Evaluator Series™ Research

In this Technical Insight document, John Webster discusses converged solutions, specifically focusing on ZFS Backup for Oracle Exadata.

Virtualization has become widely accepted in today’s enterprise datacenter, from consolidating thousands of desktops to mission critical Tier 1 applications in server virtualization.  One rapidly growing area for server virtualization is running critical Oracle database applications on VMware® vSphere® virtual … Continued

IBM Tivoli’s Full-featured Data Protection Suite for Small to Medium Businesses. We have been reporting throughout the last year that stored data volumes are growing at an accelerated rate that is driven by new data sources and applications. However, just … Continued

This paper reports on a business case evaluation of information archiving conducted f by Evaluator Group.  The information presented here should be used to understand considerations and economics in one particular case as an example of what can be expected … Continued

The number of enterprise-level deployments of Hadoop MapReduce is rising quickly, driven by a need to understand and potentially adopt this new business analytics platform for business applications. We note that pilot Hadoop projects are underway within many of the … Continued

Introduction: The demand for Big Data analytics processes by enterprise executives and business group leaders is growing at a rapid pace. However, the challenge to enterprise IT from the Big Data analytics perspective lies in capturing data from multiple new … Continued

In this whitepaper, Randy Kerns explores the demands that Microsoft Exchange places on storage systems in the areas of performance and scalability. He also discusses how Dot Hill AssuredSAN has the optimal characteristics needed for Exchange storage. Introduction: Microsoft Exchange … Continued

In this paper, Russ Fellows examines some of the features and design elements are important in order to deliver the efficiency and performance levels demanded by applications running in virtual environments.

In this whitepaper John Webster covers enhancements to Hadoop that can be realized by Veritas Cluster File Systems (CFS) users and discusses Symantec’s new solution for Enterprise Hadoop, that proposes to replace HDFS. Introduction: Hadoop MapReduce is now commonly used … Continued

In this report Evaluator Group assesses Oracle VM software 3.1.1 with Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 and E-Business Suite12.1.1. This report outlines the validation process and overview of each environment, presents the challenges, as well as summarize the time it … Continued

In this whitepaper, Russ Fellows and John Webster discuss the emerging trends in VDI, as well as cover ways that VDI vendors are taken the first step towards the ideals of next generation VDI. Introduction: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has … Continued

In this whitepaper we focus on the continued use of tape storage media as a practice that will limit business growth and become increasingly more costly to support and maintain over time. Instead, we propose the use of a distributed … Continued

In this completed 4 part series, John Webster provides tips on managing big data in an organization. First article covers how big data analytics differs from traditional data warehousing and introduce the distributed compute cluster as a foundation to big … Continued

Leah Schoeb covers the differences between validation and performance benchmarks. Introduction Validation and performance testing often get confused with and performance benchmarking.  They are separate activities with very different goals and messaging support.  This document talks about what they are … Continued

There have been a lot of performance results demonstrating the performance of SSDs. But how much of this information is verifiable and comparable among the vendors? Most, if not all, SSS manufacturers and vendors have performance (IOPS) and throughput (MB/sec) … Continued

This report examines and details the Hitachi approach to delivering storage capacity efficiency via its USP V and VSP platforms. In doing so, it will highlight how Hitachi looks at the overall economics of storage by reducing relevant operating expenses … Continued

John Webster’s presentation from SNW spring 2012 in Dallas, Texas. Description: Big Data Analytics differs from traditional data warehousing in that it encompasses diverse data formats including unstructured data. A number of platforms have emerged including Hadoop and NoSQL that … Continued

In this test analysis, Evaluator Group assesses Starboard Storage Systems’ AC72 system; The evaluation focuses on several aspects with a particular focus on performance. The validation consisted of quantitative test efforts, which sought to characterize measurable attributes, along with a … Continued

