Tag: software-defined data infrastructure

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Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

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

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

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

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

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

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

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

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

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

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

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

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

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

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

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

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

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

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

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

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

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I

Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I

Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts

Update 1/28/2018

This is part one of a two-part series of posts about Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload tools and scripts. View part II here which includes the workload scripts and where to view sample results.

There are various tools and workloads for server I/O benchmark testing, validation and exercising different storage devices (or systems and appliances) such as Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) flash Solid State Devices (SSDs) or Hard Disk Drives (HDD) among others.

NVMe ssd storage
Various NVM flash SSD including NVMe devices

For example, lets say you have an SSD such as an Intel 750 (here, here, and here) or some other vendors NVMe PCIe Add in Card (AiC) installed into a Microsoft Windows server and would like to see how it compares with expected results. The following scripts allow you to validate your system with those of others running the same workload, granted of course your mileage (performance) may vary.

server storage I/O SCM NVM SSD performance

Why Your Performance May Vary

Reasons you performance may vary include among others:

  • GHz Speed of your server, number of sockets, cores
  • Amount of main DRAM memory
  • Number, type and speed of PCIe slots
  • Speed of storage device and any adapters
  • Device drivers and firmware of storage devices and adapters
  • Server power mode setting (e.g. low or balanced power vs. high-performance)
  • Other workload running on system and device under test
  • Solar flares (kp-index) among other urban (or real) myths and issues
  • Typos or misconfiguration of workload test scripts
  • Test server, storage, I/O device, software and workload configuration
  • Versions of test software tools among others

Windows Power (and performance) Settings

Some things are assumed or taken for granted that everybody knows and does, however sometimes the obvious needs to be stated or re-stated. An example is remembering to check your server power management settings to see if they are in energy efficiency power savings mode, or, in high-performance mode. Note that if your focus is on getting the best possible performance for effective productivity, then you want to be in high performance mode. On the other hand if performance is not your main concern, instead a focus on energy avoidance, then low power mode, or perhaps balanced.

For Microsoft Windows Servers, Desktop Workstations, Laptops and Tablets you can adjust power settings via control panel and GUI as well as command line or Powershell. From command line (privileged or administrator) the following are used for setting balanced or high-performance power settings.

Balanced

powercfg.exe /setactive 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

High Performance

powercfg.exe /setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

From Powershell the following set balanced or high-performance.

Balanced
PowerCfg -SetActive "381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e"

High Performance
PowerCfg -SetActive "8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c"

Note that you can list Windows power management settings using powercfg -LIST and powercfg -QUERY

server storage I/O power management

Btw, if you have not already done so, enable Windows disk (HDD and SSD) performance counters so that they appear via Task Manager by entering from a command prompt:

diskperf -y

Workload (Benchmark) Simulation Test Tools Used

There are many tools (see storageio.com/performance) that can be used for creating and running workloads just as there are various application server I/O characteristics. Different server I/O and application performance attributes include among others read vs. write, random vs. sequential, large vs. small, long vs. short stride, burst vs. sustain, cache and non-cache friendly, activity vs. data movement vs. latency vs. CPU usage among others. Likewise the number of workers, jobs, threads, outstanding and overlapped I/O among other configuration settings can have an impact on workload and results.

The four free tools that I’m using with this set of scripts are:

  • Microsoft Diskspd (free), get the tool and bits here or here (open source), learn more about Diskspd here.
  • FIO.exe (free), get the tool and bits here or here among other venues.
  • Vdbench (free with registration), get the tool and bits here or here among other venues.
  • Iometer (free), get the tool and bits here among other venues.

Notice: While best effort has been made to verify the above links, they may change over time and you are responsible for verifying the safety of links and your downloads.

Where To Learn More

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

Remember, everything is not the same in the data center or with data infrastructures that support different applications.

While some tools are more robust or better than others for different things, ultimately it’s usually not the tool that results in a bad benchmark or comparison, it’s the configuration or lack of including workload settings that are not relevant or applicable. The best benchmark, workload or simulation is your own application. Second best is one that closely resembles your application workload characteristics. A bad benchmark is one that has no relevance to your environment, application use scenario. Take and treat all benchmark or workload simulation results with a grain of salt as something to compare, contrast or make reference to in the proper context. Read part two of this post series to view test tool workload scripts along with sample results.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD

3D XPoint server storage class memory SCM


Storage I/O trends

Updated 1/31/2018

Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD.

