Archive Data reduction for disk-based backups Byte-level technology enables increasing transparent storage capacity scalability and load balancing Posted July 3rd Can your company afford not to buy encryption? Burgeoning threats, regulations, call for unprecedented security Posted June 26th Protecting virtual servers in a production environment IT managers must provide virtual machines with the same protection as physical servers Posted June 5th Integrated Data Lifecycle Management eases tiered storage costs, complexity ILM was not designed to cost-optimize storage environments Posted May 8th Watchwords at SNW: Simplicity, healthcare, virtualization Speakers say users should be enabled Posted April 10th User case studies abound at Storage Networking World Sessions running all four days Posted March 20th Storage survey: Product costs, fear of management complexity plague IT managers Respondents also call backup processes "unreliable" Posted March 13th UDO takes on all comers Ultra Dense Optical stands up to AIT tape, DVD, disk and MO Posted January 30th In 2005, reliability was the watchword (Part 1 of 2 parts) Cutting-edge technologies are worth little if they’re undependable. Posted December 19th Linux clusters move toward the mainstream Caveat: Failing to take a test drive can be a big mistake. Posted December 5th InfiniBand quietly gaining popularity Interconnect technology offers a single wire for clustering, communication and storage. Posted November 7th IT and records managers should team up on data retention policies Together, they should develop system backup policies, data life cycle management procedures and media selection decisions. Posted October 17th WAN optimization comes of age Underlying technologies include wide-area data and file services. Posted October 10th Want to really safeguard your data backups? Encrypt them Too often, security policies and procedures fail to take storage and backups into account. Posted September 19th Managing the .PST nightmare Archive your way to happiness. Posted September 12th Quick! Get me a clip from the film archives! Integrated digital archives are becoming affordable for smaller TV stations. Posted August 8th Look before leaping into a tiered storage infrastructure Companies need a simple framework for weighing the costs and rewards of tiered storage. Posted July 18th SMB channel opportunities rife Opportunities abound in the SMB market for smaller channel players that partner up with larger hardware vendors. Posted June 27th Network file managers appear on the landscape — and not a moment too soon Using global logical namespace capabilities, network file managers 'discover' additional NAS capacity and virtualize access to unstructured file resources. Posted June 6th SRM steps in where automated provisioning has yet to tread With tools "under construction," stop-gap measures fill the void. Posted May 16th SNW indicates converging storage universe Attendees get mixture of technology updates and relationship management trends. Posted April 18th Latest Interop Demo at SNW conference has hands-on feel Focus on interoperability giving way to business problem-solving. Posted April 11th Case study Q&A: Chicago Mercantile Exchange chooses ATA disk alternative MAID technology from Copan Systems provides backup relief. Posted April 4th SNIA efforts on display at SNW Spring conference Education program, SMI, End User Council to be showcased. Posted March 14th Fibre Channel SAN: Mix-and-match technology trends Can Fibre Channel co-exist with DAS and NAS storage? The answer is yes, and these case studies show how. Posted February 28th Encryption catching on with security-conscious firms The market is proprietary and fragmented, but the need is real. Posted February 7th Interview: Users want to keep it simple, says EMC's Mark Lewis The problem, he says, is that virtualization isn't easy. Posted January 17th Do more with less Intelligent storage management helps CIOs maximize existing storage networks. Posted December 13th Top 10 requirements for effective server consolidation Scalable NAS may be the vehicle for meeting these requirements. Posted November 22nd SNW Fall report: ILM drives user strategies — and confusion Nearly every speaker at Storage Networking World discussed ILM, but all agreed that full-fledged implementations are years away. Posted November 1st Flexibility, intelligence key to comprehensive backup Adaptive backup systems optimize disk-to-disk solutions. Posted October 11th Sometimes it takes money to save money Just-in-time storage, SRM tools, server consolidation, pay-as-you-go and chargebacks are all viable options. Posted September 6th SSPs up their game with continuous availability, immediate recovery The key to success is moving beyond traditional offerings to offer 24x7 data and application availability. Posted August 16th One-terabyte tape on the horizon? The enduring value of tape encourages technology development. Posted July 12th Translating SCSI into SATA for the best of both worlds Organizations now have the potential to put SATA under their existing SCSI storage systems. Posted June 21st The Adventures of I/O Man: The Journey Begins Our hero finds himself automatically provisioned into the I/O Zone. Posted May 31st Unlocking the mystery of MAID A new technique may change the way long-term data is managed. Posted May 24th NAS for the masses New single-chip system technology provides enterprise-class storage for entry-level users. Posted April 19th Is storage resource management right for your enterprise? It's important to understand what SRM is, how to buy it, what elements are supported and what to ask before you sign on with a vendor. Posted April 12th Protecting corporate workstation and mobile system data The ideal storage