Thin Provisioning Block Storage – A Maturing Technology is the fourth paper in the Storage Efficiency Series.  continuation of the focus on storage efficiency, covering the storage system feature thin provisioning and how it can be used for data center … Continued

Consolidating different storage platforms into a larger, more efficient system can offer multiple benefits — reduced operational costs, reduced power and cooling requirements, reduced physical space, and reduction in overall system costs. But what’s required of a storage system to … Continued

Evaluator Group assessed CommVault’s Simpana 9 software in December 2011.  There were several areas of focus during the testing, which included qualitative factors, along with certain quantitative testing. The test objectives were to 1) Validate new Simpana 9 software data … Continued

Evaluator Group assessed Quantum’s DXi6700 data deduplication appliances in September 2011.  There were several areas of focus during the testing, which was both quantitative and qualitative. Testing results show the Quantum DXi6700 systems were able to attain peak performance quickly … Continued

Evaluator Group’s Russ Fellow discusses the Lab Validation of the DX6700 Deduplication Systems. The evaluation confirms  that the DXi6700 provides a price-performance advantage over all competitors in the midrange – surpassing the closest systems in speed at nearly half the … Continued

Graphical representation of different storage architectures

IT administrators have traditionally considered the tiering of data, data protection, and archiving as independent processes—narrowly focused and specific to a particular application or storage objective.  The reality is that these topics are all related. Buying more primary storage will … Continued

A discussion of VMware’s VADP and Data Protection with Hitachi

Discussion on the emergence of storage and server management for virtual environments. Covers HDS and VMware

Within many enterprise data center environments, the migration of applications from physical to virtual servers using VMware has reached a tipping point. The applications and workloads that were easiest to move—typically those devoted to test and development, print and file … Continued

On June 6, 2011, HP announced its Converged Storage strategy—the most significant storage announcement HP has made since the 2010 acquisition of 3PAR. HP Converged Storage represents a number of product portfolio and market direction statements that establish HP’s unique … Continued

HP 3PAR Special Financial Programs

It almost goes without saying that storage administrators continue to grapple with managing ever increasing volumes of data. On average, Evaluator Group sees a 50% annual growth rate in the amount of data stored among its user clients. Certainly one … Continued

John Webster discusses VAAI and HDS implementation for heterogeneous environments

John Webster’s presentation from SNW 2011 on Big Data Analytics and the impact on Storage

John Webster discusses strategies and requirements for RFP’s in 2011. This tutorial was presented at SNW Spring 2011.

Randy Kerns’ presentation from SNW 2011.

Russ Fellows and Camberley Bates review the Quantum Lab Validation of the DXi 6000 Systems

There are several technology and marketing messages competing for headlines.  The concepts that resonate are those that make life easier for IT users, lower costs or do both.  Storage tiering is an idea gaining traction as it is able to … Continued

Understanding the costs for Scale vs Sprawl in architecting a data protection / deduplicated environment. This paper includes results from customer interviews and discussion of Sepaton.

2010 has been a time of unprecedented change. As server and storage virtualization deployments advance, virtual desktop implementations in the thousands of units are also added to the IT agenda. And while it’s become an old storage industry saw, capacity … Continued

Test and Validation review of HP’s StoreOnce D2D data protection solution

We believe that server virtualization creates a new set of cases to be made for implementing storage virtualization technologies and SRM tools before, during, and after migrating critical applications. Here we look at IBM’s approach.

Discussion on the architecture of Scale-up and Scale-out storage.

The topic of data de-duplication has received a lot of attention from vendors and IT administrators alike.  Both are looking to reduce the pain associated with exponential data growth most data centers are experiencing.  Data de-duplication began to emerge roughly … Continued

Russ Fellows examines some of the technologies and standards that are available to solve Cloud Computing Security issues, and how companies can design an architecture that is scalable and secure.

The terms Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage have been gaining popularity over the past year. Russ Fellows discusses rationale and considerations for the implementation of public or private cloud strategies.