Summer Book Update and Back to School Reading

August and thus Summer 2009 in the northern hemisphere are swiftly passing by and start of a new school year is just around the corner which means it is also time for final vacations, time at the beach, pool, golf course, amusement park or favorite fishing hole among other past times. In order to help get you ready for fall (or late summer) book shopping for those with IT interests, here are some Amazon lists (here, here and here) for ideas, after all, the 2009 holiday season is not that far away!

Here’s a link to my Amazon.com Authors page that includes coverage of both my books, "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and "Resilient Storage Networks – Designing Scalable Flexible Data Infrastructures" (Elsevier).

The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC)Resilient Storage Networks - Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Elsevier)

Click here to look inside "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and or inside "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elsevier).

Its been six months since the launch announcement of my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and general availability at Amazon.com and other global venues here and here. In celebration of the six month anniversary of the book launch (thank you very much to all who have bought a copy!), here is some coverage including what is being said, related articles, interviews, book reviews and more.

Article: New Green Data Center: shifting from avoidance to becoming more efficient IT-World August 2009

wsradio.com interview discussing themes and topics covered in the book including closing the green gap and shifting towards an IT efficiency and productivity for business sustainability.

Closing the green gap: Discussion about expanding data centers with environmental benefits at SearchDataCenter.com

From Greg Brunton – EDS/An HP Company: “Greg Schulz has presented a concise and visionary perspective on the Green issues, He has cut through the hype and highlighted where to start and what the options are. A great place to start your green journey and a useful handbook to have as the journey continues.”

From Rick Bauer – Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) – Education and Technology Director”
“Greg is one of the smartest “good guys” in the storage industry.
He has been a voice of calm amid all the “green IT hype” over the past few years. So when he speaks of the possible improvements that Green Tech can bring, it’s a much more realistic approach…”

From CMG (Computer Measurement Group) MeasureIT
I must admit that I have been slightly skeptical at times, when it comes to what the true value is behind all of the discussions on “green” technologies in the data center. As someone who has seen both the end user and vendor side of things, I think my skepticism gets heightened more than it normally would be. This book really helped dispel my skepticism.

The book is extremely well organized and easy to follow. Each chapter has a very good introduction and comprehensive summary. This book could easily serve as a blueprint for organizations to follow when they look for ideas on how to design new data centers. It’s a great addition to an IT Bookshelf. – Reviewed by Stephen R. Guendert, PhD (Brocade and CMG MeasureIT). Click here to read the full review in CMG MeasureIT.

From Tom Becchetti – IT Architect: “This book is packed full of information. From ecological and energy efficiencies, to virtualization strategies and what the future may hold for many of the key enabling technologies. Greg’s writing style benefits both technologists and management levels.”

From MSP Business Journal: Greg Schulz named an Eco-Tech Warrior – April 2009

From David Marshall at VMblog.com: If you follow me on Linked in, you might have seen that I had been reading a new book that came out at the beginning of the year titled, “The Green and Virtual Data Center” by Greg Schulz. Rather than writing about a specific virtualization platform and how to get it up and running, Schulz takes an interesting approach at stepping back and looking at the big picture. After reading the book, I reached out to the author to ask him a few more questions and to share his thoughts with readers of VMBlog.com. I know I’m not Oprah’s Book Club, but I think everyone here will enjoy this book. Click here to read more what David Marshal has to say.

From Zen Kishimoto of Altaterra Research: Book Review May 2009

From Kurt Marko of Processor.com Green and Virtual Book Review – April 2009

From Serial Storage Wire (STA): Green and SASy = Energy and Economic, Effective Storage – March 2009

From Computer Technology Review: Recent Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009

From Alan Radding in Big Fat Finance Blog: Green IT for Finance Operations – April 2009

From VMblog: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data CenterMarch 2009

From StorageIO Blog: Recent Comments and Tips – March 2009

From VMblog: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data CenterMarch 2009

From Data Center Links John Rath comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From InfoStor Dave Simpson comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From Sys-Con Georgiana Comsa comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From Ziff Davis Heather Clancy comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center”

From Byte & Switch Green IT and the Green Gap February 2009

From GreenerComputing: Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center February 2009

From Sys-con: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009

From ServerWatch: Green IT: Myths vs. Realities – February 2009

From Byte & Switch: Going Green and the Economic Downturn – February 2009

From Business Wire: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center Book – January 2009

Additional content and news can be found here and here with upcoming events listed here.

Interested in Kindle? Here’s a link to get a Kindle copy of "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elsevier) or to send a message via Amazon to publisher CRC that you would like to see a Kindle version of "The Green and Virtual Data Center". While you are at it, I also invite you to become a fan of my books at Facebook.

Thanks again to everyone who has obtained their copy of either of my books, also thanks to all of those who have done reviews, interviews and helped in many other ways!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Cheers – gs

Greg Schulz – twitter @storageio

StorageIO in the news

StorageIO is regularly quoted and interviewed in various industry and vertical market venues and publications both on-line and in print on a global basis. The following is coverage, perspectives and commentary by StorageIO on IT industry trends including servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, services, virtualization, cloud, cluster, grid, SSD, data protection, Green IT and more.

