Getting Caught Up What Happened In September 2017

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Getting Caught Up, What Happened In September?

Seems like just yesterday it was the end of August with the start of VMworld in Las Vegas, now its the end of September and Microsoft Ignite in Orlando is wrapping up. Microsoft has made several announcements this week at Ignite including Azure cloud related, AI, IoT, Windows platforms, O365 among others. More about Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack, Windows Server, Hyper-V and related data infrastructure topics in future posts.

Like many of you, September is a busy time of the year, so here is a recap of some of what I have been doing for the past month (among other things).

vmworld 2017

VMworld Las Vegas

During VMworld US VMware announced enhanced workspace, security and endpoint solutions, Pivotal Container Service (PKS) with Google for Kubernetes serverless container management, DXC partnership for hybrid cloud management, security enablement via its AppDefense solutions, data infrastructure platform enhancements including integrated OpenStack, vRealize management tools, vSAN among others. VMware also made announcements including expanded multi-cloud and hybrid cloud support along with VMware on AWS as well as Dell EMC data protection for VMware and AWS environments.

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Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press) at VMworld bookstore

In other VMworld activity, my new book Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press) made its public debut in the VMware book store where I did a book signing event. You can get your copy of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials which includes Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC) along with hybrid, multi-cloud, serverless, converged and related topics at Amazon among other venues. Learn more here.

Software Defined Everything (x)

In early September I was invited to present at the Wipro Software Defined Everything (x) event in New York City. This event follows Wipro invited me to present at in London England this past January at the inaugural SDx Summit event. At the New York City event my presentation was Planning and Enabling Your Journey to SDx which bridged the higher level big picture industry trends to the applied feet on the ground topics. Attendees of the event included customers, prospects, partners, various analyst firms along with Wipro personal.

At the Wipro event during a panel discussion a question was asked about definition of software defined. After the usual vendor and industry responses, mine was a simple, put the emphasis on Define as opposed to software, with a focus on what is the resulting outcome. In other words how and what are you defining (e.g. x) which could be storage, server, data center, data infrastructure, network among others to make a particular result, outcome, service or capability. While the emphasis is around defined, that also can mean curate, compose, craft, program or whatever you prefer to create an outcome.

Image via snia.org

Role of Storage in a Software Defined Data Infrastructure

At the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) Storage Developers Conference (SDC) in Santa Clara I did a talk about the role of Storage in Software Defined Data Infrastructures. The theme was that not only is there a role, storage is fundamental and essential for any software defined data infrastructure (as well as legacy) from cloud to container, serverless to virtual servers, converged and hybrid among others. Other themes included the changing role of storage along with how hardware needs software, software needs hardware, and serverless has hardware and software somewhere in the stack. Tradecraft along with other related data infrastructure topics were also discussed.

Data Infrastructures Protect Preserve Secure and Serve Information
Various IT and Cloud Infrastructure Layers including Data Infrastructures

While promoted as an event for storage developers by storage developers, based on a lot of the content presented, SNIA could easily increase attendance to a broader audience with some slight tweaks as well as messaging. If SNIA is looking to focus the event only for vendor storage developers, surprise surprise, there were developers there, however I also talked with IT customers who were there among other non developers. SDC IMHO is not a replacement for SNW, however with some simple adjustments in messaging from who shouldn’t attend to who should or could attend, more attendees and sponsors might just happen appear.

Check out the SNIA SDC presentations here, along with my presentation from the 2017 event here (among others).

tape and cloud storage

Tape in a Software Defined and Hybrid Cloud World

I was invited by Fujifilm to present at their recent 9th annual executive summit in Seattle. The Fujifilm event was attended by various partners, customers and industry folks covering a diverse set of topics. Focus areas spanned from legacy IT to hyper-scale to public cloud and High-Performance Compute (HPC) among others. Magnetic Tape (e.g. tape) may be going away from your data center, however, chances are if you are doing or storing things in the cloud, your data may end up on tape. In other words, not only does tape continue to evolve, its place and how used (as well as accessed) is also changing. Check out the Fujifilm site here where you can scroll down and check out mine and other presentations from the event.

Focus on Data Protection (and recovery)

September also saw hurricanes, tropical storms, flooding, earthquakes, and acts of natural events, to man-made accidental as well as intentional including software-defined threats such as ransomware, malware, virus, Equifax data information breaches, leaks, loss among other security concerns. A reminder that there are the headline-making news events, as well as those that may be more common yet not widely talked about. What this means is that big or small, full or partial damage, destruction, loss or loss of access, data protection should be proactive to enable recovery instead of an afterthought.

Think of data protection as an investment instead of cost overhead, however that also means finding ways to spread costs out while gaining more benefit. Also remember that if something can occur, fail or happen, it probably will. In other words, the question should not be if, rather when, with what impact. This also means evolving from backup/restore, disaster recovery to business resiliency that enables your applications and data to stay available as well as accessible. In other words, how well are you prepared?

Additional data protection related topics and content include:

  • Free Webinar (registration required) with tips for disaster recovery (DR) and business resiliency (BR)
  • Preventing Unexpected Disasters article tip via Iron Mountain
  • Server StorageIO data infrastructure data protection diaries (various tips and content)
  • Free webinar (registration required) planning for GDPR
  • Time to recover, do you know where backup data is (article from Computerweekly)
  • Ensuring your data infrastructure remains available (article from Networkworld)
  • Tips on preparing for Hurricane and storm season (via IronMountain)

Expanding Your Data Infrastructure Tradecraft

At the September Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP) Computer Measurement Group (CMG) event, I gave a presentation discussing industry trends perspectives, buzzword bingo updates including software defined, NVM (the media) vs. NVMe (the interface) benchmarking, tools, cloud, serverless and tradecraft. Tradecraft as a refresher are those skills and fundamental experiences you acquire over time including what tools, techniques to use for different scenarios.

As part of the CMG presentation, the discussion looked at expanding your data infrastructure tradecraft into adjacent areas around your current focus. Also discussed were the importance of context as different words have two or more meanings. For example SAS can mean Scandinavian Air System, Statistics Analysis Software the original unstructured and big data tool, as well as for storage Serial Attached SCSI. However there is another meaning for SAS which spans server, storage, networking, cloud, security and other focus areas which is Shared Access Signature.

Downloads the CMG and other presentations from the Server StorageIO website here.

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

What This All Means

The above are some of the things I was involved with during September with themes of data infrastructure, data protection, software defined cloud, virtual, serverless containers, servers, storage, I/O networking, SSD including NVMe, performance and capacity planning, metrics that matter, management among other topics. It was great meeting many new people at the various venues this past month, likewise seeing old acquaintances and friends. Also thanks to all who have ordered copies of my new book Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials along with your comments. Check out the Server StorageIO data infrastructure update newsletter for other related activity, industry trends among other topics. Now lets see how fast October and the rest of 2017 goes.

Ok, nuff said, for now.
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (and vSAN). 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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

August 2017 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter



Server StorageIO August 2017 Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

Volume 17, Issue VII (Pre VMworld 2017)

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

Its end of summer season here in north america which means wrapping up holidays, vacations, back to school shopping (and going to school), as well as the start of the fall IT technology conference season. VMworld 2017 USA is this week in Las Vegas and there will be several announcements coming out of that event. Given all of the activity so far this month, I’m going to cover the VMworld and related topics in a special early September issue of this newsletter.

Speaking of VMworld 2017, if you are going to be there in Las Vegas, stop by the book store located in the community village area on Tuesday at 1PM I will be doing a book signing, meet and greet, stop by and say hello.

Thanks to all who participated in the recent thevPad top 100 vBloggers event, I am honored to have StorageIOblog listed in the top 100 vBlogs. Also congratulations to new and returning fellow Microsoft MVPs and VMware vExperts. There is a lot going on in the industry, lets get to it in this Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter.

In This Issue

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter (pre VMworld edition).

Cheers GS

Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

Acronis announced True Image 2018 for home based data protection (backup), while Crashplan aka code42 announced they were getting out of the consumer, small office home office (SOHO) backup and data protection space to focus on the enterprise.

Cisco bought software defined storage converged infrastructure software vendor Springpath for about $320M USD. Cisco and Swiftstack (object storage software) also announced interoperability news with the UCS S32600 storage server platform.

GPU vendor NVIDIA announced Quadro Virtual Data Center workstation technology.

Meanwhile ioFABRIC announced their new Vicinity 3.0 software defined management solution.

Microsemi (remember PMC Sierra) announced release of its Flashtec PCIe controllers to help speed adoption deployment of SSDs including NVMe based.

Microsoft bought Cycle Computing to enhance Azure services, while also making Azure Blob storage tiering available as part of an ongoing public preview. For those not aware, Azure Blob is similar to what other services call objects. Get in on the public preview here. For those who live in a hybrid world where your environment and experience include both Windows and Linux, check out Windows Services for Linux here. With this service which can install onto an Windows 10 system along side Win32 (e.g. it co-exists, its not a virtual machine), you can choose from the Windows Store which Linux distro you want (e.g. Centos, Ubuntu, etc).

Need to learn, refresh or simply gain a better understanding of Microsoft PowerShell for software defined management of Windows, Azure and other environments? Check out this great post from Microsoft Blogs.

For those who work in a Windows or Azure environment, here are some useful icons for Powerpoint, Visio, PNG and SVG from Microsoft. With Microsoft Ignite coming up in September, watch for some interesting update enhancements to Windows Server from a server storage I/O perspective.

NextPlatform.com has an interesting article on Exascale Timeline for Storage and I/O systems worth a read. Panzura global name space and scale out software defined storage management software announced mobile client file sharing. After dropping their own cloud business, Verizon is now a virtual network services partner with Amazon.

Over at all flash array (AFA) SSD vendor Pure, revenues are growing closer to an annual $1B USD rate despite loss per share, Pure also announced a change in leadership with current CEO Scott Dietzen stepping aside for Charles Giancarlo to take the lead spot.

VMware has been talking about the continued increase in customer adoption and deployment of VSAN now they are showing they eat their own dog food. Check out this post here from VMware that shows how many and what size VSAN clusters they are using for various internal operations. Also on the VMware storage front, learn more about enhancements for large and small file allocation blocks with vSphere VMFS6.

With all of the pre and post VMworld related announcements, remember to check out the tools available over at the VMware flings site including vSphere HTML5 Web Client, HCIBench, vRealize Operations Export, VisualEsxtop, ESXi Embedded Host Client, VMware OS Optimization Tool and many others. Watch for VMworld coverage in the September newsletter along with posts at www.storageioblog.com

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

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Who Will Rule the Storage World?
Via InfoGoto: Comments on Google Cloud Platform Gaining Data Storage Momentum
Via InfoGoto: Comments on Singapore High Rise Data Centers
Via InfoGoto: Comments on New Tape Storage Capacity

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

Server StorageIOblog Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

In Case You Missed It #ICYMI

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Tips and Articles

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via NetworkWorld: Do you have an IT trade craft skills gap?

