Category: EFSS

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Driving ROI with Cloud Storage Consolidation Seminars

Driving ROI with Cloud Storage Consolidation Seminars

Driving ROI with Cloud Storage Consolidation Seminars

Driving ROI with Cloud Storage Consolidation Seminars

Join me in a series of in-person seminars driving ROI with cloud storage consolidation for unstructured file data.

driving roi with cloud storage consolidation seminars
Various Data Infrastructure options from on-prem to edge to cloud and beyond

These initial seminars are being held at Amazon Web Services (AWS) locations April 30 in New York City, May 1 in Chicago and May 2 in Houston Amazon. At each of these three cities, I will be joined by experts from NetApp, Talon and AWS as we look at issues, trends and what can be done today (including hands on demos) driving ROI with cloud storage consolidation for unstructured file data.

What The Seminars Are About

These seminars look at how remove cost and complexity while boosting productivity for distributed sites with unstructured data and NAS file servers. The seminars look at making informed decisions balancing technical considerations with a business return on investment (ROI) model, along with return on innovation (the other ROI) from boosting productivity. It’s not about simply cutting costs that can create chaos or compromise elsewhere, it’s about removing complexity and cost while boosting productivity with smart cloud storage consolidation for unstructured file data.

distributed file server cloud storage consolidation

Distributed File Server Cloud Storage Consolidation ROI Economic Comparison

During these seminars I will discuss various industry and customer trends, challenges as well as solutions, particular for environments with distributed file servers for unstructured file data. As part of my discussion, we will look at both technical, as well as ROI business based model for distributed file server cloud storage consolidation based on the Server StorageIO white paper report titled Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model (Free PDF download here).

Where When and How to Register

New York City Tuesday April 30, 2019 9:00AM
Amazon Web Services
7 West 34th St.
6th Floor
Learn more and register here.

Chicago Illinois  Wednesday May 1, 2019 9:00AM
Amazon Web Services
222 West Adams Street
Suite 1400
Learn more and register here

Houston Texas Thursday May 2, 2019 9:00AM
Amazon Web Services
825 Town and Country Lane
Suite 1000
Learn more and register here

Where to learn more

Learn more about world backup day, recovery and data protection along with other related topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Making informed decisions for data infrastructure resources including cloud storage consolidation and distributed file servers involves technical, application workload as well as business economic analysis. Which of the three (technical, application workload, financial) is more important for enabling a business benefit will depend on your perspective, as well as area of focus. However, all the above need to be considered in the balance as part of making an informed data infrastructure resource decision. That is where a discussion about a business financial ROI model (pro forma if you prefer) comes into play as part of cloud storage consolidation, including for distributed file server of unstructured file data.

I look forward to meeting with attendees and hope to see you at the events April 30th in New York City, May 1 in Chicago, and Houston May 2nd as we discuss driving ROI with cloud storage consolidation at these seminars.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers GS

Greg Schulz – Multi-year Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, ten-time VMware vExpert. Author of Data Infrastructure Insights (CRC Press), Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Also visit www.picturesoverstillwater.com to view various UAS/UAV e.g. drone based aerial content created by Greg Schulz. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. Visit our companion site https://picturesoverstillwater.com to view drone based aerial photography and video related topics. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Fall 2018 Dutch Data Infrastructure Industry Trends Decision Making Seminars

Fall 2018 Dutch Data Infrastructure Industry Trends Decision Making Seminars

Fall 2018 Dutch Data Infrastructure Industry Trends Decision Making Seminars

Fall 2018 Dutch Data Infrastructure Industry Trends Decision Making Seminars.

There is still time to register for the fall 2018 Dutch data infrastructure industry trends decision-making seminars November 27th and 28th. The workshops are being organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy of Holland and will be held in Nijkerk.

On Tuesday, November 27th, there will be an advanced education workshop seminar covering data infrastructure industry trends and technology update presented by myself. On Wednesday, November 28th, there will be a deeper dive workgroup seminar session addressing data infrastructure related strategy, planning, and decision-making.

xxxx

Data Infrastructures Industry Trends November 27

Whats New, Whats the buzz, what you need to know about, From Speeds and Feeds, Slots and Watts to Whos doing what, from interesting to What’s relevant for your environment.

This one-day seminar is a new and improved version of the popular speeds and feeds session where we look at what’s new and emerging in the industry as well as applicable to your environments. You will be updated about the latest trends and emerging data infrastructure technologies to support digital transformation, little and big data analytics, AI/ML/DL, GDPR, data protection, edge/fog compute, and IoT among others. From legacy to the software-defined cloud, container converged and virtual to composable. The seminar is a mix of presentation and engaging discussion as we look into details of favorite or new technologies for both those who are old-school, new-school and current or future school.

Part I – Industry Trends, Applications, and Workload
Part II – Server Compute, Memory, I/O, hardware and software
Part III – Storage and Data protection for on-prem and cloud
Part IV – Bringing it all together, managing and decision making

Topics to be covered include among others:

  • What these trends, tools, technologies mean for different environments of various size.
  • Tips on evaluating legacy and startup or newer vendors as well as technologies.
  • Updates on vendors, services, technologies, products you may or may not have heard of.
  • Cloud (public/private/multi-cloud/hybrid) compute, storage and management.
  • Containers (including docker, windows, kubernetes, FaaS, serverless, lambda).
  • Converged and hyper-converged; Gen-Z and composable; NVMe and NVMeoF.
  • Persistent Memory (PMEM), Storage Class Memory (SCM), 3D XPoint, NAND Flash SSD.
  • Legacy vs. software-defined, appliances, storage systems, block, NAS file, object, table.
  • Bulk cloud data migration appliances, storage for the edge, file sync and share.
  • Role and importance of context (what’s applicable, what something means).
  • Who’s doing what, what to look for today for the future.

This seminar is for those involved with ICT/IT servers, storage, storage, I/O networking, and associated management activities including data protection, of legacy, as well as software-defined cloud, containers, converged hyper-converged and virtualization. This seminar is for professionals who manage, architect or are otherwise involved with data infrastructure related topic strategy and acquisitions.

Data Infrastructures Deep Dive Decision Making November 28

Enabling Informed Strategy and Decision Making, moving from what are the tools, trends and technologies evolving to what to use, when, where, why, how, along with strategy, planning, decision-making, and ongoing management.

If the answer is a cloud, converged, container, composable, edge, fog, digital transformation, on-prem, hybrid, software-defined, what were or are the questions to plan as well as prepare for deployment today, along with in the future? This workshop format seminar provides answers to fundamental questions, with essential insight into software-defined data infrastructures (SDDI) and software-defined data centers (SDDC). For ICT/IT professionals (architects, strategists, administrators, managers) currently or planning on being involved with servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, converged, containers, cloud backup/data protection, and associated topics, this seminar is for you.

Clouds converged, and containers will be a primary focus along with related themes and topics that you need to know more about. Don’t be scared of clouds, be prepared, and this includes for on-prem, public, hybrid and multi-cloud. As part of our deeper dive decision-making strategy focus, we look at cloud cost considerations including are you paying too much or not enough (e.g., are you depriving your applications of performance to save money?). We will explore various decision-making and strategy topics spanning AWS, Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack, Windows and Hyper-V, VMware (including on AWS) and OpenStack, is it still open for business?

Additional topics, trends, themes include:

  • Everything is not the same across cloud services, converged, or containers.
  • Different environments have various data infrastructure resource needs.
  • How to balance legacy on-prem application needs with emerging technology options.
  • Different comparison criteria for smaller environments remote office vs. Larger enterprise
  • Do it yourself (DiY) vs. Turnkey software vs. Bundled tin wrapped software solution
  • Strategy, planning, decision-making, and ongoing management

How To Register For Seminar Workshops

Learn more about fall 2018 Dutch Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Tuesday trends workshop seminar here (PDF), and Wednesday deeper dive decision-making workshop session here (PDF).