Realizing that some prefer blogs to webs to twitters to other venues, here are some recent links among others to media coverage and comments by me on a different topics that are among others found at www.storageio.com/news.html:

  • Virtualization Review: Comments on Clouds, Virtualizaiton and Cisco move into servers – July 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on Storage Resource Managemet (SRM) and related tools – July 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on flash SSD – July 2009
  • SearchDataBackup: Comments on Data backup reporting tools’ trends – July 2009
  • SearchServerVirtualization: Comments on Hyper-V R2 matches VMware with 64-processor support – July 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on HP buying IBRIX for clustered and Cloud NAS – July 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on HP buying IBRIX for clustered and Cloud NAS – July 2009
  • eWeek: Comments on NetApps next moves after DDUP and EMC – July 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on NetApps next moves after DDUP and EMC – July 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on EMC buying DataDomain, NetApps next moves – July 2009
  • SearchVirtualization: Comments on Microsft HyperV features and VMware – July 2009
  • SearchITchannel: Comments on social media for business – June 2009
  • SearchSMBstorage: Comments on Storage Resource Management (SRM) for SMBs – June 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on IT Merger & Acquisition activity – June 2009
  • Evolving Solutions: Comments on Storage Consolidation, Networking & Green IT – June 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on EMC letter to DDUP – June 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on best practices for effective thin provisioning – June 2009
  • Processor: Comments on Cloud computing, SaaS and SOAs – June 2009
  • Serverwatch: Comments in How EMC’s World Pulls the Data Center Together – June 2009
  • Processor: Comments on Virtual Security Is No Walk In The Park – May 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on EPA launching Green Storage specification – May 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on Storage Provisioning Tools – May 2009
  • Enterprise Systems Journal: Comments on Tape: The Zombie Technology – May 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on Oracle Keeping Sun Storage Business – May 2009
  • IT Health Blogging: Discussion about iSCSI vs. Fibre Channel for Virtual Environments – May 2009
  • IT Business Edge: Discussion about IT Data Center Futures – May 2009
  • IT Business Edge: Comments on Tape being a Green Technology – April 2009
  • Big Fat Finance Blog: Quoted in story about Green IT for Finance Operaitons – April 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on FLASH and SSD Storage – April 2009
  • SearchStorage AU: Comments on Data Classificaiton – April 2009
  • IT Knowledge Exchange: Comments on FCoE and Converged Networking Coming Together – April 2009
  • SearchSMBStorage: Comments on Data Deduplicaiton for SMBs – April 2009
  • SearchSMBStorage: Comments on Blade Storage for SMBs – April 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on MAID technology remaining underutilized – April 2009
  • SearchDataCenter: Closing the green gap: Expanding data centers with environmental benefits – April 2009
  • ServerWatch: Comments on What’s Selling In the Data Storage Market? – April 2009
  • ServerWatch: Comments on Oracle Buys Sun: The Consequences – April 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on Tiered Storage – April 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on Data Classification for Storage Managers – April 2009
  • wsradio.com Interview closing the Green Gap


  • IT Knowledge Exchange: Comments on FCoE eco-system maturing – April 2009
  • Internet Revolution: Comments on the Pre-mature death of the disk drive – April 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on EMC V-MAX announcement – April 2009
  • MSP Business Journal: Greg Schulz named an Eco-Tech Warrior – April 2009
  • Storage Magazine: Comments on Power-smart disk systems – April 2009
  • Storage Magazine: Comments on Replication Alternatives – April 2009
  • StorageIO Blog: Comments and Tape as a Green Storage Medium – April 2009
  • Inside HPC: Recent Comments on Tape and Green IT – April 2009
  • Processor.com: Recent Comments on Green and Virtual – April 2009
  • SearchDataCenter: Interview: Closing the green gap: Expanding data centers with environmental benefits – April 2009
  • Enterprise Systems Journal: Recent Comments and Tips – March 2009
  • Computer Technology Review: Recent Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009
  • VMblog: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009
  • Sys-con: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009
  • Server Watch: Comments on IBM possibly buying Sun – March 2009
  • Bnet: Comments on IBM possibly buying Sun – March 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on Tiered Storage 101 – March 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments – Cisco pushes into Servers March 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments – Cisco Entering Server Market March 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments – State of Storage Job Market – March 2009
  • SearchSMBStorage: Comments on SMB Storage Options – March 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on Sun Proposes New Solid State Storage Spec – March 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Comments on Despite Economy, Storage Bargains Hard to Find – March 2009
  • TechWorld: Comments on Where to Stash Your Data – February 2009
  • ServerWatch: Green IT: Myths vs. Realities – February 2009
  • Byte & Switch: Going Green and the Economic Downturn – February 2009
  • CTR: Comments on Tape Hardly Being On Way Out – February 2009
  • Processor: Comments on SSD (FLASH and RAM) – February 2009
  • Internet News: Comments on Steve Wozniak joining SSD startup – February 2009
  • SearchServerVirtualization: Comments on I/O and Virtualization – February 2009
  • Technology Inc.: Comments on Data De-dupe for DR – February 2009
  • SearchStorage: Comments on NetApp SMB NAS – February 2009
  • Check out the Tips, Tools and White Papers, and News pages for additional commentary, coverage and related content or events.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Recent tips, videos, articles and more

    Its been a busy year so far and there is still plenty more to do. Taking advantage of a short summer break, I’m getting caught up on some items including putting up a link to some of the recent articles, tips, reports, webcasts, videos and more that I have eluded to in recent posts. Realizing that some prefer blogs to webs to tweets to other venues, here are some links to recent articles, tips, videos, podcasts, webcasts, white papers and more that can be found on the StorageIO Tips, tools and White Papers pages.