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

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

Sep. 21, 2017 – MSP CMG – Minneapolis MN
Sep. 20, 2017 – Redmond Data Protection and Backup – Webinar
Sep. 14, 2017 – Fujifilm IT Executive Summit – Seattle WA
Sep. 12, 2017 – SNIA Software Developers Conference (SDC) – Santa Clara CA
Sep. 7, 2017 – WiPro – Planning Your Software Defined Journey – New York City
August 29, 2017 – VMworld – Las Vegas

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/converge – Various CI, HCI and related SDS topics
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Multi-year Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). 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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

Announcing Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book by Greg Schulz

New SDDI Essentials Book by Greg Schulz of Server StorageIO

Cloud, Converged, Virtual Fundamental Server Storage I/O Tradecraft

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Update 1/21/2018

Over the past several months I have posted, commenting, presenting and discussing more about Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials aka SDDI or SDDC and SDI. Now it is time to announce my new book (my 4th solo project), Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book (CRC Press). Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials is now generally available at various global venues in hardcopy, hardback print as well as various electronic versions including via Amazon and CRC Press among others. For those attending VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas, I will be doing a book signing, meet and greet at 1PM Tuesday August 29 in the VMworld book store, as well as presenting at various other fall industry events.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book Announcement

(Via Businesswire) Stillwater, Minnesota – August 23, 2017  – Server StorageIO, a leading independent IT industry advisory and consultancy firm, in conjunction with publisher CRC Press, a Taylor and Francis imprint, announced the release and general availability of “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials,” a new book by Greg Schulz, noted author and Server StorageIO founder.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials

The Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book covers physical, cloud, converged (and hyper-converged), container, and virtual server storage I/O networking technologies, revealing trends, tools, techniques, and tradecraft skills.

Data Infrastructures Protect Preserve Secure and Serve Information
Various IT and Cloud Infrastructure Layers including Data Infrastructures

From cloud web scale to enterprise and small environments, IoT to database, software-defined data center (SDDC) to converged and container servers, flash solid state devices (SSD) to storage and I/O networking,, the book helps develop or refine hardware, software, services and management experiences, providing real-world examples for those involved with or looking to expand their data infrastructure education knowledge and tradecraft skills.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book topics include:

  • Cloud, Converged, Container, and Virtual Server Storage I/O networking
  • Data protection (archive, availability, backup, BC/DR, snapshot, security)
  • Block, file, object, structured, unstructured and data value
  • Analytics, monitoring, reporting, and management metrics
  • Industry trends, tools, techniques, decision making
  • Local, remote server, storage and network I/O troubleshooting
  • Performance, availability, capacity and  economics (PACE)

Where To Purchase Your Copy

Order via Amazon.com and CRC Press along with Google Books among other global venues.

What People Are Saying About Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book

“From CIOs to operations, sales to engineering, this book is a comprehensive reference, a must-read for IT infrastructure professionals, beginners to seasoned experts,” said Tom Becchetti, advisory systems engineer.

"We had a front row seat watching Greg present live in our education workshop seminar sessions for ITC professionals in the Netherlands material that is in this book. We recommend this amazing book to expand your converged and data infrastructure knowledge from beginners to industry veterans."

Gert and Frank Brouwer – Brouwer Storage Consultancy

"Software-Defined Data Infrastructures provides the foundational building blocks to improve your craft in several areas including applications, clouds, legacy, and more.  IT professionals, as well as sales professionals and support personal, stand to gain a great deal by reading this book."

Mark McSherry- Oracle Regional Sales Manager

"Greg Schulz has provided a complete ‘toolkit’ for storage management along with the background and framework for the storage or data infrastructure professional (or those aspiring to become one)."
Greg Brunton – Experienced Storage and Data Management Professional

“Software-defined data infrastructures are where hardware, software, server, storage, I/O networking and related services converge inside data centers or clouds to protect, preserve, secure and serve applications and data,” said Schulz.  “Both readers who are new to data infrastructures and seasoned pros will find this indispensable for gaining and expanding their knowledge.”

SDDI and SDDC components

More About Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials
Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Essentials provides fundamental coverage of physical, cloud, converged, and virtual server storage I/O networking technologies, trends, tools, techniques, and tradecraft skills. From webscale, software-defined, containers, database, key-value store, cloud, and enterprise to small or medium-size business, the book is filled with techniques, and tips to help develop or refine your server storage I/O hardware, software, Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC), Software Data Infrastructures (SDI) or Software Defined Anything (SDx) and services skills. Whether you are new to data infrastructures or a seasoned pro, you will find this comprehensive reference indispensable for gaining as well as expanding experience with technologies, tools, techniques, and trends.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials SDDI SDDC content

This book is the definitive source providing comprehensive coverage about IT and cloud Data Infrastructures for experienced industry experts to beginners. Coverage of topics spans from higher level applications down to components (hardware, software, networks, and services) that get defined to create data infrastructures that support business, web, and other information services. This includes Servers, Storage, I/O Networks, Hardware, Software, Management Tools, Physical, Software Defined Virtual, Cloud, Docker, Containers (Docker and others) as well as Bulk, Block, File, Object, Cloud, Virtual and software defined storage.

Additional topics include Data protection (Availability, Archiving, Resiliency, HA, BC, BR, DR, Backup), Performance and Capacity Planning, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged, NVM and NVMe Flash SSD, Storage Class Memory (SCM), NVMe over Fabrics, Benchmarking (including metrics matter along with tools), Performance Capacity Planning and much more including whos doing what, how things work, what to use when, where, why along with current and emerging trends.

Book Features

ISBN-13: 978-1498738156
ISBN-10: 149873815X
Hardcover: 672 pages
(Available in Kindle and other electronic formats)
Over 200 illustrations and 70 plus tables
Frequently asked Questions (and answers) along with many tips
Various learning exercises, extensive glossary and appendices
Publisher: Auerbach/CRC Press Publications; 1 edition (June 19, 2017)
Language: English

SDDI and SDDC toolbox

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

Data Infrastructures Protect Preserve Secure and Serve Information
Various IT and Cloud Infrastructure Layers including Data Infrastructures

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

Data Infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, secure and serve information along with the applications and data they depend on. With more data being created at a faster rate, along with the size of data becoming larger, increased application functionality to transform data into information means more demands on data infrastructures and their underlying resources.

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials: Cloud, Converged, and Virtual Fundamental Server Storage I/O Tradecraft is for people who are currently involved with or looking to expand their knowledge and tradecraft skills (experience) of data infrastructures. Software-defined data centers (SDDC), software data infrastructures (SDI), software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and traditional data infrastructures are made up of software, hardware, services, and best practices and tools spanning servers, I/O networking, and storage from physical to software-defined virtual, container, and clouds. The role of data infrastructures is to enable and support information technology (IT) and organizational information applications.

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

Everything is not the same in business, organizations, IT, and in particular servers, storage, and I/O. This means that there are different audiences who will benefit from reading this book. Because everything and everybody is not the same when it comes to server and storage I/O along with associated IT environments and applications, different readers may want to focus on various sections or chapters of this book.

If you are looking to expand your knowledge into an adjacent area or to understand whats under the hood, from converged, hyper-converged to traditional data infrastructures topics, this book is for you. For experienced storage, server, and networking professionals, this book connects the dots as well as provides coverage of virtualization, cloud, and other convergence themes and topics.

This book is also for those who are new or need to learn more about data infrastructure, server, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, and services. Another audience for this book is experienced IT professionals who are now responsible for or working with data infrastructure components, technologies, tools, and techniques.

Learn more here about Software Defined Data Infrastructure (SDDI) Essentials book along with cloud, converged, and virtual fundamental server storage I/O tradecraft topics, order your copy from Amazon.com or CRC Press here, and thank you in advance for learning more about SDDI and related topics.

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.

Data Infrastructure Industry Trends WekaIO Matrix Software Defined Storage SDS

WekaIO Matrix Scale Out Software Defined Storage SDS

server storage I/O trends

Updated 2/11/2018

WekaIO Matrix is a scale out software defined solution (SDS).

WekaIO Matrix software defined scale out storage SDS

This Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective report looks at common issues, trends, and how to address different application server storage I/O challenges. In this report, we look at WekaIO Matrix, an elastic, flexible, highly scalable easy to use (and manage) software defined (e.g. software based) storage solution. WekaIO Matrix enables flexible elastic scaling with stability and without compromise.

Matrix is a new scale out software defined storage solution that:

  • Installs on bare metal, virtual or cloud servers
  • Has POSIX, NFS, SMB, and HDFS storage access
  • Adaptable performance for little and big data
  • Tiering of flash SSD and cloud object storage
  • Distributed resilience without compromise
  • Removes complexity of traditional storage
  • Deploys on bare metal, virtual and cloud environments

Where To Learn More

View additional SDS 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

Read more about WekaIO Matrix in this (free, no registration required) Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective (ITP) Report compliments of WekaIO.

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.

Like IT Data Centers Do You Take Trade Show Exhibit Infrastructure For Granted?

Do You Take Trade Show Exhibit Infrastructure For Granted?

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Think about this for a moment; do you assume that Information Technology (IT) and Cloud based data centers along with their associated Data Infrastructure supporting various applications will be accessible when needed. Likewise, when you go to a trade show, conference, symposium, user group or another conclave is it assumed that the trade show, exposition (expo), exhibits, booths, stands or demo areas will be ready, waiting and accessible?

IT industry cloud software defined events

Fire Disrupts Flash Memory Summit Conference Exhibits

This past week at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) conference trade show event in Santa Clara California, what normally would be taken for granted (e.g. expo hall and exhibits) were disrupted. The disruption (more here and here) was caused by an early morning fire in one of the exhibitor’s booths (stand) in the expo hall (view some photos here via Toms Hardware.com).

Fortunately, nobody was hurt, at least physically, and damage (physically) appears to have been isolated.

However while the key notes, panels, and other presentations did take place as part of the show must go on, the popular exhibit expo hall did not. Granted for some people who only attend conferences or seminar events for the presentation content, lack of the exhibition hall simply meant no free giveaways.

On the other hand, for those who attend events like FMS mainly for the exhibition hall experience, the show did not go on, perhaps resulting in a trip in vain (e.g. how you might be able to recoup some travel costs in some scenarios) for some people. For example, those who were attending to meet with a particular vendor, see a product technology, conduct some business or other meetings, do an interview, video, podcast, take some photos, or simply get some free stuff were disrupted.

Likewise those behind the scenes, from conference organizers, event staff not to mention the vendor’s sponsors who put resources (time, money, people, and equipment) into an exhibit were disrupted. Vendors were still able to issue their press releases and conduct their presentations, keynotes, panel discussions, however what about the lack of the expo.

Do We Take Data and Event Infrastructures For Granted

This begs the question of if trade show exhibits still have value, or can an event function without one?

I am not sure as some events can and do stand on their merit with presentation content being the primary focus, others the expo is the draw, many are hybrid with a mix of both.

A question and point of this piece is that how many people take conferences in general, and exhibits along with their associated Infrastructure for granted?

How many know or understand the amount of time, money, people resources and various tradecraft skills across different disciplines go into event planning, staging, coordination, the execution, so they occur?

This also ties into the theme of how many people only think and assume that IT data centers and clouds along with their data Infrastructure resources, services are available supporting applications along with data access to give information?

The same holds true for your telephone (plain old telephone system [POTS] and cellular or mobile) service, gas, electric, sewer, water, waste (garbage), traditional or network based television, internet provider, highways, railroads, airports, the list goes on.

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

What This All Means

The good news is that nobody physically was injured this past week.

Granted some may have incurred emotional, monetary or public and marketing related injuries, however, those can be dealt with over time.

My point is, do we assume too much (perhaps rightfully so) that events, exhibits and other trade show conference related items are always on, always available, accessible open on time? With IT data center and clouds, you have different expectation levels of access, availability, durability, survivability for a given cost to meet service expectations.

Data center, cloud and data infrastructure SDC, SDDI, SDI, SDx

Next time you attend a webinar, seminar, conference, symposium, trade show, presentation, exhibit or expo, take a moment and look around at what you see, as well as what you do not see. Having been in involved in and around conferences, conventions, seminars, expos across different industries, both behind the scenes as well as on the public side, I do not take these events for granted.

