Data centre hardware
Data centre strategy is an increasingly important focus for IT managers, as enterprises look to cut costs and improve energy efficiency. We examine key data centre hardware trends such as virtualisation, consolidation and systems management to help identify the products that are right for your needs.
-
News
13 Jun 2024
AI’s environmental cost could outweigh sustainability benefits
Artificial intelligence can help organisations manage and mitigate their environmental impacts in a number of ways, but the highly polluting nature of the technology could outweigh its other sustainability benefits if not dealt with Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Jun 2024
Kubernetes at 10: Persistent storage matures, helped by Operators
Google engineer Saad Ali remembers the early days of Kubernetes, the storage challenges faced and overcome, and the revolution in application awareness that comes from Operators Continue Reading
-
News
11 Jun 2024
Nuclear waste body cuts energy use by 20% as Pure replaces HPE
French nuclear waste agency Andra has cut storage energy use by 20% and strengthened its disaster recovery capabilities by deploying Pure Storage and 10-year controller upgrades Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Jun 2024
Storage technology explained: Key questions about tape storage
We look at the benefits of tape storage – low cost, inherent security, excellent energy efficiency – the workloads it is best for, and how tape fits a wider storage strategy Continue Reading
-
News
06 Jun 2024
Nvidia sees massive datacentre compute growth, says networking is next
After posting revenues of $19.4bn in its datacentre business, Nvidia is now looking to revolutionise ethernet interconnects Continue Reading
-
News
05 Jun 2024
Bond University deploys Nutanix for on-premise servers
Australian university has migrated 700 on-premise servers to Nutanix following impending hardware refresh and desire to improve disaster recovery Continue Reading
-
News
05 Jun 2024
HPE takes $4.5bn in enterprise IT AI server orders
The server company is prepping everything for greater enterprise artificial intelligence demand Continue Reading
-
News
04 Jun 2024
Mad Max production company gets Dell PowerScale to leverage generative AI
One supplier enters, one supplier leaves: Australian film production company replaces HPE with Dell storage and compute as it leverages GenAI Continue Reading
-
News
03 Jun 2024
Dell launches PowerStore Prime and hints at PowerScale AI boost
Array range launched at Dell World 2024 in Las Vegas as PowerScale gets OS upgrade and new Intel Xeon CPUs, while Dell CEO hints at acceleration for PowerScale NAS Continue Reading
-
Feature
29 May 2024
Storage technology explained: File, block and object storage
We ask the key questions about file, block and object storage: how they work on-premise and in the cloud, global file systems, and file and object locking Continue Reading
-
News
28 May 2024
Executive Interview: Why Dell wants to be your one-stop AI shop
At Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town as Dell staked out an all-encompassing strategy ahead of an anticipated goldrush. Dell’s Nick Brackney explains why the tech giant believes it's onto a winner Continue Reading
-
News
26 May 2024
Nutanix beefs up AHV hypervisor, doubles down on AI
Nutanix takes aim at VMware with enhancements to its AHV hypervisor along with tighter integrations with Nvidia and Hugging Face to simplify AI deployments Continue Reading
-
Podcast
22 May 2024
Podcast: AI and its impact on data storage
We talk to Shawn Rosemarin, vice-president for R&D at Pure Storage, about the requirements of AI workloads, and what data storage needs to cope with AI Continue Reading
-
News
22 May 2024
Infinidat adds smaller footprint G4 arrays with claimed 2x performance
Purveyor of triple-controller all-flash and hybrid flash arrays aimed at high-end customers tails and tops InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA ranges, and adds Azure cloud storage to AWS Continue Reading
-
News
20 May 2024
Dell Technologies World: AI at core of Dell’s next chapter
With a significant anniversary just passed, Dell CEO Michael Dell was in reflective mood as he looked ahead to the impact of artificial intelligence on the tech giant’s product stack Continue Reading
-
News
20 May 2024
DataStax launches on-premise GenAI in ‘hyper-converged’ format
NoSQL database specialist adds generative AI for datacentre deployments where cloud is a no-no for cost, security or compliance reasons, with a focus on vector storage Continue Reading
-
News
20 May 2024
Toshiba shows 32TB HDDs with heat-assisted and shingled drives
Drive maker demonstrates 32TB and 31TB capacity hard drives that boost write density by use of heat and microwave assistance plus shingled – overlapped – drive tracks Continue Reading