    Recent articles, columns, tips, white papers and reports:

  • ITworld: The new green data center: From energy avoidance to energy efficiency August 2009
  • SearchSystemsChannel: Comparing I/O virtualization and virtual I/O benefits July 2009
  • SearchDisasterRecovery: Top server virtualization myths in DR and BC July 2009
  • Enterprise Storage Forum: Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology July 2009
  • SearchSMB ATE Tips: SMB Tips and ATE by Greg Schulz
  • SearchSMB ATE Tip: Tape library storage July 2009
  • SearchSMB ATE Tip: Server-based operating systems vs. PC-based operating systems June 2009
  • SearchSMB ATE Tip: Pros/cons of block/variable block dedupe June 2009
  • FedTechAt the Ready: High-availability storage hinges on being ready for a system failure May 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part XI – Key Elements For A Green and Virtual Data Center May 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part X – Basic Steps For Building a Green and Virtual Data Center May 2009
  • InfoStor Technology Options for Green Storage: April 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part IX – I/O, I/O, Its off to Virtual Work We Go: Networks role in Virtual Data Centers April 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part VIII – Data Storage Can Become Green: There are many steps you can take April 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part VII – Server Virtualization Can Save Costs April 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part VI – Building a Habitat for Technology April 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part V – Data Center Measurement, Metrics & Capacity Planning April 2009
  • zJournal Storage & Data Management: Tips for Enabling Green and Virtual Efficient Data Management March 2009
  • Serial Storage Wire (STA): Green and SASy = Energy and Economic, Effective Storage March 2009
  • SearchSystemsChannel: FAQs: Green IT strategies for solutions providers March 2009
  • Computer Technology Review: Recent Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center March 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part IV – Virtual Data Centers Can Promote Business Growth March 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part III – The Challenge of IT Infrastructure Resource Management March 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part II – Building an Efficient & Ecologically Friendly Data Center March 2009
  • Byte & Switch Part I – The Green Gap – Addressing Environmental & Economic Sustainability March 2009
  • Byte & Switch Green IT and the Green Gap February 2009
  • GreenerComputing: Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center February 2009
  • Some recent videos and podcasts include:

  • bmighty.com The dark side of SMB virtualization July 2009
  • bmighty.com SMBs Are Now Virtualization’s “Sweet Spot” July 2009
  • eWeek.com Green IT is not dead, its new focus is about efficiency July 2009
  • SearchSystemsChannel FAQ: Using cloud computing services opportunities to get more business July 2009
  • SearchStorage FAQ guide – How Fibre Channel over Ethernet can combine networks July 2009
  • SearchDataCenter Business Benefits of Boosting Web hosting Efficiency June 2009
  • SearchStorageChannel Disaster recovery services for solution providers June 2009
  • The Serverside The Changing Dynamic of the Data Center April 2009
  • TechTarget Virtualization and Consolidation for Agility: Intels Xeon Processor 5500 series May 2009
  • TechTarget Virtualization and Consolidation for Agility: Intels Xeon Processor 5500 series May 2009
  • Intel Reduce Energy Usage while Increasing Business Productivity in the Data Center May 2009
  • WSRadio Closing the green gap and shifting towards an IT efficiency and productivity April 2009
  • bmighty.com July 2009
  • Check out the Tips, Tools and White Papers, and News pages for more commentary, coverage and related content or events.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Visit my new Amazon authors page

    Amazon.com

    In addition to my books The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) being on Amazon, I now also have an Amazon Authors page.

    If you are an Amazon shopper, you may already know about authors pages, if, not, they are a feature available for book authors to tie together information about their books, blogs and other material in one venue, similar to what other social networking and medium sites provide.

    Visit my new authors page at Amazon.com by clicking here and if you have read either of my books, feel free to leave a review or comment, thanks in advance.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    March and Mileage Mania Wrap-up

    Today’s flight to Santa Ana (SNA) Orange County California for an 18 hour visit marks my 3rd trip to the left coast in the past four weeks that started out with a trip to Los Angeles. The purpose of today’s trip is to deliver a talk around Business Continuance (BC) and Disaster recovery (DR) topics for virtual server and storage environments along with related data transformation topics themes, part of a series of on-going events.

    Planned flight path from MSP to SNA, note upper midwest snow storms. Thanks to Northwest Airlines, now part of Delta!
    Planned flight path from MSP to SNA courtesy of Northwest Airlines, now part of Delta

    This is a short trip to southern California in that I have to be back in Minneapolis for a Wednesday afternoon meeting followed by keynoting at an IT Infrastructure Optimization Seminar downtown Minneapolis Thursday morning. Right after Thursday morning session, its off to the other coast for some Friday morning and early afternoon sessions in the Boston area, the results of which I hope to be able to share with you in a not so distant future posting.