To register and obtain more information, contact event organizers Brouwer Storage consultancy at +31-33-246-6825 or +31-652-601-309 and info at brouwerconsultancy.com.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Data Infrastructure and related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Everything is not the same across different organizations, environments, application workloads, data, technology, tools, trends. These two one day interactive workshop seminars provide timely insight into what’s going on in the data infrastructure related industry, along with common IT organization challenges as well as how to address them. Moving from the what to what to use when, where, why, how along with alternatives, gaining insight and awareness to avoid flying blind enables effective strategy, decision-making, planning and ongoing management. Learn more and sign up for Fall 2018 Dutch Data Infrastructure Industry Trends Decision Making Seminars, see you in Nijkerk.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Impressions #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Impressions #blogtobertech

Data Box Disk Test Drive Impressions is the last of a four-post series looking at Microsoft Azure Data Box. View Part 1 Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates, Part 2 Microsoft Azure Data Box Family, and Part 3 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review.

Overall, I liked the Azure Data Box experience along with a range of options to select the best fit solution for my needs. A common trend among the major cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google is that one size fits all approach solution does not meet different customer needs.

The only things that I did not like about and would like to see improved with Azure Data Box are two items one at the beginning, the other at the end of the process. Granted with Data Box Disks still in preview, there is time for those items to be addressed before general availability, and I have passed on the feedback to Microsoft.

At the beginning of the process, things are pretty straightforward with good tools along with resources to help you navigate which type of Data Box to order, how to order, specify your account details and other information.

What I did not like with the up front experience was after the quick ordering and notification process, the time delay of a week or more until notified when a Data Box would be arriving. Granted I was not in a rush and Microsoft did indicate that it could take about ten days to be informed of availability, this is something that should be done quickly as resources become available. Another option is for Microsoft to add an ordering option for priority or low-priority in the future.

The other experience that I did not like was at the very end, in that perhaps its stuck in an email spam trap (checked, could not find it), the final notification could be better. Not only a final email note saying your data is copied, but also a reminder of where your block or page blobs were copied to (e.g., what your setup when ordering).

Monitoring the progress of the process, I knew when Data Box drives arrived at Microsoft, copy started and completed including with error status. Having gotten used to receiving update notifications from Azure, not receiving one at the end saying congratulations your data has been copied, check here for any errors or other info, as well as a reminder where the data was copied to would be useful.

Likewise, a follow-up note from Microsoft saying that the Azure Data Box drives used as part of the transfer were securely erased along with a certificate of digital destruction would be useful for compliance purposes.

As mentioned above, overall, I found the Data Box Disk experience very positive and a great way to move bulk data faster than what could be done with available networks. My next step is now to migrate some of the transferred data to cold long-term archive storage, and some others to Azure Files, with some staying in block blobs. There are also a couple of VHD and VHDX that will be moved and attached to VMs for additional testing.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Azure Data Box, Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

For those who have a need to move large amounts of data including structured, unstructured, semi-structured, little or big data to a cloud resource, solutions such as Azure Data Box may be in your future. Likewise, for those looking to support remote and edge workloads from AI, ML, DL inferencing, to large-scale data pre-processing, data collection and acquisition, video, telemetry, IoT among others Data Box type solutions may be in your future. Overall I found Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions Favorable and was able to address a project I had on the to-do list for some time.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Test Drive #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Test Drive #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Test Drive is part three of four series looking at Data Box. View Part 1 Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates,  Part 2 Microsoft Azure Data Box Family, and Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions.

Getting Started

The workflow for using Data Box involves selecting with the type of Data Box to use via the Microsoft Azure portal (here), or Data Box Family page (here).

Getting Started via the Microsoft Azure Data Box Family Page image via Microsoft.com
Getting Started via the Microsoft Azure Data Box Family Page image via Microsoft.com

First step of ordering a Data Box is to specify your Azure subscription, type of operation (e.g., import data into Azure, or export out), source country/region and destination Azure region.

Selecting Data Box from Azure Portal
Selecting Data Box from Azure Portal

The next step is to determine what type of Data Box, in this test I choose 40 TB Data Box Disks. Make a note of fees to avoid any surprises.

Selecting Data Box Disks (40 TB) From Azure Portal
Selecting Data Box Disks (40 TB) From Azure Portal

After selecting the type of Data Box, fill in storage account information using an existing resource, or create new ones as needed. Make a note of these selections as you will need them after the copy is done as this is where your data will be located.

Specify Azure Storage Account Information Where Data Will Transfer To
Specify Azure Storage Account Information Where Data Will Transfer To

Once the order is placed, an email is received confirming the order and also being a preview, indicating that it might take ten days to hear a status update or availability of the devices.

Email notification received after the order is placed
Email notification received after the order is placed

After about ten days, I was contacted by Microsoft via an email (not shown) confirming the amount of data to be copied to determine how many disks would be needed. Once this was confirmed with Microsoft, a status update was noted on the Azure dashboard.

Azure Data Box Dashboard Status after order placed
Azure Data Box Dashboard Status after order placed

After a few days, a box arrived with the Data Box disks, cables and return shipping labels enclosed. Also received was an email notification indicating the disks had arrived.

Email notice Data Box has arrived on site
Email notice Data Box has arrived on site (on-prem if you prefer)

The following is the physical box that contains the Data Box disks that I received from Microsoft.

The shipping box with Data Box Disks arrives
The shipping box with Data Box Disks arrives

Once you get the Data Box, go to the Azure portal for Data Box and access the tools. There are tools and commands for Windows as well as Linux that are needed for accessing and unlocking the disks. This is where you also obtain device IDs. You will also need to have the access key phrase you specified in an earlier step as part of placing the order.

Access Data Box Software Tools and Keys from Azure Portal
Access Data Box Software Tools and Keys from Azure Portal

Inside the shipping box was a pair of 8 TB SATA SSDs, SATA to USB cables, along with return shipping labels.

Contents inside the shipping box, two Data Box 8 TB disks
Contents inside the shipping box, two Data Box 8 TB disks

From the Azure portal, access the device IDs that will be needed along with passphrase for obtaining and unlocking the Data Box disks. You will also want to download the tools as well as follow other instructions on the portal for accessing disks.

Azure Data Box tools, device IDs and Keys
Azure Data Box tools, device IDs and Keys

The Windows system I used for testing is a virtual machine hosted on a VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 host. After physically attaching the Data Box Disks to the VM host, a virtual or software attachment was done by adding USB devices to the VM.

Virtual Attach of Data Box Disks to VMware vSphere ESXi host and guest VM
Virtual Attach of Data Box Disks to VMware vSphere ESXi host and guest VM

Once the VM had the Data Box disks attached and mapped, they appeared to Windows. After downloading the Data Box software tools and unlocking the devices, they were ready to copy data to. Note that the disks appear as a regular Windows device once unlocked. Simply using bit locker does not unlock the drives, you need to use the Data Box tools. Speaking of Windows disks, there are a couple of folders on the Data Box disk when shipped including one for Block Blob and Page Blob along with verification items.

View of Data Box Disks (8 TB each) after attaching to Windows system
View of Data Box Disks (8 TB each) after attaching to Windows system

Note that you are given several days as part of the base transfer cost, then extra days apply. Since I had a few extra days, I used some of the excess capacity to do some staging and reorganization of data before the actual copy.

Data copy is done using your choice of tools, for example, Robocopy among many others. I used a combination of Robocopy, Retrospect among others. Also, note that for most data place them in the folder or directory structure of your choice in the Block Blob folder. Page Blobs are for VHDX to be used with virtual machines on Azure. After spending a few days to copy the data I wanted to move along with performing verification, it was time to pack up the devices.

As a reminder, blobs are analogous to and what Microsoft Azure refers to instead of objects (e.g., object storage). Also remember that Azure blobs include block, page (512-byte page aligned for VHDX) and append (similar to other vendors object storage). Microsoft Azure in addition to blobs, supports file (SMB and NFS) access, along with table (database) and queue storage services.

The following shows the return label attached to the shipping box that contains the Data Box disks and cables. I also included a copy of the shipping label inside the box just in case something happened during shipment. Once prepared for delivery, I took the box to a local UPS store where I received a shipment receipt (not shown). Later that day I also received an email from Microsoft indicating the shipment was in-progress.

