Category: object storage

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Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links K to O

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links K to O

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links K to O to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • kaminario.com    Scale out high performance database server
  • kanbox.com    Chineese cloud provider
  • kaseya.com    IT Infrastructure resource management tools
  • kashya.com    Data Protection Solutions (Bought by EMC)
  • kastenchase.com    Data and information security solutions
  • kazeon.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by EMC)
  • kcura.com    eDiscovery tools
  • Kerstor.com    Cloud storage
  • kickfire.com    Business analytics tools
  • kineticd.com    Storage and data protection solutions
  • Kingston.com    Memory manufacturer
  • KLSecurity.com    Data protection solutions
  • komnetworks.com    Archiving solutions
  • k-par.com    Archiving solutions
  • ksplice.com    Linux management tools
  • Kubisys.com    Virtualization management tools
  • KVH Co. Ltd.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • kvsinc.com    Email archiving and compliance software
  • lacie.com    Consumer, SOHO and SMB NAS and DAS storage (Bought by Seagate)
  • laconicsecurity.com    Cloud security and storage
  • lampertz.com    Environmental and data center protection
  • laurustech.com    Managed services provider
  • lecroy.com    Analyzers, probes and diagnostics
  • lefthandnetworks.com    iSCSI clustered storage (Bought by HP)
  • legato.com    Storage management software (Bought by EMC)
  • Lenovo   Servers, storage, workstations
  • Level 3 Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • lexar.com    Flash memory
  • liebert.com    Data center power and cooling systems (Bought by Emerson)
  • Lightower    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • lightsand.com    SAN connectivity
  • likewise.com    Open backup software for macs/Linux/windows
  • liquidcomputing.com    High density servers
  • liquidcoolsolutions.com    Liquid cooled servers
  • Liquidware Labs   Desktop management solutions
  • livedrive.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • www.liveoffice.com    Cloud and Email hosting
  • LiveVault.com    Online cloud backup service (Bought by IronMountain)
  • locknet-inc.com    Security and network management
  • Lockstep.com    Backup and data protection tools
  • logicube.com    Hard drive copy tools
  • LoginVSI   VDI Testing solutions
  • losttapes.org    Portal pertaining to lost magnetic tape information
  • lsi.com    Storage and networking chips and controllers (Bought by Avago)
  • lto-technology.com    Information about LTO tape media
  • lucent.com    Networking components
  • lumigent.com    Compliance management tools
  • luminex.com    S390 IBM Mainframe to open systems gateways
  • luxtera.com    High speed network and storage interconnects
  • m5data.com    VAR
  • MagePlace Backup    Backup and data protection solutions
  • Maginatics.com    Storage for virtual environments
  • magma.com    PCIe and storage solutions
  • mainline.com    VAR
  • Maintech    Infrastructure services
  • maintech.com    IT Servers and solutions
  • Maldivica    Cloud and object storage gateway
  • ManageEngine    DCIM, data center and networking management
  • maponics.com    Mapping data solutions
  • MAPR   Hadoop and Big Data Tools

  • maranti.com    Storage systems
  • marconi.com    Networking equipment
  • marvell.com    Data storage components
  • Masergy    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Mathon.com    eDiscovery
  • maxava.com    HA tools for IBM iSeries
  • maxell.com    Data storage media
  • maxim-ic.com    Data storage components and solutions
  • maxiscale.com    Web infrastructure scale out file system
  • Maxta   Virtualization storage
  • maxtor.com    Disk drives (Bought by Seagate)
  • maxxan.com    Storage systems (Now Ciphermax)
  • mcdata.com    Switches, WAN gateways, software (Bought by Brocade)
  • mediagateusa.com    HD Video streaming appliance
  • Meditech.com    Medical information technology software
  • Megaport    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • mellanox.com    Ethernet and InfiniBand technology
  • Memeo.com    Data and content management tools
  • Mendocino.com    CDP and data protection (Missing in Action)
  • metalogix.net    Sharepoint archiving solutions
  • methode.com    Storage networking transceivers
  • mezeo.com    Cloud storage management tools
  • micron.com    SSD storage solutions
  • micronet.com    Storage solutions
  • microsoft.com    Hyper-V virtualizaiton, Windows Storage Server, Azure Cloud, Storsimple, SkyDrive (aka OneDrive) and more
  • midwave.com    Var
  • Mimecast email management including archiving
  • Mimosasystems.com    Email protection and archiving (Bought by Iron Mountain)
  • mindtree.com    Testing services
  • Mirantis    OpenStack tools, downloads, service and support
  • Miray HDClone    Storage clone and data protection tools
  • mirra.com    SMB storage sharing
  • mobiuspartners.com    VAR
  • Modius    DCIM power, cooling and monitoring
  • moka5.com    VDI tools
  • MongoDB    Open source document optimized database
  • Monitis.com    IT Monitoring and services (applications, systems, clouds and more)
  • Monosphere.com    Storage planning and usage software (Bought by Quest)
  • moonwalk.com    HSM, ILM and data management software
  • morphlabs.com    Dense converged server platforms
  • mosaictec.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • mosys.com    High density memory components
  • mpstor.com    Cloud storage and orchestration software
  • msiinet.com    VAR
  • mti.com    European VAR
  • mtron.net    Solid state storage devices
  • My Digital SSD    SSD solutions
  • NAKIVO    Backup and data protection tools
  • napatech.com    Network tools and analysis
  • naspa.org    System administrator’s user group
  • nasuni.com    Cloud storage access appliance
  • ncino.com    Banking and financial deployment platform
  • ncipher.com    Data protection and security solutions (Bought by Thales)
  • ncompass-inc.com    VAR and services firm
  • ncr.com    Servers and storage solutions
  • ndci.com    Data conversion services
  • ndmp.org    Trade organization for NDMP backup protocol
  • neartek.com    VTL software (Bought by EMC)
  • nebulassolutions.com    Security and data protection
  • NEC.com    Servers and storage
  • neopathnetworks.com    Network file management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • neoscale.com    Storage networking security (Assets Bought by nCipher)
  • nephoscale.com    Cloud and object storage
  • NeptunesCloud.net    Cloud IaaS solutions
  • www.neptuny.com    Performance and capacity planning tools
  • nerc.com    North American Electrical Reliability Council
  • netcelera.com    WAN File system caching and acceleration
  • netcomm.com.au    Broadband service provider
  • netdirectsystems.com    VAR
  • neterion.com    High performance iSCSI and Ethernet 10Gb technology Bought by Exar)
  • netex.com    IP compression and channel extension
  • netezza.com    Big Data – Data warehouse storage solutions (Bought by IBM)
  • Netgear.com    SOHO and SMB storage and networking
  • NetIQ    Data center, security, identify and data protection management
  • netlist.com    Memory solutions
  • netoptics.com    Network monitoring
  • netronome.com    Network and I/O optimization technology
  • netspi.com    Network security and digital forensics
  • networkappliance.com    Storage sub-systems, management software
  • networkgeneral.com    Network and application monitoring
  • networkinstruments.com    Network test and diagnostic and performance monitoring
  • netwrix.com    Enterprise systems management tools
  • netxen.com    High performance 10Gb Ethernet chips and NICs
  • neuwingenergy.com    Energy management organization
  • neuxpower.com    File compression and data reduction
  • Neverfailgroup.com    HA software
  • nevex.com    Caching and application acceleration
  • newboundary.com    IT policy management and IRM tools
  • newisys.com    Storage enclosures
  • newrelic.com    Web, cloud and application management
  • nexenta.com    ZFS based storage management solutions
  • nexgenstorage.com    Storage with PCIe flash card
  • nexsan.com    SAS/SATA and MAID storage subsystems (Bought by Imaiton)
  • nextio.com    SSD and application acceleration solutions
  • NexusMN / Computex    VAR (e.g. Formerly Nexus MN and Stratos – now Computex)
  • nfpa.org    National Fire Protection Association
  • nicira.com    Software defined networking and IOV (Bought by VMware)
  • nimblestorage.com    Converged iSCSI SAN, backup and DR
  • nimbula.com    Cloud and application orchestration management tools
  • Nimbusdata.com    iSCSI storage
  • nirvanix.com    Cloud storage provider (Ceased operations)
  • njvc.com    Cloud and technology service provider
  • Nylte    DCIM software tools
  • noggin.intel.com/rr/    Intel Recommended Reading List
  • noliosoft.com    Cloud application management tools
  • Norlight.com    Data communications and services
  • nortel.com    Networking products
  • nortelnetworks.com    Optical networking
  • northernsoft.com    Medical software
  • novastor.com    Backup and cloud data protection tools
  • Novell.com    Server software vendor (Bought by Attachmate)
  • Novuscg.com    Storage management and services (Bought by IBM)
  • Nomura Research Institute (NRI)    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • nsic.org    National Storage Industry Consortium
  • ntp.com    Storage Management Software
  • NTT Communications Corporation    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • numarasoftware.com    IT Resource management, asset tracking tools
  • numonyx.com    SSD memory solutions
  • nutanix.com    Converged server and storage VM platform
  • nvelo.com    Caching IO performance tools
  • nvidia.com    Graphics and visualization tools
  • ocarinanetworks.com    Data reduction and compression tools (Bought by Dell)
  • ocztechnology.com    SSD drives and PCIe cards (Bought by Toshiba after bankruptcy)
  • offsitebackups.com    Online and cloud backup solutions
  • olixir.com    Removable storage for backup and data protection
  • omneon.com    Archiving and fixed content storage solutions
  • onapp.com    Cloud, CDN and storage tools
  • onaro.com    Storage and Storage Network Management (Bought by NetApp)
  • onlinebackupsearch.com    Various online backup reviews
  • oblinecourses.com    Various online education courses for various topics
  • onpathtech.com    Physical layer networking
  • onstor.com    Clustered NAS storage including NAS gateways (Bought by LSI)
  • Ontrack.com    Email and data protection software
  • OO Software   Windows management and data protection tools
  • opalis.com    Virtual data center management tools
  • OpenCompute   OpenCompute consortium
  • opendatacenteralliance.org    Open Data Center Alliance
  • open-e.com    iSCSI and NAS storage
  • Open.IO    Application aware object and bulk scale out software defined storage
  • openfabrics.org    Open Fabric Alliance
  • OpenNebula    Open source cloud software
  • opennetworking.org    Open Networking Foundation
  • OpensourceSystems.com    Data storage solutions
  • OpenStack   Open source cloud compute and storage software
  • opnet.com    Application and network performance management
  • Opsware.com    Network and storage management (HP)
  • Optica Tech.    Server and storage connectivity including FICON
  • opticatech.com    Mainframe and ESCON encryption
  • oracle.com    Data management software, hardware and services (Bought Sun/STK and others)
  • Ortera.com    Performance monitoring and management
  • OSNEXUS   Quantstor ZFS based Storage management solutions
  • Outsource Data Recovery   Data Recovery services
  • overlandstorage.com    Tape and backup, data retention, NAS solutions
  • owncloud.org    Cloud infrastructure tools

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD 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