    Where has March gone? Its been a busy and fun month out on the road with in-person seminars, vendor and user group events in Minneapolis, Los Angles, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Atlanta, St. Louis, Birmingham, Minneapolis for CMG user group, Cincinnati and Orange County not to mention some other meetings and consulting engagements elsewhere including participating in a couple of webcast and virtual conference/seminars while on the road. Coverage and discussion around my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) continues expand, read here to see what’s being said.

    What has made the month fun in addition to traveling around the country is the interaction with the hundreds of IT professionals from organizations of all size hearing what they are encountering, what their challenges are, what they are thinking, and in general what’s on their mind.

    Some of the common themes include:

  • There’s no such thing as a data recession, however the result is doing more with less, or, with what you have
  • Confusion abounds around green hype including carbon footprints vs. core IT and business issues
  • There is life beyond consolidation for server and storage virtualization to enable business agility
  • Security and encryption remain popular topic as does heterogeneous and affordable key management
  • End to end IT resource management for virtual environments is needed that is scalable and affordable
  • Performance and quality of service can not be sacrificed in the quest to drive up storage utilization
  • Clouds, SSD (FLASH), Dedupe, FCoE and Thin Provisioning among others are on the watch list
  • Tape continues to be used complimenting disks in tiered storage environments along with VTLs
  • Dedupe continues to be deployed and we are just seeing the very tip of the ice-berg of opportunity
  • Software licensing cost savings or reallocation should be a next step focus for virtual environments
  • Now, for a bit of irony and humor, overheard was a server sales person talking to a storage sales person comparing notes on how they are missing their forecasts as their customers are buying fewer servers and storage now that they are consolidating with virtualization, or using disk dedupe to eliminate disk drives. Doh!!!

    Now if those sales people can get their marketing folks to get them the play book for virtualization for business agility, improving performance and enabling business growth in an optimized, transformed environment, they might be able to talk a different story with their customers for new opportunities…

    What’s on deck for April? More of the same, however also watch and listen for some additional web based content including interviews quotes and perspectives on industry happenings, articles, tips and columns, reports, blogs, videos, podcasts, webcasts and twitter activity as well as appearances at events in Boston, Chicago, New Jersey and Providence among other venues.

    To all of those who came out to the various events in March, thank you very much and look forward to future follow-up conversations as well as seeing you at some of the upcoming future events.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Odds and Ends – Getting Caught Up, News and Other Updates

    This post is a collection of various odds and ends, news and updates as Im getting caught up on some things.

    Here’s a link to the first of what will be a series of up-coming short articles appearing at Byte and Switch related to my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC). The first installment appeared recently and is titled "Green IT & the Green Gap" and the theme of the installment is that in going green, you enable a business to grow, diversify, and expand its use of IT, all of which have economic benefits. Learn more about the green gap here.

    Also over at Byte and Switch, Paul Travis recently did an article "Going Green & the Economic Downturn" that takes a look the shifting green focus to that around economic and cost cutting opportunities during current finical turmoil. Also on the Green front, Drew Robb has an interesting article talking about server and IT data center "Green IT Myths vs. Realities" appearing in ServerWatch. Another new green and economic sustainability for IT data center article can be found over at Greener Computing with a link here. While on the topic of my new book, writer and blogger, Heather Clancy has some comments about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) over at ZDNET. Dave Simpson of InfoStor fame has a blog post as well that mentions my new book, check it out here. Also, check out this posting over at Datacenterlinks blogsite as well as a post over at Green Data Center blog site.

    Meanwhile inventory and book availability continue to improve at Amazon.com and other venues around the world as back-logs from pre-orders and initial book sales resulted in some sell-out or initial limited availability. My publisher CRC informs me that plenty of books are flowing out and into the distribution supply chain to meet risking demand including bulk and special promotional and educational sales. Thanks to all of you have obtained copies of my new book, drop me a note with your comments and feedback when you get a chance. Also watch for additional book news, reviews, reports and other programs to be announced over the coming weeks.

    For addressing data center bottlenecks, on the tiered storage and Solid State Device (SSD) front, that’s for both RAM and FLASH based, here’s an article over at Processor.com worth a look at. Here are a couple of other recent articles over at Processor.com addressing small form factor servers and refurbished servers, as well as freeing up data center space. Steve Kovosky has an interesting blog post over at Virtualization Conversation about Virtualization: Life Beyond Consolidation building on a previous blog posting I did a few weeks back pertaining to server and storage virtualization trends and directions. Here’s a recent article by Paul Shread over at Enterprise Storage Forum about T10 Object Storage Devices (OSD) and their current status or lack of progress including Sun’s shifting focus.

    Speaking of data protection for physical and virtual environments, tape, data protection management, monitoring and managing IT resource effectiveness not to mention stretching your IT budget dollar, here’s a link to an article over at CTR in which yours truly provides some commentary. Also on the data protection theme, Walaika Haskins over at TechNewsWorld has a good article about "Figuring Out the Best Way to Stash Your Data". Data dedupe continues to be a popular topic for discussion and Cindy Waxer recently wrote an article appearing at Inc. Technology pertaining to Dedupe and Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continence (BC). Also on the dedupe front, here’s a industry trends and perspective solutions brief over on the EMC site pertaining to policy based data dedupe deployment (don’t worry, its not a data dedupe debate document, however I suppose some of the Drs’ and Divas’ of Dedupe may see it that way which will give them something to debate ;) ) with a focus around when to use which type or mode of dedupe processing to meet different applications requirements (may require registration, however its free, the document that is).