Data Box disks packaged with return receipt (was in the box)
Data Box disks packaged with return receipt (was in the box)

The Azure portal shows status of Data Box shipment being sent to Microsoft, along with a follow-up email notification.

Azure Data Box portal status
Azure Data Box portal status

Email notification of Data Box on the way to Microsoft.

Notice data box is on the way to Azure
Notice data box is on the way to Azure

After a few days’ ways, checking the Azure Portal shows the Data Box arrived at Microsoft and copied operations underway. Remember the storage account you specified back in the early steps is where you will look for your data. This is something I think Microsoft can improve on by providing a link, or some reminder of where the data is being copied to in the status. Likewise, a copy completion email notice would be handy after getting used to the other alerts previous in the process.

Azure Data Box portal showing disk copy operation status
Azure Data Box portal showing disk copy operation status

Looking at the Azure storage account specified during the ordering process in the Blob storage resources the contents of the Data Box Disks can be found.

Contents of Data Box disks copied into specified Azure Blobs and storage account
Contents of Data Box disks copied into specified Azure Blobs and storage account

The following shows folders that I had copied from on-prem systems to the Data Box now located in the proper Azure Block Blobs. Not shown are Page blobs where I moved some VHDXs.

xMission accomplished, data folders now stored in Azure block blobs
Mission accomplished, data folders now stored in Azure block blobs

Where to learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Azure Data Box, Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Overall the test drive of the Azure Data Box Disk solution was positive, and look forward to trying out some of the other Data Box solutions, both offline and online options in the future. Continue reading Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions as part of this series including Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Microsoft Azure Data Box Family #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Family #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Family #blogtobertech

Microsoft Azure Data Box Family is part two of a four-part series looking at Data Box. View Part 1 Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates, Part 3 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review, Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions.

Microsoft Azure Data Box Overview

Microsoft has several Data Box solutions available or in the preview to meet various customer needs. These include both online as well as offline solutions that include hardware (except Data Box Gateway), software tools and cloud services.

Data Box Online

Microsoft has two online Data Box offerings that provide real-time access of Azure cloud storage resources from on-prem including remote, edge locations. The online Data Box solutions include Edge and Gateway both with local on-prem storage.


Data Box Edge image via Microsoft.com

Data Box Edge (Preview)

Currently, in preview, Data Box Edge is a 1U appliance that combines hardware along with software resources for deployment on-prem at the edge or remote locations. Data Box Edge places locally converged compute and storage resources as an appliance along with connectivity to Azure cloud-based resources.

Intended workloads and applications for Data Box Edge include remote AI, ML, and DL inferencing, data processing or pre-processing before sending to Azure Cloud, function as an edge compute, data protection and data transfer platform (e.g., cloud storage gateway) with local compute. Data Box Edge is similar in functionality and focuses on other cloud service provider solutions such as AWS Snow Ball Edge (SBE). Management tools include Data Box Edge resource Azure portal for management from a web UI, create and manage resources, devices, shares.

Other Data Box Edge attributes include:

  • Supports Azure Blob or Files via SMB and NFS storage access protocols
  • Dual Intel Xeon processors each with 10 CPU cores, 64GB RAM
  • 2 x 10 Gbps SFP+ copper cables, 2 x 1 Gbps RJ45 cables
  • 8 NVMe SSD (1.6 TB each), no HA, 12.8 TB total raw cap
  • 2 x 1 GbE (one for management, one for user access)
  • 2 x 25 GbE (can operate at 10 GbE) and 2 x 25 GbE ports
  • Local web UI for management and configuration

Data Box Gateway (Preview)

Also in Preview, Data Box Gateway is a virtual machine (VM) based software defined appliance that runs on VMware vSphere (ESXi) or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. The functionality of Data Box Gateway is that of a cloud storage gateway providing access to Azure Blob (Page and Block) or Files (NAS) via SMB or NFS protocols. Learn more about both Data Box Edge and Data Box Gateway here including pricing here.

Data Box Offline Solutions

Microsoft has several offline Data Box offerings including previously available and new in preview models. Offline Data Box solutions enable large amounts of data to be moved from on-prem primary, remote and edge locations to Azure cloud storage resources. Bulk data movement operations can be one-time or recurring in support of big data migration of energy, research, media & entertainment and other large volumes of data.

Other bulk movement includes for archive, backup, BC/DR, virtual machine and application migration among others. Use Data Box Offline solutions when large amounts of data need to be moved from on-prem to Azure cloud faster than what available networks will support promptly.

Offline Data Box solutions include:

  • Data Box Heavy (Preview) 1 PB Storage, 800 TB usable
  • Data Box 100 TB (80 TB usable)
  • Data Box Disk (Preview) 40 TB (35 TB Usable)


Data Box Heavy 1 PB (Preview) image via Microsoft.com

Data Box Heavy 1 PB (Preview)

  • Appliance with Up to 800 TB usable capacity per order
  • One system per order
  • Supports Azure Blob or Files
  • Copy data to up to 10 storage accounts
  • 1 x 1/10 Gbps RJ45 connector, 4 x 40 Gbps QSFP+ connectors
  • AES 256-bit encryption
  • Copies data using NAS SMB and NFS protocols


Data Box 100TB image via Microsoft.com

100 TB Data Box

  • An appliance that supports 80 TB usable storage capacity
  • Supports Azure Blob or Files
  • Copies data to 10 storage accounts
  • 1 x 1/10 GbE RJ45 connector
  • 2 x 10 GbE SFP+ connector
  • AES 256-bit encryption
  • Storage access and copy via SMB and NFS NAS protocols

Case of Data Box Disks image via Microsoft.com

Data Box Disk 40 TB (Preview)

  • Up to 35 TB usable capacity per order
  • Up to 5 SSDs per order
  • This is what I tested (2 x 8 TB)
  • Supports Azure Blob storage (Block and Page)
  • Copies data to a single storage account
  • USB/SATA II, III server I/O interface (comes with SATA to USB connector cables)
  • AES 128-bit encryption
  • Copy data with standard tools

Where to learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Azure Data Box, Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Which Microsoft Azure Data Box is the best? That depends on your needs and requirements.

Microsoft along with other major cloud service providers continue to evolve their data migration services. Realizing that customers who need, want, or have to get data to the cloud also need to remove barriers, solutions such as Azure Data Box are a step in eliminating cloud barriers while addressing cloud concerns. Continue reading Part 3 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review and Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions as part of Microsoft Azure Data Box Family.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Posted on

Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates #blogtobertech

Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates – #blogtobertech

Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates - #blogtobertech

Microsoft announced Azure Data Box is the first in a series of four posts looking at Data Box including a test drive experience. View Part 2 Microsoft Azure Data Box Family, Part 3 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review, Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions.

Microsoft Azure Data Box Family Page image via Microsoft.com
Microsoft Azure Data Box Family Page image via Microsoft.com

At Ignite in Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates, which means its time for a test drive and review. Microsoft has several Data Box solutions available or in the preview to meet various customer needs. These include both online as well as offline solutions that include hardware (except Data Box Gateway), software tools and cloud services. In general, Data Box enables bulk movement and migration of data from on-prem environments to Azure cloud storage including blobs (e.g., objects) and files (e.g., NAS accessible) resources.

Whats The Need for Data Movement Appliance Service

Some might ask the question why do you need a Microsoft Azure Data Box when there are fast networks? Good question, assuming you have fast networks that can move large amounts of bulk data promptly. Microsoft supports traditional Internet-based access to Azure cloud resources for data migration, along with higher speed Express Route service similar to Amazon Web Service (AWS) Direct Connect among other options.

On the other hand, if you need to move a large amount of data that would take weeks, months or longer sending over expensive networks, then solutions like Data Box are an option. Microsoft is not alone or unique having data storage migration or movement services. AWS has Snowball, Snowball Edge with compute, as well as the truck size Snowmobile for large-scale data movement. Google also has their Transfer services including Google Transfer Appliance.

Who is Azure Data Box for?