This is the second of a three-part series on the recent Intel and Micron 3D XPoint server storage memory announcement. Read Part I here and Part III here.

Is this 3D XPoint marketing, manufacturing or material technology?

You can’t have a successful manufactured material technology without some marketing, likewise marketing without some manufactured material would be manufactured marketing. In the case of 3D XPoint and its announcement launch, their real technology shown, granted it was only wafer and dies as opposed to an actual DDR4 DIMM or PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or drive form factor Solid State Device (SSD) product. On the other hand, on a relative comparison basis, even though there is marketing collateral available to learn more from, this was far from a over the big-top made for TV or web circus event, which can be a good thing.


Wafer unveiled containing 3D XPoint 128 Gb dies

Who will get access to 3D XPoint?

Initially 3D XPoint production capacity supply will be for the two companies to offer early samples to their customers later this year with general production slated for 2016 meaning early real customer deployed products starting sometime in 2016.

Is it NAND or NOT?

3D XPoint is not NAND flash, it is also not NVRAM or DRAM, it’s a new class of NVM that can be used for server class main memory with persistency, or as persistent data storage among other uses (cell phones, automobiles, appliances and other electronics). In addition, 3D XPoint is more durable with a longer useful life for writing and storing data vs. NAND flash.

Why is 3D XPoint important?

As mentioned during the Intel and Micron announcement, there have only been seven major memory technologies introduced since the transistor back in 1947, granted there have been many variations along with generational enhancements of those. Thus 3D XPoint is being positioned by Intel and Micron as the eighth memory class joining its predecessors many of which continue to be used today in various roles.


Major memory classes or categories timeline

In addition to the above memory classes or categories timeline, the following shows in more detail various memory categories (click on the image below to get access to the Intel interactive infographic).

Intel History of Memory Infographic
Via: https://intelsalestraining.com/memory timeline/ (Click on image to view)

What capacity size is 3D XPoint?

Initially the 3D XPoint technology is available in a 2 layer 128 bit (cell) per die capacity. Keep in mind that there are usually 8 bits to a byte resulting in 16 GByte capacity per chip initially. With density improvements, as well as increased stacking of layers, the number of cells or bits per die (e.g. what makes up a chip) should improve, as well as most implementations will have multiple chips in some type of configuration.

What will 3D XPoint cost?

During the 3D XPoint launch webinar Intel and Micron hinted that first pricing will be between current DRAM and NAND flash on a per cell or bit basis, however real pricing and costs will vary depending on how packaged for use. For example if placed on a DDR4 or different type of DIMM or on a PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or as a drive form factor SSD among other options will vary the real price. Likewise as with other memories and storage mediums, as production yields and volumes increase, along with denser designs, the cost per usable cell or bit can be expected to further improve.

Where to read, watch and learn more

Storage I/O trends

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

DRAM which has been around for sometime has plenty of life left for many applications as does NAND flash including new 3D NAND, vNAND and other variations. For the next several years, there will be a co-existences between new and old NVM and DRAM among other memory technologies including 3D XPoint. Read more in this series including Part I here and Part III here.

Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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Trick or treat and vendor fun games

In the spirit of Halloween and zombies season, a couple of thoughts come to mind about vendor tricks and treats. This is an industry trends and perspectives post, part of an ongoing series looking at various technology and fun topics.

The first trick or treat game pertains to the blame game; you know either when something breaks, or at the other extreme, before you have even made a decision to buy something. The trick or treat game for decision-making goes something like this.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Vendor “A” says products succeed with their solution while failure results with a solution from “B” when doing “X”. Otoh, vendor “B” claims that “X” will fail when using a solution from vendor “A”. In fact, you can pick what you want to substitute for “X”, perhaps VDI, PCIe, Big Data, Little Data, Backup, Archive, Analytics, Private Cloud, Public Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, eDiscovery you name it.