    Learn more about the above and other related topics at the StorageIO In the news, tips, events and Industry Trends White Paper as well as Books and Blog pages.

    Cheers – gs

    Technorati tags: Trends

    On The Road Again: An Update

    A while back, I posted about a busy upcoming spring schedule of activity and events, and then a few weeks ago, posted an update, so this can be considered the latest "On The Road Again" update. While the economy continues to be in rough condition and job reductions or layoffs continuing, or, reduction in hours or employees being asked to take time off without pay or to take sabbaticals, not to mention the race to get the economic stimulus bill passed, for many people, business and life goes on.

    Airport parking lots have plenty of cars in them, airplanes while not always full, are not empty (granted there has been some fleet optimization aka aligning capacity to best suited tier of aircraft and other consolidation or capacity improvements). Many organizations cutting back on travel and entertainment (T&E) spending, either to watch the top and bottom line, avoid being perceived or seen on the news as having employees going on junkets when they may in fact being going to conferences, seminars, conventions or other educational and related events to boost skills and seek out ways to improve business productivity.

    One of the reason that I have a busy travel schedule in addition to my normal analyst and consulting activities is that many events and seminars are being scheduled close to, or in the cities where IT professionals are located who might otherwise have T&E restrictions or other constraints from traveling to industry events, some of which are or will be impacted by recent economic and business conditions.

    Last week I was invited to attend and speak at the FujiFilm Executive Seminar, no private jets were used or seen, travel was via scheduled air carriers (coach air-fare). FujiFilm has a nice program for those interested in or involved with tape whether for disk to tape backup, disk to disk to tape, long term archive, bulk storage and other scenarios involving the continued use and changing roles of tape as a green data storage medium for in-active or off-line data. Check out FujiFilm TapePower Center portal.

    This past week I was in the big "D", that’s Dallas Texas to do another TechTarget Dinner event around the theme of BC/DR, Virtualization and IT optimization. The session was well attended by a diverse audience of IT professionals from around the DFW metroplex. Common themes included discussions about business and economic activity as well as the need to keep business and IT running even when budgets are being stretched further and further. Technology conversations included server and storage virtualization, tiered storage including SSD, fast FC and SAS disk drives, lower performance high capacity "fat" disk drives as well as tape not to mention tiered data protection, tiered servers and other related items.

    The Green Gap continues to manifest itself in that when asked, most people do not have Green IT initiatives, however, when asked they do have power, cooling, floor-space, environmental (PCFE) or business economic sustainability concerns, aka, the rest of the Green story.

    While some attendees have started to use some new technologies including dedupe technology, most I find are still using a combination of disk and tape with some considering dedupe for the future for certain applications. Other technologies and trends being watched, however also ones with concerns as to their stability and viability for enterprise use include FLASH based SSD, Cloud computing and thin provisioning among others. Common themes I hear from IT professionals are that these are technologies and tools to keep an eye on, or, use on a selective basis and are essentially tiered resources to have in a tool box of technologies to apply to different tasks to meet various service requirements. Hopefully the Cowboys can put a fraction of the amount of energy and interest into and improving their environment that the Dallas area IT folks are applying to their environments, especially given the strained IT budgets vs. the budget that the Cowboys have to work with for their player personal.

    I always find it interesting when talking to groups of IT professionals which tend to be enterprise, SME and SMB hearing what they are doing and looking at or considering which often is in stark contrast to some of the survey results on technology adoption trends one commonly reads or hears about. Hummm, nuff said, what say you?

    Hope to see you at one of the many upcoming events perhaps coming to a venue near you.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Do you have your copy of “The Green and Virtual Data Center” yet?

    For those not familar with my new book, "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach), or, for those who have already ordered your copy (Thank You and look for them to arrive soon) as today marks the offical publication date, or, I guess you could say the birthday for "The Green and Virtual Data Center".

    Thus, I am pleased to share with you the news about the formal launch and publication (read the press release) of my new book, “The Green and Virtual Data Center”, which is released today by Auerbach/CRC-Press and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, CRC-Press and other venues around the world.

    The book focuses on the idea that IT infrastructure resources configured and deployed in a highly virtualized manner can be combined with other techniques and technologies to achieve a simplified and cost-effective delivery of IT services in a clean, green, and profitable manner. ?The Green and Virtual Data Center? covers these technologies and techniques that todays data centers should be considering while trying to maximize resources, such as power, cooling, floor space, storage, server performance, and network capacity.