Azure Data Box is for those who need to migrate data to Azure cloud storage and other services on a one-time or recurring basis. Another scenario is for those who need to have on-prem storage and optional compute at remote or edge locations in support of data acquisition, media & entertainment, energy exploration, AI, ML, DL inferencing, local data processing, pre-processing before sending to cloud among other workloads.

Yet other scenarios for those who need to move large amounts of data online, off-line, or in disconnected also known as submarine mode where a connection to the internet is not always available. Bulk data movement also applies for one-time, as well as recurring data protection such as archive, backups, BC/DR, as well as data shipping, virtual machine farm relocation, SQL Server data migration to cloud, data center consolidation among many other scenarios.

What is Azure Data Box

Azure Data Box is a combination of hardware, software, cloud services that support data migration (on-line and off-line) from on-prem environments including remote or edge to Azure cloud storage resources. There are different Data Box solutions available or in the preview to meet various needs from performance, capacity, functionality, without as well as without compute. In addition to being used for data migration, there are also Data Box solutions (e.g., Edge) that converge compute and storage for deployment at remote or edge locations.

Data Box Gateway is a software-defined virtual machine appliance that deploys on VMware and Microsoft (e.g., Hyper-V) hypervisors. Off-line Data Box solutions scale from single 8TB SSD disks to PB of capacity with various functionality.

As a reminder, blobs are analogous to and what Microsoft Azure refers to instead of objects (e.g., object storage). Also remember that Azure blobs include block, page (512-byte page aligned for VHDX) and append (similar to other vendors object storage). Microsoft Azure in addition to blobs, supports file (SMB and NFS) access, along with table (database) and queue storage services.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Azure Data Box, Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Azure Data Box type solutions and services are becoming more common as well as diverse. With the addition of compute in some of these solutions to support remote edge workloads, the lines may blur with some of the converged and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. Likewise, keep an eye to see how cloud service providers leverage solutions like Data Box Edge to further place their reach out to the edge enabling fog (e.g., cloud at the edge) among other converged functionality. Continue reading Part 2 Microsoft Azure Data Box Family, Part 3 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Test Drive Review, and Part 4 Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk Impressions as part of Microsoft announced Azure Data Box updates.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model #blogtobertech

Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model #blogtobertech

Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model

The following is a new Industry Trends Perspective White Paper Report titled Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model.

Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model

This new report looks at Distributed File Server and Consolidated Cloud Storage Economic Comparison with a fundamental economic comparison model for remote (on-prem) distributed file-servers and cloud storage consolidation decision-making. IT data infrastructure resource (servers, storage, I/O network, hardware, software, services) decision-making involves evaluating and comparing technical attributes (speeds, feeds, features) of a solution or service. Another aspect of data infrastructure resource decision-making involves assessing how a solution or service will support and enable a given application workload from a Performance, Availability, Capacity, and Economic (PACE) perspective.

Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model

Keep in mind that all application workloads have some amount of PACE resource requirements that may be high, low or various permutations. Performance, Availability (including data protection along with security) as well as Capacity are addressed via technical speeds, feeds, functionality along with workload suitability analysis. The E in PACE resource decision-making is about the Economic analysis of various costs associated with different solution approaches.

Read more in this Server StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspective (ITP) Report.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

When comparing and making data infrastructure resource decisions, consider the application workload PACE characteristics. Also keep in mind that PACE means Performance (productivity), Availability (data protection), Capacity and Economics. This includes making decisions from a technical feature, functionality (speeds and feeds) capacity as well as how the solution supports your application workload. Leverage resources including tools to perform analysis including Cloud File Data Storage Consolidation and Economic Comparison Model approaches.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Not Dead Yet Zombie Technology (Declared Dead yet still alive) October 2018 Update #blogtobertech

Not Dead Yet Zombie Technology (Declared Dead yet still alive) October 2018 Update #blogtobertech

Not Dead Yet Zombie Technology (Declared Dead yet still alive) October 2018 Update

Not Dead Yet Zombie Technology (Declared Dead yet still alive) October 2018 Update. Musician Phil Collins has an excellent name for his current tour Not Dead Yet which is a reminder that he is still alive and performing, at least one more time. With Halloween just around the corner, it is that time of the year to revisit zombie technology, those technologies, tools, techniques, trends that are declared dead yet still alive.

Data Infrastructure Tools Trends Topics

IT Zombie Technology Declared Dead Not Dead Yet

With a concert tour named Not Dead Yet, that sets the stage for this post which is about IT Zombie Technology and in particular data infrastructure related technology, tools, trends and related topics that have been declared dead by some people, yet are still alive. Not only are these tools and techniques being used, but they are also being enhanced to be around for future years of zombie technology updates, not dead yet.

As a refresher, a Zombie technology is one that is declared dead, usually by some upstart vendor and its pundits along with other followers in favor of whatever new has been announced. As luck or fate would have it, some of these startup or new technologies that declare an older established one as being dead, tend to end up on the where are they now list.

In other words, some technologies do survive and gain in both industry adoption, as well as the even more critical customer deployment category. Likewise, some of these technologies that result in something existing being declared dead-end up surviving to live alongside or near what its supporters declared dead.

Another not so uncommon occurrence is when the new technology that its supporters declared something else as being dead joins the ranks of being declared dead by a yet more modern technology thereby becoming a Zombie technology itself.  Put a different way, being on the Zombie technology list may not be the same as being the shiny new popular trendy technology. However, it can be both a badge of honor not to mention revenue and profit maker.

Data Infrastructure components

Zombie Technology List

What are some old and new Zombie technologies that have been declared dead, yet are still alive, being used and enhanced, not dead yet?

IBM Mainframe

This is a perennial favorite, and while not seeing new growth associated with other platforms including Intel, AMD, ARM among others, it has its place with many large organizations. Not only does it continue to be manufactured, enhanced, even some new customers buying them, it also runs native Linux in addition to traditional zOS among other software.

Fibre Channel (FC)

FC has been declared dead for over a decade, and while Ethernet-based server storage I/O networking continues to gain ground in both industry as well as customer deployments, there is still plenty of life in and with FC for years to come, at least for some environments. NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF) which is the NVMe protocol carried on top of a fabric network (SAN if you prefer) is gaining industry popularity and customer curiosity.

There are many flavors of NVMe over fabrics including NVMe over Fibre Channel, e.g., FC-NVMe which is similar to mapping the SCSI command set (SCSI_FCP) on to Fibre Channel or what is more commonly known as FCP or simply FC.

What this means if that FC-NVMe is just another upper-level protocol (ULP) that can co-exist with others on the same Fibre Channel network. In other words, FICON, FCP, NVMe among others can co-exist on the same Fibre Channel-based network. Will everybody using Fibre Channel move to FC-NVMe? Good question, ask the FC folks, and the answer not surprisingly would be yes or probably. Will new customers looking to do NVMe over some type of fabric or network use Fibre Channel instead of Ethernet or other transport? Some will while others will go other routes. For now, what is clear is that FC is still alive and thus on the Zombie technology list and not dead yet.

SAS and SATA

Both have been declared dead as they have been around for a while, and over time NVMe will pick up more of their workload, however near term, SAS and SATA will continue as lower cost smaller footprint for general purpose and bulk lower cost direct attachment. Otoh, look for more m.2 NVMe Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF) aka gum sticks appearing on physical servers along with storage systems. Likewise, watch for increased deployment of NVMe U.2. Aka 8639 drive form factor SSDs using NAND flash as well as 3D XPoint and Intel Optane among other mediums as part of new server and storage platforms. BTW, USB is not dead yet either, just saying.

Microsoft Windows

Windows desktop, Windows Servers, even Hyper-V virtualization have been declared dead for some time now, yet all continue to evolve. Just recently, Microsoft released Windows Server 2019 which included many enhancements from software-defined storage (Storage Spaces Direct aka S2D), software-defined networking, converged and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) deployment options, expanded virtualization capabilities, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) enhancements (e.g. bash shell on Windows native), containers with Kubernetes as well as Docker updates among others. In other words, it’s not dead yet.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Having been declared dead for decades, while not the primary frontline storage medium it was in the past, HDDs continue to evolve and be used for alongside faster flash SSD, and as a front-end to magnetic tape. Some of the larger consumers of HDDs continue to be cloud service providers also known as mega scalars for storing large amounts of bulk data. I suspect that HDDs will continue to be on the Zombie technology list for at least another decade or so which has been the case for the past several decades.