-
News
14 May 2024
QStar launches tape access from anywhere with Global ArchiveSpace
Tape veteran provides file and object access to Exabyte scale archives aimed at AI, high-performance computing and hyperscaler storage. Single-site for now, multi-site to follow Continue Reading
-
News
14 May 2024
NetApp upgrades AFF all-flash as it targets AI storage
New AFF arrays offer performance boost for artificial intelligence, while NetApp trumpets its advantages as a provider of sustainable and intelligent infrastructure for all kinds of workloads Continue Reading
-
Feature
10 May 2024
Four key impacts of AI on data storage
We look at the key impacts of AI on data storage, including I/O and possible bottlenecks, how I/O differs across training and inference, plus data management and compliance concerns Continue Reading
-
News
08 May 2024
Huawei launches exabyte-scale OceanStor A800 at AI workloads
Chinese storage array maker announces high-performance NAS that can build out to clusters in excess of 1 exabyte, plus NVMe flash drives of 128TB coming to market next year Continue Reading
-
News
07 May 2024
French MSP saves 30% on cloud costs as it deploys Cubbit
Cubbit’s distributed object storage turns on-site capacity into a sovereign and secure cloud. CloudReso.com uses it to supply its customers and save on fees from big cloud providers Continue Reading
-
Podcast
01 May 2024
Podcast: 32TB HDDs by 2029, but how much bigger can they get?
We talk to Rainer Kaese of Toshiba about the roadmap for conventional magnetic recording on hard disk drives, the roadmap to 32TB, and what it would take to get to 100TB or 200TB Continue Reading
-
News
30 Apr 2024
Arcitecta offers file and object storage with huge transfer rates
Australian startup offers single namespace file and object storage with rapid access via a metadata database that puts the right data in the right place according to recent use Continue Reading
-
Podcast
25 Apr 2024
Podcast: How to prepare your data for digital transformation
We talk to Chris Gorton, EMEA managing director at Syniti, about how to prepare data for digital transformation Continue Reading
-
News
24 Apr 2024
AI firm saves a million in shift to Pure FlashBlade shared storage
AI consultancy Crater Labs spent vast amounts of time managing server-attached drives to ensure GPUs were saturated. A shift to all-flash Pure Storage slashed that to almost zero Continue Reading
-
Feature
23 Apr 2024
Five reasons why – and when – cloud storage is the answer
We look at when cloud storage can be the best choice, with considerations that include performance, scalability and agility, cost, management simplicity, and security and resilience Continue Reading
-
News
22 Apr 2024
Fujifilm plans to ‘make tape easy’ with Kangaroo SME appliance
Fujifilm to add 100TB SME-focused Kangaroo tape infrastructure in a box to existing 1PB offer, as energy efficiency and security of tape make it alluring to customers Continue Reading
-
News
16 Apr 2024
Leil wants to revive MAID as green storage tape substitute
MAID sought to provide energy-efficient disk storage with quicker access times than tape. Estonian startup Leil wants to supplant tape with green storage spin-down SMR drives Continue Reading
-
News
15 Apr 2024
Quickwit claims big advantage in log file search and index
When the logs are the data: Startup Quickwit claims late entrant advantage in log file search and index with bigger datasets and better analytics on reduced infrastructure Continue Reading
-
Feature
11 Apr 2024
Storage technology explained: AI and data storage
In this guide, we examine the data storage needs of artificial intelligence, the demands it places on data storage, the suitability of cloud and object storage for AI, and key AI storage products Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Apr 2024
Seven ways to be sure you can restore from backup
Backups are no good if you can’t restore from them. We look at key elements of backup restoration, including backup audits, RPOs and RTOs, and how and when to test backups Continue Reading
-
Feature
02 Apr 2024
Storage technology explained: Flash vs HDD
In this guide, we examine the differences between flash storage and HDD, the rise of NVMe and much denser formats such as QLC, and whether or not flash will vanquish HDD in the all-flash datacentre Continue Reading
-
News
02 Apr 2024
Flash storage prices rise by 25% as manufacturers chase profitability
Analysis of 30,000-plus drive prices shows cost of flash drives per gigabyte rose sharply since October 2023, as memory manufacturers limit supplies and increase prices Continue Reading
-
Podcast
28 Mar 2024
Podcast: What is distributed cloud storage and what are its benefits?