Knowing what goes into the planning, coordination, scheduling, promotion, logistics, all the things behind the scenes, next time you go to an event, look around. What you can see that perhaps are not meant to be seen as part of their Infrastructure. In event venue exhibit halls as well as data centers, there are those things you see such as data infrastructure resources including racks of servers, storage, I/O networking, monitors, displays, work areas, heating ventilation air conditioning (HVAC) along with those you might not see.

What you might not see and take for granted are the smoke and fire detection along with suppression systems which at the Santa Clara convention center appeared to have done their job. There are also the electrical power and distribution systems; perhaps battery backed uninterruptible power systems (UPS) along with standby alternate generator power.

How about a big round of applause, thank you, Atta boy and Atta girl, acknowledgment and other signs of appreciation for all those involved behind the scenes who do the planning, preparation, coordination, setup, tear down and in person what you see at events.

Thank you to all who have, and continue to enable trade shows, conferences, seminars, exhibits, road shows among other events to take place, after all, the show must go on. In other words, like IT and cloud Data Centers, do you take trade show exhibit infrastructures for granted?

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Greg Schulz – Multi-year Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). 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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

July 2017 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructures Update Newsletter

Volume 17, Issue VII

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

It has been busy time with a lot going on, so let’s get right to this months topics which include software defined, data infrastructures, server, I/O networking, storage and related topics.

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials SDDI SDDC

A quick update following up from the June newsletter is that my new book is now available via Amazon.com, CRC Press and other venues in hardcopy hardcover as well as electronic versions. Visit storageio.com/book4 to learn more including view table of contents, preface, how organized among other items.

In This Issue

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Cheers GS

Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

Some recent Industry Activities, Trends, News and Announcements include:

Arcserve who gained their independence from CA a few years ago has now acquired Zetta to expand its data protection solution portfolio for legacy, software defined virtual and cloud data infrastructure environments.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure (SDDI) solution provider Compuverde has been awarded a US Patent for optimal server selection in software defined data centers (SDDC).

The InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) announced its April 2017 integrators list including RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) along with other recent plugfest updates. Learn more about IBTA and related topics at www.infinibandta.org

Next Platform has an interesting piece about a slump in the High Performance Computing (HPC) also known as High Profit Compute (for financial firms among others) along with Super Compute (SC) industry sector. Some of the vendors in the HPC and SC space include AMD, Cisco, Cray, DDN, Dell EMC, Fujifilm, IBM, Intel, HPE/SGI, Mellanox, NetApp, Oracle, Seagate and Western Digital (WD) among others. Check out the piece over at Next Platform here.

To beef up its storage solution offerings, Cray has done a deal with Seagate who is one of their suppliers of HDDs as well as software defined storage software (ClusterStore) and related systems. In this new deal, Cray will get (e.g. now own) Lustre based ClusterStore storage solution which besides the intellectual property (IP) including software, around 100 or so workers will shift from being Seagate to becoming Cray employees. Note that Seagate acquired ClusterStore solution as part of its acquisition a few years ago of Xyratex (enclosures and Lustre storage system software).

Meanwhile Seagate CEO Stephen Luczo is steeping down from his top leadership position after posting poor earnings and more job cuts. We have heard that HDDs are dead for decades, yet they continue to be consumed, granted with ups and downs, lately more downs for Seagate than its competitor Western Digital (WD). Seagate has dabbled in flash solid state devices (SSDs) ranging from drives to cards including acquisition of the flash business from LSI/Avago a few years ago, along with some partnerships. As a component supplier, does Seagate need to take a bold move and get closer or do a deal with one of the nand flash or other persistent memory chip makers? Or, does Seagate need to continue to move up the stack with solutions building on their previous deals buying Xyratex (enclosure and ClusterStor), Evault (data protection software), DotHill (storage systems), LSI/Avago flash (flash cards)? Lets see what happens with Seagate both from a big picture as well as more focused product, technology, portfolio perspective.

Watch for a flurry of NVMe, along with flash SSD and other non-volatile memory (NVM), persistent memories along with storage class memories over the next few weeks. Keep in mind that If Answer is NVMe, what are the questions? Also watch for a flurry of software defined, cloud, virtual and related news towards the end of the month and into September.

Just for fun, Mike Acton (@mike_acton) has an interesting read on Introductory bullshit detection for non-technical managers that you can check out here. Over at Coding Horror there is another interesting read on the notion of paying down your technical debt, check it out here.

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

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Who Will Rule the Storage World?
Via SearchDataCenter: Comments on Dell EMC Cisco VxBlock news

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

Server StorageIO Featured White Paper Report

This months featured Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure content is a new white paper industry trends perspective report looking at Weka.IO Matrix Multi-Dimensional Software Based Storage (e.g. software defined storage). In this report, we look at WekaIO Matrix, an elastic, flexible, highly scalable easy to use (and manage) software-defined (e.g. software-based) storage solution. WekaIO Matrix enables radically simple software defined storage that is flexible elastic scaling with stability and without compromise.

Weka.io Matrix software defined storage

  • Matrix is a new storage solution that:
  • Installs on bare metal, virtual or cloud servers
  • Has POSIX, NFS, SMB, and HDFS storage access
  • Adaptable performance for little and big data
  • Tiering of flash SSD and cloud object storage
  • Distributed resilience without compromise
  • Removes complexity of traditional storage

Read more in this StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspective (ITP) Report compliments of WekaIO by clicking here. Visit www.weka.io to learn more about WekaIO and their Matrix solution.

View more Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure White Papers, Lab Reports, Solution Briefs, Research, Polls, Surveys and additional content here on our portfolio page.

 

Server StorageIOblog Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

  • Intel Announces New Xeon Processors for Software Defined Data Infrastructures
    Intel announced a new family of Xeon Scalable Processors (aka Purely) that for some workloads Intel claims to be on average of 1.65x faster than their predecessors. Note your real improvement will vary based on workload, configuration, benchmark testing, type of processor, memory, and many other server storage I/O performance considerations.

  • Who Will Be At Top Of Storage World Next Decade?
    It is safe to say that each new year will bring new trends, techniques, technologies, tools, features, functionality as well as solutions involving data storage as well as data infrastructures. This means a usual safe bet is to say that the current year is the most exciting and has the most new things than in the past when it comes to data infrastructures along with resources such as data storage.

  • Zombie Technology Life after Death Tape Is Still Alive
    A Zombie Technology is one declared dead yet has Life after Death such as Tape which is still alive, despite having declared dead for decades.

In Case You Missed It #ICYMI

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Tips and Articles

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via IDG/NetworkWorld: Ensure your data infrastructure remains available and resilient
Via IDG/NetworkWorld: Whats a data infrastructure?
Via InfoStor: Object Storage Is In Your Future
Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics

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

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

Sep. 21, 2017 – MSP CMG – Minneapolis MN

Sep. 14, 2017 – Fujifilm IT Executive Summit – Seattle WA

Sep. 12, 2017 – SNIA Software Developers Conference (SDC) – Santa Clara CA

Sep. 7, 2017 – TBA – Enabling, Planning and Executing Your Software Defined Journey

August 28-30, 2017 – VMworld – Las Vegas

June 22, 2017 – Webinar – GDPR and Microsoft Environments

May 11, 2017 – Webinar – Email Archiving, Compliance and Ransomware

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/converge – Various CI, HCI and related SDS topics
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Multi-year Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). 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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

Top vBlog 2017 Voting Now Open

server storage I/O trends

Top vBlog 2017 Voting Now Open

It is that time of the year again when Eric Siebert (@ericsiebert) over at vSphere-land holds his annual Top vBlog (e.g. VMware and Virtualization related) voting (vote here until June 30, 2017). The annual Top vBlog event enables fans to vote for their favorite blogs (to get them into the top 10, 25, 50 and 100) as well as rank them for different categories which appear on Eric’s vLaunchPad site.

This years Top vBlog voting is sponsored by TurboNomic (e.g. formerly known as VMturbo) who if you are not aware of, have some interesting technology for cross-platform (cloud, container, virtualization, hardware, software, services) data infrastructure management software tools.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Management

The blogs and sites listed on Eric’s site have common theme linkage to Virtualization and in particular tend to be more VMware focused, however some are also hybrid agnostic spanning other technologies, vendors, services and tools. Some examples of the different focus areas include hypervisors, VDI, cloud, containers, management tools, scripting, networking, servers, storage, data protection including backup/restore, replication, BC, DR among others).

In addition to the main list of blogs (that are active), there are also sub lists for different categories including:

  • Top 100 (Also top 10, 25, 50) vBlogs
  • Archive of retired (e.g. not active or seldom post)
  • News and Information sites
  • Podcasts
  • Scripting Blogs
  • Storage related
  • Various Virtualization Blogs
  • VMware Corporate Blogs

What To Do

Get out and vote for your favorite (or blogs that you frequent) in appreciation to those who create virtualization, VMware and data infrastructure related content. Click here or on the image above to reach the voting survey site where you will find more information and rules. In summary, select 12 of your favorite or preferred blogs, then rank them from 1 (most favorite) to 12. Then select your favorites for other categories such as Female Blog, Independent, New Blog, News websites, Podcast, Scripting and Storage among others.

Note: You will find my StorageIOblog in the main category (e.g. where you select 12 and then rank), as well as in the Storage, Independent, as well as Podcast categories, and thank you in advance for your continued support.

Which Blogs Do I Recommend (Among Others)

Two of my favorite blogs (and authors) are not included as Duncan Epping (Yellow Bricks) former #1 and Frank Denneman former #4 chose not to take part this year opening the door for some others to move up into the top 10 (or 25, 50 and 100). Of those listed some of my blogs I find valuable include Cormac Hogan of VMware, Demitasse (Alastair Cooke), ESX Virtualization (Vladan Seget), Kendrick Coleman, NTPro.nl (Eric Sloof), Planet VM (Tom Howarth), Virtually Ghetto (William Lam), VM Blog (David Marshall), vsphere-land.com (Eric Siebert) and Wahl Networks (Chris Wahl) among others.

Where to learn more

What this all means

It’s that time of the year again to take a few moments and show some appreciation for your favorite or preferred blogs along with their authors who spend time to create content for those sites. Also check out Turbonomic as they are an interesting technology that I have kept an eye on for some time now and so should you. Thank you all in advance regardless of if you take part in the voting as I also appreciate your continued support by viewing these posts either at StorageIOblog.com site or one of the many downstream sites where you can also read the content.

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Multi-year Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book "Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials" (CRC Press).

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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 (TP3) Overview Preview Review

server storage I/O trends

Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 (TP3) Overview Preview Review

Perhaps you are aware or use Microsoft Azure, how about Azure Stack?

This is part one of a two-part series looking at Microsoft Azure Stack providing an overview, preview and review. Read part two here that looks at my experiences installing Microsoft Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 (TP3).

For those who are not aware, Azure Stack is a private on-premises extension of the Azure public cloud environment. Azure Stack now in technical preview three (e.g. TP3), or what you might also refer to as a beta (get the bits here).