This is not complicated math or big data problem requiring a high-performance computing (HPC) platform. A HPC Zetta-Flop processing ability using 512 bit addressing of 9.9 (e.g. 1 nine) PettaBytes of battery-backed DRAM and an IO capability of 9.99999 (e.g. 5 9’s) trillion 8 bit IOPS to do table pivots or runge kutta numerical analysis, map reduce, SAS or another modeling with optional iProduct or Android interface are not needed.

image of StorageIO big data HPC cloud storageimage of StorageIO big data HPC cloud storage
StorageIO images of touring Texas Advanced Computing (e.g. HPC) Center

Can you solve this equation? Hint it does not need a PhD or any other advanced degree. Another hint, if you have ever been at any side of the technology product and services decision-making table, regardless of the costume you wore, you should know the answer.

Of course the question of would “X” fail regardless of who or what “A” or “B” let alone a “C”, “D” or “F”? In other words, it is not the solution, technology, vendor or provider, rather the problem or perhaps even lack thereof that is the issue. Or is it a case where there is a solution from “A”, “B” or any others that is looking for a problem, and if it is the wrong problem, there can be a wrong solution thus failure?

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Another trick or treat game is vendors public relations (PR) or analyst relations (AR) people to ask for one thing and delivery or ask another. For example, some vendor, service provider, their marketing AR and PR people or surrogates make contact wanting to tell of various success and failure story. Of course, this is usually their success and somebody else’s failure, or their victory over something or someone who sometimes can be interesting. Of course, there are also the treats to get you to listen to the above, such as tempt you with a project if you meet with their subject, which may be a trick of a disappearing treat (e.g. magic, poof it is gone after the discussion).

There are another AR and PR trick and treat where they offer on behalf of their representative organization or client to a perspective or exclusive insight on their competitor. Of course, the treat from their perspective is that they will generously expose all that is wrong with what a competitor is saying about their own (e.g. the competitors) product.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Let me get this straight, I am not supposed to believe what somebody says about his or her own product, however, supposed to believe what a competitor says is wrong with the competition’s product, and what is right with his or her own product.

Hmm, ok, so let me get this straight, a competitor say “A” wants to tell me what somebody say from “B” has told me is wrong and I should schedule a visit with a truth squad member from “A” to get the record set straight about “B”?

Does that mean then that I go to “B” for a rebuttal, as well as an update about “A” from “B”, assuming that what “A” has told me is also false about themselves, and perhaps about “B” or any other?

Too be fair, depending on your level of trust and confidence in either a vendor, their personal or surrogates, you might tend to believe more from them vs. others, or at least until you been tricked after given treats. There may be some that have been tricked, or they tried applying to many treats to present a story that behind the costume might be a bit scary.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Having been through enough of these, and I candidly believe that sometimes “A” or “B” or any other party actually do believe that they have more or better info about their competitor and that they can convince somebody about what their competitor is doing better than the competitor can. I also believe that there are people out there who will go to “A” or “B” and believe what they are told by based on their preference, bias or interests.

When I hear from vendors, VARs, solution or service providers and others, it’s interesting hearing point, counterpoint and so forth, however if time is limited, I’am more interested in hearing from such as “A” about them, what they are doing, where success, where challenges, where going and if applicable, under NDA go into more detail.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Customer success stories are good, however again, if interested in what works, what kind of works, or what does not work, chances are when looking for G2 vs. GQ, a non-scripted customer conversation or perspective of the good, the bad and the ugly is preferred, even if under NDA. Again, if time is limited which it usually is, focus on what is being done with your solution, where it is going and if compelled send follow-up material that can of course include MUD and FUD about others if that is your preference.

Then there is when during a 30 minute briefing, the vendor or solution provider is still talking about trends, customer pain points, what competitors are doing at 21 minutes into the call with no sign of an announcement, update or news in site

Lets not forget about the trick where the vendor marketing or PR person reaches out and says that the CEO, CMO, CTO or some other CxO or Chief Jailable Officer (CJO) wants to talk with you. Part of the trick is when the CxO actually makes it to the briefing and is not ready, does not know why the call is occurring, or, thinks that a request for an audience has been made with them for an interview or something else.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

A treat is when 3 to 4 minutes into a briefing, the vendor or solution provider has already framed up what and why they are doing something. This means getting to what they are announcing or planning on doing and getting into a conversation to discuss what they are doing and making good follow-up content and resources available.