We talk to Enrico Signoretti of Cubbit about how distributed cloud allows customers to control their data in hybrid and multicloud storage and the workloads the company targets Continue Reading
-
News
26 Mar 2024
Alletra MP hardware changes see HPE orient arrays towards AI
HPE doubles controller nodes, boosts capacity with denser drives, cuts caches and builds in 100Gbps links to bring denser, faster storage aimed at all parts of the AI/ML pipeline Continue Reading
-
News
26 Mar 2024
GTC 2024: Storage suppliers queue up to ride the Nvidia AI wave
Storage supplier announcements at Nvdia conference centre on infrastructure integration, tackling the GPU I/O bottleneck and AI hallucinations by running Nvidia NeMo and NIM microservices Continue Reading
-
Definition
25 Mar 2024
converged infrastructure
Converged infrastructure, sometimes called 'converged architecture,' is an approach to data center management that packages compute, networking, servers, storage and virtualization tools into a prequalified set of IT hardware. Continue Reading
-
News
19 Mar 2024
Vast targets AI checkpointing write performance with distributed RAID
AI checkpointing operations targeted by Vast Data as it touts QLC-based storage for AI workloads Continue Reading
-
News
18 Mar 2024
Cohesity: We won’t abandon NetBackup customers or force migration
CEO promises no forced migration to Cohesity and not to abandon any NetBackup product while building new leadership in artificial intelligence and security around Cohesity Gaia Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
15 Mar 2024
Making IT sustainability more objective and actionable
I’ve heard a lot of pitches from technology companies on how they can help customers achieve their sustainability goals, and many of these follow a familiar pattern. They start with the global ... Continue Reading
-
News
12 Mar 2024
Hammerspace leverages smart metadata handling for AI/ML workloads
Software-defined storage maker separates metadata from files to provide view-from-anywhere file system visibility. It has now leveraged that for AI/ML workloads in Hyperscale NAS Continue Reading
-
Podcast
11 Mar 2024
Podcast: Immutable storage essential against ransomware, but...
...not all immutable storage is created equal. That’s the message from Paul Speciale of Scality, who looks at immutable storage, its variants and what’s needed to secure data Continue Reading
-
News
11 Mar 2024
TechUK calls for next government to introduce ‘industrial strategy’ for AI
Trade group TechUK publishes blueprint calling for winner of next election to boost tech startups, digitise government services and accelerate technology R&D Continue Reading
-
News
05 Mar 2024
Unexpected costs hit many as they move to cloud storage
A Wasabi survey of cloud storage customers finds more moving to the cloud, but they are experiencing busted budgets and unexpected fees, and expect big demands from artificial intelligence workloads Continue Reading
-
News
05 Mar 2024
Keepit brings backup and restore to unprotected SaaS applications
SaaS backup specialist keeps data in its own cloud datacentres, protects cloud data across numerous platforms and aims to give customers the ability to rapidly add data sources Continue Reading
-
News
05 Mar 2024
Own targets SaaS backup and offers analytics insight
Targeting a growing market – SaaS applications that lack backup – Own offers backup, fine-grained restores and analytics on data stores that can bring business insight Continue Reading
-
Feature
01 Mar 2024
Pseudo-SLC flash storage: What is it, what’s it good for and what does it cost?