Magnetic Tape

Like HDDs, the tape is still in use in some environments, and like HDDs, the cloud service providers are significant users of tape as a low-cost, low access, high-capacity bulk storage for cold archives that are front-ended by HDD or SSD or both.

Cloud (Public, Private and Hybrid)

Yes, believe it or not, some have declared cloud dead, along with hybrid cloud, private cloud among others, oh well.

Physical Machine (PM)

Also known as bare metal, servers were declared dead a decade or so ago at the hands of the then emerging Intel based virtualization hypervisors notably VMware ESXi and to a lesser extent Microsoft Hyper-V. I say lesser extent with Hyper-V in that there was less noise about PM and BMs being dead as there was from some in the ESXi virtual kingdom. Needless to say, PM and BM from Intel to AMD and ARM-based, along with IBM Power among many others are very much alive as dedicated servers in the cloud, VM and container hosts, as well as being accessorized with FPGA, ASIC, GPU, and other resources.

Virtual Machines

Listen to some from the container, serverless or something new crowd, and you will hear that virtual machines (VMs) are dead which for some workloads may be right. On the other hand, similar to the physical machine (PM) or bare metal (BM) servers that were declared dead by the VMs a decade or so ago, VMs are alive and doing well. Not only are they doing well, like containers continued adoption and deployment of VMs will stay on both on-prem as well as cloud, as will BM and PMs now have known as dedicated servers in the clouds.

NAS and Files

If you listened to some of the pundits and press, NAS and files were supposed to have been dead several years ago at the hands of object storage. The reality today is that while object storage continues to grow in customer deployments while the industry is not as enamored (or drunk) with it as it was a few years ago, the new technology is here to stay and will be around for many decades to come.

That brings us back to NAS and files which were declared dead by the object opportunists which is file access is very much alive and continues gain ground. In fact, most cloud providers have either added NAS file-based access (NFS, SMB, POSIX among others) native or via partners to their solutions. Likewise, most object storage platforms have also added or enhanced their NAS file-based access for compatibility while their customers are re-engineering their applications, or create new apps that are object and blob native. Thus, NAS and File-based access are proud members of the Zombie technology list.

Data Infrastructure tools

There are many more tools, technologies, trends, techniques that are part of the above list for example Backup has been declared dead, along with the PCIe bus, NAND flash, programming, data centers, databases, SQL along with many others. What they have in common is that they are part of a growing list of not dead yet, yet declared dead thus are Zombie technologies.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Clouds and Data Infrastructure related trends, tools, technologies and topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

What is your favorite zombie technology, tool, trend or technique?

What zombie technologies, tools, trends or techniques should be added to the list and why?

Many tools, technologies, techniques, trends are often declared dead, sometimes before they are even really alive and mature by those who have something new, or that simply lack creative (e.g., dead marketing?) so it’s easier to declare something dead. While some succeed themselves prospering and being added to the Zombie technology list (a badge of honor), some quietly end up on the where are they now list. The where are they now list are those vendors, tools, technologies, techniques, trends that were on the famous hit parade in the past, having faded away, or end up dead (unlike a zombie).

Don’t be scared of zombie technology while also being prepared to embrace what is new while using both in new ways. Right now, I don’t have tickets to go see Phil Collins not dead yet tour, maybe that will change. However, for now, keep in mind, don’t be scared when looking at Not Dead Yet Zombie Technology (Declared Dead yet still alive) October 2018 Update #blogtobertech.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Posted on

July 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

July 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

July 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

Volume 18, Issue 7 (July 2018)

Hello and welcome to the July 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter.

In cased you missed it, the June 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter can be viewed here ( HTML and PDF).

In this issue buzzwords topics include Dell Technology and VMware, AWS and Google public, private and hybrid cloud, machine learning, 3D XPoint, SCM, SSD, NVMe, data infrastructure management tools among other topics.

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure update newsletter.

Cheers GS

Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

July 2018 data infrastructure, server, storage, I/O network, hardware, software, cloud, converged, and container as well as data protection industry activity includes among others:

Amazon Web Services AWS July 2018 Updates include enhancements to machine learning (ML) Sagemaker service, faster S3 access, new EC2 instances along with Snowball Edge (SBE) for on-prem converged server and compute appliance ( read more about SBE here). In other public cloud activity, Google Cloud Platform GCP announced new Los Angeles Region.

Intel and Micron have announced that they will be pursuing different paths when they complete the second generation in 2019 of 3D XPoint used in Intel Optane NVMe SSD and Storage Class Memory (SCM) technologies, read more here Intel Micron 3D XPoint Evolving. Meanwhile, Broadcom buying CA, Brilliant or a Brainbuster? This deal is a bit of a head scratcher with Broadcom spending $18.9 Billion USD (cash) to by CA Technologies.

In other data infrastructures news and activity, DataDirect Networks Stages Bid to Acquire Tintri’s Assets and Expand Its Storage Portfolio into the Enterprise. Dell EMC announced a new integrated data protection appliance ( IDPA DP4400) for small and midsize organizations. In other activity, VMware declared a dividend, with Dell Technologies being a majority owner, will use cash to fund Dell business structuring. Read more about Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash here.

Spectra (e.g. who some of you know as Spectra Logic) has announced enhancements to their tape libraries. Note that one of the larger growth (or sustainment) markets for tape based technologies in recent years have been the larger cloud scale service providers. Granted those providers are not using tape in old ways (e.g. for direct backup), rather, in new ways where it is a companion to SSD, HDD as another storage class, tier or technology enabler.

IBM has jumped on the NVMe bandwagon announcing updates to their Flashsystems 9100 systems (e.g. what they acquired via TMS a few years ago). Opvisor has announced a new VMware vSAN performance monitoring and troubleshooting feature for their insight, awareness management tools.

Check out other industry news, comments, trends perspectives here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO Comments Content

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news, tips and articles

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via : SearchStorage: Comments on GDPR and Cloudian File Sync Share 
Via : NetworkComputing: Comments Software Defined Storage SDS Getting Started 
Via SearchStorage: Comments The storage administrator skills you need to keep up today
Via SearchStorage: Comments Managing storage for IoT data at the enterprise edge
Via SearchCloudComputing: Comments Hybrid cloud deployment demands a change in security mind set

View more Server, Storage and I/O trends and perspectives comments here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIOblog posts

Server StorageIOblog Data Infrastructure Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

2018 Hot Popular New Trending Data Infrastructure Vendors to Watch
June 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter
May 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter
Have you heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation?
Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview
Server Storage I/O Benchmark Performance Resource Tools
Data Infrastructure Primer Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Recommended Reading (Watching and Listening) List

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials SDDI SDDC

In addition to my own books including Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) available at Amazon.com (check out special sale price), the following are Server StorageIO data infrastructure recommended reading, watching and listening list items. The Server StorageIO data infrastructure recommended reading list includes various IT, Data Infrastructure and related topics including Intel Recommended Reading List (IRRL) for developers is a good resource to check out.

Duncan Epping ( @DuncanYB), Frank Denneman ( @FrankDenneman) and Neils Hagoort ( @NHagoort) have released their VMware vSphere 6.7 Clustering Deep Dive book available at venues including Amazon.com. This is the latest in a series of Cluster and deep dive books from Frank and Duncan which if you are involved with VMware, SDDC and related software defined data infrastructures these should be on your bookshelf.