In addition to being available via download as a preview, Microsoft is also working with vendors such as Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE, Lenovo and others who have announced Azure Stack support. Vendors such as Dell EMC have also made proof of concept kits available that you can buy including server with storage and software. Microsoft has also indicated that once launched for production versions scaling from a few to many nodes, that a single node proof of concept or development system will also remain available.

software defined data infrastructure SDDI and SDDC
Software-Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) aka Software-defined Data Centers, Cloud, Virtual and Legacy

Besides being an on-premises, private cloud variant, Azure Stack is also hybrid capable being able to work with public cloud Azure. In addition to working with public cloud Azure, Azure Stack services and in particular workloads can also work with traditional Microsoft, Linux and others. You can use pre built solutions from the Azure marketplace, in addition to developing your applications using Azure services and DevOps tools. Azure Stack enables hybrid deployment into public or private cloud to balance flexibility, control and your needs.

Azure Stack Overview

Microsoft Azure Stack is an on premise (e.g. in your own data center) private (or hybrid when connected to Azure) cloud platform. Currently Azure Stack is in Technical Preview 3 (e.g. TP3) and available as a proof of concept (POC) download from Microsoft. You can use Azure Stack TP3 as a POC for learning, demonstrating and trying features among other activities. Here is link to a Microsoft Video providing an overview of Azure Stack, and here is a good summary of roadmap, licensing and related items.

In summary, Microsoft Azure Stack is:

  • A onsite, on premise, in your data center extension of Microsoft Azure public cloud
  • Enabling private and hybrid cloud with strong integration along with common experiences with Azure
  • Adopt, deploy, leverage cloud on your terms and timeline choosing what works best for you
  • Common processes, tools, interfaces, management and user experiences
  • Leverage speed of deployment and configuration with a purpose-built integrate solution
  • Support existing and cloud native Windows, Linux, Container and other services
  • Available as a public preview via software download, as well as vendors offering solutions

What is Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 (TP3)

This version of Azure Stack is a single node running on a lone physical machine (PM) aka bare metal (BM). However can also be installed into a virtual machine (VM) using nesting. For example I have Azure Stack TP3 running nested on a VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5 systems with a Windows Server 2016 VM as its base operating system.

Microsoft Azure Stack architecture
Click here or on the above image to view list of VMs and other services (Image via Microsoft.com)

The TP3 POC Azure Stack is not intended for production environments, only for testing, evaluation, learning and demonstrations as part of its terms of use. This version of Azure Stack is associated with a single node identity such as Azure Active Directory (AAD) integrated with Azure, or Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for standalone modes. Note that since this is a single server deployment, it is not intended for performance, rather, for evaluating functionality, features, APIs and other activities. Learn more about Azure Stack TP3 details here (or click on image) including names of various virtual machines (VMs) as well as their roles.

Where to learn more

The following provide more information and insight about Azure, Azure Stack, Microsoft and Windows among related topics.

  • Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 (TP3) Overview Preview Review
  • Azure Stack TP3 Overview Preview Review Part II
  • Azure Stack Technical Preview (get the bits aka software download here)
  • Azure Stack deployment prerequisites (Microsoft)
  • Microsoft Azure Stack troubleshooting (Microsoft Docs)
  • Azure Stack TP3 refresh tips (Azure Stack)
  • Here is a good post with a tip about not applying certain Windows updates to Azure stack TP3 installs.
  • Configure Azure stack TP3 to be available on your own network (Azure Stack)
  • Azure Stack TP3 Marketplace syndication (Azure Stack)
  • Azure Stack TP3 deployment experiences (Azure Stack)
  • Frequently asked questions for Azure Stack (Microsoft)
  • Deploy Azure Stack (Microsoft)
  • Connect to Azure Stack (Microsoft)
  • Azure Active Directory (AAD) and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
  • Azure Stack TP2 deployment experiences by Niklas Akerlund (@vNiklas) useful for tips for TP3
  • Deployment Checker for Azure Stack Technical Preview (Microsoft Technet)
  • Azure stack and other tools (Github)
  • How to enable nested virtualization on Hyper-V Windows Server 2016
  • Dell EMC announce Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Azure Stack (Dell EMC)
  • Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack (Dell EMC)
  • Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack Data Sheet (Dell EMC PDF)
  • Dell EMC Cloud Chats (Dell EMC Blog)
  • Microsoft Azure stack forum
  • Dell EMC Microsoft Azure Stack solution
  • Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016
  • Overview Review of Microsoft ReFS (Reliable File System) and resource links
  • Via WServerNews.com Cloud (Microsoft Azure) storage considerations
  • Via CloudComputingAdmin.com Cloud Storage Decision Making: Using Microsoft Azure for cloud storage
  • www.thenvmeplace.com, www.thessdplace.com, www.objectstoragecenter.com and www.storageio.com/converge
  • What this all means

    A common question is if there is demand for private and hybrid cloud, in fact, some industry expert pundits have even said private, or hybrid are dead which is interesting, how can something be dead if it is just getting started. Likewise, it is early to tell if Azure Stack will gain traction with various organizations, some of whom may have tried or struggled with OpenStack among others.

    Given a large number of Microsoft Windows-based servers on VMware, OpenStack, Public cloud services as well as other platforms, along with continued growing popularity of Azure, having a solution such as Azure Stack provides an attractive option for many environments. That leads to the question of if Azure Stack is essentially a replacement for Windows Servers or Hyper-V and if only for Windows guest operating systems. At this point indeed, Windows would be an attractive and comfortable option, however, given a large number of Linux-based guests running on Hyper-V as well as Azure Public, those are also primary candidates as are containers and other services.

    Continue reading more in part two of this two-part series here including installing Microsoft Azure Stack TP3.

    Ok, nuff said (for now…).

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book "Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials" (CRC Press).

    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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

    Broadcom aka Avago aka LSI announces SAS SATA NVMe Adapters with RAID

    server storage I/O trends

    Broadcom aka Avago aka LSI announces SAS SATA NVMe Adapters with RAID

    In case you missed it, Broadcom formerly known as Avago who bought the LSI adapter and RAID card business announced shipping new SAS, SATA and NVMe devices.

    While SAS and SATA are well established continuing to be deployed for both HDD as well as flash SSD, NVMe continues to evolve with a bright future. Likewise, while there is a focus on software-defined storage (SDS), software defined data centers (SDDC) and software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) along with advanced parity RAID including erasure codes, object storage among other technologies, there is still a need for adapter cards including traditional RAID.

    Keep in mind that while probably not meeting the definition of some software-defined aficionados, the many different variations, permutations along with derivatives of RAID from mirror and replication to basic parity to advanced erasure codes (some based on Reed Solomon aka RAID 2) rely on software. Granted, some of that software is run on regular primary server processors, some on packaged in silicon via ASICs or FPGAs, or System on Chips (SOC), RAID on Chip (RoC) as well as BIOS, firmware, drivers as well as management tools.

    SAS, SATA and NVMe adapters

    For some environments cards such as those announced by Broadcom are used in passthru mode effectively as adapters for attaching SAS, SATA and NVMe storage devices to servers. Those servers may be deployed as converged infrastructures (CI), hyper-converged infrastructures (HCI), Cluster or Cloud in Box (CiB) among other variations. To name names you might find the above (or in the not so distant future) in VMware vSAN or regular vSphere based environments, Microsoft Windows Server, Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) or Azure Stack, OpenStack among other deployments (check your vendors Hardware Compatibility Lists aka HCLs). In some cases these cards may be adapters in passthru mode, or using their RAID (support various by different software stacks). Meanwhile in other environments, the more traditional RAID features are still used spanning Windows to Linux among others.

    Who Is Broadcom?

    Some of you may know of Broadcom having been around for many years with a focus on networking related technologies. However some may not realize that Avago bought Broadcom and changed their name to Broadcom. Here is a history that includes more recent acquisitions such as Brocade, PLX, Emulex as well as LSI. Some of you may recall Avago buying LSI (the SAS, SATA, PCIe HBA, RAID and components) business not sold to NetApp as part of Engenio. Also recall that Avago sold the LSI flash SSD business unit to Seagate a couple of years ago as part of its streamlining. That’s how we get to where we are at today with Broadcom aka formerly known as Avago who bought the LSI adapter and RAID business announcing new SAS, SATA, NVMe cards.

    What Was Announced?

    Broadcom has announced cards that are multi-protocol supporting Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), SATA/AHCI as well as NVM Express (NVMe) as basic adapters for attaching storage (HDD, SSD, storage systems) along with optional RAID as well as cache support. These cards can be used in application servers for traditional, as well as virtualized SDDC environments, as well as storage systems or appliances for software-defined storage among other uses. The basic functionality of these cards is to provide high performance (IOPs and other activity, as well as bandwidth) along with low latency combined with data protection as well as dense connectivity.

    Specific features include:

    • Broadcom’s Tri-Mode SerDes Technology enables the operation of NVMe, SAS or SATA devices in a single drive bay, allowing for endless design flexibility.
    • Management software including LSI Storage Authority (LSA), StorCLI, HII (UEFI)
    • Optional CacheVault(R) flash cache protection
    • Physical dimension Low Profile 6.127” x 2.712”
    • Host bus type x8 lane PCIe Express 3.1
    • Data transfer rates SAS-3 12Gbs; NVMe up to 8 GT/s PCIe Gen 3
    • Various OS and hypervisors host platform support
    • Warranty 3 yrs, free 5×8 phone support, advanced replacement option
    • RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60

    Note that some of the specific feature functionality may be available at a later date, check with your preferred vendors HCL

    Specification

    9480 8i8e

    9440 8i

    9460 8i

    9460 16i

    Image

    Internal Ports

    8

     

    8

    16

    Internal Connectors

    2 x Mini-SAS HD x4 SFF-8643

    2 x Mini-SAS HD x4 SFF-8643

    2 x Mini-SAS HD x4 SFF-8643

    4 Mini-SAS HD x4
    SFF-8643

    External Ports

    8

     

     

     

    External Connectors

    2 x Mini-SAS HD SFF8644

     

     

     

    Cache Protection

    CacheVault CVPM05

     

    CacheVault CVPM05

    CacheVault CVPM05

    Cache Memory

    2GB 2133 MHz DDR4 SDRAM

     

    2GB 2133 MHz DDR4 SDRAM

    4GB 2133 MHz DDR4 SDRAM

    Devices Supported

    SAS/SATA: 255, NVMe: 4 x4, up to 24 x2 or x4*

    SAS/SATA: 63, NVMe: 4 x4, up to 24 x2 or x4*

    SAS/SATA: 255, NVMe: 4 x4, up to 24 x2 or x4*

    SAS/SATA: 255, NVMe: 4 x4, up to 24 x2 or x4*

    I/O Processors (SAS Controller)

    SAS3516 dual-core RAID-on-Chip (ROC)

    SAS3408 I/O controller (IOC)

    SAS3508 dual-core RAID-on-Chip (ROC)

    SAS3516 dual-core RAID-on-Chip (ROC)

    In case you need a refresher on SFF cable types, click on the following two images which take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more, as well as order various cable options. PC Pit Stop has a good selection of cables (See other SFF types), connectors and other accessories that I have used, along with those from Amazon.com and others.

    Available via Amazon.com sff 8644 8643 sas mini hd cable
    Left: SFF 8644 Mini SAS HD (External), Right SFF-8643 Mini SAS HD (internal) Image via Amazon.com

    Available via Amazon.com sff 8644 8642 sas mini hd cable
    Left: SFF 8643 Mini SAS HD (Internal), Right SFF-8642 SATA with power (internal) Image via Amazon.com

    Wait, Doesnt NVMe use PCIe

    For those who are not familiar with NVMe and in particular U.2 aka SFF 8639 based devices, physically they look the same (almost) as a SAS device connector. The slight variation is if you look at a SAS drive, there is a small tab to prevent plugging into a SATA port (recall you can plug SATA into SAS. For SAS drives that tab is blank, however on the NVMe 8639 aka U.2 drives (below left) that tab has several connectors which are PCIe x4 (single or dual path).