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

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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Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 6/13/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links P to T to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • Packeteer.com    WAFS and networking solutions (Bought Tacit)
  • packetlight.com    CWDM and DWDM networking solutions
  • Panasas.com    Clustered storage solution
  • pancetera.com    Virtual machine backup software (Bought by Quantum)
  • Panduit.com    Networking and cable management
  • panzura.com    Cloud storage access software
  • paraccel.com     Business and data analytics
  • paragon-software.com    Storage management and backup tools
  • parallels.com    VDI and desktop virtualization and cloud tools
  • parascale.com     Clustered and cloud storage software
  • pcisig.com    PCI trade group (PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express/PCIe)
  • penguincomputing.com    HPC servers, storage and hosting
  • pergamumsystems.com    Archive solutions (Stealth)
  • Permabit.com    Data archiving solutions
  • Pernixdata    Server and storage I/O cache optimization for virtual servers
  • perotsystems.com    Hosting and managed service provider (Bought by Dell)
  • pgp.com    Security tools (Bought by Symantec)
  • PHDvirtual    Data protection tools
  • Pillardata.com    Data storage solutions – (Bought by Oracle)
  • pineapp.com    Email, archive solutions, web and data protection
  • Piviot3.com    IP Storage
  • Pivotal Labs    Big Data, PaaS development tools, EMC/VMware spinout
  • plasmon.com    (Now called Alliance Storage Technologies) Optical Storage Solutions
  • plextoramericas.com    SSD and other storage solutions
  • plianttechnology.com    Solid state storage devices (SSD) – (Bought by SANdisk)
  • Pluribus Networks    Converged and software defined network management
  • pmc-serria.com    Storage networking component supplier
  • pny.com    Memory componets and technology
  • Pogoplug    Cloud storage
  • PolyServe.com    Clustered storage solutions (Sold to HP)
  • Polargy    Data Center facilaties, HVAC and DCIM solutions
  • power.org    Power Processor trade group
  • Mushkin   SSD Solutions
  • Peak Cloud    Cloud and storage services
  • PowerFile.com    Data archiving solutions
  • powerware.com    UPS and power conditioning systems
  • procedo.com    Archiving and migration solutions
  • proceedtechnologies.com    SAP consulting
  • profusionbackups.com    Cloud and managed backup service solution
  • progeny.net    VAR and specialized IT systems
  • prolexic.com    Distributed denial of service tools
  • promise.com    RAID storage systems
  • Prostorsystems.com    Removable disk storage (See RDX Alliance)
  • Proxim.com    Wireless networking
  • proximaldata.com    SSD caching and tiering software
  • pt.com    Communications hardware and software
  • puresi.com aka Puresilicon    SSD storage solutions
  • purestorage.com    SSD based storage
  • Puppet Labs    IT Automation and DCIM tools for physical, Cloud and Virtual

  • qlogic.com    Host bus adapters and switches
  • qsantechnology.com    iSCSI IP storage
  • Qstart Technologies    Data protection storage including LTFS based systems
  • Quadric Software    Data protection software
  • qualstar.com    Tape backup and archive solutions (Aka Qstar)
  • quantum.com    Tape drives and libraries
  • quest.com    IT and data management solution tools (Bought by Dell)
  • Qumulo    Stealth storage startup
  • qwest.com    (Century Link) Telephone and data networking, managed services provider
  • racemi.com    Repurposing management tools
  • Rackable.com    Now SGI
  • Rackspace.com    Managed services and hosting
  • www.rackwise.com    Data center management tools
  • raidinc.com    Storage systems
  • raidundant.com    Storage systems
  • Rainfinity.com    File virtualization (Bought by EMC)
  • rainstor.com    Big data management tools
  • rapidio.org    RapidIO Trade Group
  • Raritan    Data center and DCIM tools
  • rasilient.com    Storage subsystem vendor
  • Ravello    VMware optimization and management tools
  • Raxco    Data, storage and systems management tools
  • rebit.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • RecordNation    Digital Data Storage and Records Management
  • redbend.com    Mobile device and application management
  • redbooks.ibm.com    IBM Red books and Red pieces technical articles
  • Redhat.com    Linux provider (Bought Gluster)
  • Reduxio    Hybrid storage with data services
  • reflexphotonics.com    Optical connectivity solutions
  • Reldata.com    Storage systems (Renamed Starboard)
  • remote-backup.com    Remote backup software
  • renewdata.com    Data management and compliance tools
  • repliweb.com    Web and content distribution
  • Retrospect    Data Protection Software Tools
  • revivio.com    Data Protection Software (Assets Bought by Symantec)
  • rightscale.com    Amazon cloud computing management tools
  • rimage.com    CD/DVD production technologies
  • risingtidesystems.com    VAR
  • Ritek.com    Storage solutions
  • rittal.com    Enclosures and cabinets
  • riverbed.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution
  • rjssoftware.com    Document capture and management
  • rmsource.com    Cloud backup solutions
  • rnanetworks.com    Virtual memory management solutions (Bought by Dell)
  • rocketdivision.com    iSCSI technologies
  • rorke.com    VAR
  • rpath.com    Data center automation
  • rsa.com    Security division of EMC
  • safemediacorp.com    Internet security and intrusion detection tools
  • safenet-inc.com    Data protection focused VAR
  • Sagecloud   Cloud storage, deep cold archive
  • samsung.com    Various technologies including SSD memory
  • sanblaze.com    Embedded storage and emulation solutions
  • SANbolic.com    Storage, server and cloud management tools
  • sand-chip.com    Chip design
  • SANDforce.com    SSD storage solutions – (Bought by LSI)
  • sandial.com    Defunct SAN startup
  • SANdisk.com    SSD memory components
  • sandpiperdata.com    Data migration services
  • sanmina-sci.com    Contract manufacturer (Virtual Factory) for various OEM/VARs
  • sanovi.com    Disaster recovery management tools
  • sanpulse.com    SRA and automation tools
  • sanrad.com    Storage networking routers (Bought by OCZ)
  • sans.org    Security related web site
  • sansdigital.com    VAR
  • sap.com    Information management tools and applications
  • sas.com    Statistical analysis software
  • sata-io.org    Serial ATA trade organization
  • SavageIO   High performance storage solutions
  • savvis.com    Cloud, managed service provider and hosting (Bought by Centurylink)
  • sbbwg.org    Storage Bridge Bay Working Group
  • scalable-systems.com    Data warehouse consulting and tools
  • scalecomputing.com    Clustered storage management software
  • scalemp.com    Virtualization technology for scale out computing
  • scalent.com    Virtual IT data center management tools
  • scality.com    Email and sharepoint cloud storage
  • schoonerinfotech.com    SSD based database management solutions
  • scsita.org    SCSI and SAS trade group
  • seagate.com    Disk drives
  • Sealpath   Data and information protection tools
  • seanodes.com    Distributed storage
  • sec.gov    Site about compliance items including CFR 17a-4
  • securedatainnovations.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sentilla.com    Data center performance management tools
  • sepaton.com    Disk based backup solutions
  • serialata.org    Serial ATA trade association
  • servicemesh.com    Cloud, datacenter transformation and devops tools
  • servicenow.com    ITIL data center management tools
  • 1servosity.com    Cloud data protection
  • servoy.com    Cloud development tools
  • ServPath.com    Hosting services
  • seven10storage.com    Disaster recovery and archiving software
  • sgi.com    Storage, server and data management hardware, software, tools
  • sherpasoftware.com    Email archiving
  • shop.bellmicro.com    Distributor (Bought by Avnet)
  • siber.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sidusdata.com    Managed service and cloud provider
  • siemon.com    Storage networking infrastructure items
  • sigmasol.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • Signiant.com    Data management tools
  • silexamerica.com    Mobile device and server connectivity
  • SiliconImage.com    Digital Video components
  • SiliconStor.com    Storage networking silicon
  • siliconvalleypr.com    IT technologies press/media and analyst relations firm
  • silveradotech.com    VAR
  • silver-peak.com    Wide area data and file services (WAFS, WADM, WADS)
  • SilverSky    Cloud security
  • simpletech.com    Storage solutions including USB portable devices
  • simplivity.com    Convergence and virtualization solutions
  • simplycontinuous.net    Data protection and cloud backup
  • siriuscom.com    VAR
  • site-vault.com    On-line backup server provider (BSP) managed service provider (MSP)
  • skyera.com    SSD storage solutions
  • skytap.com    Public and private cloud application development tools
  • Smart421   Smart421    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • smartm.com    PC card and other memory module components
  • smc.com    Storage and networking components
  • smithmicro.com    Mobile data management tools
  • smmdirect.com    Memory devices
  • snapappliances.com    NAS Storage solutions (Now Adaptec)
  • snia.org    Storage Networking Industry Association
  • snseurope.com    U.K. & European Storage Networking News
  • snwusa.com    SNIA and Computerworld conference
  • softek.com    Storage management solutions (formerly Fujitsu Softek, Sold to IBM)
  • softlayer.com    Cloud infrastructure services (IaaS) (Bought by IBM)
  • softnas.com    ZFS based opensource NAS solutions
  • softricity.com    Virtualization management tools (Bought by Microsoft)
  • Sogeti.com    Data management tools
  • solarflare.com    10Gb Ethernet networking
  • solarwinds.com    IT management tools (Bought TekTools, Hyper9 and others)
  • solidaccess.com    Solid state storage (SSD) solutions
  • soliddata.com    Solid State Disk solutions
  • solidfire.com    iSCSI SSD optimized for hosting and cloud providers
  • Solix.com    Database archiving software
  • solutiontechnology.co.uk    Storage networking training
  • sonasoft.com    Email archiving, backup and data protection
  • sonnettech.com    External storage solutions
  • sony.com    Storage devices
  • sophos.com    Data protection and security tools
  • sorrento.com    Optical networking
  • sparebackup.com    Backup data protection solutions
  • sparkweave.com    Private cloud archive and file sharing
  • spec.org    SPEC benchmarks
  • spectralogic.com    Tape library and disk based backup solutions
  • spiceworks.com    Online community and management software tools
  • spirent.com    Storage networking test equipment
  • Spiron.com  Data discovery, classification, lifecycle management (formerly Identity Finder)
  • Splice Communications   Splice Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • splunk.com    DCIM and log management tools
  • spotcloud.com    Cloud services clearing house
  • spraycool.com    IT Data center and component cooling
  • springsoft.com    Bought by Synopsys
  • spsoftglobal.com    Software development
  • spyrus.com    Security tools
  • ssswg.org    IEEE Storage Systems Standards Work Group
  • starboardstorage.com    Unified storage solutions (Formerly Reldata, now ceased operations)
  • startech.com    IT/AV technolgie equipment from enclosures to KVM and more
  • starwindsoftware.com    iSCSI storage management solutions
  • stcroixsolutions.com    VAR
  • stec-inc.com    SSD storage (Bought by WD)
  • Steeleye.com    HA software
  • Stellar    Data Protection tools
  • storagetek.com    Disk, tape, data management software (Bought by Sun)
  • stonebranch.com    File transfer tools
  • stonefly.com    Storage networking routers (Aka DNF)
  • storability.com    Storage management software (Bought by STK)
  • storactive.com    Data protection solutions
  • storagecraft.com    Data protection tools
  • storagefusion.com    Storage resource analysis (SRA) tools
  • storageio.net    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
  • storageiogroup.com    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
  • storagemadeeasy.com    Hybrid and personal cloud management tools and dashboards
  • Storagemonkeys.com    Storage community site
  • storagenetworking.org    Storage Networking Users Groups also known as SNUGs
  • storageperformance.org    Storage Performance Council information
  • www.storagesearch.com    Venue for information about various storage and related topics
  • storcase.com    Data Archive solutions (Bought by Crudata)
  • store-age.com    Storage management software (Bought by LSI)
  • storediq.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by IBM)
  • Storewize.com    Real time data compression (Bought by IBM)
  • Storix.com    Data backup solutions
  • storlife.com    CAS object archive storage
  • stormagic.com    Storage virtualization and data movement software
  • storserver.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • storsimple.com    Cloud storage access solutions (Bought by Microsoft)
  • storspeed.com    NAS/NFS optimization solutions (Missing in action)
  • stratascale.com    Cloud, hosting and management solutions
  • stratus.com    High availability storage and servers
  • sugarsync.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • sun.com    Storage networking hardware and software (Bought by Oracle)
  • sunbeltsoftware.com    End point data protection security tools
  • sungard.com    Data protection and cloud services
  • superlumin.com    Application caching tools
  • supermicro.com    Server and storage solutions
  • surdoc.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • surgient.com    Cloud computing solutions
  • svlg.net    Silicon Valley Leadership Group
  • Swiftstack    Private cloud solutions
  • swifttest.com    NFS and CIFS storage testing solutions
  • sybase.com    Database solutions
  • sycamorenetworks.com    Networking solutions
  • Symantec.com    Data and storage management software
  • symbolicio.com    stealth startup
  • symform.com    Cloud storage and backup
  • syncsort.com    Information Management tools
  • synnex.com    Distributor
  • Synnex   IT Solutions
  • synology.com    SMB storage solutions
  • synopsys.com    Computer technology development and manufacturing
  • SysAid    Data center, DCIM and ITSM tools
  • t10.orgscsi-3.htm    ANSI T10 (SCSI information) site
  • t11.org    ANSI T11 page for Fibre Channel information
  • t3media.com    Cloud storage and video platform tools
  • tableausoftware.com    Data analytics software tools
  • tacit.com    WAN file system accelerator (Bought by Packeteer)
  • tacitnetworks.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution (Bought by Packeteer)
  • tandberg.com    Data management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • tapeandmedia.com    Information about magnetic tape media
  • tapepower.com    Site for tape topics
  • tarmin.com        Archiving solutions
  • teamdrive.com    Cloud storage
  • teamquest.com    IRM management and capacity management tools
  • TeamViewer.com    Remote support and Online meeting software
  • techdata.com    Distributor
  • tegile.com    Storage system solutions
  • tehutinetworks.net    High speed iSCSI adapters
  • tek-tools.com    SRM storage management software (Bought by Solarwinds)
  • TelecityGroup    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • tellabs.com    Networking components
  • Telx    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • teneros.com    Email archiving and management solutions
  • teracloud.com    Capacity planning and resource management software
  • teradata.com    Large scale database and data warehouse systems
  • teradici.com    PC over IP technologies
  • teranetics.com    Ethernet chips
  • Terascala    Data analytics and management solutions
  • ter.de    Optical storage libraries
  • terracloudinc.com    Cloud services
  • TerraScale.com    Scalable storage and server solutions
  • Verizon/Terremark   Cloud, hosting and managed services
  • Tevron   Application Response Time Monitoring
  • texmemsys.com    Solid State Disk storage
  • thebci.org    Business Continuity Institute
  • thecus.com    Multi-protocol storage
  • thegreengrid.org    Industry Trade Group
  • The Padcaster    Apple iPad tools
  • thepluggllc.com    Data center energy efficient floor tiles
  • theq3.com    Data storage security solutions
  • thinkaheadit.com aka Ahead    Value added reseller
  • thinkaheadit.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
  • thirdbrigade.com    Intrusion detection security tools (Bought by Trend Micro)
  • thirdio.com    SSD solutions
  • tiaonline.org    Telecommunications Industry Association
  • tidalsoftware.com    IT Management software tools (Bought by Cisco)
  • timespring.com    Continuous data protection solutions
  • tintri.com    NFS and NAS storage optimized for VMware
  • tivoli.com    Data management software
  • Softbank Telecom Corp.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • Primary Data and Tonian    Stealth data virtualization startup

