Archive The Dangers of Traveling Data Laptops and other mobile devices are the de facto tools of corporate America Posted January 16th Encrypting data the right way SSAP-based methodology offers the lowest TCO Posted June 26th WAN acceleration complements DR apps Technique overcomes WAN shortcomings Posted June 19th Weathering the next hurricane season Plan extensively for disaster recovery Posted June 12th Storage solutions and records management: strength in integration Organizations are building information management practices into their enterprise content platforms Posted May 29th Complex Data Protection Management strategies taking hold DPM embraces backup technologies Posted May 1st Trends in tiered storage architectures The good, the bad and the costly Posted April 17th Entrusting business-critical data to a managed IT service provider Investigate purported providers closely Posted March 20th A practical guide to data protection for small businesses Critical questions to ask before investing Posted March 13th CDP: Evaporating the backup window Copies can be made 24/7 without impacting online operations Posted February 20th Centralized archive unites remote hospitals Nevada Rural Hospital Partners relies on EqualLogic PD arrays Posted January 30th The essence of a long-term digital archive A modern archive is more than a storage device—it is an organized collection of records that are being preserved so that they can be accessed and understood tomorrow and 100 years from now. Posted January 16th Electronic medical records provide invaluable DR features For the most critical data, medical practices should consider an EMR solution that provides replication and remote storage. Posted January 9th Continuous data protection on the rise Technology offers more flexible Recovery Point Objectives and faster Recovery Time Objectives than traditional data protection solutions. Posted December 12th Off-the-shelf-Ethernet fits storage networking needs Cost-efficient technology still stalking Fibre Channel. Posted November 21st Evolution of a common switch architecture Intelligent storage networking processors enable intelligent hardware. Posted October 31st Case study Q&A: Genome sequencing demands high-performance storage infrastructure Washington University relies on multi-vendor environment. Posted October 24th Inside advice for SMBs Seek value, measure your storage needs and remain burden-free. Posted October 3rd Interview: Marketing Architects CTO discusses his move from Veritas to Commvault Reasons for the switch include snapshot technology, personal touch. Posted September 5th Cutting through the hype of continuous data protection CDP can protect high-transaction, high-availability applications with no forgiveness for data loss. Posted August 22nd Ten tips to faster backups With these simple tips, backup managers can avoid storage headaches. Posted August 1st Intelligence in the fabric: The future of networked storage The limitations of SAN infrastructures can be addressed by redistributing the SAN intelligence. Posted June 20th Data classification: A prerequisite to ILM The better the classification, the more effective the resulting ILM solution. Posted May 30th Continuous data protection: The new imperative When it comes to data backup, the days of batch processing are gone. Posted May 23rd SATA is here to stay SATA combined with RAID makes it the strategy of choice for many business functions. Posted April 4th Do your homework before choosing a backup vendor Following these tips when evaluating backup companies will pay dividends in the future. Posted March 21st Security guru, case studies on tap at Spring SNW Ira Winkler, author of Spies Among Us, headlines conference agenda. Posted March 7th NAS thriving in SMB market Technology favors users with big storage needs but small budgets. Posted February 14th Reliability — who needs it? Time is of the essence, but how much does it cost? Posted January 31st Achieving business objectives with database archiving As part of an ILM strategy, database archiving offers a cost-effective strategy for managing out-of-control database growth. Posted January 10th The rise of the "big-switch" SAN A mesh of big switches provides a flexible and scalable SAN topology model. Posted November 29th To understand SAS and SATA, you also need to understand expanders, port multipliers and port selectors New storage components provide the service delivery subsystems for the SAS and SATA protocols. Posted November 8th Fall SNW: IDC analyst briefing identifies storage opportunities Presentations focus on both vendor, user perspectives. Posted October 25th E-mail archiving provides compliance insurance Compliance scofflaws can be fined millions of dollars. Posted September 27th Interview: What's on the minds of European storage networking users? Whether they're considering utility computing, ILM or iSCSI, it all comes back to building up the infrastructure for European users, according to Hamish Macarthur. Posted August 23rd What's in Store: Suspend your skepticism about the utility storage model When you get past the misconceptions, you can start planning small projects that take advantage of utility computing. Posted July 12th Veritas exec discusses virtualization trends and impact on TCO According to Jose Iglesias, virtualization is moving beyond storage and servers, to applications and storage networking, and users should let vendors do the integrating. Posted July 5th Interview: SNIA certification program aims for vast audience The SNIA's education director describes the revised certification program, which now includes a wider audience and emerging technologies. Posted June 7th SRM by the slice A modular approach enables administrators to target specific storage pain points. Posted May 10th The challenges and rewards of storage networking SNW conference reveals user realities. Posted April 12th Tell me when my storage network is sick, not when it's down A new class of tool focuses entirely on the needs of the storage application. Posted April 5th Distributed is out; consolidated is in Storage consolidation enables companies to manage data more productively, reduce ownership costs, free up hardware and real estate and unlock budgets. Posted March 8th What's in Store: Debunking information lifecycle management promises When all else fails, keep it simple. Posted February 16th Electronic discovery: A make-or-break proposition Do you know where all your e-mail is? Posted January 19th Protecting e-mail in Exchange environments Application-independent tools are the key to backing up large applications like Exchange. Posted December 22nd What's in Store: Moving storage management into the network In his debut column, Yankee Group senior analyst Jamie Gruener discusses the state of "intelligent switches" and provides users with a checklist. Posted November 24th SNIA boosts user prestige at Storage Networking World conference New End User Council combines previous user groups into one united entity at largest-ever SNW conference. Posted November 3rd Fall SNW case studies: From Hudson's Bay to the FBI Attendees at the Fall SNW Conference in Orlando October 26-30 can choose from a wide variety of case study presentations. Here are some previews of a few of the sessions they might want to attend. Posted October 6th The recipe for an affordable midrange SAN Given the lack of high-end networking expertise in midsize organizations, putting together a SAN may not be a palatable project. Posted September 29th Interview: For Marc Farley, it's all about access paths and centralized management Building Storage, Inc. president says flexibility and scalability require the right architectures and topologies. Posted September 8th Phase three of SANs: Seeking optimal value Keys to third-phase SAN success include consolidating backup, using intelligent controllers and applying SAN file systems. Posted August 11th Trunking in switched back-end storage system designs With trunking, systems get multiplied bandwidth and inherent fail-over, while design architects gain the flexibility to create new storage system topologies. Posted July 21st Ethernet: Stable, low-cost technology with a future The truly ubiquitous Ethernet isn't getting older — it's getting better. Posted June 30th Protecting the heart of the desktop Most companies believe they're protecting the information assets residing on their desktops. The reality is, they are not. Posted May 26th User attendee numbers up at SNW; award winners unveiled The Spring SNW conference drew nearly 1,800 total attendees, over 1,000 storage buyers and influencers, and 750 IT users. In addition, the "Best Practices in Storage" award winners were also announced. Posted April 28th The growing role of online server data backup and recovery Despite the myths associated with it, online backup offers a viable line of defense against uncertain times. Posted April 7th Disk and tape coexist harmoniously in the backup market Tape libraries may actually cost more upfront than disk systems, but they can be scaled at a much lower cost for each incremental amount of storage. Posted March 3rd Interview: SNW keynoter and industry legend Regis McKenna discusses storage networking Regis McKenna is legendary in the ranks of high-tech marketing. His firm was busy advising would-be MIS kingpins well before the PC was even introduced. In this interview, he offers his insights on the evolving world of storage networking. Posted January 6th Interview: Duplessie dissects storage networking Steve Duplessie is an SNW Online columnist and founder and senior analyst at the Enterprise Storage Group. He's also a very opinionated and entertaining guy, making him the perfect person to talk about what was hot in 2002 and what should be hot in 2003. Posted January 6th SNW conference focuses on user education The dramatically larger crowd of end users at this year's Fall SNW conference was exposed to a full range of case studies, business and technology tutorials and SNIA certification courses. November 4th First annual SNW Best Practices in Storage awards presented The SNW Best Practices in Storage Awards Program is the newest addition to Storage Networking World. The first winners were picked in five categories at this year's Fall SNW Show, held in Orlando. November 4th Computer Associates Senior VP Nigel Turner cites user challenges Nigel Turner is senior vice president of Storage Management at Computer Associates. He recently spoke with SNW Online about CA's plans for this week's SNW show and detailed how CA storage products are enabling enterprise-wide storage management capabilities. Posted October 28th Make storage work smarter With the ever increasing need for capacity, forward-thinking companies are focused more on managing data growth than risking investment in new technologies. Posted October 14th Storage savings are all around If doing more with less is your credo, start by getting rid of the unnecessary data that is common to so many companies. Posted September 16th Leveraging MAN and WAN connectivity (Part 2 of a two-part series on SAN-WAN networking) Overcoming distance limitations is key to successful SAN implementations. Four WAN access models can take distance out of the SAN equation. Posted August 26th Interview: Wayne Rickard takes on the technical topics Perhaps no one is more steeped in storage networking technology than the SNIA's Wayne Rickard. He recently spoke with SNW Online on a range of topics important to the daily operations of corporate networks. Posted July 29th When it comes to SANs, think big but start small (Part 2 of 2) SAN users need to evaluate a raft of technologies and issues, including loop switches, QoS, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel directors and avoiding single-vendor solutions. Posted June 10th The reality gap: How SAN hype ignores real customer needs (Part 1 of 2) SAN enablers such as iSCSI-enabled Ethernet, mFCP, iFCP and FCIP all have their advantages, but none are SAN panacea.s Posted June 3rd Q&A: USA Today discusses its comprehensive enterprise-grade storage solution USA Today's senior infrastructure architect recently spoke with SNW Online about the challenges and benefits of network-attached storage, data replication and multi-protocol support. Posted May 13th Thanks to acceleration technologies, iSCSI is feasible Emerging iSCSI products are relying on TCP/IP offload engines to reduce CPU processing burdens and work toward the goal of transmitting data at full wire speeds. Posted April 15th End users endorse SNW conference The Spring 2002 Storage Networking World conference is popular with end users because it addresses issues they care about, through practical workshops and case studies. Posted March 18th Certification programs from the SNIA boost knowledge levels, credibility The SNIA's Fibre Channel-SAN certification courses boost vendor-specific knowledge and provides the assurance of vendor neutrality. Posted February 25th Tapped-out IT shops concentrate on capacity management In the wake of the free-spending 90's, storage is even more important than ever — but so is managing it in a frugal fashion. Posted February 18th Storage Performance Council offers benchmark performance tests After more than four years of hard work, a consortium of leading storage vendors has introduced the first industry-standard benchmark for measuring performance on both direct-attach and networked storage systems. Posted January 14th Disaster recovery, interoperability are recurrent themes at Storage Networking World With the specter of September 11 still fresh in their minds, speakers at last week's Storage Networking World show put fresh emphasis on disaster recovery, while renewing their ongoing demands for enhanced interoperability. Posted October 29th Storage networking users describe what keeps them up at night With so many potential problems in their paths, which ones do storage networking users rate as the worst of all? Which ones keep them up at night? Posted October 8th European users face similar challenges to their U.S. counterparts On the eve of the Storage Networking World-EuroStorage show in Seville, Spain, interviews with European storage networking experts indicate that in addition to being at least as advanced as their U.S. counterparts, European users are in some cases more sophisticated than the vendors they buy from. Posted September 10th Harald Skardal describes the SNIA Shared Storage Model SNIA is developing a Shared Storage Model which will describe storage networks in terms of the functions they provide, rather than the products that provide the functions. SNW Online asked Harald Skardal, a senior consulting engineer with Network Appliance Inc. and a member of SNIA's Technical council, to describe the model and how it will work. Posted August 13th SNIA moving forward on consumer councils In an effort to increase the participation of end users in the creation of standards and other important storage networking-related industry issues, the SNIA is working to develop consumer councils in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Posted July 23rd Mélange of certification programs measures storage networking skills Once the commercial world catches up with the entertainment world, storage is going to really take off. In the mean time, Steve Duplessie suggests, don't get too upset if the likes of EMC and Network Appliance are only growing at a rate of 20% per annum. Posted July 2nd DAFS unites SANs, NAS, while increasing CPU efficiency The Direct Access File System (DAFS) protocol currently gaining momentum in the vendor community will reportedly improve server performance and allow NAS devices to take on more demanding applications. Posted June 25th SAN security: not a big problem — yet Appropriate access controls and solid enterprise security are the best weapons to use in the war against SAN invaders. Posted May 25th No matter what the networking technology, storage needs to be managed One of the primary challenges facing enterprise IT professionals is selecting one of two primary competing technologies – Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SAN). Each of the network-based storage technologies is rapidly evolving, and both can legitimately claim very strong benefits. Posted May 7th The overwhelming importance of storage Gadzoox storage networking veteran Wayne Rickard surveys the technology landscape Posted April 9th Feedback: feedback@snwonline.com Questions: questions@snwonline.com Technical difficulties: webmaster@snwonline.com