Watch for more items to be added to the recommended reading list book shelf soon.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO event activities

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

July 25, 2018 – Webinar – Data Protect & Storage

June 27, 2018 – Webinar – App Server Performance

June 26, 2018 – Webinar – Cloud App Optimize

See more webinars and activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

Various useful links and resources:

Data Infrastructure Recommend Reading and watching list
Microsoft TechNet – Various Microsoft related from Azure to Docker to Windows
storageio.com/links – Various industry links (over 1,000 with more to be added soon)
objectstoragecenter.com – Cloud and object storage topics, tips and news items
OpenStack.org – Various OpenStack related items
storageio.com/downloads – Various presentations and other download material
storageio.com/protect – Various data protection items and topics
thenvmeplace.com – Focus on NVMe trends and technologies
thessdplace.com – NVM and Solid State Disk topics, tips and techniques
storageio.com/converge – Various CI, HCI and related SDS topics
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

What this all means and wrap-up

Summer is here in North America and the Northern Hemisphere which means holidays as well as vacations. However Data Infrastructures continue to evolve as do the tools, technologies, trends, hardware, software, services along with those who take care of, and define them. Enjoy your summer vacation, holidays as well as this July 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter edition.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash

Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash

Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash

Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash.

Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash
Image via Dell Technologies

Summary of Dell transaction announcement includes:

  • VMware declares an $11 Billion USD cash dividend pro rata to all VMware stock holders.
  • Given ownership percentage of VMware, Dell Technologies will receive approximately $9 Billion USD cash dividend.
  • Dell plans to list its Class C common stock shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
  • Dell plans to use the VMware dividend proceeds to fund cash consideration to be paid to Class V (tracking stock) shareholders.
  • For each Class V share (e.g. VMware tracking stock) shareholders can choose to receive:

    1.3665 shares of Dell Technologies Class C common stock, or
    $109 in cash per DVMT (Class V share) a 29% premium per share

Dell Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash
Image via Dell Technologies

Additional interest points of this transaction include:

  • Transaction expected to close Q4 CY2018, subject to Class V shareholder approval.
  • VMware maintains its independence as a separate publicly traded company.
  • Dell Technologies maintains its 81% ownership of VMware common stock
    Dell Technologies Class V (DVMT) shareholders will own 20.8% to 31.0% of Dell Class C (depending on cash election amounts).
  • Streamline Dell capital and ownership structure.
  • Establishes a public security (stock) in global end to end data infrastructure provider (e.g. Dell Technologies Stock on NYSE).
  • Enables financial flexibility for future strategic initiatives

Dell Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash
Image via Dell Technologies

Michael Dell and Silver Lake Continued Ownership

As part of this transaction, both Michael Dell and Silver Lake partners announce commitment to Dell Technologies. Michael Dell will continue to serve as Chairman and CEO, along with a committed stockholder beneficially owning between about 47% to 54% of Dell Technologies on a fully diluted basis. Silver Lake equity partners, an investor in Dell will continue its long-term partnership with Michael Dell beneficially owning between about 16%-18% of Dell Technologies on a fully diluted basis.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Dell Technologies, VMware, Data Infrastructures and related topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

This announcement enables Dell to streamline its financial structure, while providing VMware shareholder with a dividend value. In addition, this Dell Technologies announcement puts to rest industry discussions of what will Michael Dell along with Dell Technologies and VMware do in the future. Speaking of the future, this transaction could also page the wave for future investment or acquisitions by Dell and/or VMware. Now the question is if you are a DVMT tracking stock shareholder, do you take the $109 USD cash, or, new Class C Dell Technologies stock? Now lets see how Dell Technologies Announces Class V VMware Tracking Stock exchange for stock or cash plays out during the rest of summer and into the fall.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Posted on

Announcing Windows Server Summit Virtual Online Event

Announcing Windows Server Summit Virtual Online Event

Dell Technology World 2018 Announcement Summary

Announcing Windows Server Summit Virtual Online Event

Microsoft will be hosting a free (no registration required) half day virtual (e.g. online) Windows Server Summit Virtual Online Event June 26, 2018 starting at 9AM PT. As part of its continued focus on supporting hybrid strategy spanning on-premises Windows Server to Azure (among others including AWS) cloud based, Microsoft is preparing for the launch later this year of Windows Server 2019.

There is no registration required, you can just show up without concern of getting email or other spam, however you can also click here to save the date, as well as here to get updates on the event.

Microsoft Windows Server LTSC and SAC release

Windows Server 2019 is now in insider preview (get it here) and is the next Long Term Service Channel (LTSC) release following Windows Server 2016. In the past, Microsoft would have called Windows Server 2019 something such as Windows Server 2016 R2, however that has changed with the new Semiannual Channel (SAC) and LTSC release cycles.

Keynote kick off presentations will be from Erin Chapple, Director of Program Management, Cloud + AI (which includes Windows Kernel, Hypervisors, Containers and Storage), Arpan Shah, General Manager of Azure Infrastructure marketing (Windows Server, Azure IaaS, Azure Stack, Azure Management and Security), and, Jeff Woosley Principal PM, Windows Server. In addition to the kick off presentations with current state and status of Windows Servers available for on-premises bare metal, virtual, container as well as cloud, there will be demos, Q&A, roadmap’s and much more. Topics will include new and recent functionalities such as Windows Server 2019, Windows Admin Center (formerly known as Honolulu), IoT, roadmap’s and much more.

Windows Server Summit HybridWindows Server Summit SecurityWindows Server Summit HCIWindows Server Summit Application Development
Images Via Microsoft Windows Server Summit Page

Windows Server Summit Break Out Tracks

During the Windows Server Summit, there will be four technology focused tracks including:

  • Hybrid – From on-premisess to Azure, how Windows Server supports different workloads in various configurations, along with associated management tools (including Windows Admin Center aka Honolulu)
  • Security – New and recent security enhancements for Windows Server along with Hyper-V and other related topics.
  • Application Platform – Containers and Linux support along with associated management tools for on-premisess and Azure.
  • Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) – Leveraging software defined storage (SDS) with Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) in Windows Server 2016, along with Hyper-V and other technologies, learn how Microsoft supports HCI and beyond.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Windows Server Summit and related topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Windows Server remains relevant today for traditional, on site, on-premises, as well as on-premisess along with cloud, container among other deployments. Remember to click here to save the date, click here to sign up for Windows Server Summit updates and learn more about the Windows Server Summit Virtual Online event here, see there, or at least virtually.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Posted on

May 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

May 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

May 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

Volume 18, Issue 5 (May 2018)

Hello and welcome to the May 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter.

In cased you missed it, the April 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter can be viewed here (HTML and PDF).

May has been a busy month with a lot of data infrastructure related activity from software-defined virtual, cloud, container, converged, serverless to legacy, hardware, software, services, server, storage, I/O and networking along with data protection topics among others.

In this issue buzzwords topics include GDPR, NVMe, NVMeoF, Composable, Serverless, Data Protection, SCM, Gen-Z, MaaS:

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure update newsletter.

Cheers GS

Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

May has been a busy month, some data infrastructure, server, storage, I/O network, hardware, software, cloud, converged, and container as well as data protection activity includes among others:

Depending on when you read this, the new global data protection regulations (GDPR) are either days away, or already in effect. For those who are not aware of GDPR other than seeing many inbox items in your email pertaining to it, here are some resources as a refresher or primer:

May Buzzword, Buzz Topic and Trends

Besides data protection and GDPR, other recent data infrastructure related news, trends, technologies and topics to keep an eye on (besides AI, ML, DL, AR/VR, IoT, Blockchain, Serverless) include Metal as a Service (MaaS) that might be familiar to some, for others, something new. Canonical has been busy for sometime now with MaaS including in Ubuntu and they are not alone with variations appearing with various managed service providers, hosting and cloud providers as well. NVMe has become a more common topic, technology, trend including for use in servers as well as over fabrics (e.g. NVMe over Fabrics) as a language for server, storage, I/O communication.

A new emerging companion to NVMe is Gen-Z which initially is a companion to PCIe. Longer term, Gen-Z could maybe possibly be a replacement, as well as for use accessing direct random access memory (DRAM) among other uses. Storage Class Memory (SCM) has been an industry conversation topic for several years now with new persistent memories (PMEM) that combine the best of traditional DRAM (Speed and write endurance) as well as persistent, higher capacity, lower cost of traditional NAND flash SSDs.

Another trend topic is that for some, ASIC, FPGA and GPU are new companions to standard commodity compute processors along with servers, yet for others it may be Dejavu as they have been being used for years (ok, decades) in some solutions. For now, two other buzzwords, buzz terms to add or refresh your data infrastructure vocabulary include distributed ledgers (aka blockchains), composable resources and ephemeral instance storage (storage on a cloud instance).