  • topgun-tech.com    Data Infrastructure Resource (Server, Storage, SANs)

  • top500.org    Top 500 super compute sites
  • topio.com    Data protection software (Bought by NetApp)
  • topspin.com    InfiniBand Technology (Bought by Cisco)(
  • Toshiba.com    Server and storage solutions
  • tpc.org    Transaction processing performance council
  • translattice.com    Distributed and elastic database and automation tools
  • Tredent.com    WAN optimization solutions
  • TrendMicro.com    Security and anti virus tools
  • trianz.com    VAR
  • tributary.com   Datra protection soultion tools including virtual, disk and tape-
  • trilogytechnologies.ie    Managed services provider
  • tritondata.com    IT services and VAR
  • trunkbow.com    Cloud, mobile and networking services
  • trustedcomputinggroup.org    Trusted computing industry trade group
  • trusteddatasolutions.com    VAR
  • trustedid.com    ID theft protection
  • trustware.com    Internet and data protection security tools
  • turnkeylinux.org   Turnkey Linux appliance –
  • tusc.com    VAR
  • twinstrata.com    BC/DR analysis and cloud access software
  • tw telecom   tw telecom    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • TSO logic    DCIM and data center power energy management tools
  • tzolkin.com    DNS and High Availability solutions

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD 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

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

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.

Posted on

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links U to Z to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • ubuntu.com    Opensource Linux software and cloud tools
  • unisys.com    Server, storage and managed services
  • unitedlayer.com    Collocation and hosting services
  • unitrends.com    Data protection solutions
  • updraftplus.com/    WordPress Updraft Cloud Backup Plugin
  • uptimeinstitute.org    Uptime Institute
  • uptimesoftware.com    Capacity management tools
  • Logicalis   IT solutions and managed services
  • us.logicalis.com    Cloud, managed and data center services
  • usb.org    USB trade association
  • uscolo.com    Co-location facility and hosting service
  • usenix.org    LISA and data center forums
  • usgbc.org    United States Green Building Council
  • v3sys.com    VDI and desktop cloud solutions
  • vadiumtech.com    Security and encryption tools
  • varonis.com    Unstructured data management and protection
  • vaultive.com    Cloud encryption for hosted exchange
  • vaultize.com    Cloud backup, file and data sharing
  • vaultstor.com    Data protection and cloud storage services
  • vaultus.com   Cloud, colo and manged service hosting –
  • vbridges.com    Virtual desktop management tools
  • vce.com    Converged infrastructure solutions
  • vdbench     vdbench storage testing/workload generation tool
  • veeam.com    Virtual server data protection, reporting, monitoring, cap planning
  • vellosystems.com   Cloud infrastructure technology solutoins –
  • velobit.com    SSD cache software (Bought by WD)
  • veloxum.com   VM performance management tools Added 11/30/10
  • vembu.com    Backup data protection tools
  • Venus   Venus    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • venyu.com    Cloud hosting
  • verari.com    Blade servers and blade storage
  • verdiem.com    Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) and energy reporting tools
  • vericept.com    Network monitoring software
  • Veritest.com    Third party testing service

  • verity.com    Data search, discovery, classification
  • versant.com    Object database management solutions
  • vertinsys.com    Server I/O virtualization
  • Vibe    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • victorinox.com    Swiss army knife and USB thumb drive
  • viewfinity.com    Rights management, audit and compliance
  • vigitrust.com    Security management tools
  • vikingmodular.com    FLASH SSD storage solutions
  • violin-memory.com    FLASH SSD storage solutions
  • vion.com    Value added reseller
  • vipreantivirus.com    Security, data loss, data leak prevention
  • virident.com    SSD based database management solutions (Bought by WD)
  • viridity.com    Data center and infrastructure resource management (IRM) tools
  • virsto.com    Server virtualization management tools (Bought by VMware)
  • virtensys.com    Virtual I/O and I/O virtualization (IOV)
  • virtualinstruments.com    SAN probes/analyzers (Formerly Finisar Analyzer tools)
  • VirtualIron.com    Server virtualization (Bought by Oracle)
  • VirtunetSystems    Storage I/O acceleration and cache tools for VMware
  • virtuon-inc.com    Cloud, virtualization IT consulting and staffing
  • visi.com    Managed service provider, cloud and hosting service
  • VisionSolutions.com    BC, DR and data protection solutions
  • visualstorageintelligence.com    Cross vendor cloud storage reporting and srmprovider
  • vitesse.com    Storage networking component supplier
  • vivisimo.com    eDiscovery and search
  • vizoncore.com    Virtualization tools and data protection for virtual servers
  • vizrt.com    Video management software tools
  • vkernel.com    VM performance tools (Bought by Quest, bought by Dell)
  • vmc.com    Cloud consulting and outsourcing
  • vmturbo.com    Cloud and virtualization workload management
  • vmware.com    Server virtualization software (Bought by EMC)
  • Vocus   Vocus    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
  • voltaire.com    InfiniBand Technology
  • vontu.com    Data loss prevention tools (Bought by Symantec)
  • Vormetric   Data security solutions
  • votela.com    Specialized network service provider
  • vscalesystems.com    Virtual and converged networking and consulting
  • vssmonitoring.com    Network monitoring
  • vwsolutions.com    Backup and data protection solutions
  • vyatta.com    Cloud and virtual networking, IOV
  • wanova.com    Desktop management solutions
  • wasabisystems.com    iSCSI storage
  • wdc.com    Western Digital Disk drives
  • WedgeNetworks.com    Security solutions
  • whiptailtech.com    Flash SSD solutions (Bought by Cisco)
  • Microsoft Skydrive   Cloud storage
  • windspring.com    Data management and DFR for mobile access
  • wipro.com    Business services
  • workscomputing.com    VAR
  • wovensystems.com    High speed networking switches
  • wwt.com    VAR/Systems integrator
  • wysdm.com    SRA and DPM management tools (Bought by EMC)
  • Xencode.com    Various open tools
  • XenData   Digital Archive solutions
  • xenos.com    Archive and data footprint reduction solutions
  • xfpmsa.org    10Gb multi-source trade group
  • xiotech.com    Renamed XIO: Storage sub-systems and software
  • xirin.com    Storage adapter (iSCSI) and chip vendor
  • xosoft.com    BC/DR and data protection replication tools (Bought by CA)
  • xsigo.com    I/O virtualization and service oriented connectivity – (Bought by Oracle)
  • xtreemfs.org    scaleout filesystem
  • xtremio.com    SSD startup – Bought by EMC
  • xyratex.com    Storage enclosures, subsystems, test equipmen, Lustre software (Bought by Seagate)t
  • xyxel.com    Networking technologies for cloud and consumer
  • yorktel.com    video solutions
  • Yosemitetech.com    Backup software (Bought by Barracuda)
  • yousendit.com    Cloud backup, storage and file sharing
  • zadarastorage.com    iSCSI cloud storage
  • zenoss.com    Converged, Virtual systems and cloud monitoring, DCIM
  • Zentera   Private cloud and IaaS solutions
  • zerto.com    Data protection for virtual environments
  • Zetera.com    Storage over IP alternative to iSCSI
  • zetta.net    Cloud storage solutions
  • zettapoint.com    Database management tools
  • zintrus.com    Systems development
  • zirtu.com    VDI management tools and platform
  • zlti.com    Email archive and management solutions
  • zmanda.com    Open source data backup
  • zoho.com    Online and cloud management solutions
  • zyrion.com    Network and systems monitoring and management

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD 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

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

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.