    Some of the topics include:
     Energy and data footprint reductions
     Cloud-based storage and computing
     Intelligent and adaptive power management
     Server, storage, and networking virtualization
     Tiered servers for storage, network, and data centers
     Energy avoidance and energy efficiency

    Read more about the book here

    Here’s some contact informaiton pertaining to the book:

    General Questions:
    Greg Schulz (That’s me if you were wondering)
    StorageIO
    twitter.com/storageio
    greg@storageio.com
    +1 (651) 275-1563

    Press Interviews:
    Georgiana Comsa
    ClassyTech PR
    www.classytech.com
    georgiana@classytech.com
    +1 (408) 435-1500

    Book Reviews:
    John Wyzalek
    Auerbach/CRC Press
    john.wyzalek@taylorandfrancis.com
    +1 (917) 351-7149

    Bulk or Special Sales:
    Chris Manion
    Auerbach/CRC Press

    chris.manion@taylorandfrancis.com
    +1 (651) 998-2508

    In addition to the folks at Auerbach/CRC-Taylor Francis, I would also like to thank Theron Shreve and his crew at DerryField Publishing services who assisted with layout, copyediting and other manuscript pre-production activities, as well as all the other people who helped make the book a reality.

    Cheers – gs

    Hitting The Road Again

    The phrase hitting the road can have different meaning these days with rash of layoffs, cutbacks, right-sizing and so forth that are hitting companies of all sizes include IT manufacturer, services, media and even analysts firms of the like of giant Gartner (who also canceled some of their upcoming shows/conferences) and Forseters among others large firms.

    For those unfortunate who have been caught up in the various recent market dynamics and job cuts, best wishes and good luck. What I have been telling people who have been contacting me for referrels, references, looking to be hired and so forth is to check-out Carter Lusher on twitter and his blog site over at SageCircle (A site for Analyst Relations-AR folks). Also check-out Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester blog, both of whom have some tips and other useful information including how to use and leverage social media tools including twitter among others. Don’t forget the various groups within Linkedin (e.g. Linkedin Groups) and other networking groups for that matter if you have not already done so as there are various notes and information for job seekers as well as job openings looking to be filled. Speaking of social media and web 2.0 including twitter, I can be found at twitter.com/storageio.

    In the context of StorageIO, I’m off traveling on the road again for what marks the start of a busy and exciting winter and early spring schedule. While I wont be able to attend the big events in Washington DC or wine tasting with friends in the Sydney (Oz) area this week, I will be in San Jose, CA (Do you know the way to San Jose?) key noting at the SNIA Symposium and then at a private event in Tucson, AZ (Sorry, not at the bone yard or IBM for this trip).

    At the SNIA event, the audience will be those from the storage and networking industry in general including a mix of vendors and vars, some media and analysts and a few IT customers. The title for my keynote talk at SNIA this week will be "Storage Industry Update V2.009: Chaos and Opportunity ?What?s the Buzz!". As for the theme, well, to say that times are tough would be an understatement, yet, with the financial markets and economic chaos, for many originations, the show must go however it?s not business as usual, it?s doing more work, processing and storing more information in a given footprint and at a lower cost than in the past. Yet in all of the current chaos and conditions, there are near term tactical as well as long term strategic opportunities in the storage networking and data management ecosystem.

    In Tucson, the focus will be different with an audience of IT professionals from various size business and a theme of being sponsored by Silverado technologies The theme is Enabling Virtual IT Infrastructure – Trends in Data Management, Storage Management & Security Issues in Virtualized Environments. My keynote talk will be "Storage in a Virtual Data Center: Performance, Availability, Security and Data Protection". The session looks at storage and networking trends, technologies and techniques to support and enable a virtual data center.

    In addition to this weeks schedule, other upcoming events include a speaking engagement on "The Green and Virtual Data Center" at an event in Cancun in early February, stops in Dallas, Tampa, Miami, Los Angles, Birmingham and Cincinnati on the Techtarget custom events tour train as well as Las Vegas and others in April and beyond in addition to other activities. Check out the StorageIO events page for more information on these and other activities in a location near you. If you are in either San Jose or Tucson this week, or in any of the other upcoming locations, come on out, stop by and say hello as it would be great to catch up and hear what’s the buzz.

    Cheers – gs

    Getting Caught Up – Its Been a Busy Year

    I’m taking a bit of a break during the holidays, getting caught up on some things, getting a jump on some others, doing some reflecting and planning for 2009 and doing a bit of relaxing and having some fun as well.

    As I look back on 2008, I realize why it seems like just a blur having been busy writing articles, columns, FAQ and ATE, tips, white papers and solutions briefs, twitters and blog posts in addition to doing video, Webcast and pod casts while doing research and analysis consulting work in-between keynote and speaking at industry conferences, seminars and other events.

    In 2008, there were the hundreds of interviews by press/media and others to provide commentary, opinions and industry trends and perspectives, the hundreds of briefings and updates as well as providing feedback to vendors and their PR folks to stay current on industry activity including evolution and innovation. In between all of that, I managed to write a new book The Green and Virtual Data Center (Auerbach) that you can order at Amazon.com, as well as get some sightseeing and relaxation in along the way.

    Yes indeed, its been a busy yet good year and while I have not been everywhere, however looking back at 2008, I do feel like Ive been everywhere (Ive been everywhere Johnny Cash), at least virtually so to speak having been in Albany, Amsterdam (Netherlands), Atlanta, Bergen (Norway), Boston, Calgary, Cedar Rapids, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Freemont, Hadeland (Norway), Hamer (Norway), Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Lillehammer (Norway), Los Angles, Memphis, Minneapolis, Molde (Norway), New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Nijkrek (Netherlands), Olden (Norway), Orlando, Oslo (Norway), Plano, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Sogndal (Norway), Sonoma, St. Louis, Toronto, Tretten (Norway), Trondheim (Norway), Utrecht (Netherlands) and of course home in the Stillwater area.