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Sometimes a treat is when a briefer goes on autopilot nailing their script for 29 of a 30 minute session then use the last-minute to ask if there are any questions. The reason autopilot briefings can be a treat is when they are going over what is in the slide deck, webex, or press release thus affording an opportunity to get caught up on other things while talk at you. Hmm, perhaps need to consider playing some tricks in reward for those kind of treats? ;)

StorageIO industry trends cloud, virtualization and big data

Do not be scared, not everybody is out to trick you with treats, and not all treats have tricks attached to them. Be prepared, figure out who is playing tricks with treats, and who has treats without tricks.

Oh, and as a former IT customer, vendor and analyst, one of my favorites is contact information of my dogs to vendors who require registration on their websites for basic things such as data sheets. Another is supplying contact information of competing vendors sales reps to vendors who also require registration for basic data sheets or what should otherwise be generally available information as opposed to more premium treats. Of course there are many more fun tricks, however lets leave those alone for now.

Note: Zombie voting rules apply which means vote early, vote often, and of course vote for those who cannot include those that are dead (real or virtual).

Where To Learn More

View additiona related material 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

Watch out for tricks and treats, have a safe and fun Zombie (aka Halloween) season. See you while out and about this fall and don’t forget to take part in the ongoing zombie technology poll. Oh, and be safe with trick or treat and vendor fun games

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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What is DFR or Data Footprint Reduction?

What is DFR or Data Footprint Reduction?

What is DFR or Data Footprint Reduction?

Updated 10/9/2018

What is DFR or Data Footprint Reduction?

Data Footprint Reduction (DFR) is a collection of techniques, technologies, tools and best practices that are used to address data growth management challenges. Dedupe is currently the industry darling for DFR particularly in the scope or context of backup or other repetitive data.

However DFR expands the scope of expanding data footprints and their impact to cover primary, secondary along with offline data that ranges from high performance to inactive high capacity.

Consequently the focus of DFR is not just on reduction ratios, its also about meeting time or performance rates and data protection windows.

This means DFR is about using the right tool for the task at hand to effectively meet business needs, and cost objectives while meeting service requirements across all applications.

Examples of DFR technologies include Archiving, Compression, Dedupe, Data Management and Thin Provisioning among others.

Read more about DFR in Part I and Part II of a two part series found here and here.

Where to learn more

Learn more about data footprint reducton (DFR), data footprint overhead 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

That is all for now, hope you find these ongoing series of current or emerging Industry Trends and Perspectives posts of interest.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

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

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

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Server Storage I/O Network Virtualization Whats Next?

Server Storage I/O Network Virtualization Whats Next?
Server Storage I/O Network Virtualization Whats Next?
Updated 9/28/18

There are many faces and thus functionalities of virtualization beyond the one most commonly discussed which is consolidation or aggregation. Other common forms of virtualization include emulation (which is part of enabling consolidation) which can be in the form of a virtual tape library for storage to bridge new disk technology to old software technology, processes, procedures and skill sets. Other forms of virtualization functionality for life beyond consolidation include abstraction for transparent movement of applications or operating systems on servers, or data on storage to support planned and un-planned maintenance, upgrades, BC/DR and other activities.

So the gist is that there are many forms of virtualization technologies and techniques for servers, storage and even I/O networks to address different issues including life beyond consolidation. However the next wave of consolidation could and should be that of reducing the number of logical images, or, the impact of the multiple operating systems and application images, along with their associated management costs.

This may be easier said than done, however, for those looking to cut costs even further than from what can be realized by reducing physical footprints (e.g. going from 10 to 1 or from 250 to 25 physical servers), there could be upside however it will come at a cost. The cost is like that of reducing data and storage footprint impacts with such as data management and archiving.

Savings can be realized by archiving and deleting data via data management however that is easier said than done given the cost in terms of people time and ability to decide what to archive, even for non-compliance data along with associated business rules and policies to be defined (for automation) along with hardware, software and services (managed services, consulting and/or cloud and SaaS).

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

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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