Posted on

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

  • www.10gea.org    10Gb Ethernet industry trade organization
  • www.1394ta.org    1394 (Firewire) trade association
  • www.3com.com    Networking equipment (Bought by HP)
  • www.3leafnetworks.com    I/O virtualization
  • www.3par.com    Clustered storage systems (Bought by HP)
  • www.3tera.com    IT Cloud management tools (Bought by CA)
  • www.4blox.com    Data center design services
  • www.4blox.com    Linux iSCSI target optimization stack
  • www.4bridgeworks.com aka Bridgeworks    SAN networking and connectivity solutions
  • www.80plus.org    Energy efficient power supply trade group

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD 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

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

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.

Posted on

Do you want a side of serverless BS (SLBS) for your data infrastructure fud?

Did you want a side of SLBS with your software or hardware FUD?

server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/17/2018

Did you want a side of serverless bs (SLBS) with your software or hardware FUD?

A few years ago a popular industry buzzword term theme included server less and hardware less.

It turns out, serverless BS (SLBS) and hardware less are still trendy, and while some might view the cloud or software-defined data center (SDDC) virtualization, or IoT folks as the culprits, it is more widespread with plenty of bandwagon riders. SLBS can span from IoT to mobile, VDI and workspace clients (zero or similar), workstations, server, storage, networks. To me what’s ironic is that many purveyors of of SLBS also like to talk about hardware.

Whats the issue with SLBS?

Simple, on the one hand, there is no such thing as software that does not need hardware somewhere in the stack. Second, many purveyors of SLBS are solutions that in the past would have been called shrink-wrap. Thirdly IMHO SLBS tends to take away from the real benefit or story of some solutions that can also prompt questions or thoughts of if there are other FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) or MUD (marketing uncertainty doubt). Dare to be different, give some context about what your server less means as opposed to being lumped in with other SLBS followers.

Data Infrastructures and SDDI, SDDC, SDI
Data Infrastructures (hardware, software, services, servers, storage, I/O and networks)

Moving beyond SLBS

Can we move beyond the SLBS and focus on what the software or solution does, enables, its value proposition vs. how it is dressed, packaged or wrapped?

IMHO it does not matter who or why SLBS appeared or even that it exists, rather clarifying what it means and what it does not mean, adding some context. For example, you can acquire (buy, rent, subscribe) software without a server (or hardware). Likewise, you can get the software that comes bundled prepackaged with hardware (e.g. tin-wrapped), or via a cloud or other service.

The software can be shrink wrapped, virtual wrapped or download to run on a bare metal physical machine, cloud, container or VMs. Key is the context of does the software come with, or without hardware. This is an important point in that the software can be serverless (e.g. does not come with, or depend on specific hardware), or, it can be bundled, converged (CI), hyper-converged (HCI) among other package options.

software wrapping, packaging tin-wrapped software
Software needs hardware, hardware need software, both get defined and wrapped

All software requires some hardware somewhere in the stack. Even virtual, container, cloud and yes, software-defined anything requires hardware. What’s different is how much hardware is needed, where it is located, how is it is used, consumed, paid for as well as what the software that it enables.

Whats the point?

There are applications, solutions and various software that use fewer servers, less hardware, or runs somewhere else where the hardware including servers are in the stack. Until the next truly industry revolutionary technology occurs, which IMHO will be software that no longer requires any hardware (or marketing-ware) in the stack, and hardware that no longer needs any software in the stack, hardware will continue to need software and vice versa.

This is where the marketing-ware (not to be confused with valueware) comes into play with a response along the lines of clouds and virtual servers or containers eliminate the need for hardware. That would be correct with some context in that clouds, virtual machines, containers and other software-defined entities still need some hardware somewhere in the stack. Sure there can be less hardware including servers at a given place. Hardware still news software, the software still needs hardware somewhere in the stack.

data infrastructure stack layers
Data Infrastructure stack layers (hardware and software get defined with increasing value)

Show me some software that does not need any hardware anywhere in the stack, and I will either show you something truly industry unique, or, something that may be an addition to the SLBS list.

Add some context to what you are saying; some examples include that your software:

  • works with your existing hardware (or software)
  • does not need you to buy new or extra hardware
  • can run on the cloud, virtual, container or physical
  • requires fewer servers, less hardware, less cloud, container or virtual resources
  • is the focus being compatible with various data infrastructure resources
  • can be deployed and packaged as shrink-wrap, tin-wrapped or download
  • is packaged and marketed with less fud, or, fudless if you prefer

In other words, dare to be different, stand out, articulate your value proposition, and add some context instead of following behind the SLBS crowd.

Where to learn more

  • EMCworld 2015 How Do You Want Your Storage Wrapped?
  • Software Defined Storage Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Algorithms + Data Structures
  • Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
  • Whats a 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

    Watch out for getting hung up on, or pulled into myths about serverless or hardware less, at least until hardware no longer needs software, and software no longer needs hardware somewhere in the stack. The other point is to look for solutions that enable more effective (not just efficient or utilization) use of hardware (as well as software license) resources. Effective meaning more productive, getting more value and benefit without introducing bottlenecks, errors or rework.

    The focus does not have to be eliminating hardware (or software), rather, how to get more value out of hardware costs (up front and recurring Maintenance) as well as software licenses (and their Maintenance among other fees). This also applies to cloud and service providers, how to get more value and benefit, removing complexity (and costs will follow) as opposed to simply cutting and compromising.

    Next time somebody says serverless or hardware less, ask them if they mean fewer servers, less hardware, making more effective (and efficient) use of those resources, or if they mean no hardware or servers. If the latter, then ask them where their software will run. If they say cloud, virtual or container, no worries, at least then you know where the servers and hardware are located. Oh, and by the way, just for fun, watch for vendors who like to talk serverless or hardware less yet like to talk about hardware.

    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.

    Posted on

    Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

    Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

    server storage I/O trends

    Big Files and Lots of Little File Processing and Benchmarking with Vdbench – Need to test, validate, compare, contrast or simply apply workload to file systems, NAS or other file-based access? Want the flexibility and simplicity to software define your benchmark workload to meet various needs? For example, millions of small files or thousands of large 5GB, 10GB, 15GB (or larger) files with various read, write size and access patterns spanning a single directory, or many with various depths? Do you want the flexibility for different platforms including Windows, *NIX, bare metal, container, virtual or cloud without a bulk tool using simple scripts that produce lots of insightful results? Then you will want to check this post out.

    Breaking the VMware ESXi 5.5 ACPI boot loop on Lenovo TD350 – Ever have a VMware host server go into a boot loop and purple screen of death (PSD) then displaying a message about ACPI or similar? After spending time searching and applying many filters to sift through the noise of false positive matches, finally found the simple fix (e.g. a BIOS setting) to break the VMware ESXi vSphere boot loop, or at least on a Lenovo server.

    Cloud and Object Storage

    Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview (Part I) – This is one of the perennial favorites that while new features have been added with others extended, the post series still provides a good overview, primer or refresher of various Amazon Web Services (AWS) services including how they work. Interesting in learning more about Microsoft and Azure, then check out this, this, this and this.

    Cloud Conversations: AWS EFS Elastic File System (Cloud NAS) – This is a companion to the above AWS as well as other cloud post series that looks at AWS Elastic File System. Note that other cloud service providers have also added NAS file access support, some are intra (e.g. inside AWS cloud), others are inter-cloud (e.g. inside and outside cloud) such as Azure (can work with external Windows Servers using SMB3). Even OpenStack has added NAS file with Manila folders and Ceph with CephFS among others. So when some people tell you that NAS and file access are dead particular for cloud, remind them of the increasing number of services and software stacks that are adding new services to allow their solution to be compatible with existing environments or applications.

    Server Storage I/O performance

    Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB – If you have used the free tool HammerDB (e.g. Hammora) for driving database workloads, simulations or benchmarks you should recall that the resulting statistics are rather lacking. Sure there is a nice GUI chart that shows current executing transactions per second (TPS) along with some very simple counters in the log. However compared to some other tools such as sysbench, Quest Benchmark Factory and YCSB among others, the Hammer metrics are rather lacking. In this post I show how you can collect some more metrics from SQL Server if you have to use HammerDB. View more server storage I/O performance benchmark and monitoring tools resources here.

    Windows Server 2016

    Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 – Microsoft released into general availability Windows Server 2016 and this post looks at some of the new features along with functionality including Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica (SR) as well as other enhancements. With these new and enhanced features Windows Servers increase their interoperability with Azure, as well as supporting aggregated hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), disaggregated converged (CI) as well as traditional workloads along with Hyper-V (and containers). One of the other new enhancements in Windows Server 2016 which now uses ReFS (Reliable File System) as its default file system that you can read more about here. RIP Windows SIS (Single Instance Storage), or at least in Server 2016 With Windows Server 2016 Microsoft removed single instance storage replacing with new capabilities that you can read more about in the this post.

    Garbage data in garbage data out

    Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage? There is a classic IT expression of garbage data in results in garbage data (or information out) in that your algorithms and data structures (which equals programs e.g. Niklaus Wirth) are only as good as the data they work on. What this means then is that if there is a large amount of big data then there can also be a big garbage in and garbage out problem unless addressed.

    Hard product vs. soft product – Hard product refers to something such as hardware, software or a service resource that is obtained and then joined with other resources in a particular way to create a soft product. Not to be confused with software, the soft product is the result or how resources get defined that give some ability or benefit. Think of a soft product as for how airlines can use the same airplane, serve the same coca cola, have same seats, yet their soft product is the service experience of how those are delivered, as well as how you find and buy or use them. Another way of thinking about it is hard products are the ingredients for a recipe, the recipe defines how those ingredients result in some food dish.

    how many IOPs can an HDD or SSD do

    Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? – This is part of a multi-post series looking at how many IOPs (or bandwidth) various HDD and SSDs can do handling different workloads. Of course, your results will vary with configuration settings, tools among other considerations. However, some of the older rules of thumb (RUT) about RPM and other considerations for HDDs have changed and continue to do so. As an example of how HDDs continue to evolve check out this popular post from the 2016 list Which Enterprise HDDs to use for a Content Server Platform.