    What this means is that the PCIe x4 bus electrical signals are transferred via a connector, to backplane chassis to 8639 drive slot to the drive. Those same 8639 drive slots can also have a SAS SATA connection using their traditional connectors enabling a converged or hybrid drive slot so to speak. Learn more about NVMe here (If the Answer is NVMe, then what were and are the questions?) as well as at www.thenvmeplace.com.

    NVMe U.2 8639 driveNVMe U.2 8639 sas sata nvme drive
    Left NVMe U.2 drive showing PCIe x4 connectors, right, NVMe U.2 8639 connector

    Who Is This For?

    These cards are applicable for general purpose IT and other data infrastructure environments in traditional servers among others uses. They are also applicable for systems builders, integrators and OEMs whom you may be buying your current systems from, or future ones.

    Where to Learn More

    The following are additional resources to learn more about vSAN and related technologies.

    What this all means

    Even as the industry continues to talk and move towards more software-defined focus, even for environments that are serverless, there is still need for hardware somewhere. These adapters are a good sign of the continued maturing cycle of NVMe to be well positioned into the next decade and beyond, while also being relevant today. Likewise, even though the future involves NVMe, there is a still a place for SAS along with SATA to coexist in many environments. For some environment there is a need for traditional RAID while for others simply the need for attachment of SAS, SATA and NVMe devices. Overall, a good set of updates, enhancements and new technology for today and tomorrow, now, when do I get some to play with? ;).

    Ok, nuff said (for now…).

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book "Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials" (CRC Press).

    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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

    Software Defined, Bulk, Cloud, Scale Out, Object Storage Fundamentals

    Cloud, Bulk, Scale-Out, Object Storage Fundamentals

    data infrastructure sddc object storage fundamentals

    Updated 1/21/2018

    Welcome to the Cloud, Big Data, Software Defined, scale-out, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals page.

    This page contains various resources, tips, essential topics pertaining to Software Defined, scale-out, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals. Other resources pertaining to Software Defined, scale-out, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage include:

  • www.objectstoragecenter.com
  • Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book (CRC Press)
  • Cloud, Software Defined, Scale-Out, Object Storage News Trends
  • There are various types of cloud, bulk and object storage including public services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3), Google, Microsoft Microsoft Azure, IBM Softlayer, Rackspace among many others. There are also solutions for hybrid and private deployment from Cisco, Cloudian, Fujifilm, DDN, Dell EMC, Fujitsu, HDS, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Noobaa, OpenStack, Quantum, Rackspace, Scality, Seagate, Spectra, Storpool, Suse, Swift and WD among others.

    Cloud products and services among others, along with associated data infrastructures including object storage, file systems, repositories and access methods are at the center of bulk, big data, big bandwidth and little data initiatives on a public, private, hybrid and community basis. After all, not everything is the same in cloud, virtual and traditional data centers or information factories from active data to in-active deep digital archiving.

    Cloud Object Storage Fundamentals Access and Architectures

    There are many facets to object storage including technology implementation, products, services, access and architectures for various applications and use scenarios.

    • Project or Account – Top of the hierarchy that can represent the owner or billing information for a service that where buckets are also attached.
    • Region – Location where data is stored that can include one or more data centers also known as Availability Zones.
    • AWS S3 Cross region replication
      Moving and Replicating Buckets/Containers, Subfolders and Objects

    • Availability Zone (AZ) or data center or server that implement durability and accessibility for availability within a region.
    • AWS Regions and Availability Zones AZs
      Example of Regions and Availability Zones (AZs)

    • Bucket or Container – Where objects or sub-folders containing objects are attached and accessed.
    • Object storage fundamentals sddc and cloud software defined

    • Sub-folder – While object storage can be located in a flat namespace for commonality and organization some solutions and service support the notion of sub-folder that resemble traditional directory hierarchy.
    • Object – Byte (or bit) stream that can be as small as one byte to as large as several Tbytes (some solutions and services support up to 5TByte sized objects). The object contains whatever data in any organization along with metadata. Different solutions and services support from a couple hundred KBytes of meta-data to Mbytes worth of meta-data. Regarding what can be stored in an object, anything from files, videos, images, virtual disks (VMDKs, VHDX), ZIP or tar files, backup and archive save sets, executable images or ISO’s, anything you want.
    • End-point – Where or what your software, application or tool and utilities along with gateways attach to for accessing buckets and objects.
    • object storage fundamentals, sddc and cloud storage example

      A common theme for object storage is flexibility, along with scaling (performance, availability, capacity, economics) along with extensibility without compromise or complexity. From those basics, there are many themes and variations from how data is protected (RAID or no RAID, hardware or software), deployed as a service or as tin wrapped software (an appliance), optimized for archiving or video serving or other applications.

      Many facets of cloud and object storage access

      One aspect of object and cloud storage is accessing or using object methods including application programming interfaces (API’s) vs. traditional block (LUN) or NAS (file) based approaches. Keep in mind that many object storage systems, software, and services support NAS file-based access including NFS, CIFS, HDFS  among others for compatibility and ease of use.

      Likewise various API’s can be found across different object solutions, software or services including Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) HTTP REST based, among others. Other API’s will vary by specific vendor or product however can include IOS (e.g. Apple iPhone and iPad), WebDav, FTP, JSON, XML, XAM, CDMI, SOAP, and DICOM among others. Another aspect of object and cloud storage are expanded  and dynamic metadata.

      While traditional file systems and NAS have simple or fixed metadata, object and cloud storage systems, services and solutions along with some scale-out file systems have ability to support user defined metadata. Specific systems, solutions, software, and services will vary on the amount of metadata that could range on the low-end from 100s of KBytes  to tens or more Mbytes.

      cloud object storage

      Where to learn more

      The following resources provide additional information about big data, bulk, software defined, cloud and object storage.

      Click here to view software defined, bulk, cloud and object storage trend news.


      StorageIO Founder Greg Schulz: File Services on Object Storage with HyperFile

      Via InfoStor: Object Storage Is In Your Future
      Via FujiFilm IT Summit: Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Hybrid Clouds
      Via StorageIOblog: AWS EFS Elastic File System (Cloud NAS) First Preview Look
      Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
      Via InfoStor: Object Storage Is In Your Future
      Via Server StorageIO: April 2015 Newsletter Focus on Cloud and Object storage
      Via StorageIOblog: AWS S3 Cross Region Replication storage enhancements
      Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview
      AWS (Amazon) storage gateway, first, second and third impressions
      Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Book)
      Via ChannelPartnersOnline: Selling Software-Defined Storage: Not All File Systems Are the Same
      Via ITProPortal: IBM kills off its first cloud storage platform
      Via ITBusinessEdge: Time to Rein in Cloud Storage
      Via SerchCloudStorge: Ctera Networks’ file-sharing services gain intelligent cache
      Via StorageIOblog: Who Will Be At Top Of Storage World Next Decade?

      Videos and podcasts at storageio.tv also available via Applie iTunes.

      Human Face of Big Data
      Human Face of Big Data (Book review)

      Seven Databases in Seven weeks
      Seven Databases in Seven Weeks (Book review)

      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

      Wrap up and summary

      Object and cloud storage are in your future, the questions are when, where, with what and how among others.

      Watch for more content and links to be added here soon to this object storage center page including posts, presentations, pod casts, polls, perspectives along with services and product solutions profiles.

      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.

    February 2017 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 17, Issue II

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

    With world backup (and recovery) day coming up on March 31, it makes sense to plan, review, assess, remediate, test and prepare in advance, to avoid or prevent a disaster later. Some of the themes in this months newsletter thus have a data protection angle which includes availability, resiliency, security, and backup/restore along with associated topics. Keep in mind that there are many aspects to data protection, along with various tools, technologies, techniques along with tradecraft skills (experience).

    Speaking of tradecraft, the tips section has been expanded with more content to help refresh, or expand your fundamental data infrastructure skills and experiences. Watch for more about trade craft in future newsletters as well as elsewhere.

    Speaking of data protection, if you had not heard or forgot, some recent events included the Australian Tax Office (ATO) whose resiliency solution appears to not have been configured for, well, availability, resiliency along with durability. You can read more about the ATO, lessons learned as well as fall out doing a Google search such as "australian tax office disaster". Another recent disaster or disruption was Gitlab (not to be confused with Github) that lost around 300GB of data. Google something like "gitlab disaster" to see more.
    In the case of Gitlab, it seems that a DevOp admin accidentally did something like a rm -rf (e.g. recursive and force) that if you know what that means, you know it might not be good.

    As is the case with many disasters or near disasters and disruptions, they are usually the result of a chain of events, thus the mantra or isolate, contain faults to prevent snowballing into something worse. What’s concerning about Gitlab is that there are decades of lessons to be learned, known and preventable.

    Hopefully Gitlabs experiences will prompt others in or moving to so-called platform 3 or new DevOps environment to use things in new ways, as well as prevent old problems using known tradecraft skills, lessons, experiences.
    Also keep in mind that while technology can and will fail, hardware and software including clouds are defined by people, and when people are involved, human error is also present.

    In This Issue

  • Server StorageIO News Commentary
  • Trade craft Articles, Tips & Tricks Topics
  • Server StorageIOblog posts
  • Various Events and Webinars
  • IT Industry Activity Trends
  • Industry Resources and Links
  • Connect and Converse With Us
  • About Us
  • Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Cheers GS

    Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

    Some recent Industry Activities, Trends Announcements

    Cloud and object storage vendor Cloudian announced a new appliance (e.g. tin-wrapped software) that they claim give high density low (cloud service like) pricing.

    Check out iosafe who has a line of fire (and water) proof NAS and Windows Servers as part of availability data protection that can compliment clouds. For those of you who are also Synology fans (or users) take a look at what iosafe is doing for consumer, SOHO, ROBO, workgroup, SMB among other environments.

    Speaking of data protection, how are you going about wiping or digital bleaching your storage including nand flash SSDs? Particularly are you doing deep cleaning including those hard to reach persistent non-volatile memory (NVM) cell locations in SSDs? Check out what Blancco is doing for deep cleaning to wipe or digital bleach your storage including SSDs. Another aspect of data protection includes after your physical assets have been wiped clean (e.g. digital bleach), how will you safely dispose of the items? That’s where various vendors such as OceanTech among others come into play.

    Server StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

    Server StorageIO Commentary in the news

    Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

    Via SearchDataCenter: New options to evolve your data backup and recovery plan
    Via SmallBusinessComputing: Easy Storage for the Little Guy: Has the Time Come?
    Via InfoStor: 10 More Top Data Storage Applications
    Via Infostor: 10 Top Data Storage Applications

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

    Various Tips, Tools, Technology and Tradecraft Topics

    Recent Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Articles, Tips, Tools, Tricks and related topics.

    Via IDG/NetworkWorld:  Whats a data infrastructure?
    Via Computerweekly:  NVMe: What to use, PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
    Via InfoStor:  Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
    Via InfoStor:  SSD Trends, Tips and Topics

    Check out Neil Anderson(@flackboxtv) flackbox.com site to view various video and tutorials about NetApp, Cisco along with VMware among others. Sharpen your data infrastructure server storage I/O tradecraft skills with the various labs and simulators that Neil has covered.