Pseudo-SLC takes MLC, TLC flash and changes data storage at cell level to get better endurance and performance, but it’s mostly aimed at edge applications and is costly Continue Reading
-
Feature
28 Feb 2024
Storage technology explained: Ransomware and storage and backup
We look at ransomware attacks, and the importance of good backup practice as well as immutable snapshots, air-gapping, network segmentation, AI anomaly detection and supplier warranties Continue Reading
-
News
27 Feb 2024
Hycu uses AI to develop APIs for SaaS application backup
SaaS applications don’t usually come with built-in data protection, but Hycu plans to tackle that gap in the market with AI to generate the connectors needed to backup user data Continue Reading
-
News
26 Feb 2024
Storage and backup spend in 2024 targets risk and resilience
The TechTarget and ESG spending intentions survey finds big bias towards averting risk and building organisational resilience, but on-premise storage a significant planned outlay Continue Reading
-
News
22 Feb 2024
Nvidia CEO sees shift in datacentres to ‘AI generation factories’
Jensen Huang used the company’s fourth-quarter earnings to discuss the massive growth in accelerated datacentre computing experienced by Nvidia Continue Reading
-
News
21 Feb 2024
NasuniIQ brings visualisation of massive unstructured datasets
Global file system provider adds visualisation of massive distributed unstructured datasets to allow customers to analyse data usage and prepare clean training data for artificial intelligence Continue Reading
-
News
19 Feb 2024
Music agency halves space and energy costs with switch to Pure
SUISA handles billions of royalty payments, but had capacity and storage admin nightmares with its EMC hardware. It cued up Pure Storage for simple admin, space and cost savings Continue Reading
-
Podcast
14 Feb 2024
Podcast: What is the impact of AI on storage and compliance?
Start now looking at artificial intelligence compliance. That’s the advice of Mathieu Gorge of Vigitrust, who says AI governance is still immature but firms should recognise the limits and still act Continue Reading
-
Podcast
13 Feb 2024
Podcast: What are snapshots? Can they replace backup?
We talk to Shawn Meyers, field CTO at Tintri, who defines snapshots, why they are no substitute for backups, and the effect on recovery of snapshot granularity Continue Reading
-
News
13 Feb 2024
What will result from Cohesity’s Veritas acquisition?
The $7bn backup giant will leverage huge assets in enterprise customer base, compliance and governance intelligence, AI, R&D, and Kubernetes backup and storage Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Feb 2024
Sea-Lion explained: Southeast Asia’s first large language model
The Sea-Lion large language model was built to cater to the language and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia, which is currently underserved by existing models that mostly originate from the West Continue Reading
-
News
31 Jan 2024
Singtel ropes in industry partners in datacentre push
Singtel inks partnerships with Nvidia, Gulf Energy, Medco and others in its efforts to grow its datacentre business and support AI adoption in Singapore and Southeast Asia Continue Reading
-
News
31 Jan 2024
Seagate uses HAMR to hit 30TB in Exos hard drives
HDD giant Seagate unveils 30TB Exos drives with higher areal density, aimed at hyperscaler customers, with products at 50TB promised for 2028 in its roadmap Continue Reading
-
News
30 Jan 2024
Quantum computing in 2024: What are the challenges?
Research shows that while there has been a big reduction in quantum computing investment, governments have been ploughing in funding Continue Reading
-
News
30 Jan 2024
We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why
Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance Continue Reading
-
News
30 Jan 2024
Inside India’s supercomputing journey
India is looking to shore up its supercomputing capabilities, but more needs to be done to realise its ambition of becoming a world leader in the field Continue Reading
-
Feature
29 Jan 2024
French TV giant sticks with Dell NAS for channel upgrade
TF1 has the biggest market share in French TV, but plans for more. It has upgraded from Isilon to PowerScale scale-out NAS and saved 42% in energy costs, halving rackspace use Continue Reading
-
Feature
25 Jan 2024
Cloud is not always the answer: Five reasons why
We look at why the cloud is not always the best choice, including for reasons of cost, application suitability, management, data protection and the needs of the business Continue Reading
-
News
24 Jan 2024
Cardiff University expands HPC cluster with Lenovo
Expansion of university’s Hawk high-performance computing cluster promises to double the performance of some applications Continue Reading
-
Podcast
23 Jan 2024
Podcast: Storage and compliance outlook for 2024
Interesting times ahead in 2024 as we talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about updates to EU regs, PCI, NIST, post-Brexit divergence and 60 national elections across the globe Continue Reading
-
News
23 Jan 2024
NVM Express boosts computational storage standards