    Part II: What I did with Lenovo TS140 in my Server and Storage I/O Review – This is a popular post series of some things I have done with a Lenovo TS140 including defining with various software as well as hardware. This is a great price performer value system that several years ago after testing one Lenovo sent me, I returned that to Lenovo and bought several of them to join my other systems.

    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources – This is a collection of various server, storage I/O and networking hardware, software as well as services tools, techniques as well as tips for benchmarking, comparing, simulation, testing, gaining insight across cloud, virtual, container and legacy resources. Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I) – This is one of the tools found on the server, storage I/O benchmarking and performance resources page. Diskspd is a tool developed by Microsoft as an alternative to using Iometer, vdbench, fio.exe, SQLIO among many others, plus, it is on github.

    server storage I/O nvme and ssd

    The NVM (Non Volatile Memory) and NVMe Place – Interesting and adoption in nand flash, nvram, 3D XPoint among other SSD and Non-volatile Memory (NVM) continues. Another popular post that you can find at thenvmeplace.com is this NVMe overview and primer – Part I. There is a growing interest, awareness and deployment adoption around NVM Express (NVMe) the new protocol for accessing NVMs and SSDs. Some of the common conversations and questions I encounter is confusion between NVM and NVMe, too which the answer is one (the former) are the media or devices, the other is the access method alternative to using AHCI/SATA or SCSI (e.g. SAS, iSCSI, FCP, SRP) among others.

    VMware VVOLs and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) continue to gain adoption and this post is part of an overview and primer. If you want to go deeper into VVOL as well as see some adoption insights check out Eric Sieberts post here over at vsphere-land.com

    Welcome to the Object Storage Center page – This is a micro site that has a primer and overview of cloud as well as object storage along with an expanding list of links to various resources, tips, technologies, tools, trends and industry activity.

    Where To Learn More

    www.storageio.com particular if you have not been there for awhile to check out the new streamlined look and navigation to various content including Server StorageIO update newsletters (free subscription) among other resources.

    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 wrapping up

    Some of the popular posts for 2016 are perennial favorites and based on experience will probably appear on the 2017 list. However there are also several new posts that appeared in 2016 that I suspect will also appear on the 2017 version of the above list, along with new content from 2017.

    Thank you to all of you who frequent StorageIOblog.com as well as StorageIO.com along with our various micro sites including server storage I/O performance and benchmarking resources, thenvmeplace.com, thessdplace.com, cloud and objectstoragecenter.com, data protection diaries among others.

    Also thank you for viewing various partner venues and syndicates with extra ones appearing throughout 2017. Watch for more content in the coming weeks, months and throughout 2017 on software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) along with server, storage I/O, networking, hardware, software, cloud, container, data protection and related topics, trends, technologies, tools and tips.

    Again, thank you

    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.

    Posted on

    If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

    If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

    If NVMe is the answer, then what are the various questions that should be asked?

    Some common questions that NVMe is the answer to include what is the difference between NVM and NVMe?

    Is NVMe only for servers, does NVMe require fabrics and what benefit is NVMe beyond more IOPs.

    Lets take a look at some of these common NVMe conversations and other questions.

    Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

    Some of the main feature and benefits of NVMe among others include:

      • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
      • Lower CPU used to handle larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
      • Higher I/O activity rates (IOPS) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
      • Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
      • Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
      • Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
      • Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
      • Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
      • Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

    NVM and Media memory matters

    Whats the differences between NVM and NVMe? Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) which as its name implies is persistent electronic memory medium where data is stored. Today you commonly know about NVMs as NAND flash Solid State Devices (SSD), along with NVRAM among others emerging storage class memories (SCM).

    Emerging SCM such as 3D XPoint among other mediums (or media if you prefer) have the premises of boosting both read and write performance beyond traditional NAND flash, closer to DRAM, while having durability also closer to DRAM. For now let’s set the media and mediums aside and get back to how they or will be accessed as well as used.

    server storage I/O NVMe fundamentals

    Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

    NVM Express (e.g. NVMe) is a standard industry protocol for accessing NVM media (SSD and flash devices, storage system, appliances). If NVMe is the answer, then depending on your point of view, NVMe can be (or is) a replacement (today or in the future) for AHCI/SATA, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). What this means is that NVMe can coexist or replace other block SCSI protocol implementations (e.g. Fibre Channel FCP aka FCP, iSCSI, SRP) as well as NBD (among others).

    Similar to the SCSI command set that is implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI (IP), FCP (Fibre Channel), SRP (InfiniBand), SAS) NVMe as a protocol is now implemented using PCIe with form factors of add-in cards (AiC), M.2 (e.g. gum sticks aka next-gen form factor or NGFF) as well as U.2 aka 8639 drive form factors. There are also the emerging NVMe over Fabrics variants including FC-NVMe (e.g. NVMe protocol over Fibre Channel) which is an alternative to SCSI_FCP (e.g. SCSI on Fibre Channel). An example of a PCIe AiC that I have include the Intel 750 400GB NVMe (among others). You should be able to find the Intel among other NVMe devices from your prefered vendor as well as different venues including Amazon.com.

    NVM, flash and NVMe SSD
    Left PCIe AiC x4 NVMe SSD, lower center M.2 NGFF, right SAS and SATA SSD

    The following image shows an NVMe U.2 (e.g. 8639) drive form factor device that from a distance looks like a SAS device and connector. However looking closer some extra pins or connectors that present a PCIe Gen 3 x4 (4 PCIe lanes) connection from the server or enclosure backplane to the devices. These U.2 devices plug into 8639 slots (right) that look like a SAS slot that can also accommodate SATA. Remember, SATA can plug into SAS, however not the other way around.

    NVMe U.2 8639 driveNVMe 8639 slot
    Left NVMe U.2 drive showing PCIe x4 connectors, right, NVMe U.2 8639 connector

    What NVMe U.2 means is that the 8639 slots can be used for 12Gbps SAS, 6Gbps SATA or x4 PCIe-based NVMe. Those devices in turn attach to their respective controllers (or adapters) and device driver software protocol stack. Several servers have U.2 or 8639 drive slots either in 2.5” or 1.8” form factors, sometimes these are also called or known as “blue” drives (or slots). The color coding simply helps to keep track of what slots can be used for different things.

    Navigating your various NVMe options

    If NVMe is the answer, then some device and component options are as follows.

    NVMe device components and options include:

      • Enclosures and connector port slots
      • Adapters and controllers
      • U.2, PCIe AIC and M.2 devices
      • Shared storage system or appliances
      • PCIe and NVMe switches

    If NVMe is the answer, what to use when, where and why?

    Why use an U.2 or 8639 slot when you could use PCIe AiC? Simple, your server or storage system may be PCIe slot constrained, yet have more available U.2 slots. There are U.2 drives from various vendors including Intel and Micro, as well as servers from Dell, Intel and Lenovo among many others.

    Why and when would you use an NVMe M.2 device? As a local read/write cache, or perhaps a boot and system device on servers or appliances that have M.2 slots. Many servers and smaller workstations including Intel NUC support M.2. Likewise, there are M.2 devices from many different vendors including Micron, Samsung among others.

    Where and why would you use NVMe PCIe AiC? Whenever you can and if you have enough PCIe slots of the proper form factor, mechanical and electrical (e.g. x1, x4, x8, x16) to support a particular card.

    Can you mix and match different types of NVMe devices on the same server or appliance? As long as the physical server and its software (BIOS/UEFI, operating system, hypervisors, drivers) support it yes. Most server and appliance vendors support PCIe NVMe AiCs, however, pay attention to if they are x4, x8 both mechanical as well as electrical. Also, verify operating system and hypervisor device driver support. PCIe NVMe AiCs are available from Dell, Intel, Micron and many other vendors.

    Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

    Keep in mind that context is important when discussing NVMe as there are devices for attaching as the back-end to servers, storage systems or appliances, as well as for front-end attachment (e.g. for attaching storage systems to servers). NVMe devices can also be internal to a server or storage system and appliance, or, accessible over a network. Think of NVMe as an upper-level command set protocol like SCSI that gets implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI, FCP, SRP).

    How can NVMe use PCIe as a transport to use devices that are outside of a server? Different vendors have PCIe adapter cards that support longer distances (few meters) to attach to devices. For example, Dell EMC DSSD has a special dual port (two x4 ports) that are PCIe x8 cards for attachment to the DSSD shared SSD devices.

    Note that there are also PCIe switches similar to SAS and InfiniBand among other switches. However just because these are switches, does not mean they are your regular off the shelf network type switch that your networking folks will know what to do with (or want to manage).

    The following example shows a shared storage system or appliance being accessed by servers using traditional block, NAS file or object protocols. In this example, the storage system or appliance has implemented NVMe devices (PCIe AiC, M.2, U.2) as part of their back-end storage. The back-end storage might be all NVMe, or a mix of NVMe, SAS or SATA SSD and perhaps some high-capacity HDD.

    NVMe and server storage access
    Servers accessing shared storage with NVMe back-end devices

    NVMe and server storage access via PCIe
    NVMe PCIe attached (via front-end) storage with various back-end devices

    In addition to shared PCIe-attached storage such as Dell EMC DSSD similar to what is shown above, there are also other NVMe options. For example, there are industry initiatives to support the NVMe protocol to use shared storage over fabric networks. There are different fabric networks, they range from RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based as well as Fibre Channel NVME (e.g. FC-NVME) among others.

    An option that on the surface may not seem like a natural fit or leverage NVMe to its fullest is simply adding NVMe devices as back-end media to existing arrays and appliances. For example, adding NVMe devices as the back-end to iSCSI, SAS, FC, FCoE or other block-based, NAS file or object systems.

    NVMe and server storage access via shared PCIe
    NVMe over a fabric network (via front-end) with various back-end devices

    A common argument against using legacy storage access of shared NVMe is along the lines of why would you want to put a slow network or controller in front of a fast NVM device? You might not want to do that, or your vendor may tell you many reasons why you don’t want to do it particularly if they do not support it. On the other hand, just like other fast NVM SSD storage on shared systems, it may not be all about 100% full performance. Rather, for some environments, it might be about maximizing connectivity over many interfaces to faster NVM devices for several servers.

    NVMe and server storage I/O performance

    Is NVMe all about boosting the number of IOPS? NVMe can increase the number of IOPS, as well as support more bandwidth. However, it also reduces response time latency as would be expected with an SSD or NVM type of solution. The following image shows an example of not surprisingly an NVMe PCIe AiC x4 SSD outperforming (more IOPs, lower response time) compared to a 6Gb SATA SSD (apples to oranges). Also keep in mind that best benchmark or workload tool is your own application as well as your performance mileage will vary.

    NVMe using less CPU per IOP
    SATA SSD vs. NVMe PCIe AiC SSD IOPS, Latency and CPU per IOP

    The above image shows the lower amount of CPU per IOP given the newer, more streamlined driver and I/O software protocol of NVMe. With NVMe there is less overhead due to the new design, more queues and ability to unlock value not only in SSD also in servers with more sockets, cores and threads.

