David Morgenstern

According to industry prognosticators, the enterprise IT market is picking up steam. A number of analysts have raised their expectations for some storage vendors and market segments in the next six months. Despite the rosy outlook, some IT administrators may face tough questions when expanding their storage infrastructure. Concurrence among analysts is rare; each company […]

As storage area networks work their way into middle-tier markets, IT managers may be eager to add the technology to their servers and start reaping its benefits. At the same time, they may discover that the knowledge needed for successful planning and implementation is missing from their organization. In a recent column, I described this […]

SGI today will begin to seek new customers for its storage division with new high-performance storage area network and network-attached storage products; as well as a new look for its storage marketing. In addition, the company said it will beef up its storage management capabilities with an OEM agreement with AppIQ Inc. According to Ajay […]

Knowledge may bring power, particularly for storage administrators and their backups. The results can also produce its share of worry. But no pain, no gain—right? That was a theme of my recent discussion with executives of Bocada Inc. and Network Engines Inc. about their forthcoming BackupReport Appliance, standalone hardware that provides managers with a detailed […]

Some external hard disk enclosures have gone high style over the past couple of years as vendors add curves, colors and textures. While these designs are pleasing to the eye, what customers really need are enclosures that incorporate features that enhance functionality and usability. One example of this creative thinking can be seen in Maxtors […]

As the IT industry struggles to pull itself together, storage vendors keep adding pieces to the puzzle; the emerging picture looks bright. Just last week, for example, Network Appliance reported year-to-year gains of about 25 percent. But while IT budgets for storage hardware and software may be on the rise, I would wager the line […]

A lesson from last weeks power blackout: When it comes to problems with the AC coming out of the wall its easy to point our fingers at the utility company—or the landlord. On the other hand, when it comes to maintaining the data integrity of your hard disk and its files, or the reliability of […]

The problems were really only beginning for the Northeast when the lights went out during last weeks (or “sustained, deep under-voltage” as the power engineers called it). Even as power was restored to air conditioners and Broadways neon lights and stranded travelers jetted their way home throughout the following weekend, side effects such as water […]

In a recent column, I discussed Fibre Channel security with consultant Himanshu Dwivedi of @stake Inc. The protocol simply wasnt designed with security in mind, he said. Consequently, Fibre Channel suffers inherent weaknesses in frames that render sessions susceptible to hijacking. (For more information, see “How Secure is Your SAN?”) However, Dal Allen, president of […]

Iomega Corp. on Tuesday introduced its Removable Rigid Disk (RRD), a new cartridge hard disk standard that the company said it hopes will return it to the top of the removable-storage market. Due in early 2004, the 2.5-inch format will provide a capacity of 35GB. Aimed primarily at replacing tape backup drives in small business […]