    What does 2009 have in store?

    Like the IT industry, there will be more of the same to sum it up.

    That is, more content (white papers, solution briefs, industry perspectives and commentary, articles and blogs) generated that will appear in different venues.

    There will be new and more research and analysis activity around IT and data infrastructure techniques and techniques across servers, storage, I/O networking hardware & software tools, as well as more keynote and speaking events among other activities with topics around data protection and management, performance and capacity planning, green computing, SSD, data footprint reduction, business continuance (BC) and disaster recovery for virtual and physical environments, clouds, grids and clusters, virtualizaiton and I/O networking among others.

    Keep an eye on the events page with several items already listed including keynoting at the SNIA January symposium along with several keynote presentations with IT professionals at custom seminars and customer events in Tucson, Cancun Mexico and Las Vegas with others in the works.

    Thanks to all who helped make 2008 a tremendous and eventful year and best wishes to all for an exciting if not interesting 2009.

    Cheers and best wishes – gs

    Technorati tags: 2008, 2009, Johnny Cash, Amazon

    Tiered Communication and Media Venues

    Storage I/O trends

    Someone recently ask me what have I been doing as they had not seen or heard anything from me in a longtime on the web which had me a bit puzzled. Then it dawned on me, perhaps the person was focused on reading or following just one of the many different venues that I’m involved with around the world ranging from print, to web to live-in person to social networking and perhaps a site that I have not been doing much with as of late. On the flip side, I hear from others about how much they see and hear, good bad or indifferent and of all the different venues I’m involved with wondering how its all done or possible and how big of an army do I have to support all the content and venues.

    Well, that got me to thinking a bit about how people have various preferences for how they get or share information. Pondering all the different mediums available for disseminating, receiving and sharing information and discussion, do you have a preferred medium, perhaps vetted via a traditional publisher or publication or un-vetted via the rapid fire quick pace world of Twitter, IM, personal blogs and social networking?

    Do Webs, Blogs, Twitter, IM, Email, Articles, Books, Conferences, Podcasts, Magazines and other communication mediums fall under the class of tiered media and communications? IMHO sure, to each their own or many preferences.

    What do these have to do with servers, storage, I/O networks and associated data management technologies and techniques? Simple, they are all forms of communications and information exchange that different people have preferences for getting or sharing information, news and opinions.

    Now what does any of this have to do with myself and StorageIO? Simple, I realize that people have their own preferences on how they get or share information and thus give and take part in different venues and using various mediums around the world. How is StorageIO using and participating in these various mediums and venues? Read-on and see some examples. So here’s my take and what I’m doing with StorageIO to take part with different people using several diverse forms or mediums.

    For some, its via web sites such as the main StorageIO web site (www.storageio.com) where information is added with regards to news, events, books, tips and articles, white papers and reports, services and experience among other content material or information.

    StorageIO website www.storageio.com

    Some people prefer traditionally published, printed and vetted content such as "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elsevier) ISBN-10: 1555583113 or ISBN-13: 978-1555583118 or "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach) ISBN-10: 1420086669 or ISBN-13: 978-1420086669 as well as digital versions of published books like those on Kindle.

    Books by StorageIO at www.storageio.com/books.html

    Yet another venue are events such as conferences, seminars, custom events or other live in person meetings such as those found on the StorageIO events page.

    Events at www.storageio.com/events.html

    Some people like reading blogs such as Gregs’ StorageIO Blog (www.storageioblog.com) which can also be accessed via the main StorageIO web site (www.storageio.com).

    StorageIO Blog

    For other people, the preference is reading about information, industry trends and perspectives, quotes and interviews via traditional news sources, both IT industry related as well as market verticals such as those among others at the StorageIO in the News page.

    StorageIO in the news at www.storageio.com/news.html

    Another preference is to get information via pod cast, web cast or videos including those found here, here, here, and here among others.

    Podcasts with StorageIO

    Then the new and emerging mediums including Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Plaxo, Technorati, and Linkedin, among others.

    StorageIO on twitter at www.twitter/storageio

    While the number of print based industry specific publications is on the decline, there are still some venues that print monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly venues of their pubs also digital versions to compliment web-based content such as searchstorage, enterprise storage forum and many others.

    StorageIO in Print (physical and virtual)

    Did I answer the question of how StorageIO is using and participating in different venues? If not, check out those mentioned above to learn and see more. However in a nutshell, there is a mix of working with existing venues ranging from books, to articles in journals, tips and commentary in news and other venues. There are also industry trends and perspectives white papers and solution briefs, web casts, pod casts and videos. There are live in person participating at conferences, seminars and custom events as well as regular updates on the web site and blogsite. For those who are into real-time, even more so than a blog, then there are the social sites including twitter or networking sites including Linkedin among others not to mention RSS feeds.

    Do you prefer to get news and information as it happens, or, perhaps even before it happens as the story is still un-folding, or, perhaps to wait and get the story with insight and perspectives along with the story behind the story?