    What this means is that NVMe and SSD can boost performance for activity (TPS, IOPs, gets, puts, reads, writes). NVMe can also lower response time latency while also enabling higher throughput bandwidth. In other words, you get more work out of your servers CPU (and memory). Granted SSDs have been used for decades to boost server performance and in many cases, delay an upgrade to a newer faster system by getting more work out of them (e.g. SSD marketing 202).

    NVMe maximizing your software license investments

    What may not be so obvious (e.g. SSD marketing 404) is that by getting more work activity done in a given amount of time, you can also stretch your software licenses further. What this means is that you can get more out of your IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, VMware and other software licenses by increasing their effective productivity. You might already be using virtualization to increase server hardware efficiency and utilization to cut costs. Why not go further and boost productivity to increase your software license (as well as servers) effectiveness by using NVMe and SSDs?

    Note that fast applications need fast software, servers, drivers, I/O protocols and devices.

    Also just because you have NVMe present or PCIe does not mean full performance, similar to how some vendors put SSDs behind their slow controllers and saw, well slow performance. On the other hand vendors who had or have fast controllers (software, firmware, hardware) that were HDD or are even SSD performance constrained can see a performance boost.

    Additional NVMe and related tips

    If you have a Windows server and have not overridden, check your power plan to make sure it is not improperly set to balanced instead of high performance. For example using PowerShell issue the following command:

    PowerCfg -SetActive “381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e”

    Another Windows related tip if you have not done so is enable task manager disk stats by issuing from a command line “diskperf –y”. Then display task manager and performance and see drive performance.

    Need to benchmark, validate, compare or test an NVMe, SSD (or even HDD) device or system, there are various tools and workloads for different scenarios. Likewise those various tools can be configured for different activity to reflect your needs (and application workloads). For example, Microsoft Diskspd, fio.exe, iometer and vdbench sample scripts are shown here (along with results) as a starting point for comparison or validation testing.

    Does M.2. mean you have NVMe? That depends as some systems implement M.2 with SATA, while others support NVMe, read the fine print or ask for clarification.

    Do all NVMe using PCIe run at the same speed? Not necessarily as some might be PCIe x1 or x4 or x8. Likewise some NVMe PCIe cards might be x8 (mechanical and electrical) yet split out into a pair of x4 ports. Also keep in mind that similar to a dual port HDD, NVMe U.2 drives can have two paths to a server, storage system controller or adapter, however both might not be active at the same time. You might also have a fast NVMe device attached to a slow server or storage system or adapter.

    Who to watch and keep an eye on in the NVMe ecosystem? Besides those mentioned above, others to keep an eye on include Broadcom, E8, Enmotus Fuzedrive (micro-tiering software), Excelero, Magnotics, Mellanox, Microsemi (e.g. PMC Sierra), Microsoft (Windows Server 2016 S2D + ReFS + Storage Tiering), NVM Express trade group, Seagate, VMware (Virtual NVMe driver part of vSphere ESXi in addition to previous driver support) and WD/Sandisk among many others.

    Where To Learn More

    Additional related content can be found at:

    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

    NVMe is in your future, that was the answer, however there are the when, where, how, with what among other questions to be addressed. One of the great things IMHO about NVMe is that you can have it your way, where and when you need it, as a replacement or companion to what you have. Granted that will vary based on your preferred vendors as well as what they support today or in the future.

    If NVMe is the answer, Ask your vendor when they will support NVMe as a back-end for their storage systems, as well as a front-end. Also decide when will your servers (hardware, operating systems hypervisors) support NVMe and in what variation. Learn more why NVMe is the answer and related topics at www.thenvmeplace.com

    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.

    Posted on

    January 2017 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 17, Issue I

    Hello and welcome to first 2017 issue of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Now that we are past the holidays, year-end crunch, post new years activity including NFL football playoffs, its time to get back on track for the new year and new things.

    There is a lot going on, in and around data infrastructure server, storage, and I/O networking connectivity from a hardware, software, and services perceptive. From consumer to small/medium business (SMB), enterprise to web-scale and cloud-managed service providers, physical to virtual, spanning structured database (aka “little data”) to unstructured big data and very big fast data, a lot is happening today.

    Watch for more coverage involving data infrastructures as well as other related topics in future newsletters, at StorageIOblog.com as well as in different venues and events.

    In This Issue

  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Resources and Links
  • Connect and Converse With Us
  • About Us

    • Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Cheers GS

    Industry Activity Trends

    Recent Industry News and Activity includes:

    Broadcom buying Brocade for $5.5B USD (if you missed last fall)
    Cavium QLogic expands 10GbE connectivity for server and storage I/O
    HPE announces enhancements to flash-ready HPE StoreVirtual 3200
    HPE buying scaleable HCI vendor Simplivity for $650 million USD (Cash)
    LinBit and SUSE providing open source high availability (HA) solutions
    StorageCraft (data protection software) acquires Exablox (object storage)
    Teradata has launched their big data database on Azure

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside Data Centers)
    SDx (Software Defined) Summit London UK
    SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics
    Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?
    Overview Review of Microsoft ReFS (Reliable File System) and resource links
    September and October 2016 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    In case you missed it:

  • PCIe Server Storage I/O Network Fundamentals
  • If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
  • Fixing the Microsoft Windows 10 1709 post upgrade restart loop
  • Data Infrastructure server storage I/O network Recommended Reading
  • Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Overview
  • IT transformation Serverless Life Beyond DevOps with New York Times CTO Nick Rockwell Podcast
  • HPE Announces AMD Powered Gen 10 ProLiant DL385 For Software Defined Workloads
  • AWS Announces New S3 Cloud Storage Security Encryption Features
  • NVM Non Volatile Memory Express NVMe Place
  • Data Protection Fundamental Topics Tools Techniques Technologies Tips

    • View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

     

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

    Via InfoStor: 10 Top Data Storage Applications
    Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
    Via InfoStor: 10 Top Data Storage Applications
    Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
    Via HPE: Decision guide: Public cloud versus on-prem storage
    Via InfoStor: Six Ways to Boost Data Storage Performance

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

     

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent and past Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    Via FutureReadyOEM:  When to implement ultra-dense storage
    Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
    Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics

    Check out these resources techniques, trends and tools. View more tips and articles here

     

    Events and Activities

    Recent and upcoming event activities.

    April 3-7, 2017 – Seminars – Dutch workshop seminar series – Nijkerk Netherlands

    March 15, 2017 – Webinar – SNIA/BrightTalk – HyperConverged (HCI) and Storage – 10AM PT

    January 26 2017 – Seminar – Presenting at Wipro SDx Summit London UK

    January 11, 2017 Webinar – Redmond Magazine
    Dell Software – Presenting – Tailor Your Backup Data Repositories to Fit Your Needs

    December 13 VMware webinar – vSAN, HCIBench, vSAN Observer and healthcheck

    December 7, 2016 11AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

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

     

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Useful links and pages:
    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/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/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
    VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

    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.

    Posted on

    Data Infrastructure Primer Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

    Data Infrastructure Primer Overview

    Data Infrastructure Primer Overview

    Updated 1/17/2018

    Data Infrastructure Primer Overview looks at the resources that combine to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of data infrastructures is to provide a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective. Put another way, data infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, process, move, secure and serve data as well as their applications for information services delivery. Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

    Various Types and Layers of Infrastructures

    Depending on your role or focus, you may have a different view than somebody else of what is infrastructure, or what an infrastructure is. Generally speaking, people tend to refer to infrastructure as those things that support what they are doing at work, at home, or in other aspects of their lives. For example, the roads and bridges that carry you over rivers or valleys when traveling in a vehicle are referred to as infrastructure.

    Similarly, the system of pipes, valves, meters, lifts, and pumps that bring fresh water to you, and the sewer system that takes away waste water, are called infrastructure. The telecommunications network. This includes both wired and wireless, such as cell phone networks, along with electrical generating and transmission networks are considered infrastructure. Even the airplanes, trains, boats, and buses that transport us locally or globally are considered part of the transportation infrastructure. Anything that is below what you do, or that supports what you do is considered infrastructure.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure overview

    Figure 1 Business, IT Information, Data and other Infrastructures

    This is also the situation with IT systems and services where, depending on where you sit or use various services, anything below what you do may be considered infrastructure. However, that also causes a context issue in that infrastructure can mean different things. For example in figure 1, the user, customer, client, or consumer who is accessing some service or application may view IT in general as infrastructure, or perhaps as business infrastructure.

    Those who develop, service, and support the business infrastructure and its users or clients may view anything below them as infrastructure, from desktop to database, servers to storage, network to security, data protection to physical facilities. Moving down a layer (lower altitude) in figure 1 is the information infrastructure which, depending on your view, may also include servers, storage, and I/O hardware and software.

    To help make a point, let’s think of the information infrastructure as the collection of databases, key-value stores, repositories, and applications along with development tools that support the business infrastructure. This is where you may find developers who maintain and create real business applications for the business infrastructure. Those in the information infrastructure usually refer to what’s below them as infrastructure. Meanwhile, those lower in the stack shown in figure 1 may refer to what’s above them as the customer, user, or application, even if the real user is up another layer or two.

    Whats inside a data infrastructure
    Context matters in the discussion of infrastructure. So for our of server storage I/O fundamentals, the data infrastructures support the databases and applications developers as well as things above, while existing above the physical facilities infrastructure, leveraging power, cooling, and communication network infrastructures below.

    SDDI and Data Infrastructure building blocks

    Figure 2 Data Infrastructure fundamental building blocks (hardware, software, services).

    Figure 2 shows the fundamental pillars or building blocks for a data infrastructure, including servers for computer processing, I/O networks for connectivity, and storage for storing data. These resources including both hardware and software as well as services and tools. The size of the environment, organization, or application needs will determine how large or small the data infrastructure is or can be.

    For example, at one extreme you can have a single high-performance laptop with a hypervisor running OpenStack; along with various operating systems along with their applications leveraging flash SSD and high-performance wired or wireless networks powering a home lab or test environment. On the other hand, you can have a scenario with tens of thousands (or more) servers, networking devices, and hundreds of petabytes (PBs) of storage (or more).

    In figure 2 the primary data infrastructure components or pillar (server, storage, and I/O) hardware and software resources are packaged and defined to meet various needs. Software-defined storage management includes configuring the server, storage, and I/O hardware and software as well as services for use, implementing data protection and security, provisioning, diagnostics, troubleshooting, performance analysis, and other activities. Server storage and I/O hardware and software can be individual components, prepackaged as bundles or application suites and converged, among other options.

    Figure 3 shows a deeper look into the data infrastructure shown at a high level in figure 2. The lower left of figure 2 shows the common-to-all-environments hardware, software, people, processes, and practices that include tradecraft (experiences, skills, techniques) and “valueware”. Valueware is how you define the hardware and software along with any customization to create a resulting service that adds value to what you are doing or supporting. Also shown in figure 3 are common application and services attributes including performance, availability, capacity, and economics (PACE), which vary with different applications or usage scenarios.

