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Storage

  • SSD – the real winner against HDD?
    It has been trumpeted as the natural successor to hard disk drives, but how does SSD measure up against its rival?
  • Making the most of legacy systems
    Faced with economic uncertainty, many businesses are choosing to prolong the life of their IT infrastructure rather than implement expensive new systems. What are the opportunities for the channel?
  • HDS helps dealers justify storage spend
    Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has given resellers access to its in-house Storage Economics analytical methodology in the hope of easing the sales process and enabling end-user IT managers and CIOs to justify spending during the recession.
  • Quantum bolsters channel funds in face of tough year ahead
    Storage specialist Quantum has diverted $250,000 of marketing spend into the channel as it positions its partners for next year.
  • Quantum warns of short termism over data storage
    Users are finding it harder to justify spending budget on IT unless it starts off with a low price and has attractive lifecycle costs.
  • FCoE: the next generation of storage
    Fibre Channel over Ethernet is being pushed as the latest method to deliver a single converged network infrastructure, comments Avnet's Stuart Bridger
  • Small screen solutions
    What is the best way to pitch home media storage, and which formats are available?
  • Green set to dominate debate at Storage Expo
    With Storage Expo kicking off tomorrow in Olympia in London for a couple of packed days the organisers have given an early indication of what will be under discussion at the event.
  • Storage Expo 2008
    This year's show will be at London Olympia on 15-16 October. We highlight the product launches taking place there
  • Storage Expo preview
    A condensed guide for resellers attending the show on the hunt for product launches
  • DataCore expolits LeftHand uncertianty
    Virtualisation player DataCore has lined up a programme to woo LeftHand Networks’ resellers with software discounts and rebates in a bid to unsettle the rival’s channel following the proposed acquisition by Hewlett-Packard.
  • HP buys LeftHand Networks to bolster storage portfolio
    In a move that will extend its offerings in the lower end of the storage market Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy LeftHand Networks for $360m in cash.
  • Virtualisation in the pipeline for most customers
    A meagre two percent of companies have no plan to implement virtualisation, according to a survey of more than 350 companies by Storage Expo, illustrating growing adoption of the technology by customers.
  • Hammer signs trio of vendors to bolster portfolio
    Hammer has announced a trio of vendor signings to bolster its portfolio in the crucial fourth quarter.
  • Glasshouse offers managed services to cover virtualisation skills gap
    Glasshouse has taken the wraps off a managed virtualisation service in response to a skills gap in the market that threatens to hold up the adoption of the technology in some corporates.
  • VMware unveils cloud and datacentre operating system
    There have been several announcements coming out of VMworld that should take the vendor on from its server virtualisation routes.
  • Hammer event to focus on solutions
    Hammer is holding its second Storage Focus event next month aiming to point resellers in the direction of business opportunities.
  • EMC launches online backup Mozy service in UK
    The number of vendors offering hosted solutions has been bolstered by the addition of EMC which has started from today to offer its Muzzy online backup for SMEs using Lenovo as its hardware partner.
  • Alternatives to a tangle of tape
    When it comes to backing up data, tape has been the preferred option for many years. At the end of each day, some poor soul has been responsible for managing the transfer of data from production servers to tape cartridges, which then have to be transported off-site, just in case company IT systems suffer a fatal issue the next day. As the employee watches the spool of tape revolve to its conclusion, the thought must at some point enter his or her head: “There has to be a better way.”
  • HDD meets rising storage demands
    Cost-effective high-performance storage solution works regardless of operating environment or application
  • Flexibility boosts RAID revenues
    Supplying RAID should not just mean selling the box – switch storage selection from vendor to reseller to add value
  • Cloud helps to buoy the channel
    Despite the state of the economy, spirits in the channel have remained high, with hosted software showing particular growth. Halfway through the year, we look at how the market is shaping up
  • Demystifying data deduplication
    Deduplication is a growing market and resellers need to be clear about how to match solutions to customers' needs
  • Time and tide wait for no WAN
    Optimising a wide area network for virtualised servers improves application performance and traffic protection
  • Brocade points to Foundry buy as channel opportunity
    Brocade has expanded on its reasons for buying Foundry Networks and the repercussions for the channel underlying the increase in opportunities it presents for partners.
  • Replicate data to protect servers
    Many organisations are adopting virtualisation in their data centres to better use hardware, reduce power consumption and simplify management.
  • Hitachi Data Systems hands rebate power to resellers
    Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has decentralised its global payment model and given local resellers more say on the mix of rebate and marketing funding they receive. But under the changes distributors will lose out on channel development compensation as deal registration moves online.
  • Logicalis aims to boost mainframe business
    Logicalis has made a bid to ramp up its mainframe computing business with the launch of an IBM System z Test Environment.
  • Seagate pumps cash into Derry plant
    Seagate has invested £120m in Northern Ireland to meet growing demand.
  • Margirus calls more more intelligent sales from resellers
    Magirus has used its appointment as a CommVault distributor to warn resellers that in the current climate it is vital they sell storage more intelligently or risk losing the attention of customers.