New command sets allow for computational storage with NVMe flash and includes frameworks to allow local memory usage in processing workloads on storage hardware Continue Reading
-
Feature
18 Jan 2024
Storage technology explained: Replication vs snapshots and backup
Are replication and snapshots the same? Can you replace backup with replication or snapshots? We look into the key planks of data protection strategy, including in cloud storage Continue Reading
-
Feature
17 Jan 2024
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What it is and why you (probably) need it
Basic cloud data protection is just not enough. Several loopholes leave business data vulnerable and that means additional cloud-to-cloud backup should be seriously considered Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
17 Jan 2024
Tape is back on the main menu
The news that another of the big players in global file systems, Hammerspace, has integrated tape access into its data orchestration software should remind us all that tape’s modern incarnations ... Continue Reading
-
News
16 Jan 2024
AMD bets on India, doubles down on AI
The chipmaker recently inaugurated its largest global design facility in Bangalore as part of a $400m investment in India to support its expanded portfolio and build artificial intelligence capabilities Continue Reading
-
News
11 Jan 2024
QLC made gains but storage innovation focus was on software in 2023
Storage hardware innovation has taken a back seat – QLC flash excepted – as the big storage suppliers build around software-based variants and optimisation on modular product sets Continue Reading
-
News
21 Dec 2023
Top 10 storage stories of 2023
In this 2023 review, we consider if flash will thrash disk, what the Toyota outage shows about capacity planning, how to achieve green storage, the backup and compliance risks of AI, the lowdown on DPUs, and more Continue Reading
-
News
21 Dec 2023
Top 10 storage supplier strategy stories of 2023
In 2023, we looked at the top storage suppliers, their market share and how they set themselves for a future of hybrid cloud, containerisation and consumption models of purchasing Continue Reading
-
Feature
21 Dec 2023
Storage suppliers’ market share and strategy 2023
We look at the top suppliers in data storage by market share and run the rule over their storage offer, strategies for hybrid cloud, containerisation and as-you-go purchasing Continue Reading
-
Feature
19 Dec 2023
On-prem vs cloud storage: Four decisions about data location
Hybrid cloud is now a reality. But how to decide what data goes where? We highlight four key decision points to evaluate whether data should be stored on-premise or in the cloud Continue Reading
-
Feature
18 Dec 2023
Pure Storage: Flash ‘startup’ that brings late entrant advantage
Storage profile: We look at Pure Storage, the youngest of the array makers, which comes to market with well-developed flash, hybrid cloud and consumption purchasing models Continue Reading
-
News
11 Dec 2023
Panasas set for Mach.2 throughput with multi-actuator HDDs
Scale-out NAS maker claims to be the first enterprise array maker to use multi-actuator HDDs designed for hyperscaler architectures and which double throughput Continue Reading
-
News
08 Dec 2023
AMD goes after Nvidia with AI accelerator and software library
AMD has signed up major hardware companies to support its latest initiative to build out datacentre AI optimisation Continue Reading
-
Feature
05 Dec 2023
Dell EMC: Storage giant shifts gear to cloud operating models
Storage profile: We look at Dell EMC, the result of the biggest tech acquisition ever, and find a company well set for ubiquitous cloud operating models and as-a-service Continue Reading
-
Feature
30 Nov 2023
The all-flash datacentre: Mirage or imminent reality?
Some say disk is dead and we’re on the cusp of the all-flash datacentre. But when will flash capacity and cost hit a point where it is suited to more than just high-tier storage? Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
28 Nov 2023
Datacentres or green belt? Why the UK has to choose
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the minefield around datacentre planning permission across the UK, after government blocked a major development next to the M25 motorway. The metaverse is making inroads into the indus-trial world – is this the real future for the technology? And we analyse the trends changing the application software market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
-
News
22 Nov 2023
Nebulon upgrades SPU to Medusa2 with Nvidia DPU hardware
Nebulon aims to replace HCI with its OS on an offload card that it claims reduces server resource use by 25%. Medusa2 uses Nvidia DPU hardware and its own cloud control plane Continue Reading
-
News
20 Nov 2023
Cubbit DS3 Composer brings DIY cloud to object storage pool
Cubbit customers can now build and configure S3-compatible clouds from unused capacity and offer MSP-grade services with high levels of resilience, security and data sovereignty Continue Reading
-
News
20 Nov 2023
IT not ready for AI, Pure Storage survey finds
Storage, compute and networking hardware won’t cope without upgrades, and that often means total IT infrastructure overhaul Continue Reading
-
Feature
15 Nov 2023
DPU 101: What are DPUs, what do they do, and who supplies them?