    Data Infrastructure components

    Figure 3 Data Infrastructure server storage I/O hardware and software components.

    Applications are what transform data into information. Figure 4 shows how applications, which are software defined by people and software, consist of algorithms, policies, procedures, and rules that are put into some code to tell the server processor (CPU) what to do.

    SDDI and SDDC server storage I/O

    Figure 4 How data infrastructure resources transform data into information.

    Application programs include data structures (not to be confused with infrastructures) that define what data looks like and how to organize and access it using the “rules of the road” (the algorithms). The program algorithms along with data structures are stored in memory, together with some of the data being worked on (i.e., the active working set). Additional data is stored in some form of extended memory storage devices such as Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) solid-state devices (SSD), hard disk drives (HDD), or tape, among others, either locally or remotely. Also shown in figure 4 are various devices that do input/output (I/O) with the applications and server, including mobile devices as well as other application servers.

    Bringing IT All Together (for now)

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure overview

    Figure 5 Data Infrastructure  fundamentals “big picture”

    A fundamental theme is that servers process data using various applications programs to create information; I/O networks provide connectivity to access servers and storage; storage is where data gets stored, protected, preserved, and served from; and all of this needs to be managed. There are also many technologies involved, including hardware, software, and services as well as various techniques that make up a server, storage, and I/O enabled data infrastructure.

    Server storage I/O and data infrastructure fundamental focus areas include:

    • Organizations: Markets and industry focus, organizational size
    • Applications: What’s using, creating, and resulting in server storage I/O demands
    • Technologies: Tools and hard products (hardware, software, services, packaging)
    • Trade craft: Techniques, skills, best practices, how managed, decision making
    • Management: Configuration, monitoring, reporting, troubleshooting, performance, availability, data protection and security, access, and capacity planning

    Where To Learn More

    View additional Data Infrastructure 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

    Whether you realize it or not, you may already be using, rely upon, affiliated with, support or otherwise involved with data infrastructures. Granted what you or others generically refer to as infrastructure or the data center may, in fact, be the data infrastructure. Watch for more discussions and content about as well as related technologies, tools, trends, techniques and tradecraft in future posts as well as other venues, some of which involve legacy, others software-defined, cloud, virtual, container and hybrid.

    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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    SDx Summit London UK (Planning and Enabling Your Journey to Software Defined)

    Planning and Enabling Your Journey to Software Defined)

    server storage I/O trends

    Will 2017 be there year of all software-defined X (e.g. SDx) where X can be everything from data centers (SDDC), data infrastructures (SDDI), infrastructure (SDI), storage (SDS), network (SDN) or marketing (SDM) among others? What about IoT, IoD, ByoD, ByoL (bring your own license), MaaS (metal as a service), clouds, containers, object storage, OpenStack, Mesos, Docker, Kubernetes, NVMe, flash SSD, SCM (Storage Class Memory) among other buzzword bingo terms, technologies and trends, will 2017 be there year for those among others?

    What is safe to say is that the above buzzword items, topics, trends, technologies, tools and techniques are in your future, what varies is when, where, how, why, with what and whom to assist you on your journey.

    server storage I/O events

    On January 26 2017 join me and others at the Savoy hotel in London UK for the SDx summit organized by Wipro.

    My presentation titled Planning and Enabling Your Journey to SDx will have a theme of Transiting from Hype and Marketing Hope to Deployment and Management. In other words, moving beyond SDBS and SDM to how to prepare, plan and what you can do today including hybrid deployments. Some of the topics, themes, trends, technologies, tools and tips in my discussion will include among others:

    • Software Defined Management and Data Protection
    • How to pack and prepare for your Software Defined Journey
    • Be prepared, plan for the unexpected, manage your journey
    • Learn the local language, expand your trade craft (skills)
    • Moving and migrating (brownfield) vs. start from scratch (greenfield)
    • ByoD, DiY, IoD, IoT, Cloud and Container conversations
    • What you can do today to prepare for your upcoming journey

    Where To Learn More

    Learn more and register here for the London UK SDx summit.

    What This All Means

    Regardless of if 2017 will be the year of SDx or any of the other industry popular buzz term trends, technologies and techniques, it is time to start planning as well as preparing. This means identifying questions, concerns and learning about the new tools and technologies that can be used in new ways, while also leveraging old things in new ways to enable a resilient, scalable, flexible as well as cost-effective data infrastructure. For those of you in the London UK area, learn more about the SDx summit organized by Wipro here and hope to see you there.

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. 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.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

    SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

    Updated 2/2/2018

    server storage I/O trends

    Will 2017 be there year of solid state device (SSD), all flash, or all Non-volatile memory (NVM) based storage data centers and data infrastructures?

    Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor looking at SSD trends, tips and related topics. SSDs of some type, shape and form are in your future, if they are not already. In my InfoStor piece, I look at some non-volatile memory (NVM) and SSD trends, technologies, tools and tips that you can leverage today to help prepare for tomorrow. This also includes NVM Express (NVMe) based components and solutions.

    By way of background, SSD can refer to solid state drive or solid state device (e.g. more generic). The latter is what I am using in this post. NVM refers to different types of persistent memories, including NAND flash and its variants most commonly used today in SSDs. Other NVM mediums include NVRAM along with storage class memories (SCMs) such as 3D XPoint and phase change memory (PCM) among others. Let’s focus on NAND flash as that is what is primarily available and shipping for production enterprise environments today.

    Continue reading about SSD, flash, NVM and related trends, topics and tips over at InfoStor by clicking here.

    Where To Learn More

    Additional related content can be found at:

    What This All Means

    Will 2017 finally be the year of all flash, all SSD and all NVM including emerging storage class memories (SCM)? Or as we have seen over the past decade increasing adoption as well as deployment in most environments, some of which have gone all SSD or NVM. In the meantime it is safe to say that NVMe, NVM, SSD, flash and other related technologies are in your future in some shape or form as well as quantity. Check out my piece over at InfoStor SSD trends, tips and related topics.

    What say you, are you going all flash, SSD or NVM in 2017, if not, what are your concerns or constraints and plans?

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and <a “https://storageioblog.com/book1”>Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

    Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

    server storage I/O trends

    IMHO there is no doubt that cloud and object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

    Granted, what type of cloud and object storage or service along with for work or entertainment are some questions.

    Likewise, what are your cloud and object storage concerns (assuming you already have heard the benefits)?

    Some other questions include when, where for different applications workload needs, as well as how and with what among others.

    Keep in mind that there are many aspects to cloud storage and they are not all object, likewise, there are many facets to object storage.

    Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor titled Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends that looks at the above among other items including:

    • Is cloud storage cheaper than traditional storage?
    • How do you access cloud object storage from legacy block and file applications?
    • How do you implement on-site cloud storage?
    • Is enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) safe and secure?
    • Does cloud storage need to be backed up and protected?
    • What geographic location requirements or regulations apply to you?

    When it comes to cloud computing and, in particular, cloud storage, context matters. Conversations are necessary to discuss concerns, as well as discuss various considerations, options and alternatives. People often ask me questions about the best cloud storage to use, concerns about privacy, security, performance and cost.

    Some of the most common cloud conversations topics involve context :

    • Public, private or hybrid cloud; turnkey subscription service or do it yourself (DIY)?
    • Storage, compute server, networking, applications or development tools?
    • Storage application such as file sync and share like Dropbox?
    • Storage resources such as table, queues, objects, file or block?
    • Storage for applications in the cloud, on-site or hybrid?

    Continue reading Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends over at InfoStor.

    Where To Learn More

    Additional related content can be found at:

    What This All Means

    As I mentioned above, cloud and object storage are in your future, granted your future may not rely on just cloud or object storage. Take a few minutes to check out some of the conversation topics, tips and trends in my piece over at InfoStor Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends along with more material at www.objectstoragecenter.com.

    Btw, what are your questions, comments, concerns, claims or caveats as part of cloud and object storage conversations?

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. 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.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Overview Review of Microsoft ReFS (Reliable File System) and resource links

    server storage I/O trends

    This is an overview review of Microsoft ReFS (Resilient File System) along with some resource links. ReFS is part of some Windows operating system platforms including Server 2016.

    Some context here is that review can mean an in-depth deep dive product or technology review, while another meaning is to simply to refresh what you may already know about ReFS. For this post, the focus is on the latter, that is a bit of overview that also functions as a refresh review of what you may already know. However click here to see how ReFS and NTFS compare.

    Click here to read more about Windows Server 2016, Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica (SR) and other related topics (or click on the image below).

    Microsoft Windows Server 2016
    Windows Server 2016 Welcome Screen – Source Server StorageIOlab.com

    What Is Microsoft ReFS and Why It Matters

    Microsoft ReFS (Resilient File System) is part of Windows Servers 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 as well as Windows 8.1 and 10 platforms as an alternative to NTFS file system. ReFS is designed not only for resiliency, also for scaling volumes beyond 256 TBytes (NTFS) to 4.7 Zettabytes (ZB). Note files size for both NTFS and ReFS is 18 Exabytes (EB). Click here to view various ReFS and NTFS data services, feature functionality along with limits. Part of being resilient means that ReFS is able to provide more data integrity protection to guard against logical data corruption.

    Note while ReFS is the future for Windows-based platforms, NTFS is not going away anytime soon, after all, FAT (File Allocation Table) volumes are still supported after how many decades of being around? ReFS has been around for several years having existed in earlier WIndows operating systems as an option, however with Server 2016, its status is promoted to a more prominent role with more features, data services and functionality.

    ReFS data services, features and functionality include:

    • Resiliency – Automatic detection and online repair of data corruption issues
    • Online repair – Isolate faults to localized area of data corruption for repair enabling volumes to stay online
    • Storage Spaces integration – Leverage mirror or parity spaces for automatic detect and repair via alternate data copies. Note that with Windows Server 2016 Microsoft also has introduced Storage Spaces Direct (S2D).
    • Data salvage – Should a volume become corrupt with no alternate copy (you should still have a backup), ReFS removes corrupt data from name space on a live volume. This capability enables surviving data to stay accessible while isolating the fault to the corrupted or damaged data.
    • Integrity streams – Checksums for metadata and optionally file data that enable ReFS to detect corruptions in a reliable way.
    • Proactive error correction – Besides validating data before reads and writes, ReFS also has a background scrubber data integrity check of volumes. This capability enables ReFS to proactively detect latent or silent data corruption so that corrective repair of damaged data can occur.
    • Real-time tiering – When combined with S2D maximizes performance and space capacity across performance and capacity tiers using NVMe, flash SSD and HDDs devices. Writes occur to the performance tier, with large chunks de-staged to capacity tier. Read acceleration enabled via cache. Can support all flash (e.g. performance NVMe and capacity TLC or other flash SSD) as well as hybrid mix of HDD and SSD configurations.
    • Block cloning for dynamic workloads including server virtualization such as accelerating checkpoint merge operations.
    • Sparse VDL (Valid Data Length) improves virtual machine (VM) operations reducing time needed to create fixed size VHDs from 10s of minutes to seconds.
    • Variable storage allocation cluster size of 4KB (for most environments) and 64KB (for environments with larger sequential file processing needs).