May NVMe Momentum Movement Activity

May saw a lot of NVMe related activity, from chips and components (adapters, devices) to systems spanning direct attached to NVMe over Fabric (NVMeoF). Here is a primer (or refresh) for NVMe along with various deployment options. NVMeoF includes RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based, along with NVMe over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe), as well as emerging NVMe over IP.

NVMe options
NVMe being used for front-end accessed via shared PCIe along with back-end devices

There are many different facets of NVMe including for use as a front-end on storage systems supporting server attachment (e.g. competes with Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SAS among others). Another variation of NVMe is as a back-end for attachment of drives or other NVMe based devices in storage systems, as well as servers.

NVMe backend
Front-end using traditional block SAN access with back-end NVMe, SAS and SATA devices

Read more about the many different options and variations of NVMe including key questions to ask or understand, deployment topology along with other related topics at thenvmeplace.com.

NVMe frontend NVMeoF
Various NVMe front-end including NVMeoF along with NVMe back-end devices (U.2, M.2, AiC)

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Activity

Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to add new features, functionality as well as extending those as along with existing capabilities into various regions. Some recent updates include new Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) Microsoft Windows Servers versions 1709 and 1803 Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Other AWS updates include spot instances support for Red Hat BYOL (Bring Your Own License), VPN enhancements, X1e instances available in Frankfurt, H1 instance price reduction, as well as LightSail now in Canada, Paris, and Seoul regions.

For those who are not familiar with LightSail, they are virtual private servers (VPS) which are different from traditional EC2 instances. LightSail can be a cost-effective way for those who need to move out of general population shared hosting, yet cannot justify a full EC2 instance while requiring more than a container.

The LightSail instance also is available with various software pre-installed such as for WordPress websites among others. For example, I have used LightSail as a backup and standby WordPress site for StorageIOblog using Updraft Plus  Pro for data protection.

In other news, AWS C5d EC2 instances are available in various regions. C5d instances are available with 2, 4, 8, 16, 36 and 72 vCPUs along with up to 1800GB of NVMe based ephemeral storage for on-demand reserved or spot instances.

Note that instance-based storage is temporary meaning that it persists for the life of the instance. What this means is that if you stop and restart the instance, the data is not persistence. Instance-based storage is useful for data that can be protected or persisted to other storage including EBS (Elastic Block Storage). Usage includes batch, log and analytics processing, burst buffers, cache or workspace.

AWS also announced a new Simple Storage Service (S3) storage class a month or so ago called One Zone Availability Infrequent Access. This new storage class primarily provides a lower cost of storage with lower durability (e.g., data spread across one zone vs. multiple). Over the past couple of months, I have been migrating from S3 Infrequent Access (IA) as well as standard into One Zone Availability. Some of my active data remains in S3 Standard storage class, while cold archives are in Glacier.

A tip about migrating to One Zone Availability, as well as between other S3 storage classes is paid attention to your API calls and monthly budget. You might see an increase in S3 costs during the migration time, that then settles into the lower prices once data has been moved due to API calls (gets, puts, lists, dir). In other words, pay attention to how many API calls you are allowed per storage class per month, along with other fees beyond focusing only on cost per TByte. Read about other recent AWS news updates here.

Software-defined storage startup Cloudian announced their technology available for test drive on Google Cloud Platform as part of a continued industry trend. That trend is for storage vendors to make their storage software technology available on different cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google, Softlayer among others.

Dell Technology World 2018

Dell Technologies made several announcements as part of Dell Technologies World that are covered in a series of posts here. Announcements included PowerMax the successor to VMAX, XtremIO X2 updates, new servers, workstations among many other items, read more here.

Besides the data infrastructure, cloud service providers and systems vendors, component suppliers including Cavium announced NVMe over Fibre Channel updates (here and here), along with Marvel NVMe updates here. HPE announced new thin clients and software (t430 Thin Client, HP mt44 Mobile Thin Client, HP ThinPro software), as well as updates to 3PAR and other storage solutions.

IBM announced various storage enhancements (and here) as well as a Happy 30th anniversary to the IBM Power9 based i systems. In other news, Kaseya bought backup data protection vendor Unitrends.

NVMe NAND flash Intel Optane

Micron announced the first quad layer cell (QLC) nand flash solid state device (SSD) named 52100 has begun shipping to select customers (and vendors). QLC packs or stacks 4 bits per cell. The 5200 is optimized for read-intensive workloads with up to 33% higher densities compared to previous generation TLC (triple layer cell) NAND flash. Broader market availability is expected to occur later fall 2018, 5210 form factor is 2.5” as a standard SSD or HDD, with capacities from 1.92TB to 7.68TB.

In other news, Micron also announced a $10 Billion (USD) stock repurchase plan, along with an extension of Intel 3D NAND flash memory partnership involving 3D NAND flash, as well as 96 layer 3D NAND. Meanwhile, various vendors are increasingly talking about how their systems are or will be storage class memory (SCM) ready including for use such as Micron 3D XPoint also known as Intel Optane among others.

Microsoft has placed into public preview Azure Active Directory (AAD) Storage authentication for Azure Blobs and Queues. Azure Storage Explorer is now released as version 1.0. AAD storage authentication enables organizations to implement role-based access control of Azure storage resources. Speaking of Azure, Microsoft has published several architectures, reference and other content at the Azure Virtual Datacenter portal here.

If you have not done so, check out Azure File Sync which is currently in public preview. Having been involved and using it for over a year including during private preview, Azure File Sync is an exciting, useful technology for creating a hybrid distributed file sharing with cloud tiering solutions. Learn more Azure File Sync here and here. In other news, Microsoft has announced a preview as part of the April 2018 Windows 10 build for a Hyper-V Google Android emulator support.

NetApp has had Azure based NAS storage in preview for a while now, and also announced Cloud Volumes on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In addition to Cloud Volumes on AWS, Azure, and GCP, NetApp also announced enhanced NVMe based storage systems among other updates.

Two companies that have similar names are Opendrives (video workflow acceleration) and Opendrive (cloud storage, backup, and data protection). Meanwhile, data infrastructure startup Pavilion has received new funding as well as begun talking about their NVMe including NVMe over Fabric (NVMeOF) hardware storage system. Long-time data infrastructure converged server storage startup Pivot3 announced additional cloud workload mobility.

Pure storage made a couple of announcements including  FlashArray//X NVMe based shared accelerated storage system as well as NVIDIA (GPU powered) based AIRI Mini for AI/DL/ML.

Have you heard about Snowflake computing, aka, the cloud data warehouse solution? If not, check them out here. Another cloud-related data infrastructure vendor to look into is Upbound.io who have received additional funding for their multi-cloud management solutions.

Building off of recent VMware vSphere updates (here), and Dell Technology World here, the following is an excellent post about Instant Clone in vSphere 6.7, and VMware vSAN HCI assessment tool here.

Check out other industry news, comments, trends perspectives here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO Comments Content

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news, tips and articles

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via SearchStorage: Comments Managing storage for IoT data at the enterprise edge
Via SearchCloudComputing: Comments Hybrid cloud deployment demands a change in security mindset
Via SearchStorage: Comments Dell EMC storage IPO, VMware merger plans still unclear
Via SearchStorage: Comments Dell EMC midrange storage keeps its overlapping arrays
Via SearchStorage: Comments Dell EMC all-flash PowerMax replaces VMAX, injects NVMe
Via IronMountain InfoGoto:  The growing Trend of Secondary Data Storage

View more Server, Storage and I/O trends and perspectives comments here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIOblog posts

Server StorageIOblog Data Infrastructure Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

Dell Technology World 2018 Announcement Summary
Part II Dell Technology World 2018 Modern Data Center Announcement Details
Part III Dell Technology World 2018 Storage Announcement Details
Part IV Dell Technology World 2018 PowerEdge MX Gen-Z Composable Infrastructure
Part V Dell Technology World 2018 Server Converged Announcement Details
April 2018 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter
VMware vSphere vSAN vCenter version 6.7 SDDC Update Summary
PCIe Fundamentals Server Storage I/O Network Essentials
Have you heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation?
Data Protection Recovery Life Post World Backup Day Pre GDPR
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview
Application Data Value Characteristics Everything Is Not The Same
Data Infrastructure Resource Links cloud data protection tradecraft trends
IT transformation Serverless Life Beyond DevOps Podcast
Data Protection Diaries Fundamental Topics Tools Techniques Technologies Tips
Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Overview
Data Infrastructure Primer Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Recommended Reading (Watching and Listening) List

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials SDDI SDDC

In addition to my own books including Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) available at Amazon.com (check out special sale price), the following are Server StorageIO data infrastructure recommended reading, watching and listening list items. The Server StorageIO data infrastructure recommended reading list includes various IT, Data Infrastructure and related topics including Intel Recommended Reading List (IRRL) for developers is a good resource to check out. Speaking of my books, Didier Van Hoye (@WorkingHardInIt) has a good review over on his site you can view here, also check out the rest of his great content while there.

