and customer data seem to surface monthly. Marriott International now joins Bank of America, Citigroup, and DSW as one of the latest firms to lose confidential data. But the need to encrypt tape-based data is perplexing. On the one . . .

Your Best Tape Backup Encryption Options

by Galen Schreck, September 21, 2005

Following the highly publicized losses of backup tapes containing sensitive information about firms' customers, many organizations are examining their own policies and technology options for protecting data when it moves outside their corporate walls . . .

HP To Acquire AppIQ For Storage Management

Element-Level Storage Management Nears Standardization

by Galen Schreck, September 20, 2005

Yesterday, HP announced its intent to acquire storage management startup AppIQ, whose software HP will rebrand as HP Storage Essentials. AppIQ has become well-known for its standards-based management of multivendor storage area networks (SAN), and it . . .

Building The 100-Year Archive

Why Archiving Data For 100 Years Will Become Practical

by Galen Schreck, August 24, 2005

Although corporate and legal issues have recently brought data archiving to the light of day, the problems associated with preserving digital information are not new. Archiving for a few years is hard enough, but when requirements dictate that data be . . .

NetApp To Acquire Decru: Storage Encryption Goes Mainstream

by Galen Schreck, June 17, 2005

Network Appliance (NetApp) announced yesterday that it plans to acquire storage encryption specialist Decru in a cash and stock deal worth $272 million. Storage encryption appliances have been around for years, but customers were often limited to the . . .

StorageTek Joins The Object-Based Archiving Fray

by Galen Schreck, June 14, 2005

Object-based archives, sometimes called content addressable storage, have been gaining attention as firms have begun to improve their long-term retention of electronic records in response to increased regulatory pressure like that from Sarbanes-Oxley. . . .

Sun To Acquire StorageTek. Hmmm.

by Galen Schreck, Frank E. Gillett, June 6, 2005

In an unexpected move, Sun Microsystems announced plans to acquire StorageTek for $4.1 billion in cash. StorageTek has long been a dominant player in the tape industry, but its disk arrays, software, and consulting services have largely been overlooked . . .

EMC Plunges Into Storage Virtualization

by Galen Schreck, May 27, 2005

EMC has finally taken the plunge into network-based storage virtualization. Previously code-named Storage Router, the new offering — called Invista — is an out-of-band controller that uses the capabilities of intelligent Fibre Channel switches to create . . .

ILM's Next Challenge: The Metadata Wars

Why Storage And Application Vendors Will Fight To Control Metadata

by Galen Schreck, April 4, 2005

While metadata is not new, it has come to light as a critical element of automated information life-cycle management systems. Many products for archiving and content management create and use their own metadata today — but these databases must become . . .

AppIQ And HP Announce OEM Deal

Hewlett-Packard Will OEM AppIQ's Storage Authority Enterprise Edition

by Galen Schreck, February 28, 2005

HP will re-brand the entire AppIQ Storage Authority Enterprise Edition platform as HP Storage Essentials. Storage Essentials, in turn, will plug into its existing HP Systems Insight Manager platform. Customers of the existing HP OpenView Storage Area . . .

StorageTek Takes On Fixed Content Archiving

New Lifecycle Fixed Content Manager 100 Targets EMC And HP

by Galen Schreck, February 3, 2005

Most firms shopping for information life-cycle management solutions have overlooked high-end tape backup vendor StorageTek as a provider of complete information life-cycle management solutions. However, StorageTek aims to change that with its new Lifecycle . . .

EMC Buys SMARTS, Needs More For The Long Haul

Commodity Technology And Integrated Products Will Continue To Squeeze EMC

by Frank E. Gillett, Galen Schreck, December 23, 2004

EMC has announced that it will pay $260 million cash for SMARTS, a privately held network and fault management vendor. EMC says it will fold SMARTS into the EMC Software group to focus on growing SMARTS' existing market share for network management and . . .

Symantec And VERITAS: Pure Consolidation

An Acquisition Of VERITAS Would Be About Consolidation, Not Technology

by Galen Schreck, December 15, 2004

As Symantec considers an acquisition of VERITAS, speculation abounds as to why such a combination makes sense. The reason is simple: it's entirely about market dominance. There is no overlap between them — the companies' product portfolios are vaguely . . .

Sun Enhances Storage Software Offering

by Galen Schreck, November 16, 2004

This week, in conjunction with several new StorEdge hardware platforms, Sun announced two major upgrades to its storage software portfolio: version 3.0 of StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager (ESM), and the new StorEdge Compliance Archiving System that . . .

Microsoft Enters The Disk-Based Backup Market

Microsoft Data Protection Server Moves Into Low-End File Backup

by Galen Schreck, September 20, 2004

Microsoft today announced that it will enter the disk-to-disk backup market with a product called Microsoft Data Protection Server (DPS). DPS targets businesses that need an inexpensive way to replicate Windows-based files for disaster-recovery purposes. . . .

VERITAS Adds ILM To Its Utility Computing Vision

KVS Acquisition Brings A Leading Archiving Product — And A Foundation For ILM

by Galen Schreck, September 2, 2004

VERITAS Software has announced that it will acquire KVS in an all-cash transaction worth $225 million. KVS has built a successful business fueled by firms' need to maintain regulatory compliance while reducing overall storage costs. On September 30, KVS' . . .