    Speaking of tradecraft skills and experience development, check out VMware Staff Architect William Lam (@lamw) virtuallyghetto.com site for a news software defined data center (SDDC) lab. This new lab focuses on automated deployment for vSphere 6.0u2 along with vSphere 6.5. In other related news, VMware has made generally available (GA) vSphere 6.0 Update 3 including enhancements to vSAN and vCenter. View more details here at Duncan Epping (@DuncanYB) of VMware Yellow Bricks site.

    If you are interested in Microsoft Azure, check out this piece on SQL Server failover clustering, along with other Windows Server, Hyper-V, Nano, Powershell and related topics here. Want to build a software defined data center (SDDC) or software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) based on Microsoft Windows Server, Hyper-V and related technologies, check out this Github lab as well as this one for S2D among others.

    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/BrightTalkHyperConverged 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

    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

    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

    Server Storage I/O network Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Overview

    Server Storage I/O network Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Overview

    Updated 1/17/2018

    Data Infrastructure Tradecraft includes server storage I/O network and associated technology, technique, skills, experiences. Tradecraft includes insight as well as tricks of the trade, profession and job function (read more about what is a data infrastructure here). This is the first of a two-part series exploring data infrastructure along with serve storage I/O and related tradecraft. Read part two of this series here.

    Data Infrastructures Tradecraft Overview
    Data Infrastructure and IT Infrastructure Layers

    Data infrastructure encompasses servers, storage, I/O and networking along with associated hardware, software, services and management tasks including data protection among others. Tradecraft is knowing about tools, technologies, and trends in your primary domain as well as adjacent focus areas. However, tradecraft is also about knowing how and when to use different technologies, tools with various techniques to address different scenarios.

    What Is Your Tradecraft
    An example of expanding tradecraft is, for instance, an automobile technician who has learned how to change oil, check tire air pressure, or other essential entry-level functions. On the other hand, a master mechanic knows how to do more involved tasks, from the engine to transmission repair or rebuilding, bodywork, along with troubleshooting. A master mechanic not only knows what buttons, knobs, tools, and techniques to use for different tasks, he also knows how to diagnose problems, as well as what usually causes those problems to occur.

    There are many other examples, including salespeople who have the tradecraft of selling, including account as well as relationship building along with the ability to learn new tradecraft related to the trade or items they are or will be selling. Moreover, then there are pre-sales and systems engineers, technical marketing, product and program management, test and development, R&D engineering, IT and technology architects, among many others.
    IT Data Infrastructure Professionals

    Another example is engineers and architects (non-IT) who have basic design along with engineering discipline tradecraft, as well as specialties such as mechanical, electrical, heating ventilation air condition (HVAC), or environmental, among others. They can leverage their basic tradecraft while extending and enhancing it by gaining insight as well as experience in adjacent areas of focus.

    For IT and data infrastructure tradecraft this means expanding from basic tasks to being able to do more advanced things. For example, developing tradecraft from knowing the different hardware, software, and services resources as well as tools, to what to use when, where, why, and how. Another dimension of expanding data infrastructure tradecraft skills is gaining the experience and insight to troubleshoot problems, gain insight awareness with dashboard or monitoring tools, as well as how to design and manage to cut or reduce the chance of things going wrong.

    From Tools and Technologies to Techniques and Tricks of the Trade
    Expanding your awareness of new technologies along with how they work is important, so too is understanding application and organization needs. Developing your tradecraft means balancing the focus on new and old technologies, tools, and techniques with business or organizational application functionality.

    This is where using various tools that themselves are applications to gain insight into how your data infrastructure is configured and being used, along with the applications they support, is important.

    Data Infrastructure Tool Box

    Learning the Talk and Walking the Talk
    For some people their tradecraft is only learning the talk, so that they can talk the talk of trends, techniques, technology buzzwords to do their job (or get a job) and fit in. The next step is comprehending the talk, gaining more insight and experience ability of what to do (and not do) by walking the talk. Sometimes this means learning from mistakes (yours or others) to prevent them in the future.

    Expanding your tradecraft means learning the talk as well as how to walk the talk for adjacent areas. This can mean new skills, ability, tools, and technologies along with proper terminology. For your data infrastructure tradecraft, you need to acquire competencies in these different yet related areas.

    Even if your focus is to be a hardware or software or services person, there are opportunities to expand your tradecraft. For example extend into physical, virtualization, cloud, container, networking, storage, performance, data protection, or security, among others. This also means comprehending how the pieces work together to support the business applications, as well as the impact on each other (e.g. cause and effect).

    Part of tradecraft is also understanding that various terms and acronyms have different context meaning. For example, SAS can mean big data statistical analysis software or Serial Attached SCSI among others. What this means is as your tradecraft expands, so too does awareness that different terms have various meaning along with the importance of asking for context.

    Another example of understanding context is Fabric. Fabric can also have different context and meaning. It can refer to a network of switches, directors, and routers tying together servers, storage, bridges, gateways, and other devices, but it can also be associated with higher-level application functions, or a cluster of servers or services, as well as data. Keep context in mind about fabric: whether it is referring to lower-level physical and logical networks, or applications and data, among others.

    Yet another context example includes that client can have different meanings, including software or applications that communicate with a server or service, local or in the cloud. A variation of client can also be a type of device, such as a tablet, laptop, mobile device or phone, as well as a workstation with varying software for accessing different data infrastructure as well as applications. Another context for client is the user, person, or thing such as IoT that accesses and interacts with client software or server and services of application or data resources. Yet another context for client is a consumer of lower-level data infrastructure resources or higher-level applications services.

    Where To Learn More

    View additional Data Infrastructure and tradecraft 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 SDDC Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Overview

    What this means

    Remember that tradecraft is skills, experiences, tricks, and techniques along with knowing what as well as how to use various related tools as part of what it is that you are doing.  Continue reading more about data infrastructure along with server storage I/O network hardware software as well as associated management tradecraft in part two of this series here.

    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.

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links A to E

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links A to E

    IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

    Updated 2/20/2018

    Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links A to E 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