    Do you have a preferred venue and medium for getting and enhancing information, or perhaps some combination of the above or others including Instant Messaging such as AOL (storageio), or email (info at storageio dot com), RSS, POTS or Plain Old Telephone System or Skype or Snail mail among many others venues, tools or aggregators and so what is it?

    Needless to say, there are plenty of changes and options for getting and giving information and the one thing we can count on being constant is change it self.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Thank you Gartner for generating green awareness for my new book: The Green and Virtual Data Center!

    Storage I/O trends

    The other day Gartner issued a press release about their new findings that Users Are Becoming Increasingly Confused About the Issues and Solutions Surrounding Green IT.

    This however what is missing from the Gartner report and action steps is to also say to read my new book “The Green and Virtual Data Center” (Auerbach).

    However in all fairness, since Gartner has not yet seen it, I would seriously doubt that they would endorse anything other than one of their own publications.

    Regardless, its great to see Gartner among others joining in and helping to transition industry awareness from Green Hype and help to close the Green gap (read more here and here) and begin addressing core issues that IT organizations can and are addressing to improve efficiency, address costs and enable sustainable business growth in an economic and environmental friendly way.

    Thank you Gartner and let me know when and where you want a copy sent for a formal review and endorsement of my new book. Meanwhile, you can learn more at www.thegreenandvirtualdatacenter.com including a variety of green and related power, cooling, floor-space, environmental health and safety-EHS (PCFE) or green topics along with where to pre-order your advance copy from Amazon.com as well as other fine venues around the world.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Green, Virtual, Servers, Storage and Networking 2008 Beijing Olympics

    Storage I/O trends

    How about those opening 2008 Beijing Olympic ceremonies on NBC last night?

    If you were like me, I had my DVR capture the event while out enjoying the nice August evening with some friends doing some relaxing and fishing (we did catch and release fish!) on the scenic St. Croix river.

    John Nelson with a small mouth bass caught and released on the St. Croix River During 2008 Beijing Olympics
    Fishing while DVR records 2008 Olympics

    John Nelson with a northern pike (swamp shark) caught and released on the St. Croix River During 2008 Beijing Olympics
    Fishing while DVR records 2008 Olympics

    A young bald eagle seen during fishing on the St. Croix river during opening of 2008 Olympic games
    A young bald eagle seen during fishing while DVR records 2008 Olympics

    The reason I bring up the Olympics, servers, storage, networking, virtualization and green topics are a couple of themes. One being all the news and content available to keep track of what is happening with the games taking place all of which is being stored on servers, storage and relying on networks to access the rich media and unstructured data via the web or traditional media. The 2008 summer games are also being described as the on-line and virtual olympics. The amount of storage being used to store digital data from the 2008 Olympics for later playback, which then gets recorded on DVRs if not watched in real-time is staggering as are the number of servers and networking capabilities being used. In addition to the video, audio, still photos, text and blogs, then there are the security cameras in Beijing generating massive amounts of digital data.

    For those who track or keep an eye or ear open towards data and storage management, the amount of data that continues to grow and number of copies that get created should be a familiar theme. Of course, you would then have heard that the magic elixir is to simply de-dupe everything. That is reduce your data footprint by eliminating all of those extra copies however easier said then done, especially when a copy of the games is being transmitted and saved to millions of DVRs or other forms of data storage servers around the world.

    For the time being, I prefer that my DVR support more usable storage capacity and real-time compression so that I can keep more copies of my favorite shows and of course the Olympics all in HDTV, which of course chews up storage space faster than a highly animated PowerPoint slide deck from your favorite vendors most recent, or, upcoming product announcements.

    The other theme is in addition to being Olympic time, as well as late summer here in the northern hemisphere or winter for our friends in the summer hemisphere, its also pre-briefing and early product announcement time for the barrage of fall server, storage, networking, I/O, software, virtualization and green related solutions. So far, Im not sure if its the Olympics or what, however the bait line on the upcoming announcements and briefings include the tags “Industry First”, “Industry Unique”, “Only Vendor”, “Only Product”, “Revolutionary”, “First Vendor” or “First Product”, “Fastest”, “Largest”, “Greenest” among other interesting spins and twists that would even make an Olympic gymnast dizzy.

    So enjoy the Olympic , keep those hard disk drives in your DVR cool while managing the usable capacity and watch for more gold medal attempts both from Beijing, as well as from your favorite IT vendors coming to a podium to you soon with their upcoming announcements, some of which may be award winning. Also check out www.greendatastorage.com which is now also pointed to by www.thegreenandvirtualdatacenter.com that has a new look and feel as well as some updated content with more on the way.

    Cheers
    gs

    technorati tags: Green Gap, Green Hype, Green IT, PCFE, The Green and Virtual Data Center, Virtualization, StorageIO, Green Washing

    Im Leaving… On A Jet Plane…

    This is a test message of sorts while in transit on a plane at the gate waiting for the flight to depart from my mobile device. Hence this will be a short post however will be adding some new material soon both here as well as on www.storageio.com and www.greendatastorage.com where some new material pertaining to metrics have been added.

    Ok, time to go.

    Cheers
    gs