Spectra is going to break an unspoken rule: “What happens in your data center, stays in your data center.” Organizations are notoriously secretive about what happens in their data centers. This is understandable. Data drives the operations of most organizations, and is sometimes considered the secret sauce of operations, possibly a competitive advantage. Likewise, discussing the exact means of data protection would possibly give the bad guys insight into vulnerabilities to be exploited. And if nothing else, it’s sometimes hard to shine a light on something that cost your organization time and money. Read More

Words matter… so do acronyms. We’ve seen a new category of storage management software developed which is being referred to as, you guessed it, “Storage Management Software.” Some have questioned whether this is something new or if it is just another offering of HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management). There are differences between the two categories. This isn’t just about product positioning or marketing; it’s about what certain products do or don’t do and whether or not they are a fit for your data center or a specific need. Both solution types are designed to keep frequently accessed data on the fastest storage (usually the most expensive and least dense) while moving inactive data to slower storage (usually much less expensive and significantly more dense). How the solutions accomplish this is very different. Read More

In my last blog, I discussed types of “data movers” including backup, archive, HSM and migration. These are ways to move data, but where are you moving the data to? Disk? Tape? Cloud? A combination of those? The significance of “data mover” applications to an organization’s workflow is closely tied to other elements of their data storage ecosystem, namely storage targets. Read More

It’s 1985. You’re the last one to leave the office that afternoon. You go into the server room, put the 8-inch floppy disk in the drive, go back to your office, type a backup command via the “terminal” on your desk, and now you’re free to go home. Your data is being backed up and safe. One last thing… don’t forget to take yesterday’s backup floppy with you in case the building burns down over night. OK, maybe you worked for a slightly larger company than I did in 1985, but it worked pretty much the same.  There was storage and backup for the storage. We didn’t refer to “primary” storage.  Disk was storage and all floppies, CDs, or tape was backup to that storage. Read More

Last week in Part One of “Comparing Storage Technologies: Pros, Cons and Future Predictions,” I discussed the pros and cons of solid-state storage and magnetic disk, and shared predictions for where Spectra believes the two technologies are headed. This week, I will cover two additional technologies: Tape and Optical Disc.

3. Tape: Tape has been around for more than 40 years and the need for tape in the long-term archive market continues to grow. Digital tape for secondary storage however has been experiencing a year to year decline and some small tape systems are being displaced by cloud storage solutions.

Pros: Read More

Serving a market sector of more than $35 billion, the storage device industry has exhibited constant innovation and improvement. In this two-part blog, we will discuss the pros and cons of current technologies being utilized in the storage market as well as Spectra’s predictions for where these technologies are headed in the coming years.

1. Solid State (Flash): NAND flash, or solid-state storage, is currently the fastest growing technology in the storage market. On the high end, flash is gaining ground for database applications. On the low end, flash is rapidly replacing small hard disks and is considered the de facto technology for digital cameras, smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.

Pros:

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