  • Overland Storage snaps up Adapteq NAS operation
    Overland buys Adapteq Snap Server NAS business
  • SSD frenzy grips vendors
    Maybe the Storage Networking World event in Orlando has been the spark but the storage hardware inventiveness index has suddenly rocketed. A drive array was a drive array was a drive array was the rule. It could have FC, FATA, SAS or SATA drives and be represented as a SAN block array, a NAS a VTL or a RAIDed JBOD file array, but basically the thing contained 3.5-inch drives with a controller. But not any more.
  • Brocade aims high
    In the wake of last month’s imprisonment of its former human resources chief Stephanie Jensen — for backdating and falsifying corporate records between 2000 and 2004 — storage vendor Brocade has come out fighting and reaffirmed ambitious growth targets to the end of the decade.
  • Bright future for virtualisation
    With the credit crunch looming, resellers are understandably keen to get any advice on product areas that can withstand budget cuts.
  • Virtualisation market poised for growth
    Growing IT labour costs coupled with concerns around reliability and performance will make the market for storage virtualisation continue its solid growth rate, according to a survey by F5 Networks
  • De-duplication can boost performance
    De-duplication relies on an expert understanding of the core technologies.
  • Blu-ray in the ascendant as 2.5in drives on the horizon
    Round up of the best recent offerings in the storage arena
  • Frenzy in storage market as data growth casts shadow
    Sudden surge of activity seen in flash storage.
  • Could a recession be the answer?
    An incoming company is bright eyed and bushy tailed at one end of the tape market, while another at the opposite end is almost at its wits end as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy. What is going on?
  • Bell Micro signs virtualisation deal
    Bell Micro has secured a deal with Parallels to add server and desktop virtualisation to its portfolio.
  • Bright future for storage
    Storage resellers looking for research that will back up their anecdotal evidence that customers are facing greater problems will draw considerable comfort from EMC’s latest thoughts on the subject.
  • NetApp to rebrand products
    NetApp could rejig its distribution channel under a rebranding exercise in an attempt to raise the profile of the StoreVault range aimed at small businesses.
  • Server sales dip
    Shifting dynamics in the server market following the trend of customers consolidating and virtualising their environments saw server sales fall last year but average sales prices rose, according to analyst IDC.
  • No clear winner in storage race
    There are various questions vexing my mind at the moment. What’s best, unified storage or point products? Is it better to have a unified storage product line or point products? Are resellers better off with a NetApp or an EMC?
  • Economy to boost virtualisation
    Magirus has extended its trading relationship with FalconStor from mainland Europe to the UK and believes the uncertain economic climate could increase storage virtualisation adoption as companies look to consolidate.
  • Runaway capacity headache
    The continued growth of storage installations in mid-sized organisations is a time bomb set to explode in the near future unless businesses consolidate infrastructures to drive efficiencies.
  • Lights-out data centres to grow
    An era of unmanned data centres is drawing nearer as environmental and economic factors drive users towards a world where the technology takes the strain.
  • Partial refreshes to increase
    In one of the more off-the-wall predictions for the storage market in 2008, IDC believes customers will increasingly demand partial hardware replacements to cut costs and up the ante on green initiatives.
  • Flash solid state disks open opportunity for fast margins
    EMC and HP have upset the applecart with flash SSD products and opened the door to widespread adoption of flash
  • Dell challenges EMC
    Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and Dell have jointly upset the small business storage applecart — HDS by raising the bar, Dell by buying its way in big time.
  • Global plans for Dell buy
    Dell has paid an undisclosed sum for UK server and storage consultancy The Networked Storage Company (TNWSC) and plans to offer its services globally.
  • Clustering influences future
    Consolidation at disk array level is forcing major storage vendors to reconsider more scalable options that industry observers predict will replace monolithic systems in the not-too-distant future.
  • Big switch or small beer?
    Preparing for storage Armageddon? Nicholas Carr thinks you should be, because computing-as-we-know-it is in the process of vanishing.
  • EqualLogic contracts in doubt
    Distributors are waiting with bated breath for confirmation that they feature in EqualLogic’s plans, following parent Dell stating recently that its own logistics capability meant it could deal directly with resellers.
  • EMC slashes prices
    EMC has slashed entry-level NAS and SAN prices by 25 per cent, allowing resellers to compete effectively without having to apply for special pricing — which often took days and deterred some SME customers.
  • Green is the theme
    We started 2007 with de-duplication a curiosity and ended the year with it present on virtually every disk-to-disk backup and reference data storage product. Data Domain and Diligent, Avamar, Sepaton and FalconStor have all made great progress. Still, it’s rapidly going to become ‘so last year’.
  • Overland expands team
    Overland Storage is beefing up its UK channel sales team, adding several partner account managers in preparation for 11 product launches next year and a reseller recruitment drive.
  • Services and software drive growth
    Services and software are expected to contribute the majority of incremental revenue in the storage market over the next five years as hardware sales are expected to be relatively lacklustre.
  • Dell iSCSI buy validates technology
    ISCSI vendors have seized on Dell’s purchase of Equalogic as a sign that the technology is now validated.
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