    ReFS Deployment Options

    Microsoft ReFS deployment options include:

    • Basic disk (HDD, and SSD) – Leverage applications or other resiliency and protection solutions.
    • SAS drive enclosures with storage spaces provides more data protection including availability as well as integrity and accessibility. Leverages classic storage spaces mirroring and parity protection for increased resiliency and availability.
    • Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) – Increased scalability, real-time tiering and cache server storage I/O performance (effectiveness) and capacity (efficiency) optimization. For increased resiliency adds block clone and sparse Valid Data Length (VDL) to boost VHDX file performance operations (create, merge, expand). For resiliency, built-in checksums, online repair as well as leverage alternate data copies combined with S2D to detect as well as correct both metadata as well as primary data corruption issues. Optimized for large-scale and virtualized application workloads.

    Where To Learn More

    For those of you not as familiar with Microsoft Windows Server and related topics, or that simply need a refresh, here are several handy links as well as resources.

    • Benchmarking Microsoft Hyper-V server, VMware ESXi and Xen Hypervisors (Via cisjournal PDF)
    • BrightTalk Webinar – Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDC) are in your Future (if not already here)
    • BrightTalk Weibniar – Software-Defined Data Infrastructures Enabling Software-Defined Data Centers
    • Choosing drives and resiliency types in Storage Spaces Direct to meet performance and capacity requirements (Via TechNet)
    • Data Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments (Redmond Magazine Webinar)
    • Deep Dive: Volumes in Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet Blogs)
    • Discover Storage Spaces Direct, the ultimate software-defined storage for Hyper-V (YouTube Video)
    • DUPLICATE_EXTENTS_DATA structure (Via MSDN)
    • Block cloning on ReFS (Via TechNet)
    • DISKSPD now on GitHub, and the mysterious VMFLEET released (Via TechNet)
    • Erasure Coding in Windows azure storage (Via Microsoft)
    • Fault domain awareness in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
    • Fault tolerance and storage efficiency in Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet)
    • FSCTL_DUPLICATE_EXTENTS_TO_FILE control code (Via MSDN)
    • Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (StorageIOblog)
    • General information about SSD at www.thessdplace.com and NVMe at www.thenvmeplace.com
    • Get the Windows Server 2016 evaluation bits here
    • Happy 20th Birthday Windows Server, ready for Server 2016?
    • How to run nested Hyper-V and Windows Server 2016 (Via Altaro and via MSDN)
    • How to run Nested Windows Server and Hyper-V on VMware vSphere ESXi (Via Nokitel)
    • Hyper-converged solution using Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
    • Hyper-V large-scale VM performance for in-memory transaction processing (Via Technet)
    • Introducing Windows Server 2016 (Free ebook from Microsoft Press)
    • Large scale VM performance with Hyper-V and in-memory transaction processing (Via Technet)
    • Microsoft Resilient File System (ReFS) overview (Via TechNet)
    • Microsoft S2D Software Storage Bus (Via TechNet)
    • Microsoft Storage Replica (SR) (Via TechNet)
    • Microsoft Windows S2D Software Defined Storage (Via TechNet)
    • NVMe, SSD and HDD storage configurations in Storage Spaces Direct TP5 (Via TechNet)
    • Microsoft Azure Stack overview and related material via Microsoft
    • ReFS integrity streams (Via TechNet)
    • ReFS and NTFS feature, data services and functionality comparisons (Via TechNet)
    • ReFS and NTFS limits (speeds and feeds via TechNet)
    • Resilient File System aka ReFS (Via TechNet)
    • Server 2016 Impact on VDI User Experience (Via LoginVSI)
    • Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I
    • Setting up S2D with a 4 node configuration (Via StarWind blog)
    • Setting up testing Windows Server 2016 and S2D using virtual machines (Via MSDN blogs)
    • SQL Server workload (benchmark) Order Processing Benchmark using In-Memory OLTP (Via Github)
    • Storage IOPS update with Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet)
    • Storage throughput with Storage Spaces Direct (S2D TP5 (Via TechNet)
    • Storage Spaces Direct hardware requirements (Via TechNet)
    • Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet with Video)
    • Storage Spaces Direct – Lab Environment Setup (Via Argon Systems)
    • Understanding Software Defined Storage with S2D in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
    • Understanding the cache in Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet)
    • Various Windows Server and S2D lab scripts (Via Github)
    • Volume resiliency and efficiency in Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet Blogs)
    • What’s New in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
    • Windows Server 2016 Getting Started (Via TechNet)
    • Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory (Redmond Magazine Webinar)
    • Server StorageIO resources including added links, tools, reports, events and more

    What This All Means

    Now is as good of time as any to refresh (or enhance) your knowledge of ReFS and its current capabilities particular if you are involved with Microsoft environments. On the other hand, if you are not involved with Microsoft, take a few moments to update your insight and awareness of ReFS, storage spaces, S2D and other related capabilities including Windows Servers converged (desegregated) and hyper-converged (aggregated) options to avoid working off of or with stale data.

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. 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.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    September and October 2016 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 16, Issue IX

    Hello and welcome to this September and October 2016 Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    In This Issue

  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Resources and Links
  • Connect and Converse With Us
  • About Us

    • Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Cheers GS

    Industry Activity Trends

    Recent Industry Activates and Trends

    EMC is now Dell EMC – What this means is that EMC is no longer a publicly traded company instead now being privately held under the Dell Technologies umbrella. In case you did not know or had forgotten, one of the principal owners of Dell Technologies is Michael Dell aka the founder of Dell Computers which itself went private a few years ago. Read more in this Server StoageIOblog update post.

    While Michael Dell and Dell Technologies continues to expand by acquiring companies (granted also shedding some assets to support that growth), HP Enterprise (HPE) is taking a different approach. Similar to Dell, HPE has been offloading some of its divisions and assets since its split into two separate companies about a year ago.

    More recently HPE has announced it is selling off some of its software assets to which follows other deals where HPE created a new partnership with CSC to offload or park some of its services assets. What’s not clear is HPE CEO Meg Whitman leveraging the trend that some Private Equity (PE) firms are interested in acquiring under performing companies or assets to prepare them as part of a pivot to profit scenario, or something else?

    • HPE selling off business units including software group here, here, here and here
    • HPE looking to boost its HPC and super compute business with $275B acquisition of SGI
    • Announced new shared storage for SMB and mid-size environments including for sub $10K price points. These include HPE StoreVirtual 3200 and HPE MSA 2042.
    • HPE and Dropbox partnership
    • Various other HPE news and updates

    Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) startup vendor Nutanix finally IPO (NTNX) after a not so consolidated IPO cycle. Prior to the IPO NTNX acquired other startup Pernix (VMware cache software solution) and calmio to beef up their product portfolio. Congratulations to NTNX and best wishes, hopefully the public markets will provide risk vs. reward, on the other hand, now being public, the spotlight will be on them.

    Nutanix Stock via Yahoo 10/31/16
    NTNX Stock Trading via Yahoo Finance 10/31/16 (Click to see current status)


    Microsoft has extended its software defined storage (SDS) along with software defined data center (SDDC) as well as software defined networking (SDN) capabilities by formerly announcing Windows Server 2016. A month or so ago Microsoft announced the 20th birthday or anniversary of Windows Server as well as having previously released Tech Previews (TP).
    See what’s new in Server 2016 here. For those not aware, With Windows Server 2016, you can configure it to be CI, HCI, legacy or various hybrid ways to meet your needs, along with your choice of hardware from your preferred vendor or solution provider. Read more about Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and related topics in this Server StorageIOblog post.

    Needless to say there is a lot of other activity in the works including VMware enhancements with vSphere 6.5 as well as VMware vSphere (and related tools) being announced as hosted on bare metal (BM) dedicated private servers (DPS) via AWS among other updates.

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

     

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

    Via InfoStor Top Ten Data Storage Performance Tips: Improving Data Storage
    Via ChannelProNetwork Your Time Will Come, All-Flash Storage
    Via FutureReadyOEM When to implement ultra-dense CI or HCI storage
    Via EnterpriseStorageForum Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
    Via EnterpriseStorageForum Storage Hyperconvergence: When Does It Make Sense?
    SearchCloudStorage: EMC VxRack Neutrino Nodes launched for OpenStack cloud storage
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Looking Beyond the Hype at Hyperconvergence in Storage
    CDW Digital: Transitioning Data Centers To Hybrid Environment
    SearchDataCenter: EMC, VCE, CI and Hyperconverged vs. Hyper-small
    InfoStor: Docker and Containerization Storage Buying Guide
    NetworkComputing: Dell-EMC: The Storage Ramifications
    EnterpriseTech: VMware Targets Synergies in Dell-EMC Deal 
    HPCwire: Dell to Buy EMC Focus on Large Enterprises and High-End Computing
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Storage Futures: Do We Really Need to Store Everything?

    View more Server, Storage and I/O hardware as well as software trends comments here

     

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent and past Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    Via Iron Mountain  Is Your Data Infrastructure Prepared for Storm Season?
    Via Iron Mountain  Preventing Unexpected Disasters: IT and Data Infrastructure
    Via FutureReadyOEM  When to implement ultra-dense storage
    Via Micron Blog (Guest Post)  Whats next for NVMe and your Data Center
    Redmond Magazine  Data Protection Trends – Evolving Data Protection and Resiliency
    Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs)  EVO:RAIL Part III – When And Where To Use It?
    Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs)  EVO:RAIL Part II – Why And When To Use It?
    Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs)  EVO:RAIL Part I – What Is It And Why Does It Matter?

    Check out these resources techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

     

    Events and Activities

    Recent and upcoming event activities.

    December 7, 2016 11AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

    November 29-30, 2016 – Nijkerk Netherlands Workshop Seminar (Presenting)
    Organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy
    Converged and Other Server Storage Decision Making

    November 28, 2016 – Nijkerk Netherlands Workshop Seminar (Presenting)
    Organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy     – Industry Trends Update

    November 23, 2016 10AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: BCDR and Cloud Backup
    Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Data Protection

    November 23, 2016 9AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Cloud Storage
    Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

    November 22, 2016 10AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Cloud Infrastructure
    Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

    November 15, 2016 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and SolarWinds
    Presenting – The O.A.R. of Virtualization Scaling

    November 3, 2016 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and Dell Software
    Presenting – Backup, Data Protection and Security Management

    October 27, 2016 10AM PT – Virtual Instruments Webinar
    The Value of Infrastructure Insight

    October 20, 2016 9AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Next-Gen Data Centers
    Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) – Servers, Storage and Virtualization

    September 20, 2016 8AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar
    Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)
    Enabling Software Defined Data Centers

    September 13, 2016 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and Dell Software
    Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory
    What’s New and How to Plan for Migration

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

     

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Useful links and pages:
    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/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/performance – Various server, storage and I/O performance and benchmarking
    VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio

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