    • A3Cube    Computer I/O solution startup
    • AAPT   AAPT    AWS connect partner, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • abiquo.com    Cloud development and management tools
    • Above.net/Zayo Group    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • abrevity.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification
    • accellion.com    File transfer tools
    • accessopt.com    Holographic storage
    • acinion.com    Video solutions
    • acopia.com    NAS aggregation and global name space (bought by F5)
    • acronis.com    Backup and data protection tools
    • acsacs.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • acs-inc.com    Hosting, outsourcing and managed services (Bought by Xerox)
    • actifio.com    Data protection solutions
    • active-circle.com    Data archiving and storage solutions
    • activestate.com    Stackato PaaS for cloud tools
    • adaptec.com    Adapters, iSCSI storage, data backup solutions (See PMC)
    • adesto.com    CBRAM startup
    • addonics.com    SSD storage solutions
    • adic.com    Backup, Dedupe and data protection solutions (Bought by Quantum)
    • adinfa.com        Energy and resource management tools
    • AdRem Netcrunch        Monitoring of Networks, Systems and Applications, DCIM
    • Adtran    Datacom and networking solutions
    • advancedvault.com    Business continuity solutions
    • advaoptical.com    Optical networking
    • afcom.com    Data center industry user group
    • aforesolutions.com    Cloud storage and infrasture management tools
    • agami.com    High performance NAS storage (Shutdown)
    • agilent.com    Host adapters and test equipment
    • agility.com    Optical solutions and components
    • agilysys.com    VAR
    • aiim.com    Archiving and records management trade group
    • ait.com    Cloud and web hosting
    • Ajubeo    Cloud and management solutions
    • akamai.com    Content distribution network (CDN)
    • akitio.com    Storage systems
    • akorri.com    Storage resource and capacity management
    • alacritech.com    Storage networking adapters for iSCSI
    • alacritus.com    Data Protection Software
    • alcatel.com    Networking and storage networking equipment
    • alliance-it.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • allstorage.nl    Storage services solution provider
    • amazon.com    Cloud compute and storage services
    • AmberPoint.com    SOA management tools
    • amcc.com    Storage networking components (aka JNI & 3ware Bought by LSI)
    • amd.com    Server and processor chips
    • americanfibersystems.com    Metropolitan storage networks and fiber bandwidth
    • amphenol.com    Storage Networking connectors and cables
    • Amplidata.com    Object and wide area based storage
    • ancot.com    Storage networking testing equipment
    • anixter.com    Networking components
    • Anobit.com    Memory components
    • ansi.org    American National Standards Institute
    • Anstor64.com    iSCSI storage software
    • anuesystems.com    SONET’/SDH and network test equipment
    • apc.com    Environmental and power systems and DCIM solutoins
    • apcon.com    Physical cabling and management
    • aperture.com    Data center tools including CMDB (Bought by Emerson)
    • appassue.com    SQL server and data protection tools (Bought by Dell)
    • Appcore    Cloud management tools
    • Appfirst    IT Ops, Development and DCIM monitoring and PKI metrics
    • appiq.com    Storage Management Software (Bought by HP)
    • appirio.com    Cloud and content tools and services
    • apple.com    Server and storage
    • apprenda.com    Grid and data management tools
    • Apprenda   Platform as a service tools
    • aprius.com    PCIe Server I/O virtualization (IOV) technology
    • aptare.com    Data protection management and backup reporting
    • arasan.com    IP Networking components
    • Archivas.com    Archiving and data management software (Bought by HDS)
    • arcmail.com    Email archiving
    • Arcplace    Data management archiving
    • arcsight.com    Compliance solutions
    • argent.com    Data center management and CMDB tools
    • ariodata.com    Scalable data storage and blade storage systems
    • aristanetworks.com    Networking technologies
    • aristoslogic.com    Storage controller technology (Bought by Adaptec)
    • Arkeia.com    Backup and data protection software (Bought by WD)
    • arkivio.com    Storage management and ILM software
    • arm.com    Microprocessor producer
    • armor247.com    SMB focused data protection solutions
    • arrow.com    Distributor
    • arsenaldigital.com    Managed backup service (Bought by IBM)
    • arxscan.com    SRM and file reporting software
    • asankya.com    Application delivery and cloud access
    • asciitable.com    Site containing the ASCII character set table
    • ashare.org    HVAC Engineers Association
    • asigra.com    Backup and data protection solutions
    • asnp.org    Association Storage Networking Professionals
    • asperasoft.com    High speed file and data transfer tools
    • astaro.com    Security tools
    • astutenetworks.com    iSCSI storage optimized for VMware
    • atempo.com    Backup Software
    • Atlantic Metro Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Atlantiscomputing    ILIO VDI and I/O optimization, cache tools
    • atmforum.com    ATM trade association
    • atrato.com    Storage systems
    • attachmate.com    IT management tools (bought Novell)
    • attotech.com    Storage networking adapters and gateways
    • Attunesystems.com    NAS and file virtualization (Assets bought by F5)
    • attunity.com    File and data movement tools
    • autonomy.com    Data management and cloud services (Bought by HP) –
    • autovirt.com    Storage automation tiering tools
    • avagotech.com    Semiconductor technologies
    • availl.com    Data movement and replication solutions
    • avamar.com    Dedupe, Backup and Restoration Solutions (Bought by EMC)
    • avanade.com    Var
    • avaya.com    Networking and communications
    • averesystems.com    NAS caching and automated tiering
    • avg.com    Security and anti-virus software
    • avnet.com    Distributor
    • www.avocent.com    Infrastructure resource management tools
    • axcient.com    Cloud data protection solutions
    • axiossystems.com    IRM and service management tools
    • axsone.com    Records and document management
    • axxana.com    Data protection and replication tools
    • Backblaze    Online and cloud backup storage
    • BackupAssist    Backup and Recovery software
    • backupify.com    Backup for google apps
    • BUMI    Backup and data protection tools
    • backupright.com    Online and cloud backup
    • Backula    Opensource Backup and data protection
    • bakbone.com    Backup Software (Bought by Quest bought by Dell)
    • balesio.com    File compression solutions
    • barracudanetworks.com    Networking devices, backup software
    • basho.com    NOSQL Database and object storage technology –
    • batblue.com    Cloud, application delivery networking services
    • Bestel   Bestel    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Beyondtust    Vulnerability assessment and detection
    • bigswitch.com    Openflow based network switches
    • BitArmor.com    Data security software
    • bitcasa.com    Cloud storage and backup
    • Bitcentral    Video management solutions
    • Bitmicro    Solid state devices and other solutions
    • Blackbox    Data center infrastructure, DCIM, KVM and other solutions
    • BlackMESH    FedRAMP and DevOPs hosting
    • blade.org    Trade group for blade servers
    • bladelogic.com    Server management and discovery software
    • BladeNetwork.net    Server and storage blades (Bought by IBM)
    • Bladeroom    Data center and hosting
    • bladesystems.org    Industry trade group for blade servers and storage
    • bladetechnologies.net    Networking technologies
    • blockbridge.com    Elastic Storage Software and Tools
    • bluearc.com    High performance NAS enterprise class storage (Bought by HDS)
    • bluecoat.com    WAN optimization
    • bluecorenetworks.com    Networking infrastructure solutions
    • Bluehost    Web hosting, dedicated and virtual private servers
    • bluelock.com    Hosting, managed service and cloud provider
    • BlueOSS    Cloud and business inteligence solutions
    • www.bluestripe.com     Software for managing virtual data centers
    • bmc.com    Storage management software
    • bocada.com    Backup and management software
    • bowindustries.com    Tape media cleaning tools
    • box.net    Internet/web/cloud storage services
    • bphx.com    Legacy application transformation
    • bridgestor.com    Data reduction and storage optimization
    • Bridghead.com    Storage management software
    • broadband.com    Portal site for finding network bandwidth services
    • broadbandreports.com    Portal site for finding high speed internet access
    • broadcom.com    Storage networking component supplier
    • brocade.com    Switches, WAN gateways, software
    • brouwerconsultancy.com    Storage consultancy service
    • bswd.com    Brian Berg’s Storage Cornucopia web site
    • btiphotonics.com    WDM and Optical networking technologies
    • buffalotech.com    SMB and SOHO NAS storage
    • bustech.com    IBM Mainframe to open systems gateways (Bought by EMC)
    • bycast.com    Grid based fixed content, archive and object storage (Bought by NetApp)
    • c2c.com    Email archiving solutions
    • c2esoft.com    Data center operations and insight management tools
    • ca.com    Data management software
    • Computer Associates    Various data center, DCIM, data protection and other solution tools
    • call-recall.com    Optical storage
    • Canonical   Ubuntu Linux
    • carbonite.com    Cloud storage and backup
    • caringo.com    CAS archiving and object storage tools
    • casecentral.com    Cloud ediscovery
    • cassandra.apache.org    Data management and database alternative software
    • Apache Cassandra    NOSql Data Management tools
    • cassat.com    IRM management tools (Bought by CA)
    • Catalogic Software    Data protection and management tools
    • cataphora.com    Data management tools
    • catbird.com    VM security tools
    • caviumnetworks.com    Networking processors and chip technologies
    • cdproject.net    Carbon Disclosure Project
    • cdrive.com    VAR
    • cdw.com    VAR
    • celion.com    Network services for storage over distance
    • celona.com    Data migration tools
    • cemaphore.com    Messaging solutions
    • centos.org    Cluster Storage
    • centrepath.com    Storage management solutions (formerly Giant Loop)
    • centrify.com    Digital rights management for cloud, virtual, server, desktop and storage
    • Tier3/CenturyLink   Cloud, hosting and managed services
    • Centurylinkg/Savvis    Cloud and hosting solutions
    • Ceph   Cloud and object storage solutions
    • cert.org    Internet Security information
    • certesnetworks.com    Cloud security tools
    • certon.com    VAR
    • CFN Services    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • chelsio.com    High speed Ethernet adapters
    • chicorporation.com    Data protection, cloud and storage VAR
    • ciena.com    Optical networking
    • Cinenet    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • ciphermax.com    Data Storage Encryption Tools
    • cipheroptics.com    Storage networking security
    • ciprico.com    Storage systems (Bought by DotHill)
    • cirrustore.com    Backup data protection tools
    • cirtas.com    Cloud Storage Appliance – Added 6/9/10
    • cisco.com    Switches, WAN and Optical networking
    • Citrix.com    Virtualization solutions
    • ClearDB.com/.com    Local and distributed (GEO) MySQL database software and service
    • clearpace.com/.com    Large scale archive and data management tools
    • CleverSafe.com    Distributed object/esrasure storage
    • climatesaverscomputing.com    Green computing industry trade group
    • Clonix   Data cloning, duplication and protection tools
    • CloudByte   Scale-out and cloud storage
    • cloudera.com    Hadoop data storage and analytics tools
    • CloudFlare   CDN and Web Cache solutions
    • cloudfuzion.com    High performance servers
    • Cloudian   Cloud and object storage tools
    • Cloudphysics   Big data and virtualization tools
    • cloudreplica.com    Cloud data protection tools
    • cloudscaling.com    Open cloud platforms
    • Apache CloudStack   Open Source Cloud tools
    • cloudtp.com    Open cloud deployment solutions
    • CloudVelocity   Hybrid Cloud and data protection management solutins
    • cloverleafcomm.com    Storage Virtualization tools (Bought by DotHill)
    • clustrix.com    Storage software startup
    • cmg.org    Computer Measurement Group
    • cnt.com    Switches, WAN gateways, software (Bought by McData bought by Brocade)
    • Cobalt Iron   Data protection tools
    • code42.com    Cloud storage and backup aka Crashplan
    • Codenomicon.com    Data and security tools
    • cofio.com    Backup and data protection tools
    • CohesiveFT   Cloud solution and management tools
    • colliercomputing.com    VAR
    • colo-america.com    Co-location and hosting services

    • communities.vmware.com    VMware community
    • commvault.com    Data management software
    • comodo.com    Encryption tools
    • Comparitech    Consumer tech reviews
    • compellent.com    SMB Storage sub-systems and software – (Bought by Dell)
    • comptia.org    Computer and Technology Industry Association
    • compucom.com    VAR
    • computergamedesign.org    Computer game design
    • compuverde.com    Big data management tools and object storage
    • compuware.com    IT management and performance tools
    • condre.com    VAR/distributor
    • Condusiv   Data and storage management tools including Diskeeper
    • XO Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Connected Cloud    Cloud management tools
    • connectwise.com    IT automation tools
    • conres.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • consiliant.com    VAR
    • ConstantData.com    Real time data replication and mirroring
    • continuitysoftware.com    Replication and Snapshot data protection management
    • convirture.com    Cloud and virtualization tools
    • copansys.com    Secondary storage for backup and archiving (Assets Bought by SGI)
    • coraid.com    SATA over Ethernet storage
    • CoreSite    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • corevault.com    Cloud services
    • Cormant    DCIM and data center and infrastructure management tools
    • corning.com    Fiber optic cabling
    • corsair.com    SSD
    • corvis.com    Networking solutions
    • cPanel    Web, cloud and hosting management tools
    • crashplan.com    Cloud storage and backup aka Code42
    • creekpath.com    Storage management software
    • www.critical-links.com    Office in a box
    • crossroads.com    Storage routers and data protection management tools
    • Crosswalkinc.com    Clustered NAS storage (Ceased Operations)
    • crucial.com    Memory and SSD solutions
    • cru-dataport.com    Data Archive solutions
    • Crypto.com    Crypto resource site
    • www.ctera.com    Cloud storage appliance
    • Cumulus Networks    Open networking
    • curtisssd.com    SSD solution provider
    • cya.com    Document management and data protection
    • cyber-ark.com    Security data protection tools
    • cypress.com    Storage and networking components
    • dantz.com    Data protection and backup solutions (Aka Retrospect Bought by EMC, EMC sold off)
    • datacentertechnologies.com    Data management solutions (Bought by Symantec)
    • datacore.com    Storage management software
    • datadepositbox.com    Online backup and data protection
    • datadirectnetworks.com    Aka DDN Storage systems, SAN, NAS, Object and cloud
    • datadomain.com    Data Deduplication System (Bought by EMC)
    • Data Dynamics Inc    StorageX Data Movement, Migration and management
    • datafort.com    Online cloud backup
    • dataglobal.com    Data and storage management
    • Data Gravity    Big Data solutions
    • datagres.com    Cloud and application caching acceleration
    • dataguise.com/    Data security solutions
    • datalink.com    VAR
    • datallegro.com    Data warehouse storage solution (Bought by Microsoft)
    • datamirror.com    Data replication solutions
    • DataON Storage    Storage solutions
    • Datapipe    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • dataprotection.com    Vaultlogix data protection tools for cloud
    • DataRAM.com    SSD solutions
    • Data sales    Storage systems sales and leasing
    • dataslide.com    Hard rectangular disk (HRD)
    • datastor.com    Windows based backup data protection
    • datcollaborative.org    Data collaboration group and DAPL material
    • datoptic.com    Storage VAR
    • daymarksi.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • DBR360    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • ddifrontline.com    Security and access control
    • debian.org    Open source operating system
    • Debriefing software    Storage SRM tools
    • decru.com    Storage networking security solutions (Bought by NetApp)
    • Asempra.com    Data protection bought by Dell via Quest
    • dell.com    Storage networking equipment
    • Delphix    Storage, data management and data protection tools
    • demandtechnology.com    Demand technology software (performance software)
    • Denodo    Data virtualization tools
    • dexrexgear .com    Social media cloud storage
    • www.dey-sys.com    Open source software based sotrage
    • www.dh2i.com    Database virtualization software tools
    • digidata.com    Storage solutions
    • digistoresolutions.com    Archiving and data protection solutions
    • Digitalocular.com     Video data management tools
    • digitalreefinc.com    eDiscovery and compliance tools
    • digitiliti.com    Cloud and managed service backup
    • diligent.com    Virtual Tape Library (VTL) and Dedupe (Bought by IBM)
    • dimensiondata.com    VAR
    • Dimension Data    Hosting and managed services
    • dincloud.com    Cloud virtual desktop
    • directtextbook.com    Online book venue
    • discoverybox.net    Data protection for legal hold and compliance
    • diskkeeper.com    File and disk storage defragmentation (Condusiv)
    • Disklace.com    Disk storage optimization tools
    • dlink.com    Storage, network and cloud technologies
    • dmtf.org    Distributed Management Task Force
    • dnfstorage.com    iSCSI and hybrid storage (formerly Stonefly)
    • dothill.com    Distributed storage solutions
    • Doubletake.com    Data replication software
    • driveoncloud.com    Cloud drive online storage
    • drivesaversdatarecovery.com    Data protection and recovery
    • drobo.com    SMB and SOHO NAS storage
    • dropbox.com    Cloud storage and file sharing
    • druva.com    Backup, Storage, network and cloud technologies
    • dsireusa.org    Database of State Incentives and Renewable Energy
    • Dundas    Data Visualization and mobile dashboards
    • dvs.de    Digital video systems and storage
    • dynamicsolutions.com    Storage and data protection VAR
    • EaseUS    Backup, data protection and cloning tools
    • ecctek.com    Rugged data storage components
    • econnectix.com    Data and storage management solutions
    • eds.com    Data outsourcing and cloud provider (Bought by HP)
    • eere.energy.gov     U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) web site
    • egenera.com    Blade server and server virtualization management software
    • eginnovations.com    Application and infrastructure monitoring
    • egnyte.com    Cloud backup and data protection
    • eia.doe.gov/fuelelectric.html    Portal for electrical power generation, use and costs
    • emc.com    Storage sub-systems software
    • Emerson.com    DCIM IT Data center power, cooling and environmental management tools
    • Empired FlexScale    IT and business cloud solutions
    • emprisanetworks.com    Network management solutions (Bought by BMC)
    • emulex.com    Host bus adapters and embedded switches
    • enclarity.com    Healthcare CRM and analysis tools
    • encryptstick.com    USB based encryption device
    • enduradata.com    Data distribution and protection
    • energycenter.org    California Center for Sustainable Energy
    • energyshop.com    Portal for energy pricing and options
    • energystar.gov    United States EPA Energy Star web site
    • Enhance-tech.com    Storage VAR
    • enmotus.com    SSD storage tiering technology
    • Ensim   IT and cloud provisioning/management tools
    • enstratus.com    Amazon cloud computing management tools (Bought by Dell)
    • enterprisedb.com    Enterprise Database tools
    • epeat.net    Site for comparing desktop and related products
    • epic.com    Medical Information Technology software
    • equallogic.com    iSCSI storage systems (Bought by Dell)
    • Equinix, Inc.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • equivio.com    Email data protection and retention
    • ericom.com    Desktop and VDI tools
    • esilicon.com    ASIC and custom silicon development
    • essextec.com    VAR
    • Eucalyptus    Open source cloud solutions
    • Evault.com    aka i365 – Remote (Cloud) backup service provider (Bought by Seagate)
    • Everspin Technologies    MRAM memories
    • evolvingsol.com    VAR
    • evostor.com    Storage startup
    • exablade.com    High performance application acceleration
    • Exablox    SMB storage solutions
    • Exabyte.com    Removable tape and robotics
    • exagrid.com    Backup Storage
    • exanet.com    Clustered NAS Storage (Bought by Dell aka FluidFileSystem)
    • exar.com    Server, Storage and Networking components
    • exavio.com    HD and SD data capture
    • exludus.com    Multi core optimize
    • Expand.com    Network and WAN optimization
    • Expertanalyticalsystems.com    Storage analysis tools
    • Exponential-e Ltd.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • expresscomputersystems.com    Storage solutions VAR
    • extremenetworks.com    Networking switches