We look at data processing units, the latest in a line of hardware offload devices that emerged in the era of composable infrastructure. They come as hardware and even in the cloud Continue Reading
-
News
14 Nov 2023
Engineers slash RPO/RTO as they swap tape for Rubrik backup
Frankham Group ditches archaic tape backup and deploys Rubrik backup appliances and remote disaster recovery facility. Meanwhile, the engineering group assesses a move to the cloud Continue Reading
-
News
14 Nov 2023
4Tbps milestone as TikTok joins NAPAfrica
African internet exchange celebrates new high in network throughput as it welcomes into African peering community social network giant that is increasingly engaging with the world of enterprise and marketing Continue Reading
-
Definition
13 Nov 2023
x86-64
x86-64 (also called x86_64, x64, or amd64) is the 64-bit CPU architecture that is used in Intel and AMD processors. It is an extension to the 32-bit x86 (i386) architecture. Continue Reading
-
News
07 Nov 2023
VMware consolidates AI push at Explore in Barcelona
VMware’s vision is of ‘cloud smart’ enterprises that run on-premise, in multiclouds and in the ‘edge cloud’, with secure and compliant generative AI fuelling efficient business processes Continue Reading
-
News
26 Oct 2023
Google saves almost $3bn by running servers for six years
Extending the life of its datacentre servers and network equipment has led to significant savings over the past nine months for Google Continue Reading
-
News
24 Oct 2023
NetApp ‘unified storage’ adds new ASA block storage at Insight
Las Vegas event sees NetApp continue its evolution to hybrid cloud and data management player announce ASA C-series and Keystone and Kubernetes storage enhancements Continue Reading
-
News
23 Oct 2023
Dell updates PowerStore, PowerMax and PowerFlex storage
Dell storage upgrades include improved AIOps, lower energy usage, real-time HA failover, seamless hardware replacement, and enhancements to take advantage of DPU acceleration Continue Reading
-
News
20 Oct 2023
Belgian researchers raise speed limit in European datacentres
Researchers have developed a prototype of an optical receiver that will help datacentres process data at a much higher rate Continue Reading
-
Feature
20 Oct 2023
Five key questions about disaster recovery as a service
Disaster recovery as a service builds recovery data and systems into the cloud, accessible from anywhere. We look at the difference vs cloud backup, DRaaS use cases, the cost, and the firms that provide it Continue Reading
-
Feature
20 Oct 2023
NetApp: NAS pioneer well set for the cloud revolution
In this storage profile, we look at NetApp, which built a reputation in file access storage but seems to be set fair to navigate a future of hybrid cloud, cloud-native and containerisation Continue Reading
-
News
19 Oct 2023
How AWS is building a tech stack for generative AI
Olivier Klein, chief technologist for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services, dives deeper into the technology stack the company has built to ease GenAI adoption Continue Reading
-
News
19 Oct 2023
Scality gets a jump with VMware Cloud Director integration
S3-compliant object storage specialist will use new OSIS integration with VMware’s cloud management tool to target service providers that want to deliver regional cloud offers Continue Reading
-
News
16 Oct 2023
Flash prices drop towards spinning disk levels in 2023
Number-crunching data on 17,000-plus drive prices shows cost of flash drives per gigabyte fell by around 10% in past six months while hard disk drive per-gigabyte prices stood still Continue Reading
-
Feature
04 Oct 2023
Will computational storage meet data processing demands?
Computational storage promises performance for workloads that can benefit from dedicated oomph, but it’s not a cure-all. It may come at a cost, and with added application complexity Continue Reading
-
Feature
04 Oct 2023
Ransomware: All the ways you can protect storage and backup
We survey the key methods of ransomware protection, including immutable snapshots, anomaly detection, air-gapping, anomaly detection, and supplier monetary guarantees Continue Reading