Category Archives: Cloud

Avere Announces Software Updates, Adds Virtual FXT Filer

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Today Avere Systems announced an update to the AOS software (version 4.5) that runs on their FXT Edge Filers. The big news in this version is the addition of a Virtual Edge Filer, the vFXT.

Avere’s FXT works by placing an Edge Filer close to the end-user clients. The Edge Filer uses a global name space to virtualize file storage for the Core Filers positioned behind it. AOS 4.0 included support for using public cloud storage as a Core Filer, or Cloud NAS. AOS 4.5 adds support for installing an Edge Filer in the cloud, further extending the functionality. Continue reading →

Avere Announces Cloud NAS Product

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Today, at the Amazon AWS re:Invent show, Avere Systems announced new capabilities for their FXT Edge Filer. The new offering, Cloud NAS, offers support for both Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Glacier. Support for other services is coming. In addition to adding optimization for Cloud storage, the new Cloud NAS also adds object storage optimization.

To my knowledge, this is the first product offering that optimizes the performance of Cloud storage. To explain how it works, I’ll need to give a little background on the Avere Systems FXT Series Filers. Continue reading →

EMC Announces VMAX Cloud Edition

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Today, EMC announced the Cloud Edition of their signature Symmetrix VMAX storage platform.  Timed to coincide with the VMware Partner exchange conference, there have been rumors about this announcement for a while, but now we’ve got some details.

Release of a product of this nature is another indicator of an overall change that’s been occurring at EMC.  Back in the day, if you wanted to add a new volume to your Symmetrix array, you called EMC Support and they sent an engineer on-site to edit your bin file…  Those days are gone.  EMC’s focus has shifted to user-friendly, easy-to-use management interfaces that no longer require advanced degrees in storage in order to run.  For example, RAID levels — a former staple of EMC conversations — are rarely even mentioned any more.

So, what is it that makes the Cloud Edition different than a regular VMAX?  Here’s what I know: Continue reading →

EMC Announces Joint Isilon/Syncplicity File Sharing Solution

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Today, EMC announced the availability of a joint solution for Syncplicity online file sharing with Isilon scale-out storage.

OK, you’re thinking, what does that mean?  What it means is the easy availability of enterprise-class private cloud shared storage.  Yes, private cloud shared storage.  It’s a subtle — yet very significant — distinction.

To explain what I see as the true value of this solution, I’ll need to back up first and describe some related problems, then I’ll come back forward and explain how this solution solves them. Continue reading →

BYOD Presentation – Tuesday 2 October

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On Tuesday 2 October, I’ll be giving a presentation titled “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) — The Next Evolution of Computing”.

I’ll be doing this as the guest speaker at the Greater Boston Network Users Group monthly meeting.

The topic is an exciting one to me.  With the proliferation of mobile devices everywhere (I myself have 1 Android smartphone and 2 tablets, plus 2 laptops…), we really have entered what VMware has been calling the “Post-PC Era”.  People want access to their applications and data: Continue reading →

CloudSlam 2011 Multi-vendor Panel on the Future of Storage for the Cloud

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I had the opportunity last week to sit in on a CloudSlam multi-vendor panel session on the future of storage in the cloud. It was a very interesting and revealing discussion. I’ll do my best to summarize it here and share my thoughts and conclusions.

What is CloudSlam?

CloudSlam is a virtual conference, an online gathering of Cloud computing professionals.  Now in its third year, CloudSlam 2011 had thousands of attendees from over 80 countries.

The Topic

The session was titled “EMC, HP, IBM, NetApp: where they are taking the Cloud”.  It was intended as a discussion of where the vendors see the future of data storage for the cloud. To quote the session description: Continue reading →