Containers, serverless, kubernetes continue to gain in industry adoption, as well as customer deployments. Here is some information about Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Note that AWS has Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Google, VMware and Pivotal with Pivotal Kubernetes Service (PKS) among others.

Here is an interesting perspective by Ben Kepps about Serverless (e.g. life beyond Kubernetes and containers (e.g. life beyond virtualization which to some is or was life (e.g. life beyond bare metal))) as well as the all to often punditry, evangelism of something new causing something else to be dead.

SNIA has updated their Emerald aka Green energy effectiveness (focus on productivity) measurement specification (V3.01) including NAS NFS file activity (besides block). Learn more at snia.org/forums/green.

Watch for more items to be added to the recommended reading list book shelf soon.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO event activities

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

June 27, 2018 – Webinar – TBA

May 29, 2018 – Webinar – Microsoft Windows as a Service

April 24, 2018 – Webinar – AWS and on-site, on-premises hybrid data protection

See more webinars and activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

Data Infrastructure Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

Various useful links and resources:

Data Infrastructure Recommend Reading and watching list
Microsoft TechNet – Various Microsoft related from Azure to Docker to Windows
storageio.com/links – Various industry links (over 1,000 with more to be added soon)
objectstoragecenter.com – Cloud and object storage topics, tips and news items
OpenStack.org – Various OpenStack related items
storageio.com/downloads – Various presentations and other download material
storageio.com/protect – Various data protection items and topics
thenvmeplace.com – Focus on NVMe trends and technologies
thessdplace.com – NVM and Solid State Disk topics, tips and techniques
storageio.com/converge – Various CI, HCI and related SDS topics
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

Connect and Converse With Us

Storage IO RSS storageio linkedin storageio facebook Server StorageIO on twitter @StorageIO   Google+  Server StorageIO email storageio youtube  storageio instagram

Subscribe to Newsletter – Newsletter Archives – StorageIO.com – StorageIOblog.com

What this all means and wrap-up

Data Infrastructures are what exists inside physical data centers spanning cloud, converged, hyper-converged, virtual, serverless and other software defined as well as legacy environments. So far this spring there has been a lot of data infrastructure related activity, from new technology announcements, to events, trends among others. Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure update newsletter and watch for more NVMe, Gen-Z, cloud, data protection among other topics in future posts, articles, events, and newsletters.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Have you heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation?

Have you heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation?

new CLOUD Act data regulation

Have you heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation?

The new CLOUD Act data regulation became law as part of the recent $1.3 Trillion (USD) omnibus U.S. government budget spending bill passed by Congress on March 23, 2018 and signed by President of the U.S. (POTUS) Donald Trump in March.

CLOUD Act is the acronym for Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data, not to be confused with initiatives such as U.S. federal governments CLOUD First among others which are focused on using cloud, securing and complying (e.g. FedRAMP among others). In other words, the new CLOUD Act data regulation pertains to how data stored by cloud or other service providers can be accessed by law environment officials (LEO).

U.S. Supreme court
Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) Image via https://www.supremecourt.gov/

CLOUD Act background and Stored Communications Act

After the signing into law of CLOUD Act, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) to dismiss the pending case against Microsoft (e.g., Azure Cloud). The case or question in front of SCOTUS pertained to whether LEO can search as well as seize information or data that is stored overseas or in foreign counties.

As a refresher, or if you had not heard, SCOTUS was asked to resolve if a service provider who is responding to a warrant based on probable cause under the 1986 era Stored Communications Act, is required to provide data in its custody, control or possession, regardless of if stored inside, or, outside the US.

Microsoft Azure Regions and software defined data infrastructures
Microsoft Azure Regions via Microsoft.com

This particular case in front of SCOTUS centered on whether Microsoft (a U.S. Technology firm) had to comply with a court order to produce emails (as part of an LEO drug investigation) even if those were stored outside of the US. In this particular situation, the emails were alleged to have been stored in a Microsoft Azure Cloud Dublin Ireland data center.

For its part, Microsoft senior attorney Hasan Ali said via FCW “This bill is a significant step forward in the larger global debate on what our privacy laws should look like, even if it does not go to the highest threshold". Here are some additional perspectives via Microsoft Brad Smith on his blog along with a video.

What is CLOUD Act

Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data is the new CLOUD Act data regulation approved by Congress (House and Senate) details can be read here and here respectively with additional perspectives here.

The new CLOUD Act law allows for POTUS to enter into executive agreements with foreign governments about data on criminal suspects. Granted what is or is not a crime in a given country will likely open Pandora’s box of issues. For example, in the case of Microsoft, if an agreement between the U.S. and Ireland were in place, and, Ireland agreed to release the data, it could then be accessed.

Now, for some who might be hyperventilating after reading the last sentence, keep this in mind that if you are overseas, it is up to your government to protect your privacy. The foreign government must have an agreement in place with the U.S. and that a crime has or had been committed, a crime that both parties concur with.

Also, keep in mind that is also appeal processes for providers including that the customer is not a U.S. person and does not reside in the U.S. and the disclosure would put the provider at risk of violating foreign law. Also, keep in mind that various provisions must be met before a cloud or service provider has to hand over your data regardless of what country you reside, or where the data resides.

Where to learn more

Learn more about CLOUD Act, cloud, data protection, world backup day, recovery, restoration, GDPR along with related data infrastructure topics for cloud, legacy and other software defined environments via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means and wrap-up

Is the new CLOUD Act data regulation unique to Microsoft Azure Cloud?

No, it also applies to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM Softlayer Cloud, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the long list of other service providers.

What about GDPR?

Keep in mind that the new Global Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) go into effect May 25, 2018, that while based out of the European Union (EU), have global applicability across organizations of all size, scope, and type. Learn more about GDPR, Data Protection and its global impact here.

Thus, if you have not heard about the new CLOUD Act data regulation, now is the time to become aware of it.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar

AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar

AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar trends

AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET

Only YOU can prevent data loss for on-premises, Amazon Web Service (AWS) based cloud, and hybrid applications.

Join me in this free AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar (registration required) sponsored by Veeam produced by Redmond Magazine as we explore issues, trends, tools, best practices and techniques for enabling data protection with AWS technologies.

Hyper-V Disaster Recovery SDDC Data Infrastructure Data Protection

Attend and learn about:

  • Application-aware point in time snapshot data protection
  • Protecting AWS EC2 and on-premises applications (and data)
  • Leveraging AWS for data protection and recovery
  • And much more

Register for the live event or catch the replay here.

Where to learn more

Learn more about data protection, software defined data center (SDDC), software defined data infrastructures (SDDI), AWS, cloud and related topics via the following links:

SDDC Data Infrastructure

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means and wrap-up

You can not go forward if you can not go back to a particular point in time (e.g. recovery point objective or RPO). Likewise, if you can not go back to a given RPO, how can you go forward with your business as well as meet your recovery time objective (RTO)? Join us for the live conversation or replay by registering (free) here to learn how to enable AWS Cloud Application Data Protection Webinar, as well as using AWS S3 for on-site, on-premises data protection.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.