    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.

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links F to J

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links F to J

    IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

    Updated 2/20/2018

    Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links F to J 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

    • f5.com    Networking solutions
    • fabric7.com    High speed networking
    • falconstor.com    Storage management software
    • FarStone.com    Backup and data protection software
    • fcoe.com    Web site pertaining to Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
    • fdr.com    Aka Innovation data protection tools
    • fedoraproject.org    Linux based operating system
    • Fiber Internet Center    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • FiberLight    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • fibrechannel.org    Fibre Channel Trade Group
    • filenet.com    File Management Solutions
    • FilesX.com    Backup and data protection software (Bought by IBM)
    • filetek.com    Data management solutions (Bought by SGI)
    • finisar.com    Test, Diagnostic, and Optic Transceivers
    • firescope.com    DCIM, IRM, PMDB, CMDB data solutions
    • First Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Firewall Technical    AWS Desktop, Server and Network Support
    • flashsoft.com    SSD cache software (Bought by SANdisk)
    • Flexiant    Cloud management tools
    • flexstar.com    Hardware testing equipment
    • FNT Software    Data Center and DCIM software tools
    • Folder Sizes    Disk Space Management software tools
    • force10.com    High speed networking (Bought by Dell)
    • forsythe.com    VAR
    • foundrynetworks.com    Networking switches (Bought by Brocade)
    • FreeNAS    ZFS based NAS storage software
    • frety.com    Site with links to various technologies
    • fueleconomy.gov    US Government site for energy efficiency
    • fujifilm.com    Data storage tape media
    • Fujitsu.com    Computers, disks, storage
    • fujitsu-siemens.com    Storage, VTL, storage management solutions
    • fulcrummicro.com    10Gb and high performance chips and cross bars
    • fusionio.com    PCIe based NAND/FLASH local SSD for internal server attachment
    • ioturbine.com    IO optimization driver software (Bought by FusionIO)
    • fusionstorm.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • FutureMark    PC Benchmarking and testing tools (PCMark and others)
    • gear6.com    Data performance acceleration NAS caching appliance (Bought by Violin)
    • Geist Global    Data Center and DCIM tools
    • geminare.com    Cloud and application migration and recovery tools
    • genie-soft.com    Backup and data protection tools
    • genstor.com    Storage solutions
    • gfi.com    SMB Email security and data protection
    • gigaspace.com    Grid application and data management middle ware
    • gladinet.com    Cloud storage access software
    • Global Capacity    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • globalstor.com    Data storage solutions
    • glodynetechnoserve.com    IT Management tools
    • gluster.com    Open source clustered file system (Bought by Redhat)
    • gogrid.com    Cloud IaaS and hosting services
    • goldengate.com    Data protection and management software (Bought by Oracle)
    • goodsync.com    Data protection solutions
    • Google    Various cloud services including Google Drive, Documents and others
    • graudata.com    Archive software tools
    • Gravitant    Cloud brokerage and management tools
    • green-bytes.com    ZFS based storage management solutions
    • Greenfield Software    DCIM software tools
    • greenliant.com    Nand flash SSD for embedded solutions
    • greenplum.com    Data warehouse storage solutions (Bought by EMC)
    • greenracksystems.com    VAR
    • gresham-storage.com    Virtual tape solutions (VTL sold to Tributary)
    • GridGain    in memory computing
    • gridironsystems.com    Big data and high performance appliance storage
    • gridstore.com    Clustered NAS storage
    • Global Telecom Technology, Inc. (GTT)    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Apache Hadoop    Hadoop Big Data Tools
    • hastorage.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • www.hddfiresafe.com    Fire proof and water resistant storage systems
    • hds.com    Storage sub-systems and software
    • hermes-softlab.com    IT and virtualization software
    • Hibernia Atlantic    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • hifn.com    Optimization technology (Bought by Exar)
    • high-rely.com    Removable storage solutions
    • hi-stor.com    VAR
    • hitachigst.com    Hitachi Global Storage Technologies – Disk drives (Bought by WD)
    • Hotlink    Data protection, cloud and virtualization management tools
    • hp.com    Storage networking hardware and software
    • htch.com    Hutchinson technologies – disk drive components
    • huawei.com    Networking technologies
    • hydrastor.com    Multi-tenant clustered storage (NEC)
    • hyper9.com    Virtualization management tools (aka Inovawave)
    • hyperio.com    Storage and I/O performance monitoring for Windows
    • hytrust.com    Virtual infrastructure security tools
    • Hyve Solutions   Open Compute Project Servers and Storage
    • i365.com    Online cloud backup (Bought by Seagate e.g. Evault)

    • i3-groep.nl    Dutch ICT VAR
    • iarchive.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • iBackup    Online and cloud backup service
    • ibm.com    Storage networking hardware and software
    • Ibrix.com    Clustered and cloud storage software (Bought by HP)
    • Iceweb.com    Data storage solutions
    • icorps.com    IT outsourcing and consulting services
    • IDRIVE    Cloud storage backup
    • idt.com    Server, storage, memory, networking components
    • ieee.org    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    • ietf.org    Internet Engineering Task Force
    • iland    Cloud and virtualization services tools
    • illumita.com    IT Cloud solutions
    • Imation.com    Removable media, primary and archive storage (Bought Nexsan)
    • imperva.com    Data protection tools
    • imtpartners.com    Storage TCO modeling tool
    • Inboxer.com    Email and compliance risk management tools
    • Incentra.com    VAR (Bought by Datalink)
    • incipient.com    Storage management and virtualization (Assets bought by TMS)
    • indexengines.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification
    • infineta.com    WAN optimization
    • infinibandta.org    InfiniBand Trade Organization
    • infinicon.com    InfiniBand Technology
    • Infinio    VMware NAS I/O acceleration cache
    • infinityio.com    Storage networking training
    • infocachecorp.com    Data discovery solutions VAR
    • InfoGuard.com    Data security solutions
    • infology.net    eDiscovery
    • Infortrend.com    RAID controllers
    • infostor.com    Magazine focused on storage and storage networking
    • infostreet.com    Cloud Desktop tools
    • Inktank    Ceph services
    • inmage.com    Data protection appliance
    • innovationdp.com    Data management software
    • inoc.com    Network Operations Center (NOC) service
    • Inovawave.com    Virtualization management tools (aka Hyper9)
    • Inphase-technologies.com    Holographic storage
    • inquinox.com    Data, dedupe and data protection management tools
    • inrange.com    Storage Networking Formerly Dataswitch (Bought by CNT Bought by McData Bought by Brocade)
    • insight.com    Value Added Reseller (VAR)
    • insynchq.com    Cloud storage, document sharing
    • intel.com    Host adapters and chips
    • intelipathsolutions.com    Virtual network connectivity (Aka Onpath)
    • intellimagic.net    Server performance, resource management software
    • IntelliProp    SAS and SATA storage
    • InterCloud    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • intermedia.net.com    Exchange email hosting service
    • Intermine.com    Storage management software
    • Internap.com    Cloud, managed services, hosting and colo
    • interscapetech.com    Cloud and storage tools / services
    • InterSOC.com    Security management tools
    • intersystems.com    Medical Information Technology software
    • intradyn.com    Storage and data protection for SMB (Part of Sony)
    • intransa.com    iSCSI storage
    • Intronis.com    Online, managed and cloud backup solutions
    • iolo.com    Desktop tuneup, protection tools
    • iomega.com    SMB iSCSI, NAS and other storage (Bought by EMC, Partnering with Lenovo)
    • iometer.org    Iometer performance benchmarking tool
    • Ion Computer    Server, storage and data center solutions
    • iosafe.com    Rugged and fire proof, water proof storage
    • IP Fabrics    SDN switch
    • iphouse.com    MSP, hosting and cloud services
    • iqstor.com    Storage for SMB environments
    • iri.com    Big data management tools
    • CoSort Company IRI    Data management and protection tools
    • ironmountain.com    Data archive, managed and cloud services
    • ironspeed.com    Mobile database tools
    • iSecure    Internet security and forensics services
    • isilon.com    Shared storage – (Bought by EMC)
    • iso.org    International Standards Organizations
    • iStor.com    iSCSI storage
    • IT-ERNITY    Data center and hosting services
    • ivivity.com    Storage virtualization technology
    • iwavesoftware.com    Heterogeneous storage automation software
    • ixia.com    Fibre Channel test equipment
    • IX Reach    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • ixsight.com    IT and IRM/SRA insight and data migration
    • JAM Software    Treesize SRM including for NAS
    • jdsu.com    Storage networking optics
    • Jeda Networks    Software defined network and storage management
    • jedec.org    Joint Electron Device Engineering Council
    • jmr.com    Storage systems
    • jni.com    Host bus adapters
    • joyent.com    Cloud infrasture tools
    • jumpbox.com    VM virtual appliance hosting
    • jumpbox.com    Virtualization solutions
    • jungledisk.com    Cloud storage, backup file sharing
    • juniper.net    Networking technologies

    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.