management solution must address all data in real time, deliver continuous data protection and provide comprehensive, easy-to-use data and disaster recovery tools. Posted March 22nd Microsoft's impact on storage networking The software giant has lowered cost and complexity barriers to new technologies with features found in Windows Server 2003. Posted March 1st Continuous active backup and recovery — data's only true safeguard The assurance of knowing your data is safe is not just for large corporations anymore. Posted February 16th What makes a storage startup succeed? Study provides surprising answers. Posted January 19th What's hot and what's not for 2004 Four SNW Online columnists hash out future prospects for business continuance, iSCSI and SMI-S. Posted December 22nd Customer support can be a win-win situation With a little planning, customer support can change from a cost center to a key differentiator. Posted December 1st Building Storage: Like it or not, storage is part of the infrastructure In his debut column, president of Building Storage Marc Farley says the role of storage is rapidly evolving, especially in the wake of 9/11 and recent financial scandals. Posted December 1st Building adaptive storage solutions Services that focus on not just technology but also people and processes are crucial to building a storage system that addresses availability, performance, security and ever-changing business needs Posted November 17th Taking IP storage to the next level A new breed of iSCSI target-side devices with advanced architectures is poised to become a critical component of IP storage networking solutions. Posted November 3rd Storage lifecycle management: Reducing complexity with increased confidence It is vital to recognize storage management as a cyclical rather than a linear process. Posted October 6th How to save money with storage Devising an effective storage strategy is a relatively linear and straightforward process. Posted September 15th Selling management on the importance of backup and recovery Ask your managers to take a walk in your shoes before they say "No" to your backup and recovery requests. Posted August 25th Users not quite ready to drink their storage by the glass New metered storage capabilities from EMC and HP show promise but have not yet won user hearts. Posted August 4th iSCSI market poised for rapid growth iSCSI promises to facilitate the transfer of data over intranets and simplify the management of storage over long distances. Posted July 14th Moving beyond SRM: File management optimizes HSM Intelligent file management is the key to maximizing HSM systems. Posted June 23rd IP storage switches complement Fibre Channel SANs The integration of both IP-based and Fibre Channel-based storage resources is but one advantage of IP storage switches. Posted May 19th Ethernet: It's not just for data networking anymore The IETF iSCSI specification is ratified—now what? Posted April 28th Database security breaches on the rise The insiders who commit database intrusions often have network authorization, knowledge of database access codes and a precise idea of the valuable data they want to exploit. Posted March 31st User interview: How Providian Financial is optimizing storage across the enterprise David Chamberlain is vice president of architecture and capacity planning at Providian Financial. SNW Online recently spoke with him about Providian's bank-wide project designed to optimize the use of storage across all its IT systems. Posted March 17th Celera Genomics turns SAN islands into a global entity A global SAN provides seamless data access for proteomics, genomics, bioinformatics and medicinal chemistry applications. Posted March 10th The benefits and problems of cheap storage and bandwidth Attention Lotus Notes and Domino users: You can do more with less storage. Posted February 10th Many factors to consider when selecting a storage vendor Finding the right storage vendors is a critical issue for an increasingly large number of IT departments, especially those using an open systems compute model. Posted January 13th Innovative, well-run data center and storage technologies are attracting investor interest Investors are increasingly intrigued by companies with technologies that address the gap between escalating data volumes and the cost and complexity of managing and processing those volumes. Posted January 6th Storage virtualization: Seeing the forest, not the trees As storage virtualization breaks out of the SAN ghetto and into the enterprise, vendors are offering products that can present logical, virtualized network views. Posted December 2nd Simplicity, ROI rule in the mid-tier storage market All midrange storage networking users want is modularity, outstanding price/performance, easy management and a quick ROI. Posted November 25th Why now? The emergence of back-end storage switching technologies Storage developments have mainly focused on the front end, but before all this performance and manageability can be fully realized, the back end must also be addressed, in the form of high-performance back-end switching technology. Posted November 11th User advocate Toigo talks storage networking New SNW Online columnist Jon William Toigo has a straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is approach, backed by the intellectual firepower to defend his positions. He recently spoke with SNW Online about the overarching storage networking issues of the day. Posted October 21st IP storage networking for e-business applications As companies migrate to new e-business applications, they can now build robust, highly available storage networks using familiar Gigabit Ethernet and IP networking technology. Posted September 9th Simplicity and standards are the answer — was SAN the question? Storage networking vendors would serve both their customers and themselves better if they would just work together. Posted August 12th The SAN alternative: IP network-based storage appliances Businesses that find SANs too expensive can turn to IP network-based storage appliances, which enable SAN-like functionality for far less money. Posted June 29th Hierarchical storage management prompts new data storage strategies HSM allows administrators to simplify data management as storage networking architectures continue to branch out and become increasingly intricate. Posted June 17th Storage QOS moving forward down multiple paths Eager to better manage their storage networks, users are cautiously implementing storage QOS schemes from a variety of vendors. But the real QOS rush won't happen until vendors agree on standardized approaches. Posted May 20th Changing from shared bandwidth to SBOD The switched bunch of disks (SBOD) methodology provides improved data availability, reliability and system performance. Posted April 29th Calculating the ROI of a SAN To fully understand the cost/benefit of SANs, you need to consider the equipment, people and system savings, as well as the hardware, software and labor costs. Posted April 22nd User case studies play prominent role at Storage Networking World This week's Storage Networking World show will include a cavalcade of user case study presentations. Here is a glimpse at two such presentations. Posted April 1st SNW show features case study presentations The best way for end users to find out how other end users are tackling their storage networking implementations is through case studies, and attendees at the Spring 2002 SNW show in Palm Desert, CA, will have several of these to choose from. Posted March 11th Q&A: SAN management, according to TrueSAN's founder Tom Isakovich, CEO and founder of TrueSAN, recently spoke with SNW executive editor Bruce Hoard about what he learned at Network Computer and his current company's solution for low-cost management of multivendor SANs. Posted February 11th SSF slowly — but cooperatively — rolls out supported solutions The number of solutions provided by the SNIA's Supported Solutions Forum is still small, but the 33 SSP member vendors are working well together in their efforts to provide multi-vendor storage networking integration. Posted February 4th Storage networking technology plays prominent role in September 11 disaster recovery In the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse, disaster recovery services used storage networks to restore thousands of terabytes of business data. Posted December 3rd In the petroleum industry, storage needs outstrip capacity The petroleum industry needs to store and access terabytes and even petabytes of data. For this, it turns to NAS, SANs and third-party providers. Posted December 3rd Unprecedented Promontory test sends iSCSI coast to coast Last month, eight vendors participated in the first-ever public demonstration of a multiple-vendor, transcontinental storage network based on iSCSI. Their aim: To whip up market support for the IP storage networking protocol by proving that it can handle time-sensitive and bandwidth-intensive storage applications over transcontinental distances. Posted October 15th SSP's slowly winning customers Despite the slow growth of the SSP market, some companies are embracing outsourced storage services as a way to meet their storage needs. But the extent to which companies use these storage services varies greatly. Posted September 24th Building multi-vendor SAN's is no easy task Building a SAN is easy if you are willing to stick with a single vendor or a limited set of storage components that are pre-assembled by a vendor or system integrator. However, building a multi-vendor SAN incorporating components from different vendors is a completely different story. Posted August 20th Users say NAS is mission critical Ease of installation and low purchase costs are two of the most common reasons that make NAS mission critical for users. Posted July 16th Brocade conference speakers cite SAN benefits Lucrative ROI and enhanced data management were twin topics of importance at the recent Brocade Networking Storage Conference. Posted June 25th Despite its rocky past, great strides are being made in interoperability The proliferation of vendor interoperability labs and the creation of the Supported Solutions Forum by SNIA and six leading storage vendors are sure signs that the bad old days of interoperability are giving way to a much more integrated future. Posted June 18th SNIA education committee co-chair Mike Alvarado advocates knowledge building In addition to being storage networking marketing manager at Network Appliance, Mike Alvarado is also a member of the SNIA board of directors and co-chair of the SNIA education committee. Alvarado recently spoke with SNW Online executive editor Bruce Hoard about a wide range of topics relating to the education committee and the overall role SNIA plays-and will play-in the global storage networking industry. Posted May 21st SNIA brings its Interoperability Lab to Storage Networking World SNIA's Interoperability Lab relied on six working themes to explore the topic of enterprise messaging. Posted April 16th Storage networking is young, volatile and promising There is a growing consensus that SANs and NAS products have matured enough to handle business-critical applications. Despite their evolution, however, myriad challenges remain for users looking to implement these and other storage networking technologies. We offer some practical advice for erstwhile tire kickers. Posted April 9th Feedback: feedback@snwonline.com Questions: questions@snwonline.com Technical difficulties: webmaster@snwonline.com