Eight years ago, a friend and I were researching a book we would later call “Inescapable Data – Harnessing the Power of Convergence.” We were after an understanding of what kinds of new information one could produce by blending data of different types and from different sources — GPS data, combined with RFID, combined with
Author Archives: John Webster
Why ‘big data’ is here to stay — Data-driven Blog by John Webster
The promise of VDI: Are we there yet? — Data-Driven Blog by John Webster
My wife works for our local school department as an IT support specialist assigned to the town’s largest elementary school. Like many U.S. elementary schools, kids and teachers use a variety of personal computing devices, including PCs, notebooks, and now tablets. (Everyone wants to use these ’cause they’re way cool.) Keeping this veritable Noah’s ark
Is Hadoop the new tape? — Data-Driven Blog by John Webster
I attended GigaOM’s Structure:Data 2012 conference in New York City last week. This is the second one I’ve attended and I’m now a confirmed advocate of this event. Om Malik brings together people who, in one way or another, represent much the creative thinking around so-called big data. I got the feeling that I could
What’s different about storage for virtual desktops? — Data-Driven Blog by John Webster
It is often said that data center-level server virtualization projects created a renewed demand for networked storage, both NAS and SAN. If that’s true, then efforts to virtualize desktops–aka virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) projects–will create renewed demand for high-performance storage, both network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN). Storage performance is a major determinant
The end of the server-versus-storage wars is nigh — Data Driven Blog by John Webster
Scott McNealy, former CEO of the former Sun Microsystems, once infamously opined that storage was a (mere) feature of the server. The problem was that at the time he made that comment, the storage industry was writing its declaration of independence. Fibre Channel-based SANs were consolidating and replacing direct attached storage (DAS) architectures in many
What if you could collect all of the world’s data into one place?– Data-Driven Blog by John Webster
Occasionally we see some learned organization counting the number of bytes of data that humans have produced to date. And I’ve been known to scoff at these projections. Seriously folks, even if you think that the number is 789.332 yottabyes on some given day–let’s say today–the number is bigger tomorrow. And it gets bigger the
The power of big free data — Data Driven Blog by John Webster
I’ve been spinning some cycles lately looking for free data. Why? Here’s my thesis: As our use of the cloud evolves, we will come to understand that, to do powerful computational things, we not only don’t need to own massive amounts of IT infrastructure, we don’t even have to own the data. The cloud will
The data-driven debate we need to have — Data-Driven Blog by John Webster
Typically I write about storage. Now, as part of my research, I’m writing about data–data about you. The hottest commodity on the Web right now is data that describes who you are, what you like, what you do, who you know, where you’ve gone, where you might be, and what you are likely to do.
SearchStorage: Understanding Big Data analytics — by John Webster
Now that the cloud computing bandwagon is out of gas, vendors have jumped on the next one to roll down the pike: Big Data. And as with previous hype cycles, Big Data is now a source of confusion for users as vendors put forth their own unique and often conflicting definitions of the term. The
PODCAST with John Webster with Calvin Zito on HP’s Data Deduplication
John Webster, Senior Analyst and Calvin Zito the @HPSTORAGEGUY discuss the future of deduplication and StoreOnce